Chances are that you’ve had the car radio on recently. You like to listen while driving, you auditory preferee you. Remember that meal you last prepared? You do? Then big it up for the motor (kinaesthetic) domain.

All psychology is mediated by language. No one can really know what’s really going on in that disputed zone, north of the neck, between another’s ears, beyond whatever they choose to tell us.

The physiological, on the other hand, can be observed and, to some extent, measured. While we may dispute the methods used for measuring, the fact remains that, depending on the context, each of us exercises preferred learning styles every day.

Preferred learning styles questionnaires (PLSQs) aren’t a panacea but the best can enhance initial assessment and lesson planning. Competent teachers plan lessons to provide opportunities for seeing, listening, speaking and doing. Really effective teachers use learning styles analysis alongside differentiated learning to fine-tune the planning and delivery of those opportunities.

Classroom pragmatics dictate those powerful management techniques in neurolinguistic programming - if something works teachers will use it.

Pete Keeffe

Rochdale