Visual Learning Styles

Visual Learning is a learning style where learners prefer to use images, graphics, colours and maps to communicate ideas and thoughts. Visual learners need to see information to absorb it. These learners are likely to have a photographic memory and use colour, tone and brightness to recall information. These learners will benefit from seeing diagrams drawn out on a chalkboard or in slideshows in a classroom. These learners learn best by colour-coding their notes, making to-do lists and using concept maps to organise their thoughts.

Traits of Visual Learners

  1. Notice Small Details so will remember faces instead of names
  2. Visual Learners are known to make plans
  3. Visual Learners make decisions by writing lists
  4. Visual Learners have a strong imagination and daydream a lot
  5. Visual Learners understand projects as a whole

Learning Strategies of Visual Learners

  1. Look at Headings and Pictures before reading whole sentences
  2. Highlight important words in colour
  3. Write down goals for projects
  4. Sit in a place to easily see the instructor
  5. Write down your own notes and use charts, maps and graphs
  6. Use hands-on and practical tasks such as building models or doing case studies - this way, you can show that you know how to do something rather than writing down the steps
  7. Connect new information with concepts you already know, so you understand the topic as a whole
  8. Brainstorm and use diagrams and mind maps to show you how everything you are learning fits together

Visual Learning Cues

It's important for educators to identify visual learners in their classrooms. Teachers can look and listen for these cues to identify visual learners:

  1. Saying "I can't picture this"
  2. Saying "I never forget a face"
  3. Saying "I want to draw that out"
  4. Doodling while taking notes or listening to lectures
  5. Understanding a concept better after seeing a picture
  6. Loving watching the teacher demonstrate solving a problem
  7. Saying "Can you show me?"
  8. Having a positive reaction to assignments involving colouring, reading and writing
  9. Wanting to see a graph to understand a statistic or number

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