learning styles

Learning styles are different ways that a person can learn. Most people favor some particular method of interacting with, taking in, and processing stimuli or information. Psychologists have proposed several complementary taxonomies of learning styles.

Visual, Aural, Kinesthetic (VAK and VARK)

Although the theorists may disagree on the vocabulary to describe the four basic types of learning style, the following are representative categories:

visual (learn by seeing)
aural or audial (learn by hearing)
reading/writing (learn by processing text) (This category is not always listed.)
kinesthetic or practical (learn by doing).

Multi-modal learners are people who have more than one strong learning style.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a popular survey based on four sets of preferences:

Extroverted/Introverted
INtuitive/Sensing
Thinking/Feeling
Judging/Perceiving.

Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner's work indicated the existence of multiple intelligences that people (and animals) use, frequently with some abilities dominant. Gardner's intelligences are:

Verbal/Linguistic
Logical/Mathematical
Musical
Spatial
Bodily/Kinesthetic
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Naturalist
Existentialist.

Other Styles

The DiSC assessment (Carlson Learning) and the Kolb Learning Inventory (David A. Kolb) are other models of learning styles.

Assessments

Learning styles can be determined using tools like social psychologist David A. Kolb's Learning Styles Inventory (1974, 1985) or Neil Fleming's VARK Learning Style Test, among others.