study skills learning styles

• Grades 6-12
• School Leaders

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Ultimate Study Skills Guide: Tips, Tricks, and Strategies for Every Grade

Because they really do need to learn how to learn.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that study skills are life skills. Taking good notes, creating a focused workspace, managing distractions, making plans—any and all of these are skills people of all ages use every single day. Taking time to teach good study skills up front can equip students to succeed in school and beyond.

We’ve broken down many of the top study skills students need, including examples by grade level. Remember that there are a lot of different ways to study successfully. Offer students options and help them find the strategies that work best for them.

Study Spaces

Organization and time management study skills, learning styles, taking and using notes, effective reading study skills, completing assignments, test taking, finding help.

Choosing the right place to study is the first step to good study skills. Teach students to consider these elements.

Choose Your Space

For some students, this means a dedicated study space like a desk in their room. Others may prefer to curl up in a chair with a lap desk or work at a table in a common space. Whichever they choose, it should be an area that’s dedicated to study while they’re using it.

Source: organizeandarrangeit/Instagram

• Elementary School: Many students begin doing homework on the dining room or kitchen table, where parents can supervise. As students get older, encourage them to explore other spaces too, especially those where they can work independently.
• Middle School: By this age, kids will probably need a dedicated study space of their own, where they can keep supplies and works-in-progress. If that’s not possible, create a bin or box where they can store stuff while they’re not using it, then pull it out when it’s time to study.
• High School: Older students should be able to carve out a study space pretty much anywhere, since that’s something they’ll need to be able to do in the working world too. As long as they’re able to concentrate and get their work done, don’t be too picky about where they choose to do it.

Make Yourself Comfortable

“Comfortable” looks different for every person, so don’t assume all kids need to be sitting at a desk to work well. At the same time, they shouldn’t be so comfortable that they’ll fall asleep!

• Elementary School: When kids are doing independent reading, let them choose any spot they like. For other work, make sure they have a sturdy writing surface, like a table or lap desk. Ensure they have enough light to see what they’re doing, and teach them good posture if they’re sitting in a chair so they don’t develop stiff muscles.
• Middle and High School: Show them how to adjust the font size on screens so they’re not squinting to read. Encourage them to use blue light filters if they’re spending a lot of time on computers.

Manage Distractions

Learning to concentrate while ignoring distractions is a key life skill, and one that we all need to develop. Some students will have no trouble tuning things out, while others are going to need a lot of help with this one.

• Elementary School: Kids at this age are very easily distracted, so their study space should be as calm as possible. If a quiet room isn’t available, they might need noise-canceling headphones or even a white-noise machine to help them concentrate. Muting the TV isn’t enough—be sure it’s off completely. Remind friends and siblings to leave kids alone while they’re working.
• Middle School: These kids are old enough to recognize distractions but might still have trouble handling them. Encourage them to turn off phones and electronics (although some students are fine listening to music while they work). Students at this age are old enough to politely ask friends or family not to interrupt them while they work.
• High School: By this time, students know that the world is full of distractions and you can’t quiet them all. But you can teach them to mute their phone and messaging notifications, close all unnecessary windows on their laptops, and be firm about letting others know they need to be left alone to study.

Gather Your Supplies

One way to eliminate distractions is to ensure you have everything you need in place before you start. This includes books, notes, office supplies, and more. All kids should have water and some healthy snacks on hand too.

Source: jugglingactmama/Instagram

• Elementary School: Having a dedicated, well-stocked study space makes it much easier for kids to settle down to their work. Keep a supply of sharpened pencils, glue sticks, scissors, markers, and other items in a nearby drawer or a bin they can grab when they’re ready to get started.
• Middle School: Students this age likely keep just about everything they need in their backpacks, so they’ll want it nearby when they study. Remind them to restock their supplies once a week (including sharpening pencils in advance).
• High School: Depending on the assignment, these students may not need a lot of physical supplies, but they should still gather any books, notes, laptops, pens and highlighters, etc., they need before they settle in for a study session.

These two study skills are also vital life skills, so the sooner kids learn them, the better. They’ll be grateful later in life!

Use a Homework Planner

As soon as kids starting having any kind of homework, they need a planner. For younger students, this could be a daily take-home folder, while older kids will need a more sophisticated system. Either way, use it consistently so it becomes a habit.

• Elementary School: Take-home folders are perfect for organizing worksheets and other assignments. Put unfinished work on the left and finished work on the right. Use sticky notes on the worksheets or the front of the folder to write reminders about what needs to be done, including any due dates. Parents of younger students can review these folders each day, while upper elementary kids should mostly be able to keep track of things on their own.

Source: Busy Classroom

• Middle School: Use a planner notebook that includes calendars to help keep track of long-term assignments, with pages for daily notes and to-do lists. Teach students to make notes in them during class or immediately after, and start every study session by reviewing any current assignments and their due dates.

Source: Starts at Eight

• High School: Kids can continue using paper planners, or transition to online calendars or apps. Show them how to set useful reminders online, so things don’t slip through the cracks.

Source: LP Tutoring

Create a Daily Study Plan

When kids sit down to tackle the day’s work, encourage them to begin by making a plan. Assess what needs to be done, estimate the amount of time it will take, and decide what to do first.

Source: Beyond Booksmart

• Elementary School: Parents and young kids should sit down together to look over the day’s assignments and talk about what to work on first. Some students might like to get easy tasks out of the way before settling in to harder ones, while others prefer to handle more difficult things first. Help them find the method that works best for them.
• Middle School and High School: This age brings a higher amount of homework, so students should always start by determining how much time they’ll need to complete it. Let them experiment a bit—do they work best by completely finishing one assignment before moving on to the next, or do they like to do a little bit of each and take some breaks in between? Over time, they’ll find the methods they like best.

Chose the Best Study Time

Kids’ days are often jam-packed with activities, leaving homework and studying to get squeezed in whenever it fits. Take time to find out what time of day kids are at their best, and prioritize that time for study. For instance, if a student seems to learn better if they do their homework right after school, try to choose extracurriculars that meet in the evenings or weekends instead. Some students might even prefer to get up early in the morning and work, and that’s OK too as long as they’re getting enough sleep.

• Elementary School: Let kids try doing their homework at different times throughout the day, and see if there are times when they’re better at concentrating. If so, teach them to schedule their schoolwork during those times, and make extracurricular choices for them accordingly.
• Middle and High School: Students probably know by now when they work best, but busy schedules can make that more difficult to accommodate. Remind them to try to make smart choices and to tackle schoolwork when they’re feeling as fresh and alert as possible.

Keep Materials Neat and Organized

Some adults thrive in messy work spaces, and that’s OK. But kids should make an effort to keep their spaces and materials organized so they have fewer excuses for not getting things done.

Source: mywallpro/Instagram

• Elementary School: In early grades, parents should help kids go through their backpack each night, cleaning out trash and restocking supplies. Help them set up an organization system using the different pockets. Show them how to use different-color folders and notebooks for each subject, and clean out every folder regularly. Set the backpack by the front door each night so it’s ready to go in the morning. Upper grade students should gradually do some or all of these things on their own.
• Middle School: Transition to entirely managing backpacks and study spaces on their own. Parents might check in once a week or at the beginning of a school quarter to see if students need some assistance getting organized.
• High School: In addition to managing their physical study materials, ensure kids at this age know how to keep things organized online. Show them how to use files and folders, where to back things up, and how to manage their email and message inboxes. Encourage them to set aside a regular time to make sure everything is in order, and make improvements as needed.

Take Breaks

Students need both physical and mental brain breaks while they study! Remind kids to get up and move around regularly, rest their eyes, and give their brain a break for a few minutes every so often.

• Elementary School: Younger students should be able to work for about 15-20 minutes before taking a break, with upper grades going as long as 30 minutes. They usually won’t need reminders to take breaks, but they might need some help keeping those breaks to no more than 10 minutes or so.
• Middle School: These kids can work 30-45 minutes at a time and should learn to recognize the signs of needing a break on their own. When they start to get very fidgety, feel a headache coming on, squint while they’re reading, or feel hungry or thirsty, it’s time for a short break. Teach them to set a timer to know when the break is over and they need to get back to work.
• High School: By now, students can work an hour at a time but should be encouraged to take regular breaks all the same. In fact, just like adults, they should aim to get up and move for at least 5 minutes every hour. Physical activity like stretching, yoga, or even dancing to music will help refresh them so they can get back down to it. If they have trouble remembering to take breaks, have them set a timer to remind them.

All students use different learning methods to retain and understand the same information. Some like written words, some prefer to hear it and talk about it. Others need to do something with their hands or see images and diagrams. These are known as learning styles. While it’s important not to pigeonhole students into any one style, kids should be aware of any strengths they have and use them to create strong study skills.

Source:  Nnenna Walters

Know Your Style

There are four generally accepted styles: visual, auditory, read/write, and kinesthetic (movement). You can learn more about them here. It’s worth taking time to understand which (if any) style appeals to a student more.

• Elementary School: Most kids are exposed to a wide array of learning activities, strategies, and methods here and will slowly form preferences. If parents or teachers notice that kids aren’t learning well using one method (e.g., flash cards to learn math facts), have students try activities from different styles instead (like videos or songs).
• Middle School: At this age, students should have some idea of which study methods fit their learning styles. They should continue to experiment, especially in subjects where they struggle to master the material.
• High School: Kids in these grades who still don’t understand how they learn best may benefit from taking the VARK questionnaire . It will point them in the right direction and help them find the best study methods.

Choose Appropriate Study Materials

Here are some examples of study materials and activities that appeal to different learning styles, no matter the age or grade level.

Source: Elementary Shenanigans

• Visual: Diagrams; charts; graphs; maps; videos with or without sound; photos and other images; graphic organizers and sketchnotes
• Auditory: Lectures; audiobooks; videos with sound; music and songs; text-to-speech translation; discussion and debate; teaching others
• Read/Write: Reading textbooks, articles, and handouts; watching video with subtitles turned on; using speech-to-text translation and transcripts; making lists; writing answers to questions
• Kinesthetic: Hands-on practice; educational craft projects; experiments and demonstrations; trial and error; moving and playing games while learning

Study after study have shown the importance of actively taking notes rather than passively reading a handout later on. The act of writing engages different parts of the brain, forging new pathways that help students retain information in long-term memory. Taking good notes and using them properly are study skills every student needs to master.

Learn Different Note-Taking Strategies

There are a variety of good strategies, like outlines, the Cornell Method, sketchnotes, and more. There’s no one best method; it often depends on the material and the learner.

Source:  Think Insights

• Elementary School: Actively teach kids how to take notes in a variety of styles. Learn about seven top note-taking strategies here , and share them with your students. Teachers can start with handouts and graphic organizers but should slowly transition to more independent methods.
• Middle School: Students should be mastering the skill of taking their own notes, choosing a style that works best for them. They may need reminders of key points to capture but should now be able to isolate the important info.
• High School: Note-taking should be automatic by now, and many students will have developed preferred styles. Teachers should not insist on a specific note-taking strategy, but should ensure kids are capturing the information they need.

Organize and Review

Taking notes is just one part of the process. Students with good study skills also know how to use them effectively.

Source: The Mad Scientist

• Elementary School: Help students keep all notes from one subject or project in one notebook or folder. Show them how to place them in an order that makes sense, and use tabs, tables of contents, or other organizational methods. Encourage them to review each day’s notes when they go home at night, to reinforce the learning.
• Middle School: Students in these grades might want to reorganize their notes on their own when they get home, re-copying them or even typing them into a computer. They should be able to use effective organization strategies, to find the notes they need later on during a study session.
• High School: Students should plan to spend time after every class going over that day’s notes, reviewing and reinforcing what they learned. They should be able to rely heavily on their own notes when reviewing for a test or completing a project.

“Read chapter three for homework tonight.” Sounds simple enough, right? But there’s a big difference between skimming the material and actually learning from it. Here are the study skills students need to learn while they read.

Highlighting

Everybody loves a handful of colorful highlighters, but using them effectively is a study skill all on its own. Kids can highlight both texts and their own notes.

Source: cozmic_mae/Instagram

• Elementary School: Read material with students, showing them how to highlight key words and phrases instead of whole blocks of text. Show them color-coding strategies for organizing the information. Give them practice passages specifically for learning these skills.
• Middle School: Introduce students to online highlighting tools, since many of the texts they’ll be reading are digital. If necessary, they can print out reading material to highlight physically instead.
• High School: Kids should be pretty expert at highlighting by now, but watch for students who are still highlighting whole blocks without really knowing why, and show them the fundamentals.

Rereading and Taking Notes

In a lot of cases, reading something once simply isn’t enough. All students should learn to reread materials, using that time to highlight and take notes.

Source: SERC

• Elementary School: Reread passages together, pointing out key words, phrases, and ideas. Make notes while reading, both in the text and on separate paper. Try to complete review questions without referring to the text.
• Middle School: Students will know they’ve read thoroughly when they can complete review questions without looking back. Show students how to write their own review questions as they study (the Cornell Method of Note-Taking is perfect for this) so they’ll know they truly understand the material.
• High School: Continue to reinforce good reading study skills by giving students review questions to complete or asking them to make an outline or sketchnotes to sum up what they’ve learned.

Kids need to learn how to thoroughly complete an assignment, whether it’s a worksheet, an essay, or a term-long research project. These are the study skills they should know.

Understand the Assignment

Having a clear understanding of what’s being asked is so important. Otherwise, kids might wind up doing the wrong work, then having to tackle it all over again.

• Elementary School: Show kids how to carefully read directions at the beginning. Have them repeat back what they’re expected to do, and make notes if they need reminders. Teachers should provide instructions in writing whenever possible and make them clear and simple.
• Middle School: Encourage students to ask questions about assignments up front, or throughout if necessary. Continue to ensure they fully understand the directions before they start, especially when there are multiple steps.
• High School: By now, students should be able to make their own notes about expectations and can handle a series of more complicated steps. They should make a habit of reviewing all that information before they begin work.

Make a Plan

Once they know the expectations, students should plan how they’ll do the work.

• Elementary School: Help students evaluate the assignment and decide which parts they’ll do first. This is also a good time to estimate how long the work will take.
• Middle School: Encourage kids to think about how they like to approach assignments. Do they like doing easy problems first, then circling back around to harder stuff? Do they sometimes get stuck and frustrated? If so, how can they get “unstuck” and continue to make progress?
• High School: Many high school assignments are more complex, and students will need to lay out the steps to take. For instance, a research project might require choosing a topic, getting approval, starting research, planning a presentation, and giving the presentation, with multiple sub-steps in each. This all feels more manageable when you have a plan in place first.

Save Your Work

Such a basic study skill, and so extremely important!

• Elementary School: Help students ensure all assignments go back into the appropriate folders and all folders make it into their backpack when they’re done. Don’t leave things lying around where they can get lost.
• Middle and High School: In addition to keeping physical papers in order, be sure kids know how to save files online, including backing up their work. Many programs save automatically, but that’s not always the case. Show them how to keep backed-up files on an external drive or in the cloud, in case their hardware fails.

Review and Revise

Finishing the last problem on the page or typing the final word on a paper doesn’t mean you’re done. Good study skills means going back to review your work and make revisions.

Source: EnglishWritingTeacher.com

• Elementary School: Parents and younger kids should go back over completed homework together to make sure it’s complete and correct. Perform math problems “backwards” to see if the answers make sense. As kids get older, parents should remind them to review and check their answers on their own.
• Middle School: Students should regularly remember to check their answers before turning in an assignment. Advise them to make sure they’ve done everything they’ve been asked to, to the best of their ability.
• High School: Reviewing and revising should be automatic now. Writing assignments should include plans for multiple revisions. Teach students to use spell-check and grammar-check programs as needed, and encourage them to read their writing out loud to hear how it sounds.

Some kids naturally do well on tests, but others freeze up and forget everything they’ve learned . Fortunately, test-taking study skills are something kids can learn over time.

Source: Tammy DeShaw/The Owl Teacher

Review the Material

Kids should develop a variety of strategies for reviewing for a test, including review questions, flash cards, discussions, looking over notes, and more. It’s also important to follow a regular study schedule on any subject, instead of leaving all the review to the last minute.

• Elementary School: Whenever possible, adults should work with kids to help them study. Make flash cards, talk over the material together, sing spelling word songs—model good study skills for them to help them learn.
• Middle School: Help students continue to use a variety of review strategies. Teachers can provide review questions, set up study groups, and create online materials for them to use, just to name a few.
• High School: Kids should be coordinating their own review by now, whether independently or in groups. Make sure they know how to contact you if they have questions while they’re studying.

Get Rest and Eat Well

At any age, feeling your best is key to acing a test. Discourage students from staying up late to cram, and see that they have healthy meals and snacks on the day of the test. If they’re allowed, be sure they have bottled water on hand to stay hydrated before and during the test itself.

Tackle Easy Questions First

This one is especially important for students who have difficulty managing their time, or those who get incredibly nervous about tests. Focus on showing what you know, and build confidence as you go along.

• Elementary School: Teach kids to look over the entire test first so they can see what they’ll be expected to do. Tell them to ask questions right away if they have any. On the second run-through, they should answer any questions or problems they’re certain about. Finally, they can go back and handle more challenging questions, one at a time. In younger grades, practice this skill by using guided test-taking sessions.
• Middle School: Before a test, remind students of the process. Have them look the whole thing over first, and ask if anyone has any general questions before they begin. Monitor kids as they complete the test, and nudge along any who seem stuck on one particular question or section.
• High School: By now, kids should have the process down pat, but teachers should be aware of nervous test-takers and quietly remind them to focus on what they know.

Watch the Time

It’s a simple skill but a valuable one. Get kids used to glancing at the clock, but not obsessing over how much time is left.

• Elementary School: Tell kids how much time they have up front. Offer reminders several times, especially toward the end, but don’t do it in a way that amps up anxiety.
• Middle School: Make time expectations clear up front, and remind students once or twice of the remaining time as they work. Students should be glancing at the clock occasionally as they work; at the end of every page or section is a good rule of thumb. If they feel like they’re running out of time, remind them to use the “easy questions first” strategy.
• High School: Older students should be able to look over a test and compare it to the amount of time they have, so they know they’re working at the right pace. Teachers can offer a reminder halfway through and five minutes before the end.

Review Before Submitting

Just like with assignments, students should try to make time to review test answers before they turn it in. (And to make sure they put their names on their paper!)

