Describe how individual learning styles affect the degree to which a learner can understand or perform educational activities. Discuss the importance of an educator identifying individual learning styles and preferences when working with learners.

 

The VARK analysis reveals that every individual is different with many possible preferred learning styles. It shows that there are four main types of learning styles that can present many different approaches. As such, it becomes clear that every student is different. This differences are also observed within the learning environment where each student would perform differently based on the learning style as this has an influence on the amount of information being retained (Liew, Sidhu & Barua, 2015). To be more precise, the individual teaching and learning styles have an influence on the degree to which each student can understand and perform the education activities. The implication is that subjecting a student to his/her preferred learning style would increase interest in the content and improve knowledge retentions. Contrastingly, subjecting a student to a learning style that he/she does not prefer would reduce interest in the content and impede knowledge retention so that the student scores poorly with the teaching being unsuccessful and delayed (VARK, 2020). This awareness has implications for educators, especially within the formal education process that heavily emphasizes reading/writing learning in both instruction and assessment activities. For students with a preference for the reading/writing mode of learning, this approach would support their learning efforts resulting in higher class scores. Conversely, for students who have a low preference for the reading/writing mode of learning and have a high preference for other modes of learning, this approach would hinder their learning efforts resulting in lower class scores (Dutsinma & Temdee, 2020). Teachers who understand these influences are able to modify their teaching approaches so that students are instructed using their preferred learning styles thereby enabling them (students) to score highly and resulting in improved teaching and learning efficiency. This would help with presenting a fair and equalizes education environment that offers each student equal opportunities to learn (Bhagat, Vyas & Singh, 2015). As such, an understanding of the different learning styles is important for helping teachers to developing strategies that effectively engage the students.