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What Is Meant by Learning Style Learning styles are described above as “preferences” which is meant to suggest that one or another aspect of a learning style dimension is as good as the others. In order to make the meaning of “preference” clear, I often ask participants in workshops to do a simple exercise like crossing their arms or writing their names. Cross your arms: For instance, try crossing your arms. Which arm is on top, the left or the right? If you are in a group, how many people have the right arm on top? The left on top? Which way is better? Needless to say, the last question is silly. Neither way is better under ordinary circumstances. So which arm you put on top is a preference. It is something that is your choice. Handwriting: An even better example is the handwriting exercise. Write your name on a piece of scratch paper. Then write your name with the other hand. Think back to the first time you wrote your name just then. What was it like? (Most people answer something like “I didn’t have to think about it, it was fast, it looks good, it was comfortable and easy,” and so on). Now think about the second time: what was that like? (Most people answer something like “it was slow, difficult, I had to concentrate, it looks messy, I was anxious, it was awkward,” and so on; once in a while someone says “challenging” or “fun.”) Learning style variables are like our hands. Just as we have a preferred hand for writing and doing most other things--a dominant hand--so we have a preference for how to learn on any of the many learning style scales. For example, if we prefer to learn sequentially, it will come relatively automatically to follow a textbook outline, whereas learning “randomly” with no set agenda from outside will be slow, awkward, very tiring until we get practiced at it, and the product will probably not be as mature. For the non-linear learner, the preferences are reversed.

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