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A rhythm makes this world take each step towards development. Poems are the life-infusing agents that hold within it magic that can change the world's perception radically. Art in its purest form through all of its modes communicate with people to make differences in their lives and to bring people closer. Millions across the globe write poems, but not everyone ruminates over the idea before penning down. Concepts always come in a snap of a finger and establishing it is altogether a different game. Talent alone doesn't make the perfect poem; skills matter almost equally. Writing random self-driven content on emotions doesn't always require much thought put into it as you are expressing all from your soul. But when it comes to communicating with people through your creativity, there has to be a certain amount of thought put into it before jotting down each word.

There are a few rules that have to be followed while writing poems. Poetry indeed is a medium to express thoughts and feelings in its purest format, but here you have to learn about the various rules that entail this artform.

1. Understanding Your Goal

Everything from a business idea to painting a canvas has to have a well-defined goal, be it making the most tender scones in your city or criticizing a certain community or group of politicians. Similarly, poetry also should have a clear goal to be achieved. You should know for yourself the target and make moves accordingly. This step makes it easier for you to stick to your goal and conform to its rules.

2. Step Out of the Bubble of Cliches

Having to read or watch the same thing all through the day will push the person into disinterest for all forms of art. Job makes a person program to the mundane activities of life, an escape from which is these poems and books to most of them. Try to avoid clichés that have become the face of poetry since its advent. Get into the uncharted zones of poetry that demand popularity and acceptance.

3. The Sabotaging Sentimentality

Pity and love have been drained of their capability to serve the readers with novelty. Many poets have achieved popularity by capitalizing on the demand for emotionally-driven poems. But times have changed, and the audience is seeking for new content. Delve into the unconventional areas and scour through all the possibilities before making what you feel is the quintessential poetry.

4. Images Help

Many of the researchers and expert critics in the field of poetry say that adding details into the poem make it enhanced. Having qualities of making all the senses of a human being function will make a poem more popular. Adding images to please the sense of sight will improve the quality of your poetry.

5. Metaphors are the Spirit

Words hit the reader harder when they have more profound meaning to it. Both imagery and writing that have surrealism and metaphors attached to it are likely to sell more and attract more people to it.

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A rhythm makes this world take each step towards development. Poems are the life-infusing agents that hold within it magic that ca

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Cite this guide: Yarborough, C. B., & Fedesco, H. N. (2020). Motivating students. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu//cft/guides-sub-pages/motivating-students/.

Introduction

Fostering student motivation is a difficult but necessary aspect of teaching that instructors must consider. Many may have led classes where students are engaged, motivated, and excited to learn, but have also led classes where students are distracted, disinterested, and reluctant to engage-and, probably, have led classes that are a mix. What factors influence students' motivation? How can instructors promote students' engagement and motivation to learn? While there are nuances that change from student to student, there are also models of motivation that serve as tools for thinking through and enhancing motivation in our classrooms. This guide will look at three frameworks: the expectancy-value-cost model of motivation, the ARCS model of instructional design, and self-determination theory. These three models highlight some of the major factors that influence student motivation, often drawing from and demonstrating overlap among their frameworks. The aim of this guide is to explore some of the literature on motivation and offer practical solutions for understanding and enhancing student motivation.

Expectancy - Value - Cost Model

The purpose of the original expectancy-value model was to predict students' achievement behaviors within an educational context. The model has since been refined to include cost as one of the three major factors that influence student motivation. Below is a description of the three factors, according to the model, that influence motivation.

Expectancy refers to a student's expectation that they can actually succeed in the assigned task. It energizes students because they feel empowered to meet the learning objectives of the course.

Value involves a student's ability to perceive the importance of engaging in a particular task. This gives meaning to the assignment or activity because students are clear on why the task or behavior is valuable.

Cost points to the barriers that impede a student's ability to be successful on an assignment, activity and/or the course at large. Therefore, students might have success expectancies and perceive high task value, however, they might also be aware of obstacles to their engagement or a potential negative affect resulting in performance of the task, which could decrease their motivation.

Three important questions to consider from the student perspective:
1. Expectancy - Can I do the task?

2. Value - Do I want to do the task?

* Intrinsic or interest value: the inherent enjoyment that an individual experiences from engaging in the task for its own sake.

* Utility value: the usefulness of the task in helping achieve other short term or long-term goals.

* Attainment value: the task affirms a valued aspect of an individual's identity and meets a need that is important to the individual.

