VARK Analysis Paper

VARK Analysis Paper

Evidence-based practice relies on effective teaching and learning strategies to realize the desired results. According to Winters and Echeverri (2012), effective teaching strategies are critical to facilitating nurses’ skill and knowledge development, which makes them a perfect fit for evidence-based practice. In light of learning efficacy, it is of essence to recognize that every individual prefers certain learning styles and techniques. This paper assesses learning personal learning styles and informed by the VARK analysis, culminating in a contextualization of learning styles as they related to educational activities, behavioral change, and health promotion.

Learning Style Summary

Identification of learning style was done via the VARK questionnaire, which stands for visual, auditory, read/write, and kinesthetic. This tool provides invaluable insight to the person, enabling him or her to know his personality and ease communications and relationships with other individuals. The tool recognizes that some people learn through seeing and hearing, which others learn best through reading, writing, or feeling. The test portrayed me as multimodal, which is a term that defines a person who has to combine different learning styles to attain the desired levels of comprehension.

The questionnaire yielded high scores in the read/write modality, which makes it the preferred learning style. Aural, visual, and kinesthetic had lower comparative scores. The preferred form of receiving information is, therefore, in the form of written words and text. Persons of this category are in favor of acquiring further information on the different personal and professional tenets via reading materials and taking notes from such information sources as journals, presentation, text books, dictionaries, and manuals (Kathleen & Marilyn, 2014). These persons learn best from written works, which is why they even have tendencies to turn graphical representations into words. They are persons that love to read and they prefer doing son in quiet environments. As such, they are individuals that are oriented to research from written scholarly pieces.

Preferred Learning Strategies

Based on the above identifies learning style, the preferred learning strategy is that of picked written material, rewriting own ideas in a way that is understandable to self, and repeating them for a number of times until one absorbs them. Through note writing, one is able to cement ideas and concrete information into the brain. As such, absorption of information is facilitated by use of definitions from textbooks, handouts, and glossaries, while texts, paragraphing, and written exams help comprehend the entire learning process.

Comparison between the Preferred and Identified Styles of Learning

The preferred learning style is not significantly different from the identified style of the read/write model. A person that adopts the write model is focused on summarizing the facts, visual, and auditory picture into words. These persons adopt the common practice of breaking down elements and converting them into words. Highlighting the most important points rather than focusing on presentations is an asset that these persons leverage. The read/write strategy, therefore, is a much stronger style compared to the writer. Nevertheless, besides writing, hearing and experiencing the reality of a situation is critical to executing a much stronger learning experience.

Effect of Learning Style on Understanding and Performing Educational Activities

Since people use different styles and techniques for learning, it is critical that one understands the different styles and preferences in order to create a more conducive environment and relationship between the learner and the teacher. Such an endeavor ensures that there is flexibility, especially on the part of the instructor to accommodate all learners. The teacher, however, has to recognize his or her dominant style in order to determine the level of adjustment required to provide student-centered experience (Jackie & Helen, 2013). Majority of learners are multimodal, which means that teachers have more difficulties choosing a particular style to use. Nevertheless, learning styles are influential on the ability and success of a teacher and the learner to perform their educational activities.

Learning Style and Health Promotion

Health promotion is multifaceted, which underlines the need for understanding the learning styles of the participants. Health promotion requires an intrinsic motivation while it is differentiated from other fields. Participants further have to deal with persons of diverse backgrounds and preferences, meaning that they have to align their expertise to the diverse needs of diverse clients or patients (Raingruber, 2017). By understanding learning styles, a participant is better placed to understand his or her strengthens and weaknesses in the delivery of service. As such, one can adjust accordingly to fit different contexts in the course of his or her practice.

Behavioral change is a function of one’s willingness to recognize his or her shortcomings and strive to improve. Persons of visual learning styles are more likely to embrace behavioral change after seeing firsthand the impacts of certain behavior. Those who prefer auditory style are more likely to be resistant to change because they do not directly encounter the implications that undesirable behaviors can have. As such, the different styles have varying strengths, and thus, integration more than one style into the health promotion is likely to be more productive compared with using only one style.