Knowing How You Learn Will Make Learning Anything 10X Easier

You will give your teaching skills a massive boost too

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Most people have no idea how to learn.

A new task becomes a frustrating mess of anger and self-loathing, and a classroom is a place to be feared.

And that’s because people learn in different ways. We have different learning styles.

So why is this important for you?

Knowing about learning styles is useful for everyone, because we all learn all the time, whether it's a new recipe, how to tile a bathroom wall, or new technology at work.

And if you can learn easily, learning becomes a pleasure rather than a frustrating chore. Your cakes will rise, your newly tiled bathroom wall will look amazing, and the new technology at work will save you time.

But let's look at life before we knew about learning styles…

• Have you ever asked someone to teach you something, and they threw an incomprehensible stream of babble at you? Blah, blah, blah, will it ever end?

• Have you ever tried to help your child with their homework, only to find that they don't understand you and get upset? So ungrateful! And here's you, passing on a lifetime of experience…

• Have you ever tried to teach a colleague something, and you can't understand why they can't pick it up? What's the matter with them? It's easy!

Part of the reason you've experienced these difficulties is that people teach according to their own learning styles.

If you are the unfortunate learner, you can't learn because you don't understand how you are being taught. If you are the teacher, you can't teach because your student doesn't understand how you teach.

After decades of teaching learning styles in corporate, I've had enough feedback from people leaders to know that being aware of learning styles is exceptionally helpful. Rather than struggling in frustration, my students adjusted how they taught to suit their team members.

Learning styles help not only in a formal training situation but also at any time you're trying to get information across to people. This could be something as simple as a team briefing. People need to receive new information in a way that they can understand.

Luckily, knowing the four learning styles will help us do better.

They are:

• Visual

• Auditory

• Read/Write

• Kinesthetic

If you just tuned out at kinesthetic, don't panic; it just means hands-on. Some people say kinetic instead. It doesn't matter what you call it as long as you understand what it is.

So, let's have a look at how the learning styles play out in real life.

We'll start with visual learning, because this is the one that's often misunderstood.

It’s all about the charts & graphs!

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A common misconception is that visual learners like photographs, videos, or slide decks, but that isn't correct. Those methods do not count as visual learning, though they still aid the learner.

Visual learners learn by looking at charts, graphs, and diagrams.

For example, a visual learner learns a process quicker if it is represented by a diagram rather than bullet points. They like schematics and flow charts.

Imagine someone on a building site looking at a site plan showing where gas, electricity, and water go. If you find it easy to read a plan like this, you may be a visual learner.

I worked in construction for a while, and the site supervisors could all easily read site plans, which I couldn't do to save my life, but only a few of them were read/write learners like me.

If you're the sort of person who likes charts, graphs, flow charts, mind maps, or diagrams, you're a visual learner, and you will learn information much more easily if it's laid out in that manner.

Please just take off those headphones for one minute!

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The next learning style is auditory, which means learning by listening. An auditory learner likes to hear information. They learn easily at lectures and by participating in discussions, reading aloud, and listening to podcasts, books, documentaries, or articles.

An auditory learner may even make up rhymes, jingles, and songs to help them remember, such as the periodic table song.

If you are an auditory learner, you need to hear verbal instructions.

I'm not an auditory learner - if someone tells me a whole load of information, although I physically hear what is said, I can't retain it. And no, saying it louder, like my mother-in-law shouting in English at a French person in Paris, won't help.

If you've told your teenage child the difference between the rubbish bin, the recycling bin, and the compost bin twenty times and they still don't get it, they're not an auditory learner, and they might need a list or diagram instead. Or maybe they are just a typical teen, who knows?

If you like listening to learn and can easily recall what’s been said, you could be an auditory learner.

Like your wayward teenager, I need instructions I can read, preferably in bullet points, which takes us to the next learning style, read/write.

Bookworms unite!

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Read/write learners love to write information down. In meetings, you can easily spot all the read/write learners because they'll be the ones taking notes.

They might also be looking disapprovingly at other people who aren't taking notes because they don't understand how anyone can remember anything otherwise.

Read/write learners prefer reading information to watching a video or listening.

When I'm researching on the internet and a video pops up, I get really cross because I don't want a bloody video; I want something to read, preferably with my beloved bullet points or summary at the end.

When I revise for an exam or learn something, I write it out, over and over again. To makes sense of things, I write them out. If it’s not written down, I can’t learn.

If writing and reading to learn is something you do, you are probably a read/write learner.

Let’s just get it done!

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The last learning style is hands-on, otherwise known as kinetic or kinesthetic. Hands-on learners learn by doing. You're a hands-on learner if you don't thoroughly pick up a task until you physically do it.

Notes and diagrams might support your learning, but doing the task embeds the learning.

If you have one of those talented friends who can take apart an engine, lay out the parts on the ground, and then put it all back together again, with no missing parts, they'll be a hands-on learner.

Another example is the DIY expert who can work out how to do almost anything on their own. Unlike me, who can't do DIY even with instructions and a lot of swearing.

You may be a hands-on learner if you like conducting experiments, building models, or crafts.

How Many Learning Styles Do You Have?

It's important to remember that most people have a mix of learning styles.

You could have one or two dominant learning styles, all four, or one dominant learning style.

I'm primarily a read/write learner but with a bit of hands-on. Although I like listening to podcasts unless I make notes, by the time I finish it, I've forgotten the lot.

You can also use different learning styles in different situations.

Think about when you come home with a brand-new TV.  Do you do you take the TV straight out of the box and start plugging it in and poking around, or do you read the instructions?

In this scenario, I'm more hands-on, pushing all the buttons to see what happens. However, my partner will pore over the instructions for hours before he touches anything.

By the time he's finished reading, I've completed the basic setup. But I leave it up to him to set up all the advanced functions—the ones I didn't know existed because I hadn't read the instructions.

Let's look at another example. You buy a set of shelves from IKEA. Do you have a go at putting it together straight away or read the instructions? In this case, I read the instructions because building a three-dimensional shelf needs spatial awareness, and I don't have any.

Think about situations where you’ve learned easily and with difficulty, and you’ll soon spot which learning styles work for you.

What if You Are Teaching?

By now, you probably have a good idea of your learning styles, but what if you teach someone else?

Rather than blurting out, 'What's your learning style?', just ask your student how they learn best.

Ask if they'd prefer some notes or a diagram to take away and whether they'd like to look at the notes or diagram before or after they try the task.

Observe how your learner picks things up:

• Is a verbal explanation enough?

• Are they making notes or drawing a diagram?

• Do they seem confused until they do the task?

Whatever you do, avoid repeating the same thing in your learning style and wondering why your student doesn't understand.

You'll get frustrated, and so will your trainee.

Takeaways

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• We all have learning styles, whether it's one, two, or all four

• They are:

  • Visual - learns by creating or looking at flow charts, graphs, diagrams, schematics

  • Audio - learns by listening to discussions, lectures, books, articles, or podcasts

  • Read/Write - learns by reading and writing, especially bullet points

  • Hands-On (Kinesthetic/Kinetic) - learns by doing

• Some activities can activate more than one learning style, such as read/write and visual learners, who can both learn with a mind map.

• We will automatically teach in our learning style rather than that of our students

• If we want our students to learn, we must discover their learning style and teach them that way

Action points

• Observe how you learn and discover your own learning style

• If you are teaching, use your student's learning style

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