Learning Strategies and Learning Styles

What this page covers

This unit collects material on how we learn and how to study well. Most of it is mind maps, with a smaller set of flashcard decks, notes and quizzes. Topics include learning styles, study skills, time management, memory, procrastination and learning online.

Where to start

Begin with the mind map Discovering and using your learning styles. It describes three cognitive styles: visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Then open study skills, which compares models such as Fleming's VARK, Vermunt and Kolb's.

Next, move to the ideas behind learning itself:

• The flashcard deck Learning How to Learn: Flash Cards explains the Focused and Diffuse modes of thinking.
• The note SMARTER LEARNING sets out four stages of learning, starting with preparing and making a plan.
• The mind map Learning links procrastination, the Pomodoro technique, memory and spaced repetition.

Using quizzes and maps together

Read a map first, then test yourself. A quiz such as Self Directed Learning Quiz or Learning how to learn shows which ideas you remember and which you skipped over. Go back to the matching map for those gaps. The flashcard decks on learning styles are handy for short, repeated sessions.

There are also reflective items. The note My Learning Experience - created from Mind Map lists obstacles, goals and what helps the author, which can prompt you to write your own version.

Where this unit sits

This unit belongs to the strand Learning and Study Skills within Personal and career development. It suits university students, school students and teachers who want to think about how they study, not only what they study.

Next step

Pick one map that matches how you like to learn, work through it, and then make a set of flashcards of your own from it.