The Visual Learner
I am a Visual Learner, and in order for me to retain information, everything I learn has to be digested thru my eyes. I took the Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire, by Barbara A. Soloman, And Richard M. Felder, to find out the learning style I prefer. The data, although it sounded convincing, left me with a lack of satisfaction. The results showed that I was Multimode, with a high preference towards the Visual Learning Style. I interpreted the data as meaning that I was able to function under different teaching styles and still retain the necessary information to succeed. Not quite convinced, and in search of true satisfaction I took the VARK Questionnaire hoping that the results would be different, but the results were the same there is no denying I am a Visual Learner like most of the entire population. Now the big question is, how can I as a Visual Learner help myself to learn?
How can I help myself learn as a Visual learner? By finding diagrams, sketches, flow charts, or any other visual representation of course material that is predominantly verbal. Preparing a concept map by listing key points, enclosing them in boxes or circles, and drawing lines with arrows between concepts to show the connections can help me memorize material, also Color-coding notes with a highlighter so that everything relating to one topic is the same color (Felder 1988). Systems diagrams can help me in visualizing links between parts of a system. Replacing words with pictures, and again, coloring to highlight major and minor links. The visual journey or story technique will help me memorize content that is not easy to “see”. In some instances the use of these methods resulted in students performance raising an average of one grade level (Webb 2004). Hopefully the same can happen to me.
The Visual learner needs to see all study material. Practicing visualization is recommended or picturing spelling words...