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The Vark Learning Styles Inventory

The VARK Inventory, a sixteen-item questionnaire, focuses on how learners prefer to use their senses (hearing, seeing, writing, reading, experiencing) to learn. The acronym VARK stands for “Visual,” “Aural,” “Read/Write,” and “Kinesthetic.” As you read through the following descriptions, see which ones ring true to how you learn.

Is This You?

Have you found that some of your classes aren’t as interesting and engaging as you expected? Is one of the problems a mismatch between the way you like to learn and the instructor’s teaching method? Perhaps you’re a visual learner but are forced to sit through mostly lecture classes, or perhaps you really don’t enjoy working with others even though your chemistry course requires you to complete lab assignments with a partner. This chapter will help you understand your own learning style and adapt it to any classroom situation.

Visual learners prefer to learn information through charts, graphs, symbols, and other visual means. If you remember data best that is presented in graphic form or in a picture, map, or video, you are a visual learner.
Aural learners prefer to hear information and discuss it with friends, classmates, or instructors. If talking about information from lectures or textbooks helps you remember it, you are an aural learner.
Read/Write learners prefer to learn information through words on a printed page. During a test, if you can sometimes visualize where information appears in the textbook, you are a read/write learner.
Kinesthetic learners prefer to learn through experience and practice, whether simulated or real. They often learn through their sense of touch. Recopying or typing notes helps them remember the material. They also learn better when their bodies are in motion, whether participating in sports, dancing, or working out. If you are a kinesthetic learner, you may find that even your sense of taste or smell contributes to your learning process.

Two or three of these modes probably describe your preferred ways of learning better than the others. At the college level, faculty members tend to share information primarily via lecture and the textbook, but many students like to learn through visual and interactive means. This difference creates a mismatch between learning and teaching styles. Is it a problem? Not necessarily, if you know how to handle such a mismatch. Later in this chapter you’ll learn strategies to adapt lecture material and the text to your preferred modes of learning. First, though, to determine your learning style(s) according to the VARK Inventory, respond to the following questionnaire.