Personal Learning Styles
VARK test identified my learning preferences as mild kinesthetic, which means that I tend to rely on practical exercises, experiences, and examples. The test also provided the score for my visual, aural, reading, and writing learning preferences, giving 9 points each. I received the highest score for kinesthetic learning style. Such results may indicate that I rely on various learning styles and utilize a wide range of learning strategies. However, practical experiences or case studies are most preferred. Moreover, kinesthetic learning implies that action is the best instrument, which contributes to understanding and memorizing information (Annual et al., 2017). It may be necessary to implement diverse exercises and tasks to achieve maximum learning efficiency. Test results also suggest that I can learn effectively through trial and error. Hence, it may be beneficial to focus on using mistakes as learning opportunities. Overall, it may be optimal to utilize my learning style by introducing visual and aural information and reinforcing knowledge with practical work.
Preferred Learning Strategies
My preferred learning strategy is using concrete examples to understand the subject better. In many cases, finding examples or introducing my examples related to the studied topic is my favorite method. Concrete examples may significantly contribute to a deeper understanding of the subject in general and, more importantly, its practical implementation. Furthermore, I believe that analogy is an essential tool that may allow viewing the same issue from a new perspective. Such an approach may be used to accumulate comprehensive knowledge. I believe that my preferred learning strategy correlates with my learning styles strongly. Kinesthetic learning requires practical exercises and experiences, which may be fulfilled by studying concrete examples.
Identifying Individual Learning Styles
Individual learning styles may influence a number of significant learning experiences, including the ability to understand and perform educational activities. Therefore, it may be vital to identify individual learning styles and preferences to introduce an appropriate teaching approach. There are seven distinct learning styles, which include visual, auditory, kinesthetic, social, solitary, verbal, and logical learning. Each style requires an appropriate approach to achieve maximum efficiency. For example, visual learners who lack auditory skills should be provided with printed information rather than audio data. It may be highly beneficial to introduce a unified approach that utilizes several learning strategies at once and addresses all learning styles. However, the issue is much more complicated than it seems to be (Kirschner, 2017). It is also critical to develop underrepresented learning styles. In some cases, teaching the student to receive information from a particular source is more important than the information itself. It may be necessary to identify individual learning styles not only to implement corresponding learning strategies but also to promote the development of other learning styles. The comprehensive ability to perceive various types of information is an inseparable part of effective learning.
Learning Styles and Health Promotion
As already mentioned identifying learning styles is essential in terms of any learning process regardless of the subject. Therefore, it may be beneficial to determine learning preferences to introduce effective health promotion programs. Health promotion efficiency is closely linked with the quality and quantity of provided information. In most cases, it is essential to introduce comprehensive knowledge regarding health issues to promote a healthy lifestyle. However, it is also important to utilize appropriate learning strategies to achieve that goal.
The VARK framework implies there are four main learning styles. The acronym stands for visual, aural, reading, and kinesthetic styles used to accumulate data (Roni, 2020). Each of these styles requires a specific approach in terms of health promotion. It may be beneficial to introduce informative charts and graphs as well as utilize various visual devices to promote a healthy lifestyle to visual learners. Auditory learners may benefit from visiting various lectures or listening to the radio. The kinesthetic approach may represent the most effective way of health promotion as it is highly practical. Reading and writing learners should be provided with text-based information that may encourage them to overview their attitudes towards health.
Behavioral Change
Behavioral change may be an inseparable part of the learning process. As the person accumulates information, life values are overthought, and principles transform. Hence the process of constant learning may cause multiple significant behavioral changes throughout life (Langer, 2018). As the process of learning is closely linked with behavior patterns, learning styles play a considerable role in changing these patterns. Moreover, learning styles may influence behavior changes as they provoke certain activities and preferences. For example, kinesthetic learners may be more active than others because experience is the primary source of knowledge. Aural learners may develop particular behavioral patterns related to listening to music or podcasts. Learning styles do not only impact behavioral changes but also may serve as an instrument to adjust these changes. As already mentioned, information plays a critical role in the development of life values and principles, which influence behavior. Hence, by utilizing appropriate learning strategies, it may be possible to encourage certain behaviors with relatively high efficiency.
References
Annual, N., Samat, M. F., Karim, Z. H., & Hashim, N. (2017). Learning Styles and Academic Achievement Among University Students. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Economic Education and Entrepreneurship. Web.
Kirschner, P. A. (2017). Stop propagating the learning styles myth. Computers & Education, 106, 166–171.
Langer, A. M. (2018). Information technology and organizational learning: managing behavioral change in the digital age. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group.
Roni, R. A. (2020). VARK-Based Blended Learning Support System: An Introduction.