This is our second post in our series on Learning Styles! Knowing how you or your student learns can make a big difference in your approach to getting homework done, note-taking, and tutoring. If you don't know your style, take this quiz by NC State University to find out:
http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html
SENSING AND INTUITIVE LEARNERS
- Sensing learners tend to like learning facts, intuitive learners often prefer discovering possibilities and relationships.
- Sensors often like solving problems by well-established methods and dislike complications and surprises; intuitors like innovation and dislike repetition. Sensors are more likely than intuitors to resent being tested on material that has not been explicitly covered in class.
- Sensors tend to be patient with details and good at memorizing facts and doing hands-on (laboratory) work; intuitors may be better at grasping new concepts and are often more comfortable than sensors with abstractions and mathematical formulations.
- Sensors tend to be more practical and careful than intuitors; intuitors tend to work faster and to be more innovative than sensors.
- Sensors don't like courses that have no apparent connection to the real world; intuitors don't like "plug and chug" courses that involve a lot of memorization and routine calculations.
How can sensing learners help themselves?
If you are in a class where most of the material is abstract and theoretical, you may have difficulty. Ask your instructor for specific examples of concepts and procedures, and find out how the concepts apply in practice. If the teacher does not provide enough specifics, try to find some in your course text or other references or by brainstorming with friends or classmates.
How can intuitive learners help themselves?
Ask your instructor for interpretations or theories that link the facts, or try to find the connections yourself. You may also be prone to careless mistakes on test because you are impatient with details and don't like repetition (as in checking your completed solutions). Take time to read the entire question before you start answering and be sure to check your results
Are you a Sensing or Intuitive learner? What approach works best for you when it comes to completing class work or studying for a test?
Check out our next article for information about Visual and Verbal learners!
Information adapted from: NC State University learning styles quiz (http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html) and www.studygs.net.
