VARK Analysis
Grand Canyon University
Family Centered Health Promotion
NRS-429V
April 13, 2015
VARK Analysis Recall sitting in a four hour lecture. How much was actually heard and retained without having to go over notes or listening to the recorded lecture again? It is surprising how when one listens to a recorded lecture for the second time, new information is heard that was not remembered from the first time. The reason for this is short term memory lasts for ten to fifteen seconds if the information isn’t repeated. Long-term memory lasts longer but needs to encoded and passed from short term to long term by using recall (Borgmeier, 2004). Since the mind can only focus on a single thing for a few minutes, any method of learning a student can use to retain information is priceless. VARK can help with this process.
What Is VARK
VARK is a simple questioner designed to make one aware of what type of preferred learning style is best suited for her by scoring in (visual, aural, read/write, kinesthetic) VARK ("What is VARK?” ). Once a student, nursing student for example, has this motivating information it can be a tremendous help with how to study, take notes, and organizing for success. VARK not only helps students but also the instructors. So many times have students said they had a hard time learning from an instructor because of their teaching style. This can be tremendous barrier in students learning process if an instructor will only have one style of teaching. Since instructors have students with all of the above mentioned modalities they have to learn to teach to all of them in order for students to be successful. By taking their own survey and knowing the results of the students, the instructors can hone in on a variety of teaching methods resulting in much greater success for all.

Kinesthetic
Kinesthetic is one of the learning strategies explained in the VARK guide. This writer will use it as an example due to the fact it was shown to be this writes style. Kinesthetic learners have many good qualities to aid in achieving success in the classroom. Some helpful qualities are: great hand and eye coordination, quick reactions, can duplicate something after doing it once, ready to experiment, good at sports, and performs well in art and drama (Roell, 2015). Applying these above qualities to learning is very exciting. According to VARK’s list of some ways kinesthetic learners love to take in information includes listening to lecturers give real-life examples, hands on approach which uses all of the senses, field trips, labs, anything regarding motion (Roell, 2015).
This writer finds the results of this VARK questioner and the above characteristics to be right on target. As a Kinesthetic learner, this writer struggled to find success in remembering information in nursing school in a variety of ways until finally putting it all together. Some successful approaches included sitting in front of the classroom. Here, one has a front and center seat in order to hear and focus without getting distracted. Recording lectures is a great way not to miss any information given by instructors. It is amazing how much is missed until listening over a recorded lecture and hearing something that was never heard the first time. Recording is a great way to go over a part of the lecture that was not understood the first time it was explained. This writer recalls remembering so much by instructors’ personal stories, some funny, from their work experiences in the hospitals. To this day, those examples help me remember