3. Cost - Am I free of barriers that prevent me from investing my time, energy, and resources into the activity?

It's important to note that expectancy, value and cost are not shaped only when a student enters your classroom. These have been shaped over time by both individual and contextual factors. Each of your students comes in with an initial response, however there are strategies for encouraging student success, clarifying subject meaning and finding ways to mitigate costs that will increase your students' motivation. Everyone may not end up at the same level of motivation, but if you can increase each student's motivation, it will help the overall atmosphere and productivity of the course that you are teaching.

Strategies to Enhance Expectancy, Value, and Cost

Hulleman et. al (2016) summarize research-based sources that positively impact students' expectancy beliefs, perceptions of task value, and perceptions of cost, which might point to useful strategies that instructors can employ.

Research-based sources of expectancy-related beliefs

Expectancy source

Definition

Research-based sources of value

Research-based sources of cost

Sources:

Barron K. E., & Hulleman, C. S. (2015). Expectancy-value-cost model of motivation. International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences, 8, 503-509.

Hulleman, C. S., Barron, K. E., Kosovich, J. J., & Lazowski, R. A. (2016). Student motivation: Current theories, constructs, and interventions within an expectancy-value framework. In A. A. Lipnevich et al. (Eds.), Psychosocial Skills and School Systems in the 21st Century. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.

ARCS Model of Instructional Design

The ARCS model of instructional design was created to improve the motivational appeal of instructional materials. The ARCS model is grounded in an expectancy-value framework, which assumes that people are motivated to engage in an activity if it's perceived to be linked to the satisfaction of personal needs and if there is a positive expectancy for success. The purpose of this model was to fill a gap in the motivation literature by providing a model that could more clearly allow instructors to identify strategies to help improve motivation levels within their students.

ARCS is an acronym that stands for four factors, according to the model, that influence student motivation: attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction.

Attention refers to getting and sustaining student attention and directing attention to the appropriate stimuli.

Relevance involves making instruction applicable to present and future career opportunities, showing that learning in it of itself is enjoyable, and/or focusing on process over product by satisfying students' psychological needs (e.g., need for achievement, need for affiliation).

Confidence includes helping students believe that some level of success is possible if effort is exerted.

Satisfaction is attained by helping students feel good about their accomplishments and allowing them to exert some degree of control over the learning experience.

To use the ARCS instructional design model, these steps can be followed:

Define

Classify the problem

Analyze audience motivation

Prepare motivational objectives (i.e., identify which factor in the ARCS model to target based on the defined problem and audience analysis).

Design

Generate potential motivational strategies for each objective

Select strategies that a) don't take up too much instructional time; b) don't detract from instructional objectives; c) fall within time and money constraints; d) are acceptable to the audience; and e) are compatible with the instructor's personal style, preferences, and mode of instruction.

Develop

Prepare motivational elements

Integrate materials with instruction

Evaluate

Conduct a developmental try-out

Assess motivational outcomes

Strategies to Enhance Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction

Keller (1987) provides several suggestions for how instructors can positively impact students' attention, perceived relevance, confidence, and satisfaction.

Attention Strategies
Incongruity, Conflict

Introduce a fact that seems to contradict the learner's past experience.

Present an example that does not seem to exemplify a given concept.

Introduce two equally plausible facts or principles, only one of which can be true.

Play devil's advocate.

Concreteness Variability

In stand up delivery, vary the tone of your voice, and use body movement, pauses, and props.

Vary the format of instruction (information presentation, practice, testing, etc.) according to the attention span of the audience.

Vary the medium of instruction (platform delivery, film, video, print, etc.).

Break up print materials by use of white space, visuals, tables, different typefaces, etc.

Change the style of presentation (humorous-serious, fast-slow, loud-soft, active-passive, etc.).

Shift between student-instructor interaction and student-student interaction.

Humor Inquiry Participation
Use games, role plays, or simulations that require learner participation.

Relevance Strategies
Experience Present Worth
State explicitly the present intrinsic value of learning the content, as distinct from its value as a link to future goals.
Future Usefulness

State explicitly how the instruction relates to future activities of the learner.

Ask learners to relate the instruction to their own future goals (future wheel).

Need Matching Modeling Choice

Provide meaningful alternative methods for accomplishing a goal.

Provide personal choices for organizing one's work.

