What is VARK?
Let’s say you’re studying vocabulary words for a Spanish test you have coming up. You get together with a group of friends in the course to study and notice that everyone has prepared for the study session differently. One member of the group brought flashcards, while another brought only the textbook. Another person brought recordings of class lectures, while you arrive empty handed. You assumed you all would be discussing the material and speaking Spanish to study. You find yourself wondering why no one seems to be on the same page.
Though there are various different approaches and theories surrounding learning styles, many students fall under the categorization of V.A.R.K. First theorized by Neil Fleming in the early 2000s, V.A.R.K. stands for Visual, Auditory, Reading and Writing, and Kinesthetic learning styles. Under the VARK learning style theory, each student has a preference or subconscious leaning toward one of the four styles.
Oftentimes, students who have ample writing skills are visual or reading-and-writing learners. However, not all students you encounter in the Composition program will have the same learning styles. For this reason, it is important that all tutors demonstrate the ability to recognize and adapt their tutoring techniques to accommodate each style.
Learn More about Each Type of Learning Style (click on the links below)
Self-Assessment
To find out what your own learning style and learn more about VARK, take the questionnaire at the following link: VARK Questionnaire
VARK and Instruction
College-level instruction has been slow to shift from the lecture-style delivery of information, which privileges auditory learners and those who take in information through reading and writing. While taking notes in class is an important study skill, students learn through seeing information repeated in a variety of ways. The authors of the article below studied medical school students and how they learned. They discovered that instruction that employs “multiple modalities of information presentation” are the most effective:
All of the above studies show that multiple modalities of
information presentation are necessary to effectively cater to student learning preferences. A learning preference is defined as the most ‘effective and efficient modality,’ in which a learner has a natural preference to ‘perceive, process, store, and recall new information.’[19] Awareness of these learning preferences amongst students necessitates a shift from the traditional large-group teacher-centric lecture method to an interactive, small-group student-centric approach incorporating various teaching-learning strategies.
SKIM the following article titled “Understanding your student: Using the VARK Model,” which ends with recommendations about using VARK to inform medical school education. While you will be tutoring undergraduates of course, the findings are interesting:
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