Should the VARK Model Be Adapted to Online Classes?

According to the VARK model, students learn differently. Must teachers adapt their online classes to cover all learning styles?

As in a traditional classroom, each online student learns differently, so in the face of the current widespread adoption of emergency remote teaching, educators must learn to balance the needs of those students who prefer to study alone with those who miss the socialization that occurs in school. To do this, the teacher must consider the different learning styles of their students because this will help them face the challenges of learning from their homes.

The VARK model (Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, Kinesthetic) studies the four basic representational systems of neurolinguistic programming (NLP). These are divided into four learning styles: Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, and Kinesthetics. This model has been around for years, but it was not until 1987 that the teacher Neil Fleming developed a questionnaire that helped educators and students distinguish which learning style best describes them. Both North Carolina State University and the VARK organization conducted tests to identify what type of learning style each student has.

Learning styles (according to the VARK model): 

1. Visual students: these students are the ones who learn best when information can be visualized and remembered afterward. These students are those who prefer classes with visual aids such as arrows, dots, videos, or any representation that demonstrates a hierarchy of information. They tend to learn better when the presentation is presented to them in tables and diagrams instead of sequential slides. The University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) describes them as quiet students who prefer to study alone, so, for them, adapting to the online environment is not difficult, especially because many classes have everything in writing with graphics and a summary.

2. Auditory students: these are the students who learn best by listening, so they often repeat the information aloud to remember it. They are also those who prefer not to take notes so they can pay more attention to what they hear and focus on that. According to the UIS, these students benefit from talking to others as they listen to others talking about the topic, or they discuss it aloud with them.

3. The Reading/Writing students: are those students who learn best when reading and writing, including reading information from presentations, brochures, or synthesized content. They learn not only from reading books, but also they are good at conducting online research. They quickly adapt to the online model because much material in an online course is in writing.

4. Hands-on/kinesthetic pupil: these types of students are ones who prefer practice or exercises because they tend to involve all their senses in learning. They are those who prefer practical demonstrations in labs or field experiences. In the case of online learning, they benefit from three-dimensional graphics or experiments they can do from home and then discuss them on virtual forums with their peers.

What Neil Fleming wanted to achieve in developing this theory was a model that would help teachers couple their classes to different ways of learning and thus teach their students better and in a little more personalized way. Abby Knoll, a Ph.D. student, focusing on learning styles at Central Michigan University, said: “Teachers like to think that they can reach all students, even the struggling students, simply by adapting their instruction to coincide with the format of learning preferred by each student.” However, this mindset can be a double-edged sword because some students have used it as an excuse to justify their poor grades and blame their teachers for not adapting to their way of learning.

Does the VARK model really work?

Although the theory of learning styles is widely known and studied, many criticize this approach to learning. A study published in Anatomical Sciences Education, where students answered the VARK questionnaire, found that despite being assigned personalized activities according to their learning styles, these students did not improve their academic results. The author of the article, Polly R. Husmann, believes that the students had already formed their study habits and, regardless of how interested they were in their learning styles, they had a hard time breaking from their ways.

“I believe that as a purely reflective exercise, just to make you think about your study habits, [VARK] could have a benefit, but how we have been categorizing these learning styles does not seem sustainable,” Dr. Husmann said. Another study published in the British Journal of Psychology found that students simply preferred words or images, but that this did not mean that it facilitated learning. This confirms what Dr. Husmann said that students focus on education based on what they think their style is, not really because it helps them learn better; this, in the long run, can hurt them.

Learning Styles vs. Skills

On the other hand, a paper in the Journal of Educational Psychology found no relationship between learning preferences and academic performance. The authors concluded that it would be best for teachers to stop guiding their lessons according to a particular learning style and focus, instead, on strengthening all the skills. For example, they stop focusing their classes on the learning style of auditory students and help them enhance their visual skills.

Still, this does not mean that all students are good at every possible skill. According to Daniel Willingham, a University of Virginia psychologist, more than having learning styles, people have different abilities, so some learn better reading and others listening. It also depends on what is desired to be studied; for example, to learn another language, one cannot visualize pronunciation, one has to listen and repeat it to perfect it.

Despite the controversy behind the topic, both Willingham and Husmann conclude that it is not harmful to believe in learning styles. Willingham says that the best thing is to see these styles as tools and think which one best helps the students learn, given that all can think of words or images. On the other hand, Husmann warns that the
most important thing is to focus on the lesson more than on how to learn it. For example, if you learn a language, focus on the auditory rather than on images or graphics.

In the end, each person has a different way of collecting, analyzing, and memorizing information. The challenge is knowing how to address the different abilities of the students and adapt them to the online environment, so that the student continues to learn remotely, choosing which skill or tool works best for him or her.

Paulette Delgado

Share

This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0