Confidence Strategies
Learning Requirements Difficulty
Organize materials on an increasing level of difficulty; that is, structure the learning material to provide a "conquerable" challenge.
Expectations Attributions

Attribute student success to effort rather than luck or ease of task when appropriate (i.e., when you know it's true!).

Encourage student efforts to verbalize appropriate attributions for both successes and failures.

Self-Confidence
Satisfaction Strategies
Natural Consequences Unexpected Rewards

Reward intrinsically interesting task performance with unexpected, non-contingent rewards.

Reward boring tasks with extrinsic, anticipated rewards.

Positive Outcomes

Give verbal praise for successful progress or accomplishment.

Give personal attention to students.

Provide informative, helpful feedback when it is immediately useful.

Provide motivating feedback (praise) immediately following task performance.

Negative Influences Scheduling
Source: Keller, J. M. (1987). Development and use of the ARCS model of instructional design. Journal of Instructional Development, 10, 2-10.

Self-Determination Theory

Self-determination theory (SDT) is a macro-theory of human motivation, emotion, and development that is concerned with the social conditions that facilitate or hinder human flourishing. While applicable to many domains, the theory has been commonly used to understand what moves students to act and persist in educational settings. SDT focuses on the factors that influence intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, which primarily involves the satisfaction of basic psychological needs.

Basic Psychological Needs

SDT posits that human motivation is guided by the need to fulfill basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Autonomy refers to having a choice in one's own individual behaviors and feeling that those behaviors stem from individual volition rather than from external pressure or control. In educational contexts, students feel autonomous when they are given options, within a structure, about how to perform or present their work.

Competence refers to perceiving one's own behaviors or actions as effective and efficient. Students feel competent when they are able to track their progress in developing skills or an understanding of course material. This is often fostered when students receive clear feedback regarding their progression in the class.

Relatedness refers to feeling a sense of belonging, closeness, and support from others. In educational settings, relatedness is fostered when students feel connected, both intellectually and emotionally, to their peers and instructors in the class. This can often be accomplished through interactions that allow members of the class to get to know each other on a deeper, more personal level.

Continuum of Self-Determination

SDT also posits that motivation exists on a continuum. When an environment provides enough support for the satisfaction of the psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness, an individual may experience self-determined forms of motivation: intrinsic motivation, integration, and identification. Self-determined motivation occurs when there is an internal perceived locus of causality (i.e., internal factors are the main driving force for the behavior). Integration and identification are also grouped as autonomous extrinsic motivation as the behavior is driven by internal and volitional choice.

Intrinsic motivation, which is the most self-determined type of motivation, occurs when individuals naturally and spontaneously perform behaviors as a result of genuine interest and enjoyment.

Integrated regulation is when individuals identify the importance of a behavior, integrate this behavior into their self-concept, and pursue activities that align with this self-concept.

Identified regulation is where people identify and recognize the value of a behavior, which then drives their action.

When an environment does not provide enough support for the satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, an individual may experience non-self-determined forms of motivation: introjection and external regulation. Introjection and external regulation are grouped as controlled extrinsic motivation because people enact these behaviors due to external or internal pressures.

Introjected regulation occurs when individuals are controlled by internalized consequences administered by the individual themselves, such as pride, shame, or guilt.

External regulation is when people's behaviors are controlled exclusively by external factors, such as rewards or punishments.

Finally, at the bottom of the continuum is amotivation, which is lowest form of motivation.

Amotivation exists when there is a complete lack of intention to behave and there is no sense of achievement or purpose when the behavior is performed.

Below is a figure depicting the continuum of self-determination taken from Lonsdale, Hodge, and Rose (2009).

Although having intrinsically motivated students would be the ultimate goal, it may not be a practical one within educational settings. That's because there are several tasks that are required of students to meet particular learning objectives that may not be inherently interesting or enjoyable. Instead, instructors can employ various strategies to satisfy students' basic psychological needs, which should move their level of motivation along the continuum, and hopefully lead to more self-determined forms of motivation, thus yielding the greatest rewards in terms of student academic outcomes.

