Ah, school days. Best days of your life . . . according to anyone no longer there. It’s where we experienced our first crush, made our first BFF and had our first tragic hair do.
It’s also where our different learning styles started to emerge.
Remember cramming for that history exam in the sweltering summer sunshine?
While some kids took up residence in the library, speed-reading books like they were going out of print, others preferred to quiz each other on the Battle of Waterloo face to face.
And wee Jeanie? She’d record her notes onto a cassette player and spend her time marching round the playground listening back to them.
We all took in information in slightly different ways.
Later in life, these different learning styles continue to influence how best we understand new things.
And knowing how different people learn is the key to effective training.
For trainers and HR pros, ensuring different learners are catered for is essential to make sure everyone gets the most out of any training session.
Auditory learner
You’re in this camp if you need to hear something to fully understand it and often struggle with written instructions.
Top tips:
Vary your tone when speaking to keep listeners engaged. It’s important for auditory learners to be able to hear you clearly so seat them away from distractions.
Visual learner
Seeing is believing and these upskillers do best when information is presented in written form or in a visual format such as PowerPoints.
Top tips:
Ensure they sit close to the front where they can clearly see you and the screen.
Use interesting visual aids to illustrate what you’re saying and encourage note-taking.
Tactile learner
Also known as Kinesthetics, tactile learners like to be hands on and learn best when physically carrying out an activity, instead of simply listening to or watching others.
Top tips:
Use role play as a teaching tool to get the training group fully engaged.
Pass around models and real objects to participants and let them examine them up close.
Tactile learners don’t like to sit motionless for long periods of time, so have frequent movement breaks.
All of the above
Of course, any training group is going to have a mixture of different types of learners. So use all our top tips to mix it up a little to ensure everyone is getting something from the session. The more approaches you can use, the better.
If you want to take on a new challenge yourself, check out the current vacancies in HR, Recruitment and Training at s1jobs.com