VARK Questionnaire

VARK Analysis
I’ve recently completed a VARK Questionnaire to find out about my preferences for the way I work with information. Everyone has a preferred learning style and one part of that learning style is your preference for intake and output of ideas and information. When the questionnaire is completed I used a marking guide which you’ll find attached to find my score for each of the categories.

The categories are:

Visual (V):
This preference includes the depiction of information in maps, spider diagrams, charts, graphs, flow charts, labelled diagrams, and all the symbolic arrows, circles, hierarchies and other devices that instructors use to represent what could have been presented in words. It could have been called Graphic (G) as that better explains what it covers. It does not include movies, videos or PowerPoint. It does include designs, whitespace, patterns, shapes and the different formats that are used to highlight and convey information.

Aural / Auditory (A):
This perceptual mode describes a preference for information that is "heard or spoken." Students with this modality report that they learn best from lectures, tutorials, tapes, group discussion, email, using mobile phones, speaking, web chat and talking things through. It includes talking out loud as well as talking to yourself. Often people with this preference want to sort things out by speaking, rather than sorting things out and then speaking.

Read/write (R):
This preference is for information displayed as words. Not surprisingly, many academics have a strong preference for this modality. This preference emphasises text-based input and output - reading and writing in all its forms. People who prefer this modality are often addicted to PowerPoint, the Internet, lists, dictionaries, quotations and words, words, words...

Kinesthetic (K):
By definition, this modality refers to the "perceptual preference related to the use of experience and practice (simulated or real)." Although such an experience may invoke other modalities, the key is that people who prefer this mode are connected to reality, "either through concrete personal experiences, examples, practice or simulation" [See Fleming & Mills, 1992, pp. 140-141]. It includes demonstrations, simulations, videos and movies of "real" things, as well as case studies, practice and applications.



And a Mixture. Multimodals (MM):
Life is multimodal. There are seldom instances where one mode is used, or is sufficient, so we have a four-part VARK profile. That is why the VARK questionnaire gives you four scores. Those who prefer many modes almost equally are of two types. There are those who are context specific who choose a single mode to suit the occasion or situation. There are others who are not satisfied until they have had input (or output) in all of their preferred modes. They take longer to gather information from each mode and, as a result, they often have a deeper and broader understanding.

My VARK Questionnaire and Answers
Please find attached an enclosed copy of my completed VARK Questionnaire. After checking my score against the scoring chart I scored highly in two styles and they were Visual and Kinesthetic.

With reflection I knew all along that I had a very visual orientated learning style as I always found that charts, maps and labelled diagrams explained something a lot better than if someone was trying to explain it all to me.