Below are suggestions for how instructors can positively impact students' perceived autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Strategies to Enhance Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness

Autonomy Strategies

Have students choose paper topics

Have students choose the medium with which they will present their work

Co-create rubrics with students (e.g., participation rubrics, assignment rubrics)

Have students choose the topics you will cover in a particular unit

Drop the lowest assessment or two (e.g., quizzes, exams, homework)

Have students identify preferred assignment deadlines

Gather mid-semester feedback and make changes based on student suggestions

Provide meaningful rationales for learning activities

Acknowledge students' feelings about the learning process or learning activities throughout the course

Competence Strategies

Set high but achievable learning objectives

Communicate to students that you believe they can meet your high expectations

Communicate clear expectations for each assignment (e.g., use rubrics)

Include multiple low-stakes assessments

Give students practice with feedback before assessments

Provide lots of early feedback to students

Have students provide peer feedback

Scaffold assignments

Praise student effort and hard work

Provide a safe environment for students to fail and then learn from their mistakes

Relatedness Strategies

Share personal anecdotes

Get to know students via small talk before/after class and during breaks

Require students to come to office hours (individually or in small groups)

Have students complete a survey where they share information about themselves

Use students' names (perhaps with the help of name tents)

Have students incorporate personal interests into their assignments

Share a meal with students or bring food to class

Incorporate group activities during class, and allow students to work with a variety of peers

Arrange formal study groups

Convey warmth, caring, and respect to students

Sources:

Lonsdale, C., Hodge, K., & Rose, E. (2009). Athlete burnout in elite sport: A self-determination perspective. Journal of Sports Sciences, 27, 785-795.

Niemiec, C. P., & Ryan, R. M. (2009). Autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the classroom: Applying self-determination theory to educational practice. Theory and Research in Education, 7, 133-144.

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2017). Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness. New York: Guilford.

Additional Strategies for Motivating Students

Below are some additional research-based strategies for motivating students to learn.

Become a role model for student interest. Deliver your presentations with energy and enthusiasm. As a display of your motivation, your passion motivates your students. Make the course personal, showing why you are interested in the material.

Get to know your students. You will be able to better tailor your instruction to the students' concerns and backgrounds, and your personal interest in them will inspire their personal loyalty to you. Display a strong interest in students' learning and a faith in their abilities.

Use examples freely. Many students want to be shown why a concept or technique is useful before they want to study it further. Inform students about how your course prepares students for future opportunities.

Use a variety of student-active teaching activities. These activities directly engage students in the material and give them opportunities to achieve a level of mastery.

Teach by discovery. Students find it satisfying to reason through a problem and discover the underlying principle on their own.

Cooperative learning activities are particularly effective as they also provide positive social pressure.

Set realistic performance goals and help students achieve them by encouraging them to set their own reasonable goals. Design assignments that are appropriately challenging in view of the experience and aptitude of the class.

Place appropriate emphasis on testing and grading. Tests should be a means of showing what students have mastered, not what they have not. Avoid grading on the curve and give everyone the opportunity to achieve the highest standard and grades.

Be free with praise and constructive in criticism. Negative comments should pertain to particular performances, not the performer. Offer nonjudgmental feedback on students' work, stress opportunities to improve, look for ways to stimulate advancement, and avoid dividing students into sheep and goats.

Give students as much control over their own education as possible. Let students choose paper and project topics that interest them. Assess them in a variety of ways (tests, papers, projects, presentations, etc.) to give students more control over how they show their understanding to you. Give students options for how these assignments are weighted.

Sources:

Bain, K. (2004). What the best college teachers do. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

DeLong, M., & Winter, D. (2002). Learning to teach and teaching to learn mathematics: Resources for professional development. Washington, D.C.: Mathematical Association of America.

Nilson, L. (2016). Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Josey-Bass.

This teaching guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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by Chelsea Yarborough and Heather Fedesco Print Version Cite this guide: Yarborough, C. B., & Fedesco, H. N. (2020). Motivating students. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu//cft/guides-sub-pages/motivating-students/. Introduction Expectancy - Value - Cost Model ARCS Model of Instructional Design Self-Determination Theory Additional Strategies for Motivating Students Introduction Fostering student...

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Millennials know their way around a computer. This might make them some of the most tech-savvy learners, but it also makes them some of the most distracted. In this article, I'll share 8 top tips that you can use to grab their attention, boost their motivation, and make them lifelong learners.

How To Engage And Inspire Millennials In eLearning: 8 Tips For eLearning Professionals

Millennials are the first generation to truly grow up with technology. According to Neil Howe and William Strauss, authors of " Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069", learners who were born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s fall into the millennial generation. They are classified as highly collaborative and ambitious individuals who thrive in online social environments. Millennials also want learning anytime and anywhere, as well as educational experiences that are rewarding and personally fulfilling. So, how do you check all of these boxes and create engaging and inspiring eLearning for your millennial audience?