• Elementary School: Actively ask students who are turning in their papers to go back to their seats and review their answers first. Build in a little extra test time so every student has a chance to review their work.
• Middle School: Remind students to review their work before submitting it when you pass out the tests. Offer additional reminders to those who regularly turn in work that needed another look.
• High School: Students should remember to build in time to look things over at the end as they start taking the test. The five-minute reminder toward the end is their cue to look over what they’ve done.

Even when you have terrific study skills, sometimes you need some assistance. Asking for help when you need it is something everyone needs to be able to do. While kids can’t expect adults to walk them through every step of the process, they should feel free to reach out for guidance when they need it.

Know How and When To Contact Teachers

Help students keep contact information handy and know the appropriate ways to contact their teachers as needed.

Source: StudentSavvy/Teachers Pay Teachers

• Elementary School: Most outside-school communication is between parents and teachers at this point, but kids should be encouraged to ask their own questions during the school day whenever possible. As they get older, parents should do their best to let kids take the lead.
• Middle School: Students should be almost entirely independent of parents when communicating with teachers now. They should know when teachers are available to chat in person (including before and after school, if possible). Adults can also show them how to write respectful emails or texts if teachers have made that contact information available.
• High School: At this point, students should be nearly 100% responsible for talking to their teachers when they need to. They should keep a contact list of email addresses, phone numbers, or other info. Additionally, they should recognize and respect preferred methods of contact.

Create Study Groups

While some kids work best on their own, many others thrive working with others to keep them on track and motivated. Setting up study buddies or groups enhances everyone’s study skills.

Source: MiddleWeb

• Elementary School: Parents will likely have to coordinate any in-person or online study sessions. Teachers can help by pairing students together as partners or for tutoring, and providing virtual study spaces when necessary.
• Middle School: As students get older, they should learn to seek out strong study partners. Help them recognize that their best friends may not always be the best choices when it comes to studying. Encourage them to have peers over to study, or to meet in public places like libraries.
• High School: Kids should be independently forming their own study support systems. However, they might ask teachers for help when they need one-on-one tutor recommendations. They may work together at school, at home, at the library, or online.

Use Resource Tools

There are more ways to learn and study than ever before. Help students find the right options to support their studies.

• Elementary School: Encourage students to look up answers in the right places: What does a word mean? Check the dictionary. When did the Civil War start? Here’s how to Google that. Help younger students use the resources to ensure they’re finding the information they need.
• Middle School: “Hey Google, how many moons does Jupiter have?” Kids this age know how to ask questions on the web. However, they need to learn how to make sure the answers are reliable. Teach them about primary sources (like following Wikipedia info back to its original source) and how to verify information in several different places.
• High School: A huge number of resources are online these days, so be sure students know where to find them and how to use them. Provide trusted online dictionaries and encyclopedias, show them how to seek out a thesaurus or rhyming dictionary, and guide them to video sites beyond YouTube, just to name a few.

How do you teach study skills in your classroom? Come share your ideas and ask for advice in the WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook !

Plus, check out 15 life skills every teen should learn ..

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What Are Learning Styles, and How Should Teachers Use Them?

Encourage every student to explore material in a variety of ways. Continue Reading

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Discover Your Learning Style – Comprehensive Guide on Different Learning Styles

People differ in the way they absorb, process, and store new information and master new skills. Natural and habitual, this way does not change with teaching methods or learning content. This is known as the Learning Style.

By discovering and better understanding learning styles, one can employ techniques to improve the rate and quality of learning. Even if one has never heard the term “learning style” before, they are likely to have some idea of what their learning style is.

For instance, one may learn better through DIY videos instead of reading manuals or pick up things faster by listening to audiobooks instead of sitting down to read. These preferences point to one’s learning style.

How can learning style help in the classroom?

Students can have a single dominant learning style or a combination of styles, which could also vary based on circumstances. While no learning style (or a mix of them) is right or wrong, knowing one’s style can significantly enhance learning.

Research has shown that a mismatch between learning style and teaching can affect students’ learning and behavior quality in class. Studies have found that good learning depends on the teaching materials used, which must align with students’ learning styles.

In recent years, there has been a big push in education on how teachers can better meet students’ needs. Learning style has proven very effective in achieving this. It helps teachers understand how students absorb information and teach effectively.

One study found that over 90% of teachers believed in the learning style idea.

Often, teachers have a lot on their plates, and adjusting instruction to suit different learning styles can sound overwhelming. However, once they master how to appeal to all learners, life in the classroom becomes much easier.

This guide will help you understand various learning styles and how teachers can use them to alter instructions and help students learn more effectively.

This improves classroom management and makes for happier students. The chatty student who constantly interrupts will finally find a positive place in the classroom. The quiet girl who knows all the answers but never raises her hand will feel confident sharing her knowledge.

How can learning style help parents?

As a parent, knowing your child’s learning style helps you find activities and resources tailored to their specific learning styles. This allows you to better connect with them and provide the support they need, which also improves relationships.

Knowing learning styles is also helpful beyond educational settings. It helps you understand how those around you learn—at work, in families, in relationships, or in other settings.

Theory Of Learning Styles

The study of learning styles began in 1910 , and formal learning style assessment instruments were developed for academics in the 1970s. By the 1980s, the VAK model, which stands for Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic, had gained popularity in the mainstream media.

Thanks to the Internet, VAK became freely available to teachers for assessment by 2000. Later, another dominant style, reading/writing (R), was added to the VAK model, which expanded it to the VARK model.

The VARK model

The VARK learning style model has been adjusted to include four learning modes:

• Visual (spacial) learners learn best by seeing
• Auditory (aural) learners learn best by hearing
• Reading/writing learners learn best by reading and writing
• Kinesthetic (physical) learners learn best by moving and doing

A short questionnaire is used to identify what a learner prefers to use when taking in, processing, and outputting information.

VARK helps explain why it can sometimes be frustrating to sit in a classroom and not get what’s being taught. It also explains why some students learn well from one teacher but struggle to learn from another.

As a student, if you have experienced feelings like this, they are more likely to originate from an incompatibility with your learning style.

According to Neil Fleming and David Baume , who developed VARK, teachers should understand how students learn, but it’s even more important that students themselves know how they learn.

By identifying their own learning process, students can identify and test strategies that significantly improve learning efficiency. According to Fleming and Baume,

“VARK above all is designed to be a starting place for a conversation among teachers and learners about learning. It can also be a catalyst for staff development – thinking about strategies for teaching different groups can lead to more, and appropriate, variety of learning and teaching.”

This kind of thinking is known as metacognition , which refers to an awareness and understanding of one’s thought processes and how to regulate them. Discovering your own learning style without engaging in metacognition would be impossible.

Learning styles can also be multimodal —some have one dominant style, while others combine several learning styles.

Various learning theories, in addition to VAK and VARK, have been developed over time . While the labels used in each theory differ, the learning styles they define often overlap.

Memletics is another theory that was created in 2003 by Sean Whiteley . It expands upon the VAK model by introducing seven learning styles:

As shown, Memletics adds four more learning styles (Verbal, Logical, Social, and Solitary) to the three learning styles defined in the VAK model. However, it leaves out “Reading/Writing,” added when VAK expanded to VARK.

Due to the nature of these categories, there can be an overlap in learning styles defined in Memletics. Take two solitary learners, for instance. While both learn best in solitary situations, one may learn using logic, while the other may learn by seeing (Visual).

In a study on learning styles, Aranya Srijongjai noted that according to the Memletics model, everyone has a mix of learning styles, and learning styles are not fixed, so instructors should also accommodate other types of learning styles by providing diverse learning environments.

They should vary activities so that students learn in their preferred style and have a chance to develop other styles. Matching and mismatching learning styles and instructional methods will complement the student’s learning performance and create more flexible learners in the long run.

As Srijongjai suggests, students and teachers should not consider learning styles as boxes into which students can be placed. They are just one small piece of the overall puzzle in a student’s learning process.

No matter what learning style theory appeals to you the most, knowing your style helps make learning easier and more successful. Most learners will have at least one dominant style in the VARK theory.

This guide will offer information and advice to teachers, students, and parents to help them understand why and how people learn the way they do.

For each learning style, we have included suggestions for career choices, which in no way are meant to be limiting, but they can be helpful. If you are a visual learner but feel pulled toward one of the fields listed in the auditory learner section, by all means, pursue your passion.

These suggestions merely show what careers a person with a particular style might gravitate toward and where they are likely to excel with minimal effort.

Understanding your learning style is helpful, but again, you should also be careful not to put yourself in a box and define yourself by your learning style. The key is understanding how you learn and avoiding getting caught up in labels and classifications.

Take what insight you can, but don’t let it overcome your thoughts about yourself, as you may very well lie at the intersection of the “standard” learning styles:

Visual Learners

Do you ever remember taking a test in school and thinking, “I don’t remember the answer, but I remember I had it highlighted pink in my notes”? If the answer is yes, then you might be a visual learner.

Visual learners remember and learn best from what they see. This doesn’t necessarily have to be restricted to pictures and videos. They do well with spatial reasoning, charts, graphs, etc. Visual learners often “see” words as pictures or objects in their heads.

Visual learners use their right brain to process information. The human brain processes visual information much faster than plain text. Some reports claim that images are processed 60,000 times faster than text .

As a visual learner, you can quickly take in and retain a lot of information because you prefer this processing method that humans are already very good at.

Visual learners prefer using maps, outlines, diagrams, charts, graphs, designs, and patterns when studying and learning. They are more likely to organize their notes into visual patterns or separate their pages of notes into different sections. Many visual learners also do well by color-coding their notes.

Careers For Visual Learners

Visual learners are often drawn to and do well in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). Career options include Data Analytics & Visualization, Graphics Design, Photography, Architecture, Construction, Copy Editing, Interior Design, Physics, Advertising, Engineering, and Surgery.

A Note On Visual Learners For Teachers

Sometimes, students who are visual learners might stare out the window or doodle in their notes. If this is the case, let them do it. Locking their eyes constantly on you can be too visually stimulating for these students.

Sometimes, it’s the flower that they draw next to their notes that helps them remember the point by bringing out a visual connection.

It’s also easy for visual learners to get overwhelmed by a lot of visual input. If the classroom setting is chaotic, with many students moving around, it might be too much for these students to take in.

The design of a classroom is very important to visual learners. Clutter or too many posters adorning the walls can easily overwhelm their minds and processing.

Some visual learners may find it helpful to pay careful attention to your movements. They might even remember the silly hand motion you made or how you pointed to a country on the map. Keeping this in mind when delivering your lessons can be very effective.

Lesson Ideas To Help Visual Learners

Draw text and words.

Make it a habit to write new words and add a few quick context clues (e.g., putting the part of speech in brackets or underling the stressed syllable). Pick out a portion of the text with especially vivid imagery and instruct students to draw a picture of what the writing describes. This will help visual learners read and understand the text better.

Visual learners tend to color code things naturally. It can be helpful if you, as a teacher, also color code your notes as you write or post them. You could, for example, designate roles for certain areas of the board and use colors to organize information during the lesson.

Or, for homework or in-class assignments, you could have students annotate/read actively and use different colors for different things you want them to look for. For example, they could highlight dates in blue and names in yellow.

Use charts and graphs

Create charts and graphs to help students visualize information. While math and science subjects typically provide the ideal setting, they can be used in other disciplines as well.

For instance, in a social science class, students could track local election participation rates over ten years and create line graphs to visualize trends. This will give them a deeper understanding of civic involvement dynamics in their community.

Such assignments engage visual learners and allow them to recall information more easily, organize concepts, and articulate their thoughts more easily. Try:

• Venn Diagrams (that represent comparisons and contrasts)
• Timelines (to visually represent a series of events)
• Inverted Triangles (that go from broad topics to more specific ones).
• Story or Essay Planners (that guide students through the steps necessary to complete tasks)
• Charts to list word families – add columns for verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and nouns and fill them as words come up. (e.g., engage, engaging, engagingly, engagement)

Use posters and flashcards

As a project or class assignment, ask students to make posters illustrating key concepts. Students can even present their posters to the class – which would benefit auditory learners. Display these posters on the wall to help drive home important topics.

Flashcards also provide visual cues to young learners and can be used to teach various concepts. To build vocabulary, for example, the word “yummy” may be drawn as swirls of an ice cream cone that helps visual learners remember.

A number of classic games can also be designed using flashcards that help visual learners interact visually and learn better.

Draw reasoning

In math, teach students to draw out their reasoning. For example, instead of verbally explaining how to add 3 and 5, you could create a sketch that depicts two baskets with 3 and 5 apples each. Counting all the apples in your drawing visually demonstrates that 3 plus 5 equals 8, making it easier to understand.

Use gestures

Be aware of your body language when you teach. Including gestures and hand motions when you speak will help visual learners pay attention and make connections.

Auditory Learners

Do you sometimes talk to yourself when thinking hard, studying, or trying to organize something? If that sounds like you, you’re likely an auditory learner.

Auditory learners learn best by carefully hearing and listening. This can include listening to external sources and hearing themselves talk. They will likely volunteer to answer questions and actively participate in classroom discussions.

Auditory learners have a great advantage in the classroom because they are not afraid to speak their minds and easily get answers to their questions. Consequently, they process information very easily, right there in the classroom.

In contrast, reading/writing learners might not even realize they have a question until they’ve had time to go back and process their notes.

For auditory learners, any form of listening or speaking is the most efficient learning method. This can include lectures, audiobooks, discussions, and verbal processing. They are also typically good at storytelling and public speaking.

Many auditory learners prefer studying and working in groups because they prefer to talk through the information, which makes them “social learners,” as per Memletics.

Careers For Auditory Learners

Any job that requires a lot of listening and/or speaking will likely be an excellent fit for an auditory learner. Some career fields to consider include law, psychiatry or therapy, guidance counseling, customer service, sales, speech pathology, journalism, and teaching.

A Note On Auditory Learners For Teachers

Just like visual learners, even auditory learners might stare into space, but for a different reason. Since they process information best by listening, they don’t need to look at notes or PowerPoint very often. While this may seem like they are zoning out or not paying attention, it’s generally not the case.

If you’ve ever caught a student staring off into space and asked them a question, thinking you’ve caught them off guard, only to get the perfect answer, you’ve likely found a very auditory learner.

These students also tend to get chatty during class. This can be great when trying to get a lively class discussion or debate going but not when you need the class to listen intently.

Before this frustrates and angers you, remember that this is how their brain works and learns. As much as you can and as much as is practical based on the subject, try to facilitate discussions and play into this rather than squashing it.

Remember that auditory learners may really struggle with written and visual information.

These are the students who can answer every single question you ask in class and then score just 60% on an exam that tests the same information. If you suspect that a student who bombed a test actually knows much more, give them a chance to answer those questions verbally.

Lesson Ideas To Help Auditory Learners

For obvious reasons, audiobooks are perfect for auditory learners. Give these students the option to listen from an audiobook—this can be effective with both novels and textbooks.

Socratic Seminar

A Socratic seminar is a student-led discussion based on a text in which the teacher asks open-ended questions to begin with. Students listen closely to each other’s comments, think critically for themselves, and articulate their thoughts and responses to others’ thoughts.

They learn to work cooperatively and to question intelligently and civilly. Discussions usually occur in a circle, and the atmosphere is laid-back, encouraging every student to join the conversation.

Auditory learners often lead such discussions. It gives them a chance to shine and be rewarded for talking, which usually gets them in trouble otherwise.

Teacher Kelly Gallagher offers a great handout called Trace the Conversation that can help auditory and visual learners with Socratic seminars. There are many ways to conduct Socratic Seminars; the National Council of Teachers of English has a great explanation .

Speeches, the often hated but necessary school assignment many students dread, are a favorite of auditory learners. When it comes to speeches, auditory learners feel in their element. Speeches can be short and impromptu or long and planned, and they can be on any subject.

Recorded notes

You can either record yourself speaking or permit your students to record lectures so they can listen later. You can also encourage students to record themselves reading their notes.

Text to speech

Students can do this independently, but they might need your prompting or feel better about doing it if you permit them. Document processors like Microsoft Word and Google Docs have text-to-speech and speech-to-text embedded as standard.

Students can, for instance, use speech-to-text to capture their thoughts when writing essays. Text-to-speech can also be beneficial for proofreading and catching errors.

A structured debate is beneficial for auditory learners to get their ideas across. It can be done at all grade levels and in all disciplines. Here is a great resource for some debate ideas and different debate formats for different grade levels.

Reading/Writing Learners

Do you tend to zone out when people talk to you or when you hear a lecture? Would you instead read the transcript or get the information from a book? Then, you’re probably a reading/writing learner. You learn best by reading and writing.

Reading/writing learners often relate to the famous Flannery O’Connor’s quote: “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.”

For these learners, verbal input can often go into one ear and out from the other without much effect. Seeing notes on the board or a PowerPoint presentation is very important to them, as is taking notes.

These students learn best from books, lists, notes, journals, dictionaries, etc. They can also intuitively help themselves learn by rewriting notes, using flashcards, adding notes to pictures or diagrams, choosing a physical book over an audiobook, and using closed video captions.

Careers For Reading/Writing Learners

Writing is a common and obvious career choice for reading/writing learners, but if this is your learning style, you’re definitely not limited to writing. Editing, journalism, public relations, law, teaching and education, marketing, advertising, researching, translating, and economic advising are all excellent career choices.

A Note On Reading/Writing Learners For Teachers

Reading/writing learners are often your typical “good students.” However, they can really struggle to learn from lectures or completely auditory methods. They may not respond well to class discussions and need more time to process what they hear.

Help them by giving them time to write down their thoughts before asking them to share out loud. This will reduce their stress and allow them to process their thoughts.

As a teacher, you will likely encounter students who need more time to understand a concept, even after you have finished explaining it. These students are most likely reading/writing learners.

Knowing their learning style makes it easier to be more patient and provide them with the necessary support. They sometimes struggle to take notes because they try to write down everything you say. Help them by working with them to pull out the most important parts of your lecture and paraphrase what they hear.

Lesson Ideas To Help Reading/Writing Learners

No matter what the lesson is about, providing handouts highlighting the most important information is one of the best things you can do to help reading/writing learners. It’s also important to give them enough time to write detailed notes.

Essays and reading assignments

These simple assignments work best for reading/writing learners. This is why they often thrive in the traditional classroom setting.

Vocabulary stories

Have students create stories or plays to make their vocabulary words more fun and exciting. This can be done in any subject area that has vocabulary words.

You can give students a topic or let them be creative, but all they have to do is write a story containing x number of vocabulary words. You can also extend this activity to help kinesthetic learners by having students act out their stories for the class.

