Learning How To Learn
Learning Objectives
Identify the stages of the learning process;
Define learning styles, and identify your preferred learning style(s);
Define multimodal learning;
Describe how you might apply your preferred learning strategies to classroom scenarios.
THE LEARNING PROCESS
“The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot.”
— Audre Lorde, writer and civil rights activist
Stages of the Learning Process
Consider experiences you have had with learning something new, such as learning to tie your shoes or drive a car. You probably began by showing interest in the process and after some struggling it became second nature. These experiences were all part of the learning process, which Lumen Learning, https://bit.ly/lumenlearningprocess, describes in four stages:
Stage 1: Unconscious incompetence: Remove assumptions, you do not know what you don’t know yet. During this stage, a learner mainly shows interest in something or prepares for learning. For example, if you wanted to learn how to dance, you might find an instructional video, talk to an instructor, or sign up for class.
Stage 2: Conscious incompetence: You begin to register how much you need to learn—you know what you do not know. Think about the saying, “It’s easier said than done.” In Stage 1 the learner only has to discuss or show interest in a new experience, but in Stage 2, they begin to apply new skills that contribute to reaching the learning goal. In the dance example above, you would now be learning basic dance steps. Successful completion of this stage relies on practice.
Stage 3: Conscious competence: You are beginning to master some parts of the learning goal and building on prior knowledge about what you do know. For example, you might now be able to complete basic dance steps with few mistakes and without your instructor reminding you how to do them. Stage 3 requires skill repetition.
Stage 4: Unconscious competence: This is the final stage in which learners have successfully practiced and repeated the process they learned so many times, they can do it almost without thinking. At this point in your dancing, you might be able to apply your dance skills to a freestyle dance routine you create yourself. However, to feel you are a “master” of a particular skill by the time you reach Stage 4, you still need to practice constantly and reevaluate which stage you are in so you can keep learning.
For example, if you now felt confident in basic dance skills and could perform your own dance routine, perhaps you would want to explore other kinds of dance, such as tango or swing. That would return you to Stage 1 or 2, but you might progress through the stages more quickly this time on account of the dance skills you acquired earlier.
Consider Kyle, who was excited to take a beginning Spanish class to prepare for a semester abroad in Spain. Before his first vocabulary quiz, he reviewed his notes many times. Kyle took the quiz, but when he got the results, he was surprised to discover he had earned a B-, despite having studied so much.
Kyle’s professor suggested he experiment with different ways of studying. For example, in addition to studying his written notes, he might listen to an audio recording of the vocabulary words.
IDENTIFYING LEARNING STYLES
Many of us, like Kyle, are accustomed to learning styles as a result of our industrialized educational training as Kindergarten through High School students (in the US). For instance, we can all remember listening to a teacher talk, and copying notes off the board or other styles of presentations. However, when it comes to learning, one size does not fit all.
People have different learning styles and preferences, and these can vary from subject to subject. From the previous example, while Kyle might prefer listening to recordings to help him learn Spanish, he might prefer hands-on activities like lab exercises or demonstrations to master the concepts in his biology course.
Learning styles are also called learning modalities. Walter Burke Barbe and his colleagues proposed three learning modalities: Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic (often identified by the acronym VAK):
Visual learners learn by seeing pictures (either with their eyes or being able to visualize pictures in their minds), shapes, sculptures and paintings;
Auditory learners listen, are aided by rhythms, tones and chants or by repeating sounds or reading aloud;
Kinesthetic learners learn through gestures, body movements, object manipulation and positioning.
Neil Fleming’s VARK model expanded on Barbe’s modalities described above and added “Read/Write Learning” as a fourth. The four sensory modalities in Fleming’s VARK model are:
Visual learning describes a preference for seeing (visual aids that represent ideas using methods other than words, such as graphs, charts, diagrams, symbols, etc.);
Auditory learning would be best served through listening (lectures, discussions, cd’s/audio recordings, etc.);
Read/write learning is described as a preference for written words (readings, dictionaries, reference works, research, etc.); and
Kinesthetic learning would be when one prefers to learn through experience—moving, touching, and doing (active exploration of the world, science projects, experiments, etc.).
In the college setting, you will probably discover instructors teach their course materials according to the method they think will be most effective for all students. Thus, regardless of your individual learning preference, you will probably be asked to engage in all types of learning formats. For instance, even though you may consider yourself to be primarily a “visual learner,” you will still probably have to write papers in some of your classes. Research suggests that it is good for the brain to learn in new ways and that learning in different modalities can help learners become more well-rounded. Consider the following statistics on how much content students actually absorb, and are able to recall at a later time, through different learning methods:
10% of content they read;
20% of content they hear;
30% of content they visualize;
50% of what they both visualize and hear;
70% of what they say; and
90% of what they say and do.
The range of these results underscores the importance of mixing up the ways in which you study and engage with learning materials.
Your Turn: Activity
IDENTIFYING YOUR LEARNING STYLES
Objective:
Define learning styles, and recognize your preferred learning style(s).
Directions:
Take the VARK Questionnaire, www.bit.ly/C20_VARK;
Review the types of learning preferences;
Identify three different classes and describe what types of activities you typically do in these classes. Which learning style(s) do these activities relate to?
Describe what you think your preferred learning style(s) is/are. How do you know?
Explain how you could apply your preferred learning style(s) to studying;
What might your preferred learning style(s) tell you about your interests?
Consider which subjects and eventual careers you might like.
Multimodal Learning
While completing the learning-styles activity, you might have discovered you prefer more than one learning style. Applying more than one learning style is known as multimodal learning. This strategy is useful not only for students who prefer to combine learning styles but also for those who may not know which learning style works best for them. It is also a good way to mix things up and keep learning fun.
Consider how you might combine visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning styles to a biology class. For visual learning, you could create flash cards containing images of individual animals and the species name. For auditory learning, you could have a friend quiz you on the flash cards. For kinesthetic learning, you could move the flash cards around on a board to show a relationship among the different concepts you are learning.
Video
This video introduces the VARK learning modalities and helps you to discover your own learning style(s) and optimize your approach to studying, https://bit.ly/learningwithvark
The next activity can help you extend and apply what you’ve learned about multimodal learning to current classes and studying.
Your Turn: Activity
APPLY LEARNING STYLES TO YOUR CLASSES
Objectives:
Define multimodal learning;
Apply your preferred learning styles to classroom scenarios.
Directions:
Review the three main learning styles and the definition of multimodal learning;
Identify a class you are currently taking that requires studying;
Describe how you could study for this class using visual, auditory, and kinesthetic/tactile learning skills.
N.B.: The Student Success Library item was customized for Santa Monica College (SMC) in Santa Monica, CA. You may come across SMC-specific resources, links, or activities that do not apply to you. Search for your own school’s resources or google for similar tools that can help you where you live, study and work.
This work, Learning How To Learn, is part of the Student Success Library, which is a derivative of Student Success, originally modified by Vanessa Bonilla, Dr. Tyffany Dowd, Jackeline Felix, Dyana Valentine, Olivia Vallejo and Daniella Washington from the original Student Success by Graciela Martinez, Anh Nguyen, and Liz Shaker under CC BY-SA 4.0. Student Success Library is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 by Dyana Valentine. Last edit date: July 2022.