What type of Learner are you?

Did you know there are eight different identified types of learners, yet schools only measure two of them?

This means that you could (and probably are) brilliant in another form of learning, even if you are currently struggling in school! Let’s learn about the different types of learners, and then I will review how to best advocate for yourself! Discovering how you learn best is your first step to academic success!

• Auditory Learner
  • Do you love receiving instructions, lectures, or memorizing music instantly, which means you are probably an Auditory learner. You can focus on the spoken language and find patterns easily. You will do best in lectures and group discussions. You may find it helpful to listen to music while studying. You can study and understand better by reading out loud. Your challenges may include written tests; you may perform better being asked your answers and responding verbally. You may have slight dyslexia, and graph paper is your friend for all your notes. You may do your best to record your thoughts after each class and review that auditory to study. Noise can influence you negatively and positively.
• Visual or Spatial Learner
  • You tend to understand pictures, graphics, and charts the best. You tend to do best with videos or images rather than words. You are often never lost, can read maps, and always seem to have a great sense of direction. You would best create flow charts and pictures of what you are studying. You tend to understand colors and decor easily. You may want to introduce color to your notes. Some of your challenges are losing focus when you read or listening to people speak – getting lost or easily confused in group discussions.
• Verbal or Linguistic Learner
  • You excel in academic settings. Verbal ability is one of the subjects often tested in school. You are good with words, both heard and spoken. You tend to write efficiently, learn quickly, and often speak more than one language; you love English over math. Often can remember extensive quotes and recite them easily. Your challenges can be that you tend to get lost easily because spatial relations are problematic for you, and charts and diagrams can be your downfall.
• Logical or Mathematical Learner
  • Another great academic student. Math, Chemistry, and Physics are easily tested. You tend to excel where numbers, logic, or reason are involved. You probably don’t enjoy English, stories, writing, or experiencing emotions much, nor do you enjoy group discussions with non-logical people. You tend to be great at organizing information, graphs, and charts. You do the best studying by lists.
• Physical or Kinesthetic Learner
  • You are most often the student called out for disrupting the class; you may find it impossible to sit still and are constantly getting up and moving or fidgeting in your seat. Your body needs to move to think. You are probably the athletic one, playing one or more sports. Have an incredible amount of energy. It feels best when you can touch or feel it to learn. Often has a great sense of body awareness and can mimic others’ physical moves. Once something is done physically, often in the memory forever. Tends not to be able to concentrate on listening, reading, or writing without moving in some way. Often gets bored if not outside doing something. May need short bursts of exercise or gym in the morning to do better at school.
• Social Learner
  • You are the one that organizes all the parties, loves group activities and takes the team lead position! The more people, the better the fun. You will do best in study groups; you are excellent at interpreting facial gestures and body language and, in turn, making people feel very comfortable with you. Often you are the idea creator, the problem solver, and the one everyone looks up to. Your challenges include losing motivation if you are not socially encouraged, finding it difficult to think and study on your own, and will often fall behind.
• Solitary Learner
  • Ah, the loner, you tend to be book smart, enjoy working alone and find others a colossal distraction. Tend to be incredibly self-motivated, prefers quiet in every academic situation, has excellent time management skills, and loves introspection, journals, notes, and detailed to-do lists. Group projects and discussions will be annoying or quite intimidating for you. You often offer to do all the work rather than work with others.
• Naturalistic Learner
  • Outdoors is your jam! You are the green thumb with plants and feel the calmest outside. You tend to love field trips and any class held outside. You easily categorize information and love to study anything about biology, environments, and botany. Drawing or coloring before and after math may make it easier for you to focus. Experiments where you can get your hands dirty make your day! Make sure you spend some time outside daily, or you may find your stress shuts you down.

Many times I have found that when people review this list, they have a primary and a secondary style of learning – this is normal – review on how to best avoid stress within each type. If you have also done your enneagram type, you may also see some overlap! If you find, like most of us have, that our strengths are in a type that is not acknowledged in school, become your best advocate, talk to your teachers, show them how and when you excel and ask for an ability to do projects in your strength. And above all, do not write stories about your intelligence, success, or future over your grades.

If you would like more details on how to work best within your learning style and enneagram, set up a coaching call with me, and together we can lay out how you can thrive within your personal strategies! Book here!