Think, pair, share

Reading/writing learners often struggle with sharing their thoughts out loud. They ace their tests but freeze when you call on them in the class. Think-pair-share can help give them the confidence they need to verbalize their thoughts and is suitable for most age groups in almost any subject area.

First, ask students an open-ended question and give them time to think silently and write their answers. Then, have students pair up in small groups to share their answers. Then, open the discussion to the whole class.

When you ask a question and want students to respond right away, you’ll likely get answers only from the auditory learners—they are the quickest at verbal processing.

With think-pair-share, the reading/writing learners get the time they need to process. In that time, they develop the confidence to construct a verbal response and are very likely to respond.

Kinesthetic Learners

Are you the first to stand up and volunteer to demonstrate an experiment for everyone else? Do you need to change the oil rather than look at a diagram to learn how to do it? If the answer is yes, then you are most likely a kinesthetic learner.

The root word “kines” means motion and a kinesthetic learner learns best by “going through the motion” or doing the task. It’s much easier for them to internalize the information when they are actively moving their body and combining that with what they are learning.

These students tend to shine in demonstrations and experiments. They also learn best from seeing something firsthand, like watching live videos and going on field trips.

Combining a physical motion, such as fidgeting, with a piece of information can help them learn better. They are likelier to use active gesturing and “talk with their hands.”

Careers For Kinesthetic Learners

Any career that allows physical activity and requires movement is right up the alley of a kinesthetic learner. These are the ones who often use the phrase “I don’t sit well.”

Kinesthetic learners typically don’t thrive well at desk jobs. Good career options for such learners include physical or occupational therapy, nursing, dance, theatre, music, automotive technology, welding, on-site engineering jobs, carpentry, agriculture, environmental science, forestry, and marine biology.

A Note On Kinesthetic Learners For Teachers

Just because you see a student fidgeting or being antsy, it doesn’t mean they aren’t paying attention or are bored. Their brain craves that movement to help them make connections.

There’s no need to force such students to sit entirely still as long as they aren’t distracting others in the classroom. Try to connect movement to the concepts you’re teaching as much as possible. Kinesthetic learners need to move, and they can benefit from active brain breaks.

Do your best to keep them active and allow movement in your classroom. If you notice a student with a glazed-over look, take a 30-second break from the lesson and have the entire class stand up, stretch, or do some jumping jacks.

Or you could ask your kinesthetic learner to run a quick errand to the office.

As students, kinesthetic learners often get punished for trying to move and follow their natural learning style. The more you can find ways to reward them for their learning style, the more engaged they will become.

Lesson Ideas To Help Kinesthetic Learners

Labs and experiments.

While labs and experiments are standard in science classes, they can also be successfully implemented in the curriculum of other subjects to benefit kinesthetic learners.

For example, an elementary math lesson could involve measuring each student’s height and creating problems based on the measurements. Geometry, for instance, could be taught using hands-on activities and tangible objects, like clay or building blocks, for better comprehension.

Field trips

With tightening school budgets, it can be hard to plan educational field trips, and that’s understandable. However, field trips need not have to be major events.

An art project, for example, could involve taking students outside and having them draw or photograph what they see. An English lesson could include a nature walk during which students journal or write a story about their little field trip.

Physical props

Use practical and/or memorable props; for example, when teaching a history lesson, dressing in the attire of the era you are teaching about will greatly impact kinesthetic learners. If you’re an anatomy teacher, consider using a model skeleton or demonstrating with your body as a helpful visual aid.

Take a stand

This activity is easy to set up and appeals to both kinesthetic and auditory learners. It requires you to prepare a series of questions that students can agree or disagree with.

For instance, if your students read “To Kill A Mockingbird,” your questions could revolve around racism. (Note: when tackling a sensitive subject such as racism, make sure you know your students and their maturity level)

Have signs on either side of your classroom indicating “agree” and “disagree.” Read through each question and have students move to the side of the room that fits their beliefs. Once there, they can discuss their thoughts with the group that follows their beliefs, and then you can open the discussion to the whole class.

This works well for literature and history lessons. Instead of reading silently, assign students parts and have them act out the story.

Tableaux Vivants

Tableaux Vivants is a time-tested process drama technique that can enhance students’ engagement and comprehension of abstract learning material across the curriculum. It works well in literature and history classrooms and is a great review activity. It is very similar to charades .

It involves breaking students into groups and assigning each group a “scene” – this could be from a work of literature or a scene from history. Each group then works together to create a silent re-enactment consisting of “snapshots” of the scene.

Students pose and pause for 5-10 seconds before moving on to their next pose. Once they have moved through all their poses, the rest of the class guesses what scene they were re-enacting.

Demonstration speeches

Einstein once said: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Demonstration speeches allow students to explain something they understand well to their peers.

Ask your students to pick a topic, such as how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Ask them to give a speech explaining the process while simultaneously demonstrating it.

The demonstration part appeals most to kinesthetic learners. Since students can choose their topic, it also appeals to all other learners, creating an engaging learning experience.

Logical Learners

If a child is good with numbers and asks many questions, they might be a logical learner. A logical learner has a core need to understand what is being learned. For them, simply memorizing facts is not enough. They thrive on orderly and sequential processes.

Individuals who excel at math and possess strong logical reasoning skills are usually logical learners. They notice patterns quickly and have a keen ability to link information that would seem unrelated to others. Logical learners retain details better by drawing connections after organizing an assortment of information.

As a logical learner, you can maximize your ability to learn by seeking to understand the meaning and reasoning behind the subject you’re studying. Avoid rote memorization.

Explore the links between related subject matter and ensure you understand the details. Use ‘systems thinking’ to better understand the relationship between various parts of a system. This will not only help you understand the bigger picture but also help you understand why each component is important.

Social Learners

Social learners have excellent written and verbal communication skills. They are at ease speaking to others and adept at comprehending other people’s perspectives. For this reason, people frequently seek counsel from them.

Social learners learn best when working with groups and take opportunities to meet individually with teachers.

If you like bouncing ideas off others, prefer working through issues as a group, and thoroughly enjoy working with others, you may be a social learner. Seek opportunities to study with others. If your class doesn’t have formal groups, form one.

Solitary Learners

Solitary learners prefer working by themselves in private settings. They avoid relying on others for help when solving problems or studying and frequently analyze their learning preferences and methods.

Solitary learners tend to waste a lot of time on a complex problem before seeking assistance. If you are a solitary learner, you must consciously recognize this limitation and try to seek help more often/sooner when stuck.

Generally, solitary learning can be a very effective learning style for students.

Tips to Simultaneously Help Learners of All Types

Lessons tailored to suit multiple learning styles are often the most effective, as they reach and appeal to most students. Another reason they are best suited is because most people have a combination of learning styles.

The activities discussed in this article provide ample opportunities for all types of learners to benefit. As a teacher, if you try to be creative, you can make little tweaks in almost every lesson to reach different learning styles.

Following are some ideas and ways by which to reach all four VARK learning styles:

Split your space into multiple stations (or centers) spread throughout the classroom. Break your students into groups so there is a group at every station.

Then, assign activities for each station that focus on a learning style. Have the students rotate with their groups from one station to another.

While the obvious benefit of rotation is that it ensures the activities cover each type of learner’s needs, there is more to it.

Even if you don’t have a center that caters to kinesthetic learners, the simple act of getting up and moving around different stations in the classroom helps them. The same goes for auditory learners; being in small groups and rotating throughout the room encourages discussion.

Give options

Irrespective of what subjects you teach your students, give them options as far as possible. For instance, instead of assigning an essay at the end of a unit, assign a project that can be completed with multiple activities.

Don’t mention which choices align with which learning style—let the students decide. Here is an example of 4 different options for a homework project:

• Write an essay (appeals to reading/writing learners)
• Record a podcast or TED talk (appeals to auditory learners)
• Film a video (appeals to kinesthetic learners)
• Create a poster or multimedia project (appeals to visual learners)

Quite often, students will naturally gravitate toward the option that best suits their learning style.

Allow students to use headphones when working independently in class. This helps cut out distractions for most learning types. Particularly for auditory learners, it can help make connections between what they hear and what they’re learning, which can be very helpful for them when they need to work silently.

Technology has made great strides and deep inroads into education. Several apps and websites can help students in various ways. Here is a list of apps for elementary math that could appeal to all four learning styles.

Games that include pictures and sound can help visual and auditory learners. Reading explanations and lessons on apps helps reading/writing learners. Physically manipulating and touching a device helps kinesthetic learners.

A quick online search will reveal several beneficial websites and apps for almost any discipline.

Final Words

There is no right or wrong when it comes to learning styles; they are simply names and categories assigned to how people’s brains process information.

It is generally easier for those with a dominant reading/writing style to succeed in a traditional academic setting, thus securing the “good student” label. However, education has come a long way, and schools and teachers can cater to various styles.

As a teacher, it’s important to remember that every student is unique. Even two visual learners might differ significantly in terms of what works for them. The best approach is to learn about and understand each student’s unique educational requirements.

After all, students are human beings with unique needs and feelings; teachers who remember this can approach them empathetically.

If you are a student interested in knowing about your learning style, you can begin by taking the VARK questionnaire . Having your students take the questionnaire is a good idea if you’re a teacher. Not only will you discover your student’s learning styles, but they will also be able to identify which techniques work best for them.

Remember, learning style is only a partial explanation of a student’s preferred way of learning. It is never the complete picture. These styles change over time, and every student can have differing degrees of inclination toward a given style.

However, regardless of your position in education, recognizing both your own learning styles and those of others around you can be highly beneficial.

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Study More Effectively by Understanding Your Learning Style

Online courses typically require you to remember a lot of information — especially if you are preparing for an upcoming test or presentation. Many adult learners feel stressed about trying to remember critical information for their courses, but you can set yourself up for success by incorporating studying strategies that work best for your learning style.

Most people naturally favor one or two fundamental learning styles. Identifying your learning style(s) can help you choose the strategies that are most likely to help you retain important material.

Jeannine L. Wonderling, assistant director of Education Alliance Partnerships at Penn State World Campus, says understanding your learning style can make a world of difference when approaching studying. Using appropriate study strategies that match preferred learning styles can help with comprehension and application of the learned content.

Let’s review the four main learning styles and some studying strategies that can work well for each. The descriptions may help you identify your preferred learning styles, but you can also find many learning style assessment tools and quizzes available for free online.

1. Visual Learners

Visual learners connect with images and information presented in an eye-catching way, such as graphics, illustrations, charts, diagrams, and key points that are highlighted with arrows or other symbols.

Effective strategies

• Color coding: Add a visual element to important details using bright stickers, colored pencils, or highlighting to draw your eye to this information when studying.
• Concept mapping: A concept map lets you organize information in a visual way by looking for ways to connect or “cluster” concepts and ideas. There’s no one right way to create a concept map, but you would typically start by putting core ideas or larger themes in the middle and then branch out with clusters of connected words or phrases. Be creative and colorful to help engage your visual learning style.

2. Auditory Learners 

Auditory learners find it easier to retain information that they hear. Audiobooks and recorded lectures can be helpful resources for these learners, who also tend to benefit from group discussions in which material is explored and reviewed verbally.

• Audiobooks and use of Immersive Reader: Turn on your immersive reader if you have access to the course content online or use an audiobook if available; this will allow you to read and listen to the content at the same time. Record yourself reading and then listen to the recording to study.
• Read/study out loud: If you have a study partner, talk through the content together. If you have no study partner, just read the content and study materials out loud to yourself.

3. Reading/Writing Learners 

Reading/writing learners retain information that they read in written form and are comfortable with text-heavy resources like worksheets and presentations.

• Annotation: Write down thoughts, ideas, or observations that pop into your mind as you are reviewing material while studying. This is also a great way to add questions, definitions, or your reflections on what you’ve just read. You can leave annotations in the margins of your notes or as comments in electronic documents.
• Note-taking: Take notes of the most important facts and concepts you want to remember from the material. It may be helpful to try and highlight any connections or related themes. Everyone has their own favorite note-taking system that works for them, but if you’re looking for ideas, you can check out the Cornell Note-Taking System . Also, be sure to review these tips on taking notes in an online class .

4. Kinesthetic Learners 

Kinesthetic learners do well with concepts that involve the senses or allow for hands-on experiences, like demonstrations, experiments, or interactive activities.

• Flashcards: Making flashcards is a hands-on way to remember important words and concepts (this can also be a good strategy for visual learners).
• Chew gum : Chewing gum while studying is a simple trick that allows your body to have some physical movement while learning content. If you chew gum while studying, you should also chew gum while taking the test!

Other Helpful Strategies to Make Learning Stick

• Put knowledge to practical use: Regardless of your learning style, the application (comprehension and use) of your learning will solidify your understanding of the content. Take time to reflect on the newly learned material and think through how you can apply it to real-world situations.
• Reflection and journaling: Reflection is spending time reviewing and writing about what you have learned. This is a very important part of moving information from short-term memory to long-term memory. Write down things you have learned and take time to think about how you will use the concepts. A learning journal is a collection of these notes, observations, thoughts, and other relevant materials built up over time.

Related Content

• 9 Tech Tips to Supercharge Your Productivity — no matter what type of learner you are, these tips can help you get organized and study more efficiently
• Academic Success Kit — we’ve compiled a variety of tools and resources to help you in your online courses

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7 Types of Learning Styles: What You Need to Know

Did you know that there are different kinds of learners? We’ll break down the most common types of learning styles to help you figure out which one suits you best.

Brushing up on various learning styles is important for students of all ages. It can help them understand how they learn best and how to improve their study skills. By understanding their own learning preferences , students can tailor their study habits to better suit their needs. 

It can also help students communicate with their teachers about how they learn best and what strategies might work well for them. Teachers can also benefit from understanding different learning styles, as it can help them create a more inclusive and effective learning environment. 

By experimenting with different learning styles, students can find what works best for them and improve their overall learning experience.

The VARK Model: Four Types of Learning Styles

In this section, we'll explore the VARK Model, a widely recognized theory aimed at transforming the classroom experience. This model suggests that learners primarily fall into four categories: visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic.

1. Visual Learning Style

Visual learners excel in processing information through visual aids such as images, diagrams, charts, and graphs. They have a strong preference for seeing information presented in a visual format as it helps them understand concepts and retain information more effectively. 

These learners have a keen eye for details and are skilled at visualizing spatial relationships, allowing them to make connections between various ideas. To enhance their knowledge, visual learners can use various strategies. 

They can create mind or concept maps to organize information and establish connections between different concepts. They can also use flashcards or visual mnemonics to associate visual cues with specific information, aiding in recall and retention. 

Visual learners can also benefit from watching educational videos, utilizing online learning platforms that offer visual elements, and seeking out visual representations in textbooks and learning materials.

2. Auditory Learning Style

Auditory learners have a strong inclination toward learning through sound and oral communication. They have exceptional auditory processing skills that enable them to remember spoken words and discern subtle variations in tone, pitch, and rhythm. 

Auditory learners can employ several strategies to optimize their learning experience. They can record lectures or discussions and listen to them multiple times for better comprehension. Participating in group discussions, where they can actively listen and exchange ideas with others, helps reinforce their understanding of the subject matter. 

Auditory learners can also benefit from using text-to-speech software to convert written material into audio format, allowing them to absorb information effectively even when text-based resources are all they have.

3. Reading/Writing Learning Style

These students possess strong reading and writing skills and prefer engaging with information through text. They find great value in written texts, lecture notes, textbooks, and handouts. 

Reading/writing learners can employ various techniques to optimize their learning. They can actively annotate and underline important points while reading, which helps them engage with the material more deeply and reinforces their understanding. 

Taking comprehensive notes during lectures and organizing them in a structured manner assists in synthesizing information and retaining key concepts. Additionally, reading/writing learners can benefit from creating flashcards or writing summaries of their learned material to further reinforce their knowledge.

4. Kinesthetic Learning Style 

Kinesthetic learners acquire knowledge through physical movement and hands-on experiences. They learn best when actively engaging in activities where they can touch, move, and manipulate objects. These learners have a remarkable ability to retain information through physical actions and learn by doing.

For these students, enhancing their learning is best achieved by immersing themselves in the subject matter. Role-playing exercises and simulations offer them opportunities to apply their knowledge in real-life scenarios, optimally engaging their learning abilities. 

Participation in experiments, laboratory work, or even field trips allows students to physically interact with the subject, making it more tangible and understandable. 

Employing such hands-on approaches brings abstract concepts to life, making them easier to grasp. This physical engagement also increases the likelihood of retaining the information, giving students a practical edge in applying it to real-world situations. The result is a more engaging, meaningful, and successful learning experience.

Kinesthetic learners can also benefit from creating physical models or using manipulatives to enhance their understanding of abstract concepts. Incorporating movement breaks and physical activity into their study routine can help maintain their focus and energy levels.

Other Types of Learning Styles

Beyond the VARK Model, additional types of learning styles further diversify the landscape of how students absorb and process information.

Logical Learning Styles

Logical learners thrive on reasoning and systematic thinking. They excel in analyzing and solving problems and appreciate structured information that follows a logical progression. 

They find satisfaction in identifying patterns, creating frameworks, and drawing conclusions based on evidence and logical principles. These students can use specific strategies that align with their thinking style to enhance their learning. 

For example, logical learners can use critical thinking exercises, puzzles, or logic games to sharpen their analytical skills. Breaking down complex concepts into smaller, logical components helps them grasp the underlying principles. 

Utilizing flowcharts, concept maps, or visual representations of logical processes also helps them to understand complex relationships and decision-making processes. Additionally, logical learners can benefit from engaging in debates or discussions that require logical argumentation and reasoning.

Solitary Learning Style 

Solitary learners prefer to study and work independently. They are self-motivated and feel most productive in quiet environments. These learners enjoy reflecting and contemplating their own thoughts and ideas, and they can focus and concentrate when working autonomously.

To optimize their learning experience, solitary learners can incorporate various strategies that align with their independent nature. They can create and stick to a structured study schedule, setting specific goals and deadlines to maintain their motivation and productivity. 

Breaking down large tasks into smaller, manageable ones helps them stay organized and focused. Solitary learners can also use tools such as digital organizers, note-taking apps, or online research databases to access information independently. 

Solitary learners also need to create a dedicated study space free from distractions and develop effective time management techniques.

Social Learning Style 

Social learners thrive in collaborative environments and learn best through interactions and discussions. They enjoy group work, brainstorming sessions, and cooperative learning activities. These learners benefit from sharing ideas, perspectives, and experiences with their peers.

