Study Skills Guide

This study skills guide is for undergraduates in biology and the other sciences who want to study more effectively for their college classes. It starts with the idea most students have already met, learning styles, and what the research says about using them to decide how to study.

What are learning styles?#

Learning styles describe different ways that people collect, organize, process and remember information. The idea is popular in psychology and education, and it sorts the common ways people learn into groups. At least 71 learning style schemes are in use (Coffield and colleagues, 2004).

The VARK model: visual, auditory, verbal and kinesthetic learners#

One of the most popular schemes is the VARK model (Fleming and Mills, 1992). It proposes four main types of learner:

• Visual learners, who prefer diagrams, charts and other pictures of information.
• Auditory learners, who prefer hearing information, as in lectures and discussion.
• Verbal learners, who prefer words, read and written.
• Kinesthetic learners, who prefer hands-on practice and examples.

Does studying to your learning style work?#

Not as far as the evidence shows. Despite the popularity of learning styles, a review of the research found that matching teaching methods to a student's learning style had no influence on educational outcomes (Pashler and colleagues, 2008). Knowing which style you prefer can still be a useful starting point for thinking about how you study, but it is not a reason to study one way only.

Literature cited#

• Coffield, F., Moseley, D., Hall, E., and Ecclestone, K. (2004). Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning: a systematic and critical review. London: Learning and Skills Research Centre.
• Fleming, N. and Mills, C. (1992). Not Another Inventory, Rather a Catalyst for Reflection. To Improve the Academy, 11(1), 137-155.
• Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., and Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9(3), 105-119.