1. Tap into the power of social networking.
Millennials feel right at home on social networking sites. They spend a fair amount of time chatting with friends, communicating with co-workers, and even conducting business via social networking. By incorporating social media into your eLearning strategy, you are not only offering them an invaluable social learningexperience, but you are leveraging the power of educational technologies in your eLearning course. Ask them to start a that explores the subject matter, or encourage them to research a project using solely social media, such as and groups.

2. Always include a learning motive.
Above all else, the millennial generation needs a reason to learn. They will only becomeactive participants if they have a valid motive and know that it ties into a real world purpose or goal. This primarily comes from the fact that they are pragmatic. These learners want to be able to apply all of the information they have learned and put every skill to use. Theories and ideas are all good and well, but millennials need to be able to see how every piece of information translates to the real world.

3. Offer them a real challenge.
The millennial generation isn't typically interested in mundane experiences, they want an adventurous journey that tests their mettle and teaches them something about themselves or the world, preferably both. This is why it's essential to offer them a challenge, an obstacle that they must overcome. It can come in form of an interactive branching scenario or a that evokes emotion and ties into a problem. The main goal is to make it compelling and unconventional so that they can put their problem solving skills to work.

4. Consistent feedback is key.
While some generations may shy away from feedback, especially when it's not necessarily favorable, millennials, generally speaking, actually expect it. They are constantly exposed to other people's thoughts, ideas, and comments thanks to social media sites, and they expect to get the same feedback in their online learning experiences. Give them constructive criticism that can benefit them in the long run, and ask for their in return. This gives you the chance to identify the strengths and shortcomings of your eLearning course, making their input an invaluable tool.

5. Gamify the eLearning experience.
Virtually every generation enjoys a good game, but millennials grew up immersed in a gaming culture. Gaming consoles, such as Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox were all the rage while millennials were growing up. Offer rewards, badges, or just the opportunity to track their progress in an online game-like environment. They are also particularly fond of leaderboards, primarily due to their friendly competitive streak. Just make sure that their motivation is more than when you're designing your eLearning gamification strategy.

6. Keep eLearning bite-sized.
Millennials don't usually have theattention spans or time to sit around and complete an hour long eLearning course. This is why it's vital to keep your eLearning bite-sized by creating modules that take minutes rather than hours. Shorter lessons also help them to more effectively the information, as it prevents cognitive overload and allows them to focus on one topic at a time before moving onto the next online lesson.

7. Make eLearning fun and flexible.
Learners from this generation want their learning to be fun, fast, and flexible. They are generally pressed for time, so they want to make the most of the little learning time they have. Include a diverse range of online activities to keep their attention and give them the chance to complete online modules when it's most convenient for them. Don't spend too much time on any screen, but still ensure that they have enough time to absorb the information and retain it for future use.

8. Encourage online group collaboration.
The millennial generation thrives in social environments. They enjoy interacting with their peers and working together to solve a common problem. This makes them ideal candidates forcollaborative eLearning strategies. Ask them to form a group and complete an online assignment using an online project management platform, such as an online presentation or website. This also enables them to benefit from the eLearning experience and skills of their peers, as well as get that all-important feedback we discussed earlier.

Create an eLearning experience that millennials won't soon forget by using these top tips. Make the most of their "tech native" sensibilities and hold their undivided attention, so that they can achieve their learning goals and reap the real world benefits. Also, bear in mind that millennial learners are from diverse cultural and educational backgrounds. As such, when you're creating your eLearning course you should target a diverse demographic. Do your research to gauge what is appropriate and what is not, as well as their preferred technology tools and devices.

Want to discover more tips and techniques for engaging adult learners? Check the article Tips To Engage and Inspire Adult Learners to discover 11 tips to overcome the obstacles that are often associated with training adult audiences.

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8 Tips To Engage And Inspire Millennials In eLearning - eLearning Industry

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Millennials know their way around a computer. This might make them some of the most tech-savvy learners, but it also makes them some of the most distracted. In this article, I'll share 8 top tips that you can use to grab their attention, boost their motivation, and make them lifelong learners.

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Teacher Tools - Visual Auditory Kinaesthetic VAK Questionnaire

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London Gifted & Talented creates high quality learning programmes and e-resources to stretch students and support their teachers at Key Stages 1-5 across the curriculum. Our online resources are free to use and accessible from all over the UK and worldwide.