To make the most of their learning journey, social learners can adopt tactics that encourage teamwork and engagement. Active involvement in group tasks allows them to share their thoughts while gaining insight from the varied viewpoints of their team members.

Engaging in peer-to-peer teaching or tutoring provides an opportunity for knowledge sharing and solidifying understanding. Social learners can also benefit from joining study groups or online forums to engage in discussions and debates that allow for the exchange of ideas and deeper exploration of the subject matter.

It's crucial to recognize that individuals often possess a blend of learning styles, with one style typically more dominant than others. A student’s dominant learning style can also vary depending on the subject matter and learning context.

Incorporating strategies that resonate with different learning preferences empowers students to enhance their learning experiences, deepen their comprehension, and cultivate a lifelong passion for learning.

Understanding Your Types Learning Styles: Unlocking Your Potential

Understanding your diverse learning styles is a powerful tool that can greatly assist your academic journey. By recognizing how you learn best, you can take control of your education and achieve success. 

1. Self-Awareness

When you become aware of the types of learning styles, you gain valuable insights into how you process and remember information. This self-awareness lets you make informed choices about study techniques and strategies that work best for you. It puts you in the driver's seat of your learning experience.

2. Study Techniques

Knowing your learning style empowers you to discover study techniques that align with your preferences. Here are some examples:

• Visual learners can use mind maps, diagrams, and colors to organize and remember information effectively.
• Auditory learners can benefit from recording lectures or reading aloud to themselves.
• Kinesthetic learners can engage in hands-on activities, role-playing, or using manipulatives to reinforce learning.
• Reading/writing learners can focus on note-taking, summarizing concepts in writing, or creating flashcards.

Feel free to combine and explore various learning styles; doing so can enrich your overall learning journey and boost your understanding and retention of information.

3. Efficient Learning

Understanding the different learning styles helps you optimize your study time and resources. By focusing on methods that resonate with you, you can enhance your concentration, retention, and overall learning efficiency. This allows you to make the most of your study sessions and achieve better academic performance.

4. Advocacy

Finding your ideal learning style enables you to communicate your needs to teachers and peers effectively. You can advocate for instructional approaches that suit your preferences, ensuring an inclusive and personalized learning experience. 

Your self-advocacy empowers you and encourages educators to implement diverse teaching strategies.

5. Collaboration

By sharing your learning preferences with your peers, you can work together more effectively, leveraging each other's strengths and supporting identified weaknesses. This collaborative environment fosters mutual learning and appreciation for different approaches to learning.

5. Lifelong Learning

As you progress through different educational stages and encounter new learning environments, you can adapt your study techniques and seek out resources that cater to your preferred style. This adaptability nurtures a growth mindset and equips you with the skills needed for continuous self-improvement.

Understanding your types of learning styles empowers you to take an active role in your education. It helps you tailor your study techniques, advocate for your needs, collaborate effectively, and cultivate a lifelong love for learning. 

Discover your personal learning style by taking our What Type of Learner Are You? Quiz !

FAQs: Different Learning Styles

Curious to learn more about the different learning styles? Here are answers to some frequently asked questions that will provide you with valuable insights into embracing the diverse ways students process and engage with information.

1. How Do I Find Out My Learning Style?

Discovering your learning style involves self-reflection and observation. Take the time to reflect on your past learning experiences and identify the strategies that have been most effective for you. Consider whether you learn best through visual aids, auditory explanations, reading and writing, or hands-on activities. 

Pay attention to the activities that make learning enjoyable and help you retain information. Online learning style assessments can also provide insights into your preferred learning style. 

If you’re having trouble pinpointing your dominant learning style, consider consulting with an educational professional, such as a teacher or learning specialist, to help you gain a deeper understanding of your learning style.

2. What Are the Four Main Learning Styles? 

The VARK model outlines four main learning styles: visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic. 

• Visual learners prefer visual aids to understand concepts
• Auditory learners thrive through sound and oral communication 
• Reading/writing learners excel in written materials
• Kinesthetic learners acquire knowledge through physical movement and hands-on experiences

Recognizing your unique learning style can pave the way for personalized study strategies, enabling you to grasp information more effectively and achieve greater academic success.

3. What Is the Most Common Learning Style? 

The most common learning style may vary depending on the context and the people being considered. However, research suggests that a significant portion of the population tends to be visual learners. 

This preference for visual learning can be attributed to the prevalence of visual stimuli in educational settings, such as the use of textbooks, visual aids, and multimedia resources, as well as our daily lives, where we are constantly exposed to images, videos, and graphical representations.

4. What Is the Best Learning Style? 

There is no universal "best" learning style, as students have different preferences and strengths. Whether or not a learning style is effective depends on various factors, including learning preferences, the subject matter being taught, and the instructional context. 

Each learning style offers unique advantages and can be beneficial in different situations. For example, visual learners may excel in understanding complex visual information, while auditory learners may thrive in discussions and oral presentations. 

It is important to incorporate a variety of instructional strategies that cater to different learning styles to allow students to engage with the material in ways that resonate with their individual preferences.

5. What Is the Rarest Learning Style? 

The kinesthetic learning style is often considered to be relatively less common among students. This may be attributed to the challenges associated with providing extensive hands-on experiences in traditional educational settings, as well as the dominance of visual and auditory teaching methods. 

6. Which Learning Styles Involve Doing and Feeling? 

Learning styles that involve doing and feeling are often associated with kinesthetic learning. Kinesthetic learners prefer hands-on activities and learn best through physical experiences and sensations.

7. Which Learning Style Acquired Through Hands-on Activities? 

Kinesthetic learning is also a learning style acquired through hands-on activities. This style emphasizes learning through movement, experiments, and active engagement with the material rather than passive listening or reading.

Final Thoughts

Understanding and accommodating different learning styles is essential for effective teaching and learning. Educators can tailor their methods to engage and support students by recognizing diverse processing and internalization approaches. 

Each learning style has unique strengths, and a balanced and inclusive environment is crucial to cater to all learners. Embracing our own learning styles empowers us to take ownership of our education, leveraging strategies that enhance comprehension. 

Flexibility and adaptability are important, enriching the overall learning experience. Let's celebrate diversity, promote inclusivity, and create an education that is accessible, engaging, and meaningful for all.

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Here are two study tips from over 1,500 tips submitted by students and teachers

If there is something you always like to do (e.g., watching T.V.), do it. You will totally be more focused. Because if you don't you'll be telling yourself you're bored and that's not good. Plus an elementary teacher or principal told my mother to do that for me. It Works For Me. Try it! Kayla Covington, Student, College    Hawaii

TEACHING TIPS

Delayed Feedback Here is something that happens to all teachers. You prepare and teach a wonderful lesson, but when the bell rings, the students leave without saying a word about how good it was. You cannot rely on instant gratification. Instead, keep in mind that some things you do in class will influence students for years to come.

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The SOAR® Learning & Soft Skills Curriculum teaches the most critical learning, organizing, and communication skills needed to be successful in school and in the workplace.

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We are pleased that you are thinking about attending college. View these 20 videos for tips about what you should be doing to prepare for college while in high school, as well as tips about selecting and applying to colleges.

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The Learning Strategies Center

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Effective Study Strategies

So, what are effective study strategies for long-term learning, retrieval practice 1.

Retrieval practice is when you actively recall information (concepts, ideas, etc) from memory and “put it on paper” in different formats (writing, flow charts, diagrams, graphs). At the LSC we often call retrieval practice “Blank Page Testing,” because you just start with a blank piece of paper and write things down. It’s especially helpful because it shows you what you do (and do not) understand, so you can identify what topics you need to review/practice more. Retrieval practice can be challenging and requires a lot of mental effort — but this struggle to remember, recall, and make connections is how we learn.

To learn more about Blank Page Testing , see Mike Chen’s video:

Interleaving 2

Interleaving is when you work on or practice several related skills or concepts together. You practice one skill or concept for a short period of time, then switch to another one, and perhaps another, then back to the first. It not only helps you learn better, it keeps you from falling behind in your other classes! So please go ahead and do some work for the classes you don’t have an exam in this week! It will not only help you learn your exam material better, it will help you stay caught up.

Spaced (or distributed) practice 3

In spaced practice, you spread out practice or study of material in spaced intervals, which leads to better learning and retention. Spaced practice is the opposite of cramming!

Get sleep and make sure you eat and stay hydrated!

Your brain works better when you are rested, hydrated, and nourished. Though it might seem effective to push through without taking a break and stay up studying all night (see the page on strategies that don’t work), it won’t help you in the long run. Instead, develop a study plan, eat a good meal, and have a bottle of water nearby when you take your exam. You will learn and understand the material better if you have a plan – and you will probably need to this information for the next prelim anyway!

Tip: Piper knows that sleeping with your books under your pillow can help with learning! How does this magic work, you might wonder? Though the information in your book won’t travel via osmosis to your brain through the pillow, you will get sleep which improves your long-term learning! Sleep and a good study plan are a great study strategy combo!

Up Next: Guidelines for creating a study schedule

1 Agarwal, P. K. (2020). Retrieval Practice: A Powerful Strategy for Learning – Retrieval Practice. Unleash the Science of Learning. Retrieved from https://www.retrievalpractice.org/retrievalpractice .

2 Pan, S.C. (2015). The Interleaving Effect: Mixing It Up Boosts Learning. Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-interleaving-effect-mixing-it-up-boosts-learning/

3 Weinstein, Y. & Smith, M. (2016). Learn How to Study Using… Spaced Practice. Retrieved from https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/7/21-1

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Study Skills

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What are Study Skills?

Study skills are the skills you need to enable you to study and learn efficiently – they are an important set of transferable life skills.

Our pages provide generic study skills advice – appropriate to learners across all disciplines and in different life circumstances: full and part-time students, those returning to education later in life, those engaged in professional development and anybody who wants to learn how to learn effectively. 

Key points about study skills:

You will develop your own personal approach to study and learning in a way that meets your own individual needs. As you develop your study skills you will discover what works for you, and what doesn’t.

Study skills are not subject specific - they are generic and can be used when studying any area. You will, of course, need to understand the concepts, theories and ideas surrounding your specific subject area. To get the most out of your studies, however, you’ll want to develop your study skills.

You need to practise and develop your study skills.   This will increase your awareness of how you study and you’ll become more confident.  Once mastered, study skills will be beneficial throughout your life.

Study skills are not just for students.   Study skills are transferable - you will take them with you beyond your education into new contexts. For example, organisational skills, time management, prioritising, learning how to analyse, problem solving, and the self-discipline that is required to remain motivated.  Study skills relate closely to the type of skills that employers look for.  (See Transferable Skills and Employability Skills for more.)

At SkillsYouNeed we provide quality content on many life skills – and many of these are relevant to studying.

You’ll find two types of study skills pages – pages that directly relate to skills you need for study (such as How to Write an Essay ) and pages that are more general life skills but which are also important to studying (like Active Listening ).

Our Study Skills Pages Include:

Getting Organised to Study

Getting organised is an important first step to effective study.  Our page covers the basic organisation skills you need to consider – fundamentals such as where and when to study and the importance of developing a network of contacts who can help you when you need it.

This page covers some of the basic principles of time management – with reference to study. If you manage your time badly then you will be less productive, which can lead to stress and anxiety. This page will help you by outlining the importance of a personal study timetable and how to set goals and prioritise your time.

Sources of Information for Study

Learn what is meant by, and the importance of, primary, secondary and tertiary documents and how you may source such information in a library or online.

By understanding different writing styles you can put what you read into perspective. This page covers the main writing styles that you are likely to come across, including academic, journal, and journalistic styles.

When studying, it is likely that you will need to read a lot of information – and you will wish to use this time effectively as possible by developing your reading skills. Discover ways that you can engage with your reading, form links, understand opinions and put ideas and research into perspective. In short, develop your reading skills.

Critical Reading and Reading Strategies

This page explains what is meant by critical reading and critical thinking – skills which are fundamental to true learning, personal development and advancement. The page also covers how to develop a personal reading strategy and use SQ3R to help you manage your reading.

Note-Taking

Learning to take notes effectively is not only important to study but also in many other situations, at work and in your personal life.  Develop your note-taking skills with our pages: Note-Taking for Verbal Exchanges and Note-Taking for Reading .

It pays to carefully think about and plan an essay or other piece of written work before you start writing.  This page provides you with a framework for planning which will help ensure your work is relevant, well-constructed and produced efficiently.

Essay Writing

Learn about the processes involved in writing an essay, or other piece of assessed work.  Avoid common mistakes and follow best practice to help ensure that the work you produce is of a high quality.

How to Write a Dissertation or Thesis

Working on a dissertation, thesis or other research project can be the most challenging part of study. Our guide offers practical advice and explains how to work on each part of a research document, including:

• How to Write a Research Proposal
• Ethical Issues in Research
• Researching and Writing a Literature Review
• Writing your Methodology
• Writing up your Results and Discussion

Learning how to reference correctly is vital if you are a student. This page not only covers why you should reference, and what may happen if you don’t, but also includes some detailed guidelines on how to reference different types of materials.

As a learner you will be required to engage with theory, but exactly what is a theory?  A theory is an attempt to provide understanding - theories attempt to answer the question, 'why?' and therefore satisfy our curiosity.  Learn more about theories and how they are usually developed.

Before you submit your assignment for school, university or work, run through a series of final checks.  Avoid potentially embarrassing or costly mistakes and increase the credibility of your work.

Reflecting On Marked Work

This page, for students, encourages you to engage in the feedback you receive from a marker when your work is returned.  Don’t just look at the bottom line, the mark, but understand the comments and feedback and learn from any mistakes.

Revision Skills

Revising for examinations can be a real challenge for many people. Learn and practice some key skills to make your revision time as productive and effective as possible, leaving you better prepared for exams and tests.

Further Reading from Skills You Need

The Skills You Need Guide for Students

Develop the skills you need to make the most of your time as a student.

Our eBooks are ideal for students at all stages of education, school, college and university. They are full of easy-to-follow practical information that will help you to learn more effectively and get better grades.

Other Areas Related to Study

Writing Skills

The writing skills section of SkillsYouNeed includes many other pages that we hope you’ll find useful.

Our pages: Spelling , Grammar and Punctuation for example can help with assignment writing.  You may also find information on our pages: Gender Neutral Writing and Clichés to Avoid useful.

Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal skills are the skills we use every day to interact with others and many are relevant to effective study.

For example see:  Listening Skills , Problem Solving and Decision Making , Questioning and Types of Questions , Verbal Communication and Effective Speaking .

Personal Skills

Our Personal Skills section covers areas of personal development . 

Useful pages for study include:  Building Confidence and Self-Esteem , Tips for Dealing with Stress , Relaxation Techniques , and Self-Motivation .

Start with: Getting Organised to Study

See also: Employability Skills for Graduates How to Systemize Your Study Develop Your Online Learning Skills and Get More from Your Online Classes

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• Study Skills
• Learning Styles

The Seven Learning Styles

( from   www.learning-styles-online.com/overview )

• Visual  – (spatial): You prefer using pictures, images, and spatial understanding.
• Aural  – (auditory-musical):  You prefer using sound and music.
• Verbal  – (linguistic):  You prefer using words, both in speech and writing.
• Physical  – (kinesthetic):  You prefer using your body, hands and sense of touch.
• Logical  – (mathematical):  You prefer using logic, reasoning and systems.
• Social  – (interpersonal):  You prefer to learn in groups or with other people.
• Solitary  – (intrapersonal):  You prefer to work alone and use self-study.

What is your learning style?

• Learning Styles Self-assessment
• Learning Styles Explained

Additional information on learning styles

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This site provides information using PDF, visit this link to download the Adobe Acrobat Reader DC software .

Center for Teaching

Learning styles.

What are Learning Styles?

Why are they so popular.

The term  learning styles is widely used to describe how learners gather, sift through, interpret, organize, come to conclusions about, and “store” information for further use.  As spelled out in VARK (one of the most popular learning styles inventories), these styles are often categorized by sensory approaches:   v isual, a ural, verbal [ r eading/writing], and k inesthetic.  Many of the models that don’t resemble the VARK’s sensory focus are reminiscent of Felder and Silverman’s Index of Learning Styles , with a continuum of descriptors for how learners process and organize information:  active-reflective, sensing-intuitive, verbal-visual, and sequential-global.

There are well over 70 different learning styles schemes (Coffield, 2004), most of which are supported by “a thriving industry devoted to publishing learning-styles tests and guidebooks” and “professional development workshops for teachers and educators” (Pashler, et al., 2009, p. 105).

Despite the variation in categories, the fundamental idea behind learning styles is the same: that each of us has a specific learning style (sometimes called a “preference”), and we learn best when information is presented to us in this style.  For example, visual learners would learn any subject matter best if given graphically or through other kinds of visual images, kinesthetic learners would learn more effectively if they could involve bodily movements in the learning process, and so on.  The message thus given to instructors is that “optimal instruction requires diagnosing individuals’ learning style[s] and tailoring instruction accordingly” (Pashler, et al., 2009, p. 105).

Despite the popularity of learning styles and inventories such as the VARK, it’s important to know that there is no evidence to support the idea that matching activities to one’s learning style improves learning .  It’s not simply a matter of “the absence of evidence doesn’t mean the evidence of absence.”  On the contrary, for years researchers have tried to make this connection through hundreds of studies.

In 2009, Psychological Science in the Public Interest commissioned cognitive psychologists Harold Pashler, Mark McDaniel, Doug Rohrer, and Robert Bjork to evaluate the research on learning styles to determine whether there is credible evidence to support using learning styles in instruction.  They came to a startling but clear conclusion:  “Although the literature on learning styles is enormous,” they “found virtually no evidence” supporting the idea that “instruction is best provided in a format that matches the preference of the learner.”  Many of those studies suffered from weak research design, rendering them far from convincing.  Others with an effective experimental design “found results that flatly contradict the popular” assumptions about learning styles (p. 105). In sum,

“The contrast between the enormous popularity of the learning-styles approach within education and the lack of credible evidence for its utility is, in our opinion, striking and disturbing” (p. 117).

Pashler and his colleagues point to some reasons to explain why learning styles have gained—and kept—such traction, aside from the enormous industry that supports the concept.  First, people like to identify themselves and others by “type.” Such categories help order the social environment and offer quick ways of understanding each other.  Also, this approach appeals to the idea that learners should be recognized as “unique individuals”—or, more precisely, that differences among students should be acknowledged —rather than treated as a number in a crowd or a faceless class of students (p. 107). Carried further, teaching to different learning styles suggests that “ all people have the potential to learn effectively and easily if only instruction is tailored to their individual learning styles ” (p. 107).

