Different Ways To Classify Learning Styles

There are many different ways to classify learning styles. These fall into general categories: perceptual modality, information processing, and personality patterns. The categories represent ways to focus on the learner.

Perceptual modalities define biologically based reactions to our physical environment and represent the way we most efficiently adopt data. We should learn our perception style so we can seek out information in the format that we process most directly. Educators should pay attention to modalities to ensure programs strike all physiologic levels.

Information processing distinguishes between the way we sense, think, solve problems, and remember information. Each of us has a preferred, consistent, distinct way of perceiving, organizing, and retaining information.

Personality patterns focus on attention, emotion, and values. Studying these differences allows us to predict the way we will react and feel about different situations. We will spend our time here on perceptual modalities because it has the most implications in education.