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An explanation of the 4 Learning Styles

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Activist, Pragmatist, Theorist or Reflector

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Activist, Pragmatist, Theorist or Reflector

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Honey & Mumford

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Each of us learns in different ways. Some of us prefer to study in depth before we tackle a task; others prefer to "get stuck into the job" and learn as we go along. Some of us are satisfied when the methods we use get the job done; others are more concerned with why a particular approach proved successful.

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Understanding How Team Members Learn

The fact that you're reading this article shows that you have an appetite for learning and improving your skills. But even if you're happy to scroll through words on a screen, is that the best learning style for you?

Would you get more out of it if we were to present this information visually or aurally, perhaps through an infographic or flow chart, or with a podcast or vlog?

What kind of learner are you?

In this article we'll look at the VAK Learning Styles model and explore the importance to you and your team of understanding people's different styles of learning.

What Is the VAK Learning Styles Model?

The VAK Learning Styles Model was developed by psychologists in the 1920s to classify the most common ways that people learn. According to the model, most of us prefer to learn in one of three ways: visual, auditory or kinesthetic (although, in practice, we generally "mix and match" these three styles).

Visual: a visually-dominant learner absorbs and retains information better when it is presented in, for example, pictures, diagrams and charts.

Auditory: an auditory-dominant learner prefers listening to what is being presented. He or she responds best to voices, for example, in a lecture or group discussion. Hearing his own voice repeating something back to a tutor or trainer is also helpful.

Kinesthetic: a kinesthetic-dominant learner prefers a physical experience. She likes a "hands-on" approach and responds well to being able to touch or feel an object or learning prop.

A variation on the acronym, developed by New Zealand-based teacher Neil D. Fleming, is VARK®, or visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic:

Reading/Writing: a reading- or writing-dominant learner uses repetition of words and writing. Clearly, there is an overlap with visual and auditory styles, as words and writing can be both, but, commonly, a person who prefers to learn this way remembers or organizes things best in his mind by taking down notes.

Understanding Learning Preferences

You'll probably already have a good sense of what your learning preference is, as this will have been present from your earliest days at school. For example, is your default response to a problem or challenge to sketch something out on a piece of paper (visual), talk about it (auditory), or build a model or tangible representation of the problem (kinesthetic)?

If you are still unsure of your learning style, you may be able to identify it by considering these scenarios:

Think about how you complain. When you complain about something, chances are your emotions are running high and you'll revert to the communication style you feel most comfortable with. Do you want to see the whites of someone's eyes (visual), harangue someone over the phone (auditory), hammer your fists on the table (kinesthetic), or fire off a curt email (reading/writing)?

Imagine yourself in an uncomfortable situation. If you were lost in a strange city at night, how would you find your way to your destination? Would you use a map (visual), ask someone for directions (auditory), or just keep walking until you worked out where you were (kinesthetic)?

What style of presentation do you prefer? Think back to the last presentation you attended. What was it that most stuck in your mind? Was it the charts or visual aids (visual), the words the presenter used (auditory), or any audience participation (kinesthetic)?

Strategies for Improving Learning

Formal training for your team is likely the responsibility of your organization's L&D department. But, as a manager, there may also be occasions when you have to deliver basic training or coaching sessions, brief your people, or do team-building exercises. Understanding the three VAK learning styles will help you do all these things more effectively.

Tip:

This article describes just one approach to learning styles. See our article, 4MAT, to explore other models and approaches, and see our other tools and resources here.

The simplicity and intuitive usefulness of the VAK model has contributed to its enduring popularity with teachers and trainers, but it's important to remember that your people will have a different mix of strengths and preferences. So, when you have to deliver training or a presentation, ensure that you include a mixture of aids and methods that will engage your team members, whatever their preferred learning style.

One criticism of the model is that, while it is pretty self-evident that we all learn and retain information in different ways, there is little hard evidence to show that, in general, you learn better if your training is tailored to one particular learning preference. As this Mind Tools post demonstrates, other factors also play their part, such as natural learning ability, technical skill level, interest in the subject, and the learning environment. Training needs to be flexible and responsive to circumstance and context, as well as to learning preference.

The table below offers some strategies you can employ to appeal to people's different learning styles:

These learners will respond to and use phrases such as:

I see what you mean.

I get the picture.

What's your view?

These learners will respond to and use phrases such as:

That rings a bell.