There may be another reason why this approach to learning styles is so widely accepted. They very loosely resemble the concept of metacognition , or the process of thinking about one’s thinking.  For instance, having your students describe which study strategies and conditions for their last exam worked for them and which didn’t is likely to improve their studying on the next exam (Tanner, 2012).  Integrating such metacognitive activities into the classroom—unlike learning styles—is supported by a wealth of research (e.g., Askell Williams, Lawson, & Murray-Harvey, 2007; Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000; Butler & Winne, 1995; Isaacson & Fujita, 2006; Nelson & Dunlosky, 1991; Tobias & Everson, 2002).

Importantly, metacognition is focused on planning, monitoring, and evaluating any kind of thinking about thinking and does nothing to connect one’s identity or abilities to any singular approach to knowledge.  (For more information about metacognition, see CFT Assistant Director Cynthia Brame’s “ Thinking about Metacognition ” blog post, and stay tuned for a Teaching Guide on metacognition this spring.)

There is, however, something you can take away from these different approaches to learning—not based on the learner, but instead on the content being learned .  To explore the persistence of the belief in learning styles, CFT Assistant Director Nancy Chick interviewed Dr. Bill Cerbin, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and former Carnegie Scholar with the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.  He points out that the differences identified by the labels “visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and reading/writing” are more appropriately connected to the nature of the discipline:

“There may be evidence that indicates that there are some ways to teach some subjects that are just better than others , despite the learning styles of individuals…. If you’re thinking about teaching sculpture, I’m not sure that long tracts of verbal descriptions of statues or of sculptures would be a particularly effective way for individuals to learn about works of art. Naturally, these are physical objects and you need to take a look at them, you might even need to handle them.” (Cerbin, 2011, 7:45-8:30 )

Pashler and his colleagues agree: “An obvious point is that the optimal instructional method is likely to vary across disciplines” (p. 116). In other words, it makes disciplinary sense to include kinesthetic activities in sculpture and anatomy courses, reading/writing activities in literature and history courses, visual activities in geography and engineering courses, and auditory activities in music, foreign language, and speech courses.  Obvious or not, it aligns teaching and learning with the contours of the subject matter, without limiting the potential abilities of the learners.

• Askell-Williams, H., Lawson, M. & Murray, Harvey, R. (2007). ‘ What happens in my university classes that helps me to learn?’: Teacher education students’ instructional metacognitive knowledge. International Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning , 1. 1-21.
• Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L. & Cocking, R. R., (Eds.). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school (Expanded Edition). Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
• Butler, D. L., & Winne, P. H. (1995) Feedback and self-regulated learning: A theoretical synthesis . Review of Educational Research , 65, 245-281.
• Cerbin, William. (2011). Understanding learning styles: A conversation with Dr. Bill Cerbin .  Interview with Nancy Chick. UW Colleges Virtual Teaching and Learning Center .
• Coffield, F., Moseley, D., Hall, E., & Ecclestone, K. (2004). Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning. A systematic and critical review . London: Learning and Skills Research Centre.
• Isaacson, R. M. & Fujita, F. (2006). Metacognitive knowledge monitoring and self-regulated learning: Academic success and reflections on learning . Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning , 6, 39-55.
• Nelson, T.O. & Dunlosky, J. (1991). The delayed-JOL effect: When delaying your judgments of learning can improve the accuracy of your metacognitive monitoring. Psychological Science , 2, 267-270.
• Pashler, Harold, McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R.  (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence . Psychological Science in the Public Interest . 9.3 103-119.
• Tobias, S., & Everson, H. (2002). Knowing what you know and what you don’t: Further research on metacognitive knowledge monitoring . College Board Report No. 2002-3 . College Board, NY.

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Effective Study Strategies for Your Unique Learning Style

Written by Maria Kampen

• Teaching Strategies

What are good study habits?

Study strategies that work for each learning style.

Ever spent hours re-reading the same textbook page, trying to magically absorb the facts you need to know for tomorrow’s test?

Then you probably know that when it comes to effective study strategies , last-minute cramming doesn’t usually work. But what does?

Whether you’re in middle school, high school or college — or an educator looking to coach your class — there’s no one-size-fits-all method when it comes to preparing for tests.

It’s important to create good study habits and cultivate study skills that work consistently for you and your unique learning style. 

Most popular theories identify seven main learning styles, although many people are a mix of two or more:

• Kinesthetic

No two students learn in the same way, but you can draw connections between how you learn best and which study strategies will be most effective for you.

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Good study habits make studying more effective. After all, the best study strategy is one you’ll actually use!

Finding a dedicated space, time and way to study can help improve your focus and level of understanding. So when you’re studying, try these three methods:

• Find a quiet place where you can focus
• Create a predictable study routine to keep you on track
• Build a plan for each session to help you stay motivated

Good habits are the building blocks of any study strategy. Once you master them, you’ll be well on your way to success! Here’s how you can get started right away:

1. Find a place where you can focus

Whether you’re in a group or studying by yourself, you’re more likely to get better results in a quiet library than a noisy living room.

Dedicated study space can make all the difference when it comes to focusing and using your time wisely.

Remember: noise-free doesn’t always mean distraction-free! No matter where you’re working, make sure it’s a space free of distractions like phones, social media and television.

2. Create a study routine

Most students know last-minute cramming isn’t an effective use of study time. In fact, studies have shown late-night study sessions are linked to a lower GPA .

 When you make study schedules and stick to them, you can:

• Increase your overall study time
• Make each session more productive
• Use study techniques proven to be more effective
• Avoid stressful last-minute cramming before a big test

Instead of studying everything in one big block, break it into smaller sessions over the course of one or two weeks . Also known as distributed practice , it’s proven to be one of the best studying methods for effective learning that lasts.

3. Plan out each study session

Without a study plan, you’re more likely to get distracted, use ineffective study strategies or start procrastinating.

Exercise your time management skills and make a plan for every study session. Ask yourself:

• What materials do I need to review?
• What study strategy am I going to use?
• What do I want to accomplish by the end?

Before you hit the books, gather all your materials. Make mock test questions, set an amount of time to study or find a practice test to fill out . At the end, you’ll feel more accomplished and confident you know your stuff.

Good study habits are universal, but different learning styles absorb information in different ways. 

Visual learners

For visual learners , seeing is believing — or in this case, remembering.

With a strong sense of balance and a preference for visualizing information, visual learners retain information best when it comes with engaging visual features like colors, charts and videos.

For teachers : Help visual learners retain skills with different visual mediums to convey information. Demonstrate concepts on the board or through practical demonstrations, and offer students more opportunities to express ideas visually on assessments or assignments.

Study methods that help visual learners:

• Use highlighters or colored pens to mark different types of information like dates or equations. Different colors can help you keep track of different concepts!
• Whether you’re making concept maps, timelines, charts or outlines, create a visual representation of what you need to know to improve retention. Bonus points if you use fun colors or stationery!
• Instead of focusing on one skill at a time , try working on related questions that don’t use the same problem-solving technique. Studies have shown this helps you find the right kind of strategy to use on a given problem.
• Try forming mental images of text materials in your head . Bringing concepts to life in your imagination can help you remember them better. This works best for material that’s already imagery-friendly like historical narratives or word problems .

Aural learners

Aural learners retain information through auditory aids. Things like lectures, podcasts and music help aural learners remember what they’ve learned.

Lucky for them, there are more ways for students to listen to information than ever! While they’re studying, aural learners should find a quiet spot so they can focus only on the sounds that matter.

For teachers: Lecturing is a tried-and-true strategy, but try assigning podcasts or providing audiobooks for students who prefer to listen instead of read .

Study methods that help aural learners:

• Grab a study buddy you can talk through concepts with, whether it’s a fellow classmate, younger sibling or even the family pet. Put information into your own words to boost recall. 
• A good set of flashcards can help you process information out loud and repeat information that hasn’t been memorized yet. Include mnemonics or rhymes to help ideas stick even more.
• Whether it’s podcasts, audiobooks or recorded lectures , there are plenty of ways for students to absorb information with their ears, not their eyes. Plus, you can do the dishes at the same time!
• Consider recording lectures with the teacher’s permission. Apps like Blinkist and Audible are great ways to digest information without having to pick up a textbook. Plus, text-to-speech software can be the solution to digesting notes or long readings.

Kinesthetic learners

Usually combined with a secondary learning style like visual or aural learning, kinesthetic learners respond best to hands-on demonstrations. They’ve usually got good motor skills, muscle memory and lots of energy.

There are a number of combined visual, aural and kinesthetic learning strategies that can help kinesthetic learners retain information. But above all, they understand best when lessons can be applied to real-world situations.

For teachers: Use hands-on demonstrations and manipulatives to help students master concepts. Don’t forget to give frequent brain breaks to help kinesthetic learners burn off their extra energy!

Study methods for kinesthetic learners

• Study for short periods of time then take a break and walk around. Kinesthetic learners often have lots of excess energy to burn off.
• Move around the room while you study . Whether it’s pacing in circles or working at a standing desk, staying active can help you stay engaged and boost retention.
• Start multitasking , but not with your phone. Keep something around that engages your body while you work, like a stress ball. You can also try bouncing a tennis ball or tapping your pencil.
• Draw out important concepts with a mind map to make physical connections between ideas. Underline your notes or re-write lecture notes in your own words to connect physical actions with information.

Verbal learners

Verbal learners retain information best when using spoken or written materials — but that doesn’t mean they’re all talk and no action!

Talking or writing through problems and participating in class discussions help verbal learners retain information. Verbal learners also prefer to read instructions or debate instead of watching a demonstration at the front of the class.

For teachers: To keep verbal learners engaged, encourage them to read questions and texts out loud for the class, and have frequent class discussions. Presentations are also a great way to give them the chance to ask questions and dive deeper into the topic.

Study methods for verbal learners:

• Use mnemonic devices to aid with memorization. Whether it’s rhymes, acronyms or short stories, these verbal shortcuts can help you remember information more effectively.
• When you’re in class, focus on asking questions and listening carefully. Instead of obsessively taking notes, try recording the lecture and use the recordings to fill in your notes later.
• Gather a study group to go over notes and have discussions that get to the heart of concepts. Like social learners, interpersonal relationships are an important part of a verbal learner’s study methods.
• Read your notes and books out loud . Talk through important concepts with a study buddy or even in the privacy of your own room! Pretend you’re teaching someone else in order to to break tricky concepts down to their simplest parts.

Logical learners

Logical learners learn best when they can find patterns and relationships in their class material.

Also known as mathematical learners, logical learners like puzzles, data and reading to find the “why” behind the “what.” They’re detailed planners and strategists, and are naturally very curious and goal-oriented.

For teachers: Break out brain teasers or math puzzles to keep logical learners engaged during your lessons. Encourage them to dive deep into a problem instead of getting caught up in the facts, and harness their inquisitive nature for project-based learning strategies.

Study methods for logical learners:

• Create different visual tools like maps, diagrams, timelines and graphs to help weave information together and find patterns. 
• Ask questions and push yourself to make sure you actually understand the material and aren’t just memorizing facts. Find the big ideas and reframe them in your own words to help with comprehension.
• Give yourself a fixed schedule and set goals for what you want to review. Consider using the Pomodoro Technique of short, focused periods of work interspersed with quick breaks to maximize your study time.
• Instead of focusing on memorization , work to find patterns across study materials. Apply equations to real-world examples, line up your notes in an order that makes sense to you or break down big ideas into simpler ones.

Social learners

Need a study buddy? Also called interpersonal learners, social learners thrive when working in groups and teams. Things like study groups, tutors and Q&A sessions really help social learners retain information.

Social learners aren’t afraid to ask questions in class. They’re natural leaders who make friends easily. However, they’re not always the best when it comes to staying focused on independent work — so building good study habits is even more essential.

Social learning is often a secondary learning style and pairs with auditory, kinesthetic, visual or logical learning.

For teachers: Service learning or cooperative learning strategies can help social learners connect with others and absorb information. Provide guidelines to help students stay productive and on task as they learn!

Study methods for social learners:

• Find a classmate, tutor or study group to discuss class materials with. Combine forces to make study materials like practice test questions, notes or mind maps together.
• If no one’s around to study with you, revert to your good study habits. Set aside a period of time to study, make goals and a plan, and then discuss what you review once someone is available to help.
• Discuss the material with a friend to help with things like memorization and comprehension. Who knows — you might even find a different perspective or a more imaginative way of remembering things.
• Stay on task and try not to get too social! It’s easy to get distracted by conversations with friends, but work together to set boundaries and make a plan. You’ll be able to get back to the fun stuff in no time!

Solitary learners

Unlike social learners, solitary learners work best when they are alone. A quiet environment and self-made outlines help solitary learners retain information and stay focused.

Also known as intrapersonal learning, it’s another secondary learning style that pairs well with visual, verbal, aural, kinesthetic or logical learning. Solitary learners are usually independent and self-directed, with a heavy tendency towards introversion and introspection.

For teachers: A classroom can be a noisy and chaotic environment, but do your best to make sure solitary learners have a quiet place to work, when possible. They’re often less likely to reach out with questions, so pay extra attention to make sure they’re mastering the material.

Study methods for solitary learners:

• Try journaling about the topic, writing down your own thoughts and explaining definitions or concepts in your own words.
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions from your teachers or peers about anything you don’t understand. After all, they’re there to help you!
• Find a dedicated, quiet space so you can train your brain to focus. While you’re there, set goals and make a plan for studying that works for you.
• Create your own study guides that outline the topics on the test. Review them in the days leading up to the test, and use them to make practice questions.

Find the best study strategy for you

The learning process is unique for every student, and learning styles exist on a spectrum.

Whether you’re a verbal, auditory, visual, kinesthetic, logical, social or solitary learner — or even something else entirely — there are three important things to remember before you sit down and hit the books:

• Make good study habits a priority, and build them into your schedule.
• Pick the learning strategies that work best for you , not someone else.
• Don’t be afraid to try new study methods in your quest to find the right one.

You’ve got this!

Prodigy Math Game is an adaptive and engaging math platform that adjusts to every student's learning style as they play. Audio features, virtual manipulatives and a game-based learning environment offer something for every type of learner. Sign up today for your free teacher account!

Learning Styles and Study Skills: How do They Relate?

October 9, 2023  Lamarr Mitchell

Did you know learning how to study effectively is a skill and needs to be practiced? Every student relies on a set of different techniques while studying. To discover the study techniques that will work best for you, it’s helpful to first understand your learning style.

Three of the more common types of learning styles are: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Visual learners prefer to look at material. Auditory learners prefer to listen to someone tell them the information. Kinesthetic learners prefer to physically interact with the material. Understanding your learning style is useful because you can tailor your study skills to your learning style. For example, if you’re an auditory learner, you might prefer to memorize material by creating a mnemonic or by listening to an audio recording of the material. If you’re a visual learner, you might prefer to write out the material or use flash cards to memorize it.

You can take a short 5-minute quiz to discover your learning style here: Learning Style Quiz | Get started

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The 7 main types of learning styles (and how to teach to them), share this article.

Understanding the 7 main types of learning styles and how to teach them will help both your students and your courses be more successful.

When it comes to learning something new, we all absorb information at different rates and understand it differently too. Some students get new concepts right away; others need to sit and ponder for some time before they can arrive at similar conclusions.

Why? The answer lies in the type of learning styles different students feel more comfortable with. In other words, we respond to information in different ways depending on how it is presented to us.

Clearly, different types of learning styles exist, and there are lots of debates in pedagogy about what they are and how to adapt to them.

For practical purposes, it’s recommended to ensure that your course or presentation covers the 7 main types of learning.

In this article, we’ll break down the 7 types of learning styles, and give practical tips for how you can improve your own teaching styles , whether it’s in higher education or an online course you plan to create on the side.

Skip ahead:

What are the 7 types of learning styles?

How to accommodate different types of learning styles online.

• How to help students understand their different types of learning styles

How to create an online course for all

In the academic literature, the most common model for the types of learning you can find is referred to as VARK.

VARK is an acronym that stands for Visual, Auditory, Reading & Writing, and Kinesthetic. While these learning methods are the most recognized, there are people that do not fit into these boxes and prefer to learn differently. So we’re adding three more learning types to our list, including Logical, Social, and Solitary.

Visual learners

Visual learners are individuals that learn more through images, diagrams, charts, graphs, presentations, and anything that illustrates ideas. These people often doodle and make all kinds of visual notes of their own as it helps them retain information better. 

When teaching visual learners, the goal isn’t just to incorporate images and infographics into your lesson. It’s about helping them visualize the relationships between different pieces of data or information as they learn. 

Gamified lessons are a great way to teach visual learners as they’re interactive and aesthetically appealing. You should also give handouts, create presentations, and search for useful infographics to support your lessons.

Since visual information can be pretty dense, give your students enough time to absorb all the new knowledge and make their own connections between visual clues.

Auditory/aural learners

The auditory style of learning is quite the opposite of the visual one. Auditory learners are people that absorb information better when it is presented in audio format (i.e. the lessons are spoken). This type of learner prefers to learn by listening and might not take any notes at all. They also ask questions often or repeat what they have just heard aloud to remember it better.

Aural learners are often not afraid of speaking up and are great at explaining themselves. When teaching auditory learners, keep in mind that they shouldn’t stay quiet for long periods of time. So plan a few activities where you can exchange ideas or ask questions. Watching videos or listening to audio during class will also help with retaining new information.

Reading and writing (or verbal) learners

Reading & Writing learners absorb information best when they use words, whether they’re reading or writing them. To verbal learners, written words are more powerful and granular than images or spoken words, so they’re excellent at writing essays, articles, books, etc. 

To support the way reading-writing students learn best, ensure they have time to take ample notes and allocate extra time for reading. This type of learner also does really well at remote learning, on their own schedule. Including reading materials and writing assignments in their homework should also yield good results.

Kinesthetic/tactile learners

Kinesthetic learners use different senses to absorb information. They prefer to learn by doing or experiencing what they’re being taught. These types of learners are tactile and need to live through experiences to truly understand something new. This makes it a bit challenging to prepare for them in a regular class setting. 

As you try to teach tactile learners, note that they can’t sit still for long and need more frequent breaks than others. You need to get them moving and come up with activities that reinforce the information that was just covered in class. Acting out different roles is great; games are excellent; even collaborative writing on a whiteboard should work fine. If applicable, you can also organize hands-on laboratory sessions, immersions, and workshops.

