Whatever you do, know who you are.

Neil Fleming and Charles Bonwell developed the VARK learning style inventory system. As a Student Success professor at a community college, I am always trying to find new ways that students can realize their skills and talents and then figure out how to best use them.The VARK system is broken up into 4 different intake preferences: Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic.

The textbook I use, though, takes it even a bit further and includes an inventory for the students’ time of day preference, social learning preference, and also task management preference.

The time of day preference includes the categories of morning, afternoon, and night. The social learning preference includes individual, mentor, and peer and the task management preferences are broken up into two categories: spontaneous/creative and logical/analytical.

I find it so important to go through all of these preferences because many of us (even those who are way beyond a college degree) continue to live our life as though we don’t know our own learning styles or preferences.

So, if for example, I scored exclusively: Morning, Kinesthetic, Mentor, and Logical/Analytical, it wouldn’t make much sense for me to study by myself on a whim at night.  These are things that many of my students have never paid attention to before. I love that this section of the textbook is the very first item that we cover in the course because I think that it affects every single daily task that we complete.

Not only when I create curriculum, but when I create training programs, consulting sessions, and complete my day-to-day tasks, I try to be more and more aware of how I scored in each category.

If you’d like to take the assessment yourself, I have found an online questionnaire that will help you figure out which VARK learning style you identify with.

I guarantee that once you realize your learning styles, it will help you–whether you’re reading a gardening magazine or playing with your kids, writing a research paper or watching a movie.

For more information on educational and training programs offered, please contact me.