The acronym VARK stands
for Visual, Aural, Read/write, and Kinesthetic sensory modalities that are used
for learning information. Fleming and Mills (1992) suggested four categories
that seemed to reflect the experiences of the students and teachers. Although there is
some overlap between categories, they are defined
as follows. [For a detailed description of the initial construction and limitations
of VARK, and for other works on learning styles, see the bibliography and the seminal article.]
Visual
(V):
This preference includes the depiction of information in maps, spider diagrams, charts, graphs, flow
charts, labelled diagrams, and all the symbolic arrows, circles, hierarchies and other devices, that instructors use to represent what could have been presented in words. It could have been called Graphic (G) as that better explains what it covers. It does NOT include movies, videos or PowerPoint. It does include designs, whitespace, patterns, shapes and the different formats that are used to highlight and convey infomation.
Aural
/ Auditory (A):
This perceptual mode describes a preference for information that is "heard or spoken."
Students with this modality report that they learn best from lectures, tutorials,
tapes, group discussion, email, using mobile phones, speaking, web chat and talking things through. It includes talking out loud as well as talking to yourself. Often people with this prefernce want to sort things out by speaking, rather than sorting things out and then speaking.
Read/write
(R):
This preference is for information displayed as words. Not surprisingly, many
academics have a strong preference for this modality. This preference emphasises
text-based input and output - reading and writing in all its forms. People who prefer this modality are often addicted to PowerPoint, the Internet, lists, filofaxes, dictionaries, thesauri,quotations and words, words, words...
Kinesthetic
(K):
By definition, this modality refers to the "perceptual preference related
to the use of experience and practice (simulated or real)." Although
such an experience may invoke other modalities, the key is that people who prefer this mode are connected to reality, "either through concrete personal experiences, examples, practice
or simulation" [See Fleming & Mills, 1992, pp. 140-141]. It includes demonstrations, simulations, videos and movies of "real" things, as well as case studies, practice and applications.
What about Mixtures? Multimodals
(MM):
Life is multimodal. There are seldom instances where one mode is used, or is sufficient, so we have a four-part VARK profile. That is why the VARK questionnaire gives you four scores. Those who prefer many modes almost equally are of two types. There are those who are context specific who choose a single mode to suit the occasion or situation. There are others who are not satisfied until they have had input (or output) in all of their preferred modes. They take longer to gather information from each mode and, as a result, they often have a deeper and broader understanding.