In general, try to bring every abstract idea into the real world to help kinesthetic learners succeed.

Logical/analytical learners 

As the name implies, logical learners rely on logic to process information and understand a particular subject. They search for causes and patterns to create a connection between different kinds of information. Many times, these connections are not obvious to people to learn differently, but they make perfect sense to logical learners. 

Logical learners generally do well with facts, statistics, sequential lists, and problem-solving tasks to mention a few. 

As a teacher, you can engage logical learners by asking open-ended or obscure questions that require them to apply their own interpretation. You should also use teaching material that helps them hone their problem-solving skills and encourages them to form conclusions based on facts and critical thinking. 

Social/interpersonal learners 

Social or interpersonal learners love socializing with others and working in groups so they learn best during lessons that require them to interact with their peers . Think study groups, peer discussions, and class quizzes. 

To effectively teach interpersonal learners, you’ll need to make teamwork a core part of your lessons. Encourage student interaction by asking questions and sharing stories. You can also incorporate group activities and role-playing into your lessons, and divide the students into study groups.  

Solitary/intrapersonal learners 

Solitary learning is the opposite of social learning. Solitary, or solo, learners prefer to study alone without interacting with other people. These learners are quite good at motivating themselves and doing individual work. In contrast, they generally don’t do well with teamwork or group discussions.

To help students like this, you should encourage activities that require individual work, such as journaling, which allows them to reflect on themselves and improve their skills. You should also acknowledge your students’ individual accomplishments and help them refine their problem-solving skills. 

Are there any unique intelligence types commonly shared by your students? Adapting to these different types of intelligence can help you can design a course best suited to help your students succeed.

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How to help students understand their different types of learning styles 

Unless you’re teaching preschoolers, most students probably already realize the type of learning style that fits them best. But some students do get it wrong.

The key here is to observe every student carefully and plan your content for different learning styles right from the start.

Another idea is to implement as much individual learning as you can and then customize that learning for each student. So you can have visual auditory activities, riddles for logical learners, games for kinesthetic learners, reading activities, writing tasks, drawing challenges, and more.

When you’re creating your first course online, it’s important to dedicate enough time to planning out its structure. Don’t just think that a successful course consists of five uploaded videos.

Think about how you present the new knowledge. Where it makes sense to pause and give students the time to reflect. Where to include activities to review the new material. Adapting to the different learning types that people exhibit can help you design an online course best suited to help your students succeed.

That being said, here are some tips to help you tailor your course to each learning style, or at least create enough balance. 

Visual learners 

Since visual learners like to see or observe images, diagrams, demonstrations, etc., to understand a topic, here’s how you can create a course for them: 

• Include graphics, cartoons, or illustrations of concepts 
• Use flashcards to review course material 
• Use flow charts or maps to organize materials 
• Highlight and color code notes to organize materials 
• Use color-coded tables to compare and contrast elements 
• Use a whiteboard to explain important information
• Have students play around with different font styles and sizes to improve readability 

Auditory learners prefer to absorb information by listening to spoken words, so they do well when teachers give spoken instructions and lessons. Here’s how to cater to this learning type through your online course: 

• Converse with your students about the subject or topic 
• Ask your students questions after each lesson and have them answer you (through the spoken word)
• Have them record lectures and review them with you 
• Have articles, essays, and comprehension passages out to them
• As you teach, explain your methods, questions, and answers 
• Ask for oral summaries of the course material 
• If you teach math or any other math-related course, use a talking calculator 
• Create an audio file that your students can listen to
• Create a video of you teaching your lesson to your student
• Include a YouTube video or podcast episode for your students to listen to
• Organize a live Q & A session where students can talk to you and other learners to help them better understand the subject

Reading and writing (or verbal) learners 

This one is pretty straightforward. Verbal learners learn best when they read or write (or both), so here are some practical ways to include that in your online course:

• Have your students write summaries about the lesson 
• If you teach language or literature, assign them stories and essays that they’d have to read out loud to understand
• If your course is video-based, add transcripts to aid your students’ learning process
• Make lists of important parts of your lesson to help your students memorize them
• Provide downloadable notes and checklists that your students can review after they’ve finished each chapter of your course
• Encourage extra reading by including links to a post on your blog or another website in the course
• Use some type of body movement or rhythm, such as snapping your fingers, mouthing, or pacing, while reciting the material your students should learn

Since kinesthetic learners like to experience hands-on what they learn with their senses — holding, touching, hearing, and doing. So instead of churning out instructions and expecting to follow, do these instead: 

• Encourage them to experiment with textured paper, and different sizes of pencils, pens, and crayons to jot down information
• If you teach diction or language, give them words that they should incorporate into their daily conversations with other people
• Encourage students to dramatize or act out lesson concepts to understand them better 

Logical learners are great at recognizing patterns, analyzing information, and solving problems. So in your online course, you need to structure your lessons to help them hone these abilities. Here are some things you can do:

• Come up with tasks that require them to solve problems. This is easy if you teach math or a math-related course
• Create charts and graphs that your students need to interpret to fully grasp the lesson
• Ask open-ended questions that require critical thinking 
• Create a mystery for your students to solve with clues that require logical thinking or math
• Pose an issue/topic to your students and ask them to address it from multiple perspectives

Since social learners prefer to discuss or interact with others, you should set up your course to include group activities. Here’s how you can do that:

• Encourage them to discuss the course concept with their classmates
• Get your students involved in forum discussions
• Create a platform (via Slack, Discord, etc.) for group discussions
• Pair two or more social students to teach each other the course material
• If you’re offering a cohort-based course , you can encourage students to make their own presentations and explain them to the rest of the class

Solitary learners prefer to learn alone. So when designing your course, you need to take that into consideration and provide these learners a means to work by themselves. Here are some things you can try: 

• Encourage them to do assignments by themselves
• Break down big projects into smaller ones to help them manage time efficiently
• Give them activities that require them to do research on their own
• When they’re faced with problems regarding the topic, let them try to work around it on their own. But let them know that they are welcome to ask you for help if they need to
• Encourage them to speak up when you ask them questions as it builds their communication skills 
• Explore blended learning , if possible, by combining teacher-led classes with self-guided assignments and extra ideas that students can explore on their own.

Now that you’re ready to teach something to everyone, you might be wondering what you actually need to do to create your online courses. Well, start with a platform.

Thinkific is an intuitive and easy-to-use platform any instructor can use to create online courses that would resonate with all types of learning styles. Include videos, audio, presentations, quizzes, and assignments in your curriculum. Guide courses in real-time or pre-record information in advance. It’s your choice.

In addition, creating a course on Thinkific doesn’t require you to know any programming. You can use a professionally designed template and customize it with a drag-and-drop editor to get exactly the course you want in just a few hours. Try it yourself to see how easy it can be.

This blog was originally published in August 2017, it has since been updated in March 2023. 

Althea Storm is a B2B SaaS writer who specializes in creating data-driven content that drives traffic and increases conversions for businesses. She has worked with top companies like AdEspresso, HubSpot, Aura, and Thinkific. When she's not writing web content, she's curled up in a chair reading a crime thriller or solving a Rubik's cube.

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7 types of learning styles and how you can to teach them

We all absorb and retain information in different ways. Some people learn faster and more efficiently when content includes visuals like charts, photos, or videos. Others prefer to read and write to retain information. Course creators that know the different types of learning styles can use them to improve student experiences and outcomes. If you know your students and the ways they learn, you can adapt your teaching styles to suit them better.

Creating courses with learning and teaching styles in mind will set you and your students up for success. We’ll go over each learning method and how to identify them. Plus, we’ll provide examples and tips on how to create courses, coaching, and other educational products for each learning style.

What are learning styles?

Learning styles are the methods that people use to understand and remember information. By identifying your students’ learning styles, you can create course materials that suit their preferences.

There is some debate over how many types of learning exist. Most agree that there are four to seven learning styles. We’ll go over each in detail below.

It’s also important to note that one person can have multiple styles. These are known as multimodal learners. They retain information and may thrive using more than one learning style.

The seven types of learning

New Zealand educator Neil Fleming developed the VARK model in 1987. It’s one of the most common methods to identify learning styles. Fleming proposed four primary learning preferences—visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic. The first letter of each spells out the acronym (VARK).

We’ll go over the VARK learning styles and three others that researchers and educators have identified below.

1. Visual learning

When you create a course curriculum , consider how many and what type of visuals to include. A 2019 study claims that around 65% of people are visual learners . In other words, visual learners make up the majority of the population. You’ll likely have several in your courses, so keep that in mind when creating materials for it.

To learn best, visual learners need graphs, illustrations, diagrams, videos, and other visuals. You can also teach visual learners better by incorporating these into your lessons.

• Infographics
• Illustrations
• Photographs
• Flashcards with images
• Virtual whiteboards

Using all of these visuals at once will overwhelm your students. Instead, identify opportunities to display information as a visual and choose the best method for it.

Video courses are the best way to help visual learners. If you’re new to recording videos, you can take a course or watch a tutorial on making high-quality videos for your courses. You can also design and voiceover slideshows.

Visual learners also read and write like other students but may add images to notes, highlight sentences, or draw graphs. It can be helpful to provide them with downloadable versions of course materials so that they can take notes. If you use Teachable, you can easily add digital downloads to your website and courses.

Teachable creator Lauren Hom’s lettering course combines visual and other types of learning styles. Course lessons include videos, live drawing practice, and printable workbooks.

2. Auditory learning

In the same study, researchers found that around 30% of people are auditory learners. Auditory learners like to listen to absorb information. Auditory learners may listen to lectures, podcasts, music, and videos.

They also tend to read their notes aloud to help them understand and retain information or listen to music to study.

You can cater to auditory learners by:

• Using music and songs to remember information
• Providing audio versions of notes
• Encouraging discussions of learning materials

In addition to adjusting your teaching methods to different types of learners, you should also consider the subject.

For example, if you teach guitar online , it will naturally have an audio element. However, you may combine the sounds of different guitar strings with images and videos of them. When you combine different teaching methods, you can cater to multiple learning styles.

3. Reading and writing

Learners who prefer reading and writing thrive with traditional textbooks, handouts, and written assignments. Reading and writing learners are similar to visual learners because they like to see the information on a page.

To teach reading and writing learners, try to present information in one of these forms:

• Written instructions
• Written assignments

You could also consider creating an ebook to supplement your course material. So if you have a video course, add transcripts to your lessons so students can read along and take notes.

4. Kinesthetic

The kinesthetic learning style is learning by doing. And people who are kinesthetic learners learn better when they’re physically moving and getting hands-on experience.

Kinesthetic learners prefer playing games or doing puzzles as part of the learning process. They tend to enjoy problem-solving and trying new activities to build skills.

Many people associate kinesthetic learning with physical activities and in-person learning environments. However, you can still cater to kinesthetic learners when you create an online course .

For example, many developer courses include coding challenges, hackathons, and other activities where students learn by doing.

Here are some ideas to help you teach kinesthetic learners:

• Schedule short breaks for live courses longer than 30 minutes.
• Add real-life assignments. For example, a course about plants may add a practical element where students transplant and care for a houseplant.
• Create project briefs based on real-life scenarios, so students can practice.
• Add physical activity. Some online courses—meditation, yoga, and fitness—will naturally be more interactive.

If you want to add a more physical element, you can also include printables and supplies. Another option is to send materials to students in the mail.

There are many ways to teach kinesthetic learners. One example is the Hands-on Kids Activities Club (HOKA), a membership club for teachers. Every month, teachers get downloadable printables and other resources to create hands-on learning experiences. In one bundle, students learn about an artist and do an art project in that artist’s style.

5. Verbal or linguistic learning

Verbal learners or linguistic learners retain information best by hearing and envisioning words. You may also hear this called verbal-linguistic learning. Similar to an auditory learner, a verbal learner speaks aloud to memorize information better. They tend to be avid readers and may be talented storytellers or poets.

Any of these can help a verbal learner:

• Presentations
• Flashcards with words
• Word games and puzzles

This type of learning is also common in language courses. If you teach students how to speak Spanish, English, French, or another language, verbal learning will come in handy. They’ll want to hear how you pronounce words and practice speaking them on their own.

6. Social or interpersonal learning

Some students learn better alone and others learn better while in groups. Social, also called interpersonal, learners thrive in group discussions and group coaching.

They enjoy speaking in front of groups and asking questions. A social learner will like to give and receive feedback from other students and bounce ideas off others.

Interpersonal learners prefer these types of activities:

• Group discussions and activities
• Public speaking—presenting their work
• Working with a partner
• Studying flashcards with a partner
• Team-building exercises

7. Solitary or intrapersonal learning

Solitary learners prefer to learn on their own rather than with groups of peers. The word intrapersonal is similar to introvert—they can feel drained from social activities.

These students don’t enjoy group work and would rather get a list of items to study and work independently. Instead of getting ideas and feedback from other students, solitary learners are more introspective. They can get lost in their work and are more hesitant to ask for feedback or ideas from others.

Here are some ideas to help teach solitary learners:

• Ask questions to build trust and learn more about them.
• Give them space to work independently.
• Explain the why behind projects. Solitary learners focus on the future and outcomes, so they like to know the importance of learning different concepts.

Solitary learners are self-starters, so they usually have the determination to complete a course. Even though they prefer learning independently, learning from others has many benefits too.

Sometimes getting a solitary learner to open up more, ask for feedback, and challenge themselves can improve their learning. You could also offer solitary learners coaching or feedback sessions with you to help them develop their learning in a one-on-one environment.

How to identify student learning styles

Most adults have a sense of their preferred learning style. You can ask students or coaching clients which methods they prefer via an intake form when they sign up for your courses or coaching.

To identify learning styles, you can:

• Include an intake form on your sign-up pages
• Ask new students about their preferred learning styles directly
• Observe your students throughout the course
• Use assessments to help students figure out the learning style they like best

You can also use an online quiz like the VARK questionnaire to understand new students better. Another option is to create your own assessment and tailor it to your teaching style and course topic. Some sample questions you can use to create a quiz or questionnaire to identify learning styles are:

• Do you prefer to work alone or in groups?
• Would diagrams and illustrations make it easier to understand a concept?
• Is it easier to remember something in words or images?
• To understand how a machine works, would you take the machine apart yourself?
• Do you remember facts and figures more by hearing them spoken or reading them?

Let students know this is the kind of quiz with no wrong answer. You’ll use the answers to understand what type of learning style they prefer and tailor your teaching to better suit them.

Note that this type of questionnaire works best with coaching or online courses that use cohorts with specific start dates. You can use it to fine-tune your course curriculum for each cohort or personalize coaching sessions.

How to teach different types of learning

As you plan your course, think about how you can accommodate each learning style. For example, auditory learners usually thrive on discussion. On the other hand, learners who prefer to read and write might struggle with group discussions or debates. Discussions can be harder for them because they like to write their thoughts down first before speaking.

To accommodate different types of learning styles, provide several options. In the example above, you could give your students a discussion prompt ahead of time. Reading and writing learners can write talking points down before and auditory learners get the benefits of learning through discussion.

The ui.dev online courses are perfect examples of how to consider different types of learning. Looking at their React coding course, you can see that they provide lessons in two forms—video and text. This way visual, auditory, and reading and writing learners can refer to the materials that they understand best. It also includes kinesthetic learning with practice coding activities and projects where students build real-world applications.

Share your knowledge online

No two students are exactly alike—a learning style that works for some students might not work for others. You can still offer your students or clients a meaningful learning experience.

Identifying how your students learn best helps you teach them in ways that will be the most successful. It also shows them that you care about their learning experience and outcomes. So by considering all the different learning styles, you’ll create an online course that appeals to a larger pool of people.

If you’re ready to share your knowledge with all types of learning styles, you can easily create a course on Teachable . And then you can create online courses, coaching services, and even digital downloads. To get started, sign up for free or choose from one of the paid plans .

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What are the 7 different learning styles and do they work?

July 1, 2021

You may have heard of the idea that we all respond best to different ways of learning. The seven learning styles is a theory that suggests people learn best in different ways. All the supposed styles tailor towards an individual strength, thought to help a person retain information more effectively. They all focus on one of the five senses or have a social aspect involved. This theory enjoyed significant popularity for a time as it was thought that by finding an individual learner's style and tailoring teaching to it that their efficiency could be improved. The 7 styles of the theory are as follows: Visual Kinaesthetic Aural Social Solitary Verbal Logical However, more recent studies have debunked this theory as an ineffective way of teaching and highlighted it as a ‘neuromyth’. This Guardian article states, ‘Such neuromyths create a false impression of individuals’ abilities, leading to expectations and excuses that are detrimental to learning in general, which is a cost in the long term.’ In other words, attempting to put learners into boxes and trying to only give them material that matches their "style" isn't going to make them retain information any better. Most people benefit from a range of teaching techniques, and utilising different learning methods can actually improve learners' adaptability. Nevertheless, it's certainly true that there are a variety of learning methods which people respond to. So, just for fun, we've produced 7 different explanations of the 7 styles, each using techniques that learners of that style should supposedly find the most useful. Have a look through each one: do you find them all equally engaging? Is there one (or more) that prefer above the others? Maybe you have your own learning techniques that aren't even covered by any of the "learning styles"! Or perhaps you find one style more useful for this exercise, but when learning German verbs or mathematical formulae you know you prefer another? How effectively we learn isn't just affected by the medium, but the content too. While the 7 styles theory isn't going to give you your one definitive style, you might still pick up a few useful techniques for the next time you have to do a spot of revising!   

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You may have heard of the idea that we all respond best to different styles of learning. That is exactly what the seven learning styles theory supports. All of the styles capture an individual strength that likely helps a person retain information more effectively. They each focus on one of the five senses or involve a social aspect. This theory is popular because, by finding an individual learner’s style and tailoring teaching to it, it was thought their efficiency could be improved. The 7 styles of the theory are:

• kinaesthetic

However, more recent studies have debunked this theory as an effective way of teaching and highlighted it as a neuromyth. This Guardian article says, ‘Such neuromyths create a false impression of individuals’ abilities, leading to expectations and excuses that are detrimental to learning in general, which is a cost in the long term.’

In other words, attempting to put learners into boxes and trying to only give them material that matches their “style” isn’t going to make them retain information any better. Most people benefit from a range of teaching techniques, and utilising different learning methods can actually improve learners’ adaptability.

