Giving Compass' Take:

• The Atlantic discusses takeaways from the VARK (Visual, Auditory, Reading, and Kinesthetic) questionnaire, which indicates that people can't be easily pigeonholed into a specific type of learning style.

• How will this affect proponents of personalized learning or other innovation-focused education initiatives? The takeaway may simply be: Keep an open mind.

• Here are some pathways to 21st century teaching and learning.

In the early ‘90s, a New Zealand man named Neil Fleming decided to sort through something that had puzzled him during his time monitoring classrooms as a school inspector. In the course of watching 9,000 different classes, he noticed that only some teachers were able to reach each and every one of their students. What were they doing differently?

Fleming zeroed in on how it is that people like to be presented information. For example, when asking for directions, do you prefer to be told where to go or to have a map sketched for you?

Today, 16 questions like this comprise the VARK questionnaire that Fleming developed to determine someone’s “learning style.” VARK, which stands for “Visual, Auditory, Reading, and Kinesthetic," sorts students into those who learn best visually, through aural or heard information, through reading, or through “kinesthetic” experiences.

Read the full article about the VARK questionnaire and learning styles by Olga Khazan at The Atlantic.