Understanding How You Learn Best

from Eric Matas

Objective: In this lesson, you will identify your learning preferences and explore how they impact your learning journey. This includes learning why it is important to consider various factors in your life when designing your personalized learning curriculum.

Learning Preferences Over “Learning Styles”

Nearly the whole world believed that people had distinct learning styles, such as visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. However, research has questioned and debunked the notion of distinct learning styles. They are not a thing, so don’t get side–tracked by figuring out your learning styles. 

That being said, there are still benefits to identifying your preferences and tendencies when it comes to learning. By understanding how you naturally approach learning, you can adjust your study methods to better suit your strengths. This can include choosing the optimal time of day that you set aside for reading and practicing. You might also become aware of the distractions that derail your learning efforts, and eliminate them. Additionally, understanding your preferences can help you identify and evaluate learning resources that may be more effective for you.

Factors to Consider in Your Learning Journey

When setting out on a journey of learning, it is important to take into account everything about your life. This includes your health, work and non-work schedules, and whether you have good spaces to learn and study. Without considering these factors, it can be challenging to actually do the learning. Designing a curriculum with you in mind will result in a better path ahead, after all you are the main character in your learning journey.

By taking a holistic approach to designing your personalized learning curriculum, you can create a plan that fits seamlessly into your life. This will help you stay motivated and on track, and ultimately increase your chances of success.

Challenge: Uncover Your Learning Preferences

Start discovering your learning preferences using AI, such as ChatGPT. Share your results with the JazzJune community and explain how you plan to use this knowledge to better design your learning curriculum. You can use a prompt such as: “How can I discover my learning preferences as I set out to design my own personalized curriculum (knowing that “learning styles” are not real and have been fully debunked)?”