I hear what you're saying.

That sounds OK to me.

These learners will respond to and use phrases such as:

That feels right.

How does that grab you?

Let me try.

Engage visual learners by using diagrams, charts and pictures.

Engage auditory learners by stressing key words, and telling stories and anecdotes.

Engage kinesthetic learners by including physical activities and "hands-on" tasks.

We have numerous tools and resources to help you provide training sessions or prepare briefs for your team, which take into account the VAK learning styles.

Visual (and reading/writing) learners, as we have seen, respond to visual stimulus. They may find it easier to take notes if they use Mind Maps®. Mind Mapping breaks down complex subjects into manageable chunks, making it easier to digest and remember information. And they can be made even more effective with color and additional images.

The adage "a picture paints a thousand words" is especially true for visual learners, so find out how to use images effectively and creatively with our article, Creating Effective Presentation Visuals.

Auditory learners enjoy the back-and-forth of group discussion and verbal explanation, so it can be useful to include brainstorming, debates and storytelling in your training sessions.

Kinesthetic learners thrive on activity, so a good technique is to incorporate group work or role play into your learning. Getting team members out of the training room and into an environment where they can try things out, such as team-building exercises, can be helpful too.

Key Points

Understanding your own learning preferences, and those of your team, can help you develop more effective strategies for delivering learning and training at work, and embedding knowledge.

You can use the VAK Learning Styles model to classify some of the most common ways people learn. VAK stands for visual, auditory and kinesthetic:

Visual: learners respond to images and graphics.

Auditory: learners prefer verbal presentations.

Kinesthetic: learners prefer a physical, hands-on approach.

A variation on this is VARK®, or visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic.

While understanding these preferences can give you a valuable insight into how to plan and deliver training and learning, people employ all three learning styles to some degree, so it is sensible to present material in a variety of formats.

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VAK Learning StylesUnderstanding How Team Members Learn

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Understanding How Team Members Learn The fact that you're reading this article shows that you have an appetite for learning and improving your skills. But even if you're happy to scroll through words on a screen, is that the best learning style for you?

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Inspire and engage millennials in learning by understanding their needs and using techniques like gamification, video-based training and mobile learning.

© iStockphoto

A great deal - no, a very great deal - has been written about how millennials learn. Sometimes called "Generation Y," millennials follow in the wake of the "Baby Boomers" (who were born from 1946 to 1964), and "Generation X" (born from 1965 to around 1980). Different definitions of millennials place their birth dates as anywhere between 1981 and the 2000s.

These people are only, at most, a quarter of the way into their working lives and yet they're already a cause célèbre as far as educators and L&D professionals are concerned. That's because the technology-based age in which they've been brought up allows their learning preferences to be different from those of any previous generation.

While money, career progression and retirement plans have been key features in how "pre-millennial" workers have thought about their careers, we're told that millennials have different priorities and aspirations. They're supposed to be motivated by their mission, not by the money they earn. Where pre-millennials valued diligence and organizational loyalty, millennials see a job as a means of learning as much as possible before moving on to the next challenging project. Millennials tend to like flexibility. They prefer guidelines to rules and have replaced the principle of spending strict working hours in designated workplaces with the one that you work at "ideas," not offices, during whatever hours suit you in order to get the job done.

Learning Preferences

These generalizations merely indicate tendencies and trends relating to what motivates, engages and inspires millennials. Similarly, millennials seem to be the first generation that's happy using technology for learning. This manifests itself in a propensity to learn interactively and collaboratively but, often, outside a classroom - being connected to tutors, mentors and peers remotely, via technology.

When it comes to preparing L&D activities for millennials - as for anyone else - L&D professionals must address such issues as:

Should basic training methods or technologies be updated?

Should everything now be bite-sized, mobile and social?

Should core messaging strategies be changed?

Yet, while learning delivery strategy may be different where millennials are concerned, the design of that learning should still begin by determining the desired business goal, then working backwards to devise ways to build the desired skills, knowledge sets and motivation to learn.

Millennials tend to be open to new ideas - especially from cultures that are new to them. They enjoy learning through investigation, discovery and experience - albeit via technology. They may have a relatively short attention span, spend long periods using social media, and respond poorly to previously successful training strategies but this is no excuse for losing sight of the basics of learning design, and espousing gimmicks.

