VAK Your Mind! 3 Practical Approaches to Maximize Your Learning and Teaching Skills
By Dr. Farid Mohammadi
Ever since I began teaching, I have been asked to share my thoughts on the most constructive way to learn or teach. And my answer has always been: There is no comprehensive approach! People are different, and they require different academic skills and/or strategies. However, regardless of age, gender, level of education, or field of study, there are ways to maximize your comprehension and/or teaching skills.
To Learn or Not to Learn…?
Maths, physics, programming, economics, literature,…? The list can be continued! We all have experienced some desperate moments in our lives where we thought we were just not good enough at learning a particular subject. The good news is that the issue is not as grave as one might suppose.
In this article, I will share three simple and practical approaches with you to improve your learning and teaching skills and eventually leave all those unpleasant thoughts behind!
First thing’s first, think about these questions:
Have you ever asked yourself why a particular subject is less interesting or more challenging to grasp and/or teach than some other topics? Have you needed to have your textbooks open before your eyes or preferred to follow along with slides? What is your preferred learning/teaching environment? Classrooms, laboratories, outdoor spaces?
There are no correct answers to these questions. People comprehend and memorize differently, which means different teaching techniques produce different results. For example, remember those classes where you had difficulty grasping your instructor’s discussions. If you did not understand the lessons or did not find them interesting, no one and nothing could have forced you to study as hard as possible.
The thing is, sometimes, the issues come from how an instructor teaches the learning material and how they are presented to you. That is to say, if you were successful in a particular class, it was likely that the teacher, the style of teaching, and the presented material were aligned with your way of grasping that specific subject.
VAK Your Mind! This is my suggestion to boost your learning and teaching abilities:
Let me set the record straight, I am not proposing a sophisticated and newly developed term for this article! What I am doing is to accentuate the significance and implementation of the VAK method in our learning and/or teaching strategies.
VAK is a learning approach designed by Walter Burke Barbe and later developed by his fellow educator Neil Fleming. It stands for the Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic learning styles. Simply saying, it categorizes people into three classes of
1) Visual learners who grasp information by sight.
2) Auditory learners who grasp information by sound.
3) Kinaesthetic learners who grasp information by moving.
However, there is a problem:
The large majority of people absorb, learn, and share various types of information by just utilizing one of these three styles!
Multiple studies have shown that if people incorporate elements of the other two styles in their learning models, they are likely to maximize their comprehension abilities!
Consider the following techniques:
1) Improve the Visual Skills
How to Learn?
•Write and draw information (text, graphs, and charts) regularly.
• Memorize information by observing the related images.
• Associate colors to the information you are trying to remember.
How to Teach?
• Present the slides and lesson topics in different colors.
• Allow learners to take down notes.
• Distribute handouts at the beginning of the class.
2) Enhance the Auditory Abilities
How to Learn?
• Learn from podcasts and audiobooks more often
• Repeatedly read the information aloud.
• Talk and associate names to the information you are writing down.
How to Teach?
• Divide students and form group studies for class discussions and presentations.
3) Increase the Kinesthetic capabilities
How to Learn?
• Learn through various types of body movements.
• memorize details through physical games.
• Incorporate learning sessions with experimentation, such as using puzzles.
How to Teach?
• Organize classroom games and educational field trips.
• Use objects to teach.
Final Words
Regardless of your age, gender, and field of study, or whether you are a learner or educator, the VAK approach is a scientifically proven, powerful tool to maximize your learning and teaching skills. Once you consistently utilize it in your educational life, you will reap the rewards.