Nevertheless, it’s certainly true that there are a variety of learning methods people respond to. So, just for fun, we’ve produced 7 different explanations of the 7 styles, each using techniques that learners of that style should find most useful.

Have a look through each one, and ask yourself: do you find them all equally engaging? Is there one (or more) that you prefer above the others? Maybe you have your own learning techniques that aren’t covered by any of the learning styles. Or perhaps you find one style more useful for this exercise, but when learning German verbs or mathematical formulae you know you prefer another? How effectively we learn isn’t just affected by the medium, but the content too.

While the 7 styles theory isn’t going to give you your one definitive style, you might still pick up a few useful techniques.

Visual or spatial learners supposedly retain information best by viewing pictures or images and respond well to colours and mind maps. These logos represent the main aspect of each learning style. Do you like to learn by remembering symbols and images?

Fill in the form to view a free, full sized, printable version.

Kinaesthetic

According to the theory, kinaesthetic learners are all about doing things physically. Role playing, using things like flashcards or carrying out the action physically can help them learn things better. Print and build this seven-sided die to see whether a hands-on approach could help you retain information.

Aural or auditory-musical learners should retain the most information after hearing it. Click below to listen to this recital of the different learning styles: do you tune out or find yourself remembering more than if you read the transcript?

Fill in the form to download and listen to the aural learning style.

Social, or interpersonal learners are meant to work best when they participate in study activities with other people such as quizzing each other or having a study group. Print and use these Top Trumps style cards with a group of friends.

Solitary, or intrapersonal learners supposedly work best alone. Making notes and reciting them back are useful activities when studying by yourself. Most of us will have to do some solitary revision at some point in our lives, so download and complete this worksheet to see if it works for you.

Verbal, or linguistic learners are supposed to respond well to written or spoken words, using tools like rhymes and acronyms. Download and complete this worksheet to figure out if these could be techniques that work for you.

Logical, or mathematical learners use logic and structures in order to learn effectively. If you’re good with numbers and statistics, you might find the logical style in this essay helpful. Have a read below:

What are the 7 Different Learning Styles?

Learning styles is the theory that learners can be categorised depending on how they take in information. Therefore, teaching students according to their specific learning styles will result in improved learning. While there is no concrete evidence to support the success of these learning styles, a 2012 study revealed that 93% of teachers in the UK agree that students learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style.

These learning styles derived from Howard Gardner’s 1960s theory of Multiple Intelligences. This theory states that: “we are all able to know the world through language, logical-mathematical analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, the use of the body to solve problems or to make things, an understanding of other individuals, and an understanding of ourselves.” This essay plans to outline the seven different learning styles while categorising them into three main categories: personal, sensory and informational. It will then recommend study methods for each type of learner.

1. Personal Learning Styles

The personal category links learning styles which depend on other persons to be present or absent. These are different from other learning styles which focus on how the learner takes in information, instead they depend greatly on the learners’ surroundings and whether they are studying with or without people. These types of styles split into Interpersonal learners or intrapersonal learners.

1.1 Interpersonal Learners

Interpersonal learners work best in groups and social elements help improve their concentration. Debates, group study and interactions are the best methods. Interestingly, while they work best in groups, they also have the most empathy when it comes to others. “Interpersonal intelligence builds on a core capacity to notice distinctions among others – in particular, contrasts in their moods, temperaments, motivations and intentions.”

1.2 Intrapersonal Learners

Intrapersonal learners are also known as solitary learners. Unlike interpersonal learners they work best when studying alone. They are known to be interested in philosophy, psychology and theology because of their proficiency in self-reflection.

“They’re in tune with their inner feelings; they have wisdom, intuition and motivation, as well as a strong will, confidence and opinions,” said a 2008 study on bridging educational divides. Unsurprisingly, these are the most independent learners from all the seven styles. Recommended study methods for intrapersonal learners include keeping a journal and finding a personal interest in the topics being studied.

2. Sensory Learning Styles

The sensory category links learning styles which use the senses. These are split into spatial/visual learners, auditory-musical learners and kinaesthetic learners. According to various studies of the sensory learning styles, roughly 65 percent of the population are visual learners, 30 percent are auditory learners and 5 percent are kinaesthetic learners. However, many students show traits of multiple learning styles.

2.1 Spatial Learners

Spatial learners are visualisers, which is why they’re also known as ‘visual learners’. As educational writer Stacy Mantle describes , these types of learners are good at working with colours and pictures and using the “mind’s eye.” Visual learners use spatial understanding; thus Gardner discusses that their problem solving is useful for navigation and map reading. This type of learning is also helpful for visualising an object from different angles and in playing chess.

2.2 Auditory-Musical Learners

Auditory-musical learners take in information through their sensitivity to rhythm and sound.  They have the capacity to discern pitch, rhythm, timbre, and tone . “Good or bad, their response to any music they hear is immediate, and they tend to be more in tune with nature sounds, and the sounds of their environment than their counterparts,” said Gilam in a study about multiple kinds of intelligence . The best methods for auditory-musical learners are to study with music in the background or to turn their notes into rhymes.

2.3 Kinaesthetic Learners

Kinaesthetic learners take in information through the use of their body and touch. Obvious kinaesthetic learners include dancers or surgeons. For these physical learners, a hands-on education and carrying out the activity themselves is more effective than listening to an explanation. According to Mantle, many of these kinaesthetic learners are often misdiagnosed as having Attention Deficit Hyper Activity Disorder, usually because they often have more energy than other types of learners.

3. Informational Learning Styles

The last category for the learning styles is informational, which refers simply to how the brain parses information, many in form of language or data. These learning styles do not depend on the senses or the learner’s social surroundings. Informational learners can be split into linguistic learners or mathematical learners.

3.1 Linguistic Learners

Linguistic learners, which are also known as verbal learners, work best with words. Whether information is spoken or written, these learners memorise information through language use. Gardner states “the linguistic intelligence is activated when individuals encounter the sounds of a language or when they wish to communicate something verbally to another person.” However, this learning style doesn’t correlate exclusively with the spoken word. For example, deaf people could demonstrate linguistic intelligence through the use of signs, according to Gardner.

For linguistic learners, recommended approaches include reading writing and telling stories. So taking notes while reading is a successful method of study.

3.2 Mathematical Learners

As the name implies, mathematical learners work best using numbers, structures and reasoning, this is why they are also referred to as logical learners. According to Mantle, these learners make the best engineers and work by categorising and classifying abstract patterns or relationships. Gardner notes a similarity between mathematical and musical learners, because both are drawn to structural patterns, which can often exist in music.

To summarise, despite the lack of substantial evidence supporting the success of these learning styles, they remain widely popular and are still used in schools throughout the country. According to this Wired article “Parents, understandably, like to think that their children are receiving a tailored education. Teachers, also understandably, like to think that they are sensitive to each child’s needs and many are clearly motivated to find out more about how to fulfil this ideal.” However, while there is still value in tailoring teaching methods based on the content and intended audience, attempting to strictly organise individuals into specific styles is not likely to be helpful, and could even prevent them from developing more rounded learning skills.

Jarrett goes on to describe how “learning is improved (for most everyone) by combining different activities – such as drawing alongside more passive study.” While it is not as useful as once thought for categorising learners, the 7 learning styles theory may still be of some use in making both teachers and learners alike aware of a greater variety of learning techniques and methods.

Our courses are designed to embed these fundamental learning styles so that our learners can cover the curriculum in a way that suits them. You can find our CIPD courses here, where you can request a brochure or start online today.

CIPD Level 3 HR Courses : The CIPD Level 3 Certificate in People Practice is ideal for anyone looking to start a career in either HR or Learning and Development. CIPD Level 5 HR Courses : The CIPD Level 5 Associate Diploma in People Management will help you build on your existing HR knowledge. CIPD Level 5 L&D Courses : The CIPD Level 5 Diploma in Organisational Learning and Development is the most comprehensive course available for L&D professionals, ideal for you if you want to formalise your existing experience, skills and knowledge. CIPD Level 7 HR Courses : The CIPD Level 7 Advanced Diploma is aimed at expanding learners’ autonomy so they can strategically direct organisations and their people.

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Did you find any of these techniques helpful? You probably don’t fit neatly into one “style” in the way people used to think, but we hope this has helped you to figure out some of your preferred learning methods so you can plan for future study sessions!

You may have heard of the idea that we all respond best to different ways of learning. The seven learning styles is a theory that suggests people learn best in different ways. All the supposed styles tailor towards an individual strength, thought to help a person retain information more effectively. They all focus on one of the five senses or have a social aspect involved. This theory enjoyed significant popularity for a time as it was thought that by finding an individual learner’s style and tailoring teaching to it that their efficiency could be improved. The 7 styles of the theory are as follows: Visual Kinaesthetic Aural Social Solitary Verbal Logical However, more recent studies have debunked this theory as an ineffective way of teaching and highlighted it as a ‘neuromyth’. This Guardian article states, ‘Such neuromyths create a false impression of individuals’ abilities, leading to expectations and excuses that are detrimental to learning in general, which is a cost in the long term.’ In other words, attempting to put learners into boxes and trying to only give them material that matches their “style” isn’t going to make them retain information any better. Most people benefit from a range of teaching techniques, and utilising different learning methods can actually improve learners’ adaptability. Nevertheless, it’s certainly true that there are a variety of learning methods which people respond to. So, just for fun, we’ve produced 7 different explanations of the 7 styles, each using techniques that learners of that style should supposedly find the most useful. Have a look through each one: do you find them all equally engaging? Is there one (or more) that prefer above the others? Maybe you have your own learning techniques that aren’t even covered by any of the “learning styles”! Or perhaps you find one style more useful for this exercise, but when learning German verbs or mathematical formulae you know you prefer another? How effectively we learn isn’t just affected by the medium, but the content too. While the 7 styles theory isn’t going to give you your one definitive style, you might still pick up a few useful techniques for the next time you have to do a spot of revising!   

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Global Cognition

5 study skills to accelerate your learning.

by Winston Sieck updated September 18, 2021

Here are 5 study skills that will turbo charge your learning. Whether you need study skills to succeed in school or help learn on the job, these are the best to use.

So much to learn.

Will it ever end?

Nope. You will be learning for the rest of your life. School is simply a kick starter. No matter what path you take in life after school, learning will be part of it.

Yet, the forever journey to develop your talents doesn’t have to be nerve-racking or unpleasant. Comfort comes from knowing that you have the competence to quickly ramp up on new topics and grasp them deeply.

Whatever else you are learning in school, you also need to practice study skills that will make you a competent learner.

Don’t think that study skills are just about how to do well in school. A solid base of study skills and study tips is even more useful after you leave school, when you continue learning on your own.

Fortunately, cognitive and educational psychologists have been conducting painstaking scientific research on study skills and strategies for ages. There is currently a wealth of good science about what study skills work and what methods don’t.

John Dunlosky of Kent State University and his collaborators reviewed a large collection of research related to ten different study skills. Their paper on improving students’ learning was published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest . Dunlosky found that about half of the study skills did not work very well. Current research suggests that the other half are effective.

Here are the 5 study skills that Dunlosky and team found to be the most effective:

• Elaborative interrogation: Answering why a fact is true
• Self-explanation: Explaining what a section of text or an example problem means to you
• Practice testing: Testing yourself on the material you are trying to learn
• Distributed practice : Spreading your studying out over several sessions
• Interleaved practice : Mixing different kinds of problems together when studying

Best Study Skills #1: Elaborative interrogation (Asking “Why”)

A great way to learn is to ask yourself questions. Little kids know this intuitively, as they run around asking “Why, why, why?” A great deal of research has proven that the kids are on to something. Getting students to answer questions, such as “Why is this fact true?” aids learning.

The main reason asking “why” questions seems to work is that it encourages you to integrate the new fact with things you already know. Doing so improves your memory for the new fact by giving you more “hooks” to find it. Research also suggests that some ways of questioning yourself work better than others .

Best Study Skills #2: Self-Explanation

The idea behind self-explanation as a reading strategy is to pause from reading your textbook periodically and explain to yourself what it means to you. You can do this after a section of text, or when studying an example problem. When trying to self-explain, you may find that you need to look back over parts of the text to fully understand what’s being said.

Professor Micki Chi offers a nice account of why self-explanation works. Her ideas were published as a chapter in the book, Advances in Instructional Psychology . The idea is that self-explaining encourages you to make inferences based on what you are reading. You don’t just summarize the text, but say a little more than what was in it. As you try to explain, you also identify problems and so revise your explanation. These serve to enrich and repair your understanding.

Best Study Skills #3: Practice testing

The main idea behind practice testing is that actively testing your memory improves learning far more than passively reviewing material. Tests are not just for evaluation anymore.

Testing improves learning by exercising memory retrieval. When you answer a test question, you have to actively search your long-term memory. Doing so creates more and better pathways to the answer. This makes the answer easier to find the next time around. Scientists sometimes call it, “retrieval practice.”

Practice testing is easy to do. You can make flash cards or answer questions from your textbook. You can often find free practice tests online. Make sure you can get the correct answers. Practice testing works best when you can find out whether got the answers right or wrong.

Best Study Skills #4: Distributed Practice

You have a test coming up, oh say, tomorrow. You haven’t studied at all. Should you cram for it? Sure. And, good luck.

For the next time, you’d really do better to space your studying out over the time you have. Do a little at a time over several study sessions. That’s the idea behind distributed practice.

One reason distributed practice aids learning is that you have to re-start your memory for the topic during each study session. Once your memory for the topic is warmed up and moving, doing more is fairly easy. Like a car coasting downhill, it’s too easy. Stopping and starting is harder on your memory. That’s good (unlike the car), because it strengthens your memory.

Distributed practice seems to work regardless of how you go about studying. Yet, you can do best by combining it with practice testing. Don’t be mad at your instructor for giving you lots of quizzes. They give you a double dose of good learning. Try (and try again) to get in the habit of doing it yourself!

Best Study Skills #5: Interleaved Practice

When studying math, you need to learn a few different kinds of formulas. For example, you learn one equation to compute the area of a circle. You learn another to figure out the perimeter. The idea behind interleaved practice is that you are better off mixing some area problems with some perimeter problems when you study.

The reason this works is that you need to learn a bit more than how to apply each formula. You also need to learn when to use one formula and when to use another. When you see a new problem, you first have to figure out what kind of problem it is. By interleaving the problems during your study sessions, you give yourself practice at telling the problems apart.

Based on the research to date, these five study skills all work quite well. The team who reviewed the research recommended a couple of these 5 study skills more strongly than the others. The main reason is that the team would like to see even more research to answer a few additional questions. It’s not that the researchers know for sure that some of these study skills work X% better than others. I mention this because some summaries of the paper may give that wrong impression.

Each of these study skills is also fairly easy to use. Your skills will be more effective with training and practice , but there is no need to wait.

The best way to begin is to start trying them out. Pick one and experiment with it. Get it down. Then, revisit the list and pick another.

Master these 5 study skills. Each will lighten your learning load.

And put a spring in your step, on the long learning road ahead of you.

Image Credit: Intel Free Press

Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K., Marsh, E., Nathan, M., & Willingham, D. (2013). Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14 (1), 4-58 DOI: 10.1177/1529100612453266

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About Winston Sieck

Dr. Winston Sieck is a cognitive psychologist working to advance the development of thinking skills. He is founder and president of Global Cognition, and director of Thinker Academy .

Reader Interactions

May 9, 2013 at 12:02 am

After discussing all different types of learning capabilities, are these the exact ways to increase your knowledge to help you learn more? We actually discussed everything about learning in my psychology class and after taking a whole different perspective on how to train your brain this actually makes sense. This is a great example of observational learning, learning through behaviors of others or other things. In the future I will use this for studying and see how it really does work!

May 9, 2013 at 2:47 pm

Sounds like you’ve been learning a lot about learning lately, Brenden. Thanks for the comments. These five study skills can help you, so do encourage you to give them a try.

February 20, 2014 at 3:03 am

very enlightening

March 7, 2014 at 6:16 pm

i want some study to relate elaborative interrogation strategy with metamemory to low scholastic achievement in fifth grade primary school

March 9, 2014 at 4:21 pm

This paper by Wood and colleagues might be your best bet: Effectiveness of Elaboration Strategies for Grade School Children as a Function of Academic Achievement . Look for it on Google Scholar.

March 5, 2015 at 10:17 am

very good material,but I did not understand what is ”Distributed Practice” skill.Can u please explain about this skill.

March 7, 2015 at 5:21 am

Try to study a little bit each day, or a little every few days. Spreading out your practice like this works better than trying to cram a lot in every once in a while. So, you are distributing or “spacing out” your practice sessions over time.

June 18, 2015 at 10:22 am

hi, i am from Vietnam. i like this article. i am doing a project concerning Study skill subject but i dont know many research or essay about this topic. can you suggest some reference of skill for me? some essay found have not author so it is difficult. thank you

June 30, 2015 at 8:37 am

You might try searching on “self-regulated learning” rather than study skills. This article on self-regulated learning strategies may help, and it has a link to one of the classics on the topic.

July 23, 2015 at 8:14 am

actually, I don’t understand what you guys are saying.

July 23, 2015 at 10:52 pm

Hi Humphrey, you might check out this other post for some more background Study Skills: What are They and How Do I Get Them?

September 2, 2015 at 12:11 am

Nice article. I am the author of The Middle School Student’s Guide to Study Skills. One of our mottos is: “Test yourself before the teacher tests you.”

May 25, 2017 at 7:32 pm

Thats a really cool piece of advice! I can’t wait to tell my daughter that one! Thanks.

September 18, 2015 at 1:11 pm

Learning and memory go hand and hand. In order to remember something you must store it away in your brain. You can access memory in three different ways; recall, recognition, and relearning. The 5 study skills that Dunlosky and team found to be the most effective: elaborative interrogation: answering why a fact is true, self-explanation: explaining what a section of text or an example problem means to you, practice testing: testing yourself on the material you are trying to learn, distributed practice: spreading your studying out over several sessions, and interleaved practice: mixing different kinds of problems together when studying. All of these examples are ways to store memory or more specifically working and explicit memory. The 5 different types of study habits all exercise your ability to recall, recognition, and relearning. Using mnemonic and chunking skills. The 5 study skills agree with what we have learned in chapters 6 and 7 in regards to most effective study habits. This article is helpful in explaining how to get the most out of studying and which methods are going to give you the best results. I don’t believe most people are aware that some types of studying are better than others. Using these methods can greatly improve grades and work situations.

January 26, 2018 at 2:26 pm

Very helpful to the learners indeed!

