Student Profile with Introduction

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Daniel Graham, 24

Computer Science major

Northeastern Illinois University

image Apply your learning style to your everyday life. Eventually you will learn in a different, smarter, and more efficient way. image

Although he tells us, “I didn’t have much knowledge of learning styles before I started college,” Daniel Graham from Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago enrolled in the college success seminar in his first term. There, he took a learning-styles inventory called the VARK and learned that he’s both a kinesthetic learner, which means that he learns by doing, and a read/write learner, which means that he learns by reading and writing down material from class. Since then, he has been able to employ numerous strategies that apply specifically to his form of multimodal learning to help him succeed in class. He does things like rewriting terms and concepts in his own words so that he better understands what they mean, and he uses note cards to help him memorize. He says that knowing his learning style has improved his performance. “When I take notes, I read them silently on note cards and continue to return to them so I can memorize the meaning,” he says.

It’s not surprising that Daniel is also a kinesthetic learner, as he spends ten to fifteen hours a week working in his family home-remodeling business. “A hands-on approach has my name written all over it. I like being able to use my hands and express myself, and I like being able to figure things out just by playing with them for a bit.” He translates this hands-on approach to learning by using tactics like taking practice exams until he feels ready for the real exam.

Daniel chose to begin higher education at Northeastern because it was close to home and because he learned from former Northeastern students that he would receive lots of one-on-one attention there. When Daniel enrolled, he took advantage of the TRiO program, which helps prepare students for college success through advising services and extra tutoring. All that work paid off: After completing his bachelor’s degree, Daniel plans to transfer to the University of Illinois at Chicago to pursue a master’s degree in computer information systems. Daniel plans to finish his master’s and then explore job opportunities. He ultimately hopes to be working in computer science or finance, and he plans to continue to rely on his learning styles: “Apply your learning style to your everyday life. Eventually you will learn in a different, smarter, and more efficient way.”

Have you ever thought about how you learn? If not, it would probably help to think about this topic now that you are in college. People learn differently. This is hardly a new idea, but if you want to do well in college, it is important that you become aware of how you learn. Maybe you have trouble paying attention to a long lecture, or maybe listening is the way you learn best. You might love classroom discussion, or you might consider hearing what other students have to say in class a big waste of time. You have developed your learning style or preference over time because of your personal characteristics and experiences. Even if you didn’t exactly choose your preference for the way you learn best, you can choose to learn how to adapt to multiple styles of classroom instruction.

Perhaps you have not thought about it, but college instructors have their own styles of teaching and communicating. Those different styles will be evident in the way that courses are organized and taught. Your preferred style of learning might not match up with the teaching methods in some of your courses. Many instructors lecture almost exclusively; others use lots of visual aids, such as PowerPoint or Prezi presentations, charts, graphs, and pictures. In science courses, you will conduct experiments or go on field trips where you can observe or touch what you are studying. In dance, theater, or physical education courses, learning takes place in both your body and your mind. And in almost all courses, you’ll learn by reading both textbooks and other materials. Some instructors are friendly, warm, and obviously enjoy all aspects of teaching; others seem to want little interaction with students.

This chapter will first help you understand how you learn best, and then help you think of ways in which you can create a link between your learning style and the expectations of each of your courses and instructors. This chapter will also explore learning disabilities, which are common among college students. You will learn how to recognize them and what to do if you or someone you know has a learning disability.

While the concept of learning may seem simple, educational researchers have discovered that not everyone learns in the same way. Not only do we have different learning styles, we also have unique preferences for the speed at which we learn, the mode of learning (online or face to face), and whether we learn better alone or in a group. Your college or university may offer courses that run four to six weeks or “flipped” classes in which you learn material on your own before class and spend class time in discussion groups or working problems.

high-impact practice 6

If your college success course is linked with one or more other courses so that you share other classes with the same group of students, you are in a learning community. About 50 percent of U.S. colleges and universities offer learning communities in the first year. Being in a learning community will help you learn in a different way by emphasizing the connections between different courses. This experience will also help you develop stronger relationships with other students in the linked classes.

assess your strengths

Understanding your own preferred style of learning will help you study and earn good grades. Do you know how you learn best? Were your learning styles evaluated in high school? As you begin to read this chapter, consider the insights you already have about your own learning styles.

set goals

Think about challenges you have had with relating to the way some instructors teach and expect you to learn. Use this chapter to help develop strategies and goals that link your preferred style of learning to what you are experiencing in the classroom such as thinking about your favorite and least favorite classes and how your preferences might relate to how you prefer to learn.