Learning Styles and Preferences

A person's individual learning style is an important key for reaching learning potential. While learning style is based primarily upon auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and tactile components, it can also encompass other learner preferences. These additional learning preferences are explored further on the pages that follow this one.

Learning style can be based upon whether a person processes information sequentially or analytically rather than in a holistic, simultaneous, global fashion. "It is important to recognize not only individual behaviors, but to explore and examine the whole of each person's inclinations toward learning," (Dunn, Thies, & Honigsfeld, 2001).

Other aspects of individual learning style include emotional, environmental, sociological, psychological, and physiological preferences. These preferences are part of the Dunn, Dunn, and Price Learning Styles Inventory. A good visual representation of these additional factors was created by Susan Rundle in the following graphic, used with permission, and found on the www.LearningStyles.net website:

Let's examine each of these learning styles / preferences in more detail..