Strategies to use With Millennials

Learning strategies for millennials could include:

Video-based learning - Millennials tend to respond more positively to visually presented learning materials than older workers do. Moreover, having grown up in a viral, social, video-based culture in which media is two-directional, they're more likely to contribute to discussions and provide new material rather than merely consume it. They view media as a conversation-enabler, not a passive review.

Delivery via mobile learning - This has the benefit for millennials of being anytime, anyplace, just in time, and just enough.

Gamification - This process of adding motivational elements within a learning framework or system to increase user engagement is based upon game theory and game mechanics. Josh Squires, the chief operating officer of Docebo EMEA, explains, "The idea behind gamification is that, if you can help your employees to enjoy what they do, you should reap rewards in terms of employee motivation and productivity." Alessio Artuffo, Docebo's chief operating officer in North America, adds: "You implement gamification by running competitions against your performance objectives, learning goals or key performance indicators; making sure you set the pace of competition and ensuring the top performers are displayed on a leader board. It's also important that you reward your participants - even the ones who're struggling in comparison with the others."

The Millennial View

A "millennial" - Rhys Little, a serving officer in the UK's Army Reserve and a project manager with the global organization Mitsubishi Electric UK - says: "I found learning hard at school but it's easy in the military. The military tends towards kinesthetic learning, while school prefers audio-based learning.

"Social media and the Internet enable people to learn in a different, bite-sized way. I've found that YouTube has been great whenever I've needed to know something like how to fix a dripping tap. While there's great variance in the videos' production values, watching a useful video saves a lot of time.

"Crash Course and CPG Grey are two exceptional 'posters' on YouTube - regularly producing informative videos. These five- to 10-minute videos are engaging and enjoyable to watch. Like Wikipedia, social media learning can be a good place to start but you need to bear in mind that it doesn't give you the full picture. Pandering to the short attention span, it really requires the user to do further study."

Rhys' "viva video" view is supported by Susie Hale, another millennial and Rhys' junior by a few years. On a one-year industry placement from Leeds University, where she's studying product design, Susie is currently working as a marketing assistant at Silver Fox, a UK-based cable label manufacturer whose products are sold around the world.

"I like to learn by listening to people and noting down what they say - which, of course, is one of the traditional approaches to learning," she says. "However, if I need to know about something, I might read a book but I'd never think of enrolling in an evening class or even taking a correspondence course. I'd Google the topic I needed to know about, read what I could, and then view some relevant videos on YouTube.

"Thankfully, all of that - unlike any classroom based course - is available anywhere and at any time, as long as there's Internet access."
What strategies have worked for you when training younger employees? Are you a millennial? What types of resources help you learn best?

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Learning and Development Blog " Learning the Millennial Way

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Inspire and engage millennials in learning by understanding their needs and using techniques like gamification, video-based training and mobile learning. © iStockphoto A great deal - no, a very great deal - has been written about how millennials learn.

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This quiz is part of a resource
for biomedical professionals
developed by

View EMTRAIN's online
course catalogue for
biomedical professionals

We all approach our learning differently; as trainers, we need to take different learning styles into account if we want to get the most out of our trainees.
Take the short learning styles quiz - based on Honey & Mumford 1982 [1] - to identify your personal preference and some learning methods especially suited to this style. Importantly, we will also direct you to learning methods that cater for different styles to help you incorporating a balanced combination of learning methods into your training.

Look at the Quiz statements and tick the boxes for those that are usually true for you. Leave the boxes empty if the statements are usually untrue for you.

The quiz statements are reproduced with kind permission of RapidBI.com [2] from their 'learning styles lite' quiz.

Name and other information:

The Figure in the Introduction is based on David Kolb's model and retrieved and redrawn from the website of Donald Clark - Learning Styles Experiential Learning Model [5]. This web app is provided by EMTRAIN WP8.

Cath Brooksbank, ELIXIR (EMBL-EBI)

Rebecca Ludwig, EATRIS (HZI)

Pavel Dallakian, EMTRAIN (MUW)

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This quiz is part of a resourcefor biomedical professionals developed by View EMTRAIN's online course catalogue for biomedical professionals We all approach our learning differently; as trainers, we need to take different learning styles into account if we want to get the most out of our trainees.

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Having developed the model over many years prior, David Kolb published his learning styles model in 1984. The model gave rise to related terms such as Kolb's experiential learning theory (ELT), and Kolb's learning styles inventory (LSI).

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How To: Make a Pompom with a Cardboard Disc