How I learn

When talking about ways people learn, there are three general styles – auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Some people learn better through seeing something. Others learn well when they hear it. And still others need to move their body in some way to learn something. While working on my Masters degree I have learned a lot about learning and teaching, so much that I’m now not sure I could adequately describe them. It was a good opportunity to look at my own teaching and learning styles and I have learned a lot about myself.

Before now, whenever I’ve thought about my own learning style, I always thought I was somewhere between visual and auditory. I never really considered that I was a kinesthetic learner. Yet thinking about it today, I believe I am a kinesthetic learner. I have probably been that way my whole life, but I just realized it today. As I was thinking about my thinking and learning, I realized that I often mentally manipulate objects, I play with numbers and move them around in my mind. I believe that is why I never considered myself a kinesthetic learner before. I move things, but I do it in my head. Sometimes my hands move as I’m visualizing and moving things around.

But if I do something once, I can do it again. If I’ve been somewhere once, I can get there again, even if I’ve just mentally moved myself there, I can trace that path again. So I really am a kinesthetic learner. I’m a very spatial person, but that space doesn’t necessarily have to exist in the physical world.