Introduction to Industrial Engineering

By Jane M. Fraser

Chapter 3

Learning and teaching


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3.2 Your style of learning

Researchers have developed various categorizations that describe how people learn and various questionnaires to help you determine which categories best describe your style. You can learn how to use your strong points and how to compensate for your weak points.

Neil Fleming has a short questionnaire (13 questions) that will classify your preferred learning style as

These labels indicate your preferred way to take in and give out information. The web page also gives advice on good ways to study using your preferred style.

Yannis Grammatis has a similar approach, but only uses 3 categories:

Tony Berghuis has two questionnaires using those same three categories. There is also a questionnaire on the global/analytic dimension.

Richard M. Felder and Barbara A. Soloman of North Carolina State University have developed a questionnaire called the Index of Learning Styles to assess preferences on four dimensions (active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, visual/verbal, and sequential/global). The learning style model was formulated by Richard M. Felder and Linda K. Silverman. You can take the questionnaire and then read advice on the best strategies for different styles.

This web page discusses Multiple Intelligences, of which there are seven: body/kinesthetic, interpersonal, intra-personal, logical/mathematical, musical/rhythmic, verbal/linguistic and visual/spatial.

The most important point about your preferred style of learning is that you should learn how to build on your strengths and how to compensate for your weaknesses. For example, if you prefer aural learning, then you may need to "Speak your answers aloud or inside your head" when you take a test. As you become aware of your preferences, you will also be able to notice and adapt to the preferences of others that you work with. If you know that someone prefers aural input, then that person might prefer a voice mail message instead of an email message.