January 26, 2018 at 7:17 pm

Glad you found it helpful, Brian. Thanks for stopping by!

July 18, 2018 at 1:26 pm

I see great light in the five steps mentioned. Possibly i have found the solution to recalling things fast; especially in exams situation. Thanks

August 6, 2018 at 3:24 pm

I really like your advice to try and take practice tests whenever you can, that way you can better recall any information that you study for. My son has been trying to perform better in school, but he is struggling with coming up with the right way to remember everything that he studies for. I will be sure to tell him that he should try and take practice tests so he can better recall any information that he needs.

August 6, 2018 at 9:40 pm

Yep, I remind my kids about that one all the time. Thanks for stopping by, Mark.

December 27, 2018 at 6:15 am

Wonderful Tips. I extremely like your recommendation to attempt and take practice tests. One of the most basic things that we need to understand about our kids is that each and every child has a different learning capacity and different learning style. My child has been attempting to perform better in school, however, he is battling with concocting the correct method to recall everything that he thinks about for. I will make sure to disclose to him that She should attempt and take practice tests so She can score well in exams.

January 18, 2019 at 10:46 am

Thanks for your comment Yommi. Agree with the value of practice tests. These are all good strategies, regardless of a student’s learning preferences .

February 18, 2019 at 12:25 am

Very good job sir. This information is very helpful for students to prepare exam. Thanks for sharing.

April 24, 2019 at 9:44 am

I teach study skills in Mass Communication but this appears useful in all study areas. Thanks for this useful tips.

September 19, 2019 at 7:05 pm

I have read what you write about the study techniques and i always use the first technique in my study and even my life. I like this website is very helpful i learned the first skill( Elaborative interrogation). That I have to ask why that makes me improve my memory and that great because unfortunately I have a short memory.

April 11, 2020 at 3:27 pm

Interesting information, thank you! I have been using self-explanation for a long time since I have been consciously learning something. I didn’t think it was a tactic, but it really works. When the material is too difficult and incomprehensible I try to explain myself in other words as well as create associations. And in this way, I can better memorize the material, and I can also remember it in exams, and most importantly, I can explain it in my own words by giving examples – it is very appreciated by the teachers. I will definitely try other techniques. I have three years left to go to university, but it’s never too late to improve, right?

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McKinsey technology trends outlook 2024

Despite challenging overall market conditions in 2023, continuing investments in frontier technologies promise substantial future growth in enterprise adoption. Generative AI (gen AI) has been a standout trend since 2022, with the extraordinary uptick in interest and investment in this technology unlocking innovative possibilities across interconnected trends such as robotics and immersive reality. While the macroeconomic environment with elevated interest rates has affected equity capital investment and hiring, underlying indicators—including optimism, innovation, and longer-term talent needs—reflect a positive long-term trajectory in the 15 technology trends we analyzed.

What’s new in this year’s analysis

This year, we reflected the shifts in the technology landscape with two changes on the list of trends: digital trust and cybersecurity (integrating what we had previously described as Web3 and trust architectures) and the future of robotics. Robotics technologies’ synergy with AI is paving the way for groundbreaking innovations and operational shifts across the economic and workforce landscapes. We also deployed a survey to measure adoption levels across trends.

These are among the findings in the latest McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook, in which the McKinsey Technology Council  identified the most significant technology trends unfolding today. This research is intended to help executives plan ahead by developing an understanding of potential use cases, sources of value, adoption drivers, and the critical skills needed to bring these opportunities to fruition.

Our analysis examines quantitative measures of interest, innovation, investment, and talent to gauge the momentum of each trend. Recognizing the long-term nature and interdependence of these trends, we also delve into the underlying technologies, uncertainties, and questions surrounding each trend. (For more about new developments in our research, please see the sidebar “What’s new in this year’s analysis”; for more about the research itself, please see the sidebar “Research methodology.”)

New and notable

The two trends that stood out in 2023 were gen AI and electrification and renewables. Gen AI has seen a spike of almost 700 percent in Google searches from 2022 to 2023, along with a notable jump in job postings and investments. The pace of technology innovation has been remarkable. Over the course of 2023 and 2024, the size of the prompts that large language models (LLMs) can process, known as “context windows,” spiked from 100,000 to two million tokens. This is roughly the difference between adding one research paper to a model prompt and adding about 20 novels to it. And the modalities that gen AI can process have continued to increase, from text summarization and image generation to advanced capabilities in video, images, audio, and text. This has catalyzed a surge in investments and innovation aimed at advancing more powerful and efficient computing systems. The large foundation models that power generative AI, such as LLMs, are being integrated into various enterprise software tools and are also being employed for diverse purposes such as powering customer-facing chatbots, generating ad campaigns, accelerating drug discovery, and more. We expect this expansion to continue, pushing the boundaries of AI capabilities. Senior leaders’ awareness of gen AI innovation has increased interest, investment, and innovation in AI technologies, such as robotics, which is a new addition to our trends analysis this year. Advancements in AI are ushering in a new era of more capable robots, spurring greater innovation and a wider range of deployments.

Research methodology

To assess the development of each technology trend, our team collected data on five tangible measures of activity: search engine queries, news publications, patents, research publications, and investment. For each measure, we used a defined set of data sources to find occurrences of keywords associated with each of the 15 trends, screened those occurrences for valid mentions of activity, and indexed the resulting numbers of mentions on a 0–1 scoring scale that is relative to the trends studied. The innovation score combines the patents and research scores; the interest score combines the news and search scores. (While we recognize that an interest score can be inflated by deliberate efforts to stimulate news and search activity, we believe that each score fairly reflects the extent of discussion and debate about a given trend.) Investment measures the flows of funding from the capital markets into companies linked with the trend.

Data sources for the scores include the following:

• Patents. Data on patent filings are sourced from Google Patents, where the data highlight the number of granted patents.
• Research. Data on research publications are sourced from Lens.
• News. Data on news publications are sourced from Factiva.
• Searches. Data on search engine queries are sourced from Google Trends.
• Investment. Data on private-market and public-market capital raises (venture capital and corporate and strategic M&A, including joint ventures), private equity (including buyouts and private investment in public equity), and public investments (including IPOs) are sourced from PitchBook.
• Talent demand. Number of job postings is sourced from McKinsey’s proprietary Organizational Data Platform, which stores licensed, de-identified data on professional profiles and job postings. Data are drawn primarily from English-speaking countries.

In addition, we updated the selection and definition of trends from last year’s report to reflect the evolution of technology trends:

• The future of robotics trend was added since last year’s publication.
• Data sources and keywords were updated. For data on the future of space technologies investments, we used research from McKinsey’s Aerospace & Defense Practice.

Finally, we used survey data to calculate the enterprise-wide adoption scores for each trend:

• Survey scope. The survey included approximately 1,000 respondents from 50 countries.
• Geographical coverage. Survey representation was balanced across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America.
• Company size. Size categories, based on annual revenue, included small companies ($10 million to $50 million), medium-size companies ($50 million to $1 billion), and large companies (greater than $1 billion).
• Respondent profile. The survey was targeted to senior-level professionals knowledgeable in technology, who reported their perception of the extent to which their organizations were using the technologies.
• Survey method. The survey was conducted online to enhance reach and accessibility.
• Question types. The survey employed multiple-choice and open-ended questions for comprehensive insights.
• 1: Frontier innovation. This technology is still nascent, with few organizations investing in or applying it. It is largely untested and unproven in a business context.
• 2: Experimentation. Organizations are testing the functionality and viability of the technology with a small-scale prototype, typically done without a strong focus on a near-term ROI. Few companies are scaling or have fully scaled the technology.
• 3: Piloting. Organizations are implementing the technology for the first few business use cases. It may be used in pilot projects or limited deployments to test its feasibility and effectiveness.
• 4: Scaling. Organizations are in the process of scaling the deployment and adoption of the technology across the enterprise. The technology is being scaled by a significant number of companies.
• 5: Fully scaled. Organizations have fully deployed and integrated the technology across the enterprise. It has become the standard and is being used at a large scale as companies have recognized the value and benefits of the technology.

Electrification and renewables was the other trend that bucked the economic headwinds, posting the highest investment and interest scores among all the trends we evaluated. Job postings for this sector also showed a modest increase.

Although many trends faced declines in investment and hiring in 2023, the long-term outlook remains positive. This optimism is supported by the continued longer-term growth in job postings for the analyzed trends (up 8 percent from 2021 to 2023) and enterprises’ continued innovation and heightened interest in harnessing these technologies, particularly for future growth.

Future frontiers: Navigating the next wave of tech innovations

Join Lareina Yee and Roger Roberts on Tuesday, July 30, at 12:30 p.m. EDT/6:30 p.m. CET as they discuss the future of these technological trends, the factors that will fuel their growth, and strategies for investing in them through 2024 and beyond.

In 2023, technology equity investments fell by 30 to 40 percent to approximately $570 billion due to rising financing costs and a cautious near-term growth outlook, prompting investors to favor technologies with strong revenue and margin potential. This approach aligns with the strategic perspective leading companies are adopting, in which they recognize that fully adopting and scaling cutting-edge technologies is a long-term endeavor. This recognition is evident when companies diversify their investments across a portfolio of several technologies, selectively intensifying their focus on areas most likely to push technological boundaries forward. While many technologies have maintained cautious investment profiles over the past year, gen AI saw a sevenfold increase in investments, driven by substantial advancements in text, image, and video generation.

About QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey

QuantumBlack, McKinsey’s AI arm, helps companies transform using the power of technology, technical expertise, and industry experts. With thousands of practitioners at QuantumBlack (data engineers, data scientists, product managers, designers, and software engineers) and McKinsey (industry and domain experts), we are working to solve the world’s most important AI challenges. QuantumBlack Labs is our center of technology development and client innovation, which has been driving cutting-edge advancements and developments in AI through locations across the globe.

Despite an overall downturn in private equity investment, the pace of innovation has not slowed. Innovation has accelerated in the three trends that are part of the “AI revolution” group: gen AI, applied AI, and industrializing machine learning. Gen AI creates new content from unstructured data (such as text and images), applied AI leverages machine learning models for analytical and predictive tasks, and industrializing machine learning accelerates and derisks the development of machine learning solutions. Applied AI and industrializing machine learning, boosted by the widening interest in gen AI, have seen the most significant uptick in innovation, reflected in the surge in publications and patents from 2022 to 2023. Meanwhile, electrification and renewable-energy technologies continue to capture high interest, reflected in news mentions and web searches. Their popularity is fueled by a surge in global renewable capacity, their crucial roles in global decarbonization efforts, and heightened energy security needs amid geopolitical tensions and energy crises.

The talent environment largely echoed the investment picture in tech trends in 2023. The technology sector faced significant layoffs, particularly among large technology companies, with job postings related to the tech trends we studied declining by 26 percent—a steeper drop than the 17 percent decrease in global job postings overall. The greater decline in demand for tech-trends-related talent may have been fueled by technology companies’ cost reduction efforts amid decreasing revenue growth projections. Despite this reduction, the trends with robust investment and innovation, such as gen AI, not only maintained but also increased their job postings, reflecting a strong demand for new and advanced skills. Electrification and renewables was the other trend that saw positive job growth, partially due to public sector support for infrastructure spending.

Even with the short-term vicissitudes in talent demand, our analysis of 4.3 million job postings across our 15 tech trends underscored a wide skills gap. Compared with the global average, fewer than half the number of potential candidates have the high-demand tech skills specified in job postings. Despite the year-on-year decreases for job postings in many trends from 2022 to 2023, the number of tech-related job postings in 2023 still represented an 8 percent increase from 2021, suggesting the potential for longer-term growth (Exhibit 1).

Enterprise technology adoption momentum

The trajectory of enterprise technology adoption is often described as an S-curve that traces the following pattern: technical innovation and exploration, experimenting with the technology, initial pilots in the business, scaling the impact throughout the business, and eventual fully scaled adoption (Exhibit 2). This pattern is evident in this year’s survey analysis of enterprise adoption conducted across our 15 technologies. Adoption levels vary across different industries and company sizes, as does the perceived progress toward adoption.

Image description:

A graph depicts the adoption curve of technology trends, scored from 1 to 5, where 1 represents frontier innovation, located at the bottom left corner of the curve; 2 is experimenting, located slightly above frontier innovation; 3 is piloting, which follows the upward trajectory of the curve; 4 is scaling, marked by a vertical ascent as adoption increases; and 5 is fully scaled, positioned at the top of the curve, indicating near-complete adoption.

In 2023, the trends are positioned along the adoption curve as follows: future of space technologies and quantum technologies are at the frontier innovation stage; climate technologies beyond electrification and renewables, future of bioengineering, future of mobility, future of robotics, and immersive-reality technologies are at the experimenting stage; digital trust and cybersecurity, electrification and renewables, industrializing machine learning, and next-gen software development are at the piloting stage; and advanced connectivity, applied AI, cloud and edge computing, and generative AI are at the scaling stage.

Footnote: Trend is more relevant to certain industries, resulting in lower overall adoption across industries compared with adoption within relevant industries.

Source: McKinsey technology adoption survey data

End of image description.

We see that the technologies in the S-curve’s early stages of innovation and experimenting are either on the leading edge of progress, such as quantum technologies and robotics, or are more relevant to a specific set of industries, such as bioengineering and space. Factors that could affect the adoption of these technologies include high costs, specialized applications, and balancing the breadth of technology investments against focusing on a select few that may offer substantial first-mover advantages.

As technologies gain traction and move beyond experimenting, adoption rates start accelerating, and companies invest more in piloting and scaling. We see this shift in a number of trends, such as next-generation software development and electrification. Gen AI’s rapid advancement leads among trends analyzed, about a quarter of respondents self-reporting that they are scaling its use. More mature technologies, like cloud and edge computing and advanced connectivity, continued their rapid pace of adoption, serving as enablers for the adoption of other emerging technologies as well (Exhibit 3).

A segmented bar graph shows the adoption levels of tech trends in 2023 as a percentage of respondents. The trends are divided into 5 segments, comprising 100%: fully scaled, scaling, piloting, experimenting, and not investing. The trends are arranged based on the combined percentage sum of fully scaled and scaling shares. Listed from highest to lowest, these combined percentages are as follows:

• cloud and edge computing at 48%
• advanced connectivity at 37%
• generative AI at 36%
• applied AI at 35%
• next-generation software development at 31%
• digital trust and cybersecurity at 30%
• electrification and renewables at 28%
• industrializing machine learning at 27%
• future of mobility at 21%
• climate technologies beyond electrification and renewables at 20%
• immersive-reality technologies at 19%
• future of bioengineering at 18%
• future of robotics at 18%
• quantum technologies at 15%
• future of space technologies at 15%

The process of scaling technology adoption also requires a conducive external ecosystem where user trust and readiness, business model economics, regulatory environments, and talent availability play crucial roles. Since these ecosystem factors vary by geography and industry, we see different adoption scenarios playing out. For instance, while the leading banks in Latin America are on par with their North American counterparts in deploying gen AI use cases, the adoption of robotics in manufacturing sectors varies significantly due to differing labor costs affecting the business case for automation.

As executives navigate these complexities, they should align their long-term technology adoption strategies with both their internal capacities and the external ecosystem conditions to ensure the successful integration of new technologies into their business models. Executives should monitor ecosystem conditions that can affect their prioritized use cases to make decisions about the appropriate investment levels while navigating uncertainties and budgetary constraints on the way to full adoption (see the “Adoption developments across the globe” sections within each trend or particular use cases therein that executives should monitor). Across the board, leaders who take a long-term view—building up their talent, testing and learning where impact can be found, and reimagining the businesses for the future—can potentially break out ahead of the pack.

Lareina Yee is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Bay Area office, where Michael Chui  is a McKinsey Global Institute partner, Roger Roberts  is a partner, and Mena Issler is an associate partner.

The authors wish to thank the following McKinsey colleagues for their contributions to this research: Aakanksha Srinivasan, Ahsan Saeed, Alex Arutyunyants, Alex Singla, Alex Zhang, Alizee Acket-Goemaere, An Yan, Anass Bensrhir, Andrea Del Miglio, Andreas Breiter, Ani Kelkar, Anna Massey, Anna Orthofer, Arjit Mehta, Arjita Bhan, Asaf Somekh, Begum Ortaoglu, Benjamin Braverman, Bharat Bahl, Bharath Aiyer, Bhargs Srivathsan, Brian Constantine, Brooke Stokes, Bryan Richardson, Carlo Giovine, Celine Crenshaw, Daniel Herde, Daniel Wallance, David Harvey, Delphine Zurkiya, Diego Hernandez Diaz, Douglas Merrill, Elisa Becker-Foss, Emma Parry, Eric Hazan, Erika Stanzl, Everett Santana, Giacomo Gatto, Grace W Chen, Hamza Khan, Harshit Jain, Helen Wu, Henning Soller, Ian de Bode, Jackson Pentz, Jeffrey Caso, Jesse Klempner, Jim Boehm, Joshua Katz, Julia Perry, Julian Sevillano, Justin Greis, Kersten Heineke, Kitti Lakner, Kristen Jennings, Liz Grennan, Luke Thomas, Maria Pogosyan, Mark Patel, Martin Harrysson, Martin Wrulich, Martina Gschwendtner, Massimo Mazza, Matej Macak, Matt Higginson, Matt Linderman, Matteo Cutrera, Mellen Masea, Michiel Nivard, Mike Westover, Musa Bilal, Nicolas Bellemans, Noah Furlonge-Walker, Obi Ezekoye, Paolo Spranzi, Pepe Cafferata, Robin Riedel, Ryan Brukardt, Samuel Musmanno, Santiago Comella-Dorda, Sebastian Mayer, Shakeel Kalidas, Sharmila Bhide, Stephen Xu, Tanmay Bhatnagar, Thomas Hundertmark, Tinan Goli, Tom Brennan, Tom Levin-Reid, Tony Hansen, Vinayak HV, Yaron Haviv, Yvonne Ferrier, and Zina Cole.

They also wish to thank the external members of the McKinsey Technology Council for their insights and perspectives, including Ajay Agrawal, Azeem Azhar, Ben Lorica, Benedict Evans, John Martinis, and Jordan Jacobs.

Special thanks to McKinsey Global Publishing colleagues Barr Seitz, Diane Rice, Kanika Punwani, Katie Shearer, LaShon Malone, Mary Gayen, Nayomi Chibana, Richard Johnson, Stephen Landau, and Victor Cuevas for making this interactive come alive.

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