Is it a dog with Spanish pronunciation? Or a new alien world on Star Trek? We wish. Instead, VARK stands for Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic. Which probably gives you a bit of insight into what VARK is. Yep: it has to do with learning styles.

 

Wrong vark.

More precisely, VARK is a questionnaire that helps people to determine which of four modalities (Visual, Aural, Read/Write, Kinesthetic) comprises their personal mode of learning.

Originally developed by Dr. Neil Fleming in New Zealand in 1987, VARK is a series of just 16 questions (short and sweet) designed to help people figure out how they learn best. It's marketed as a tool for both businesses and educational institutions. And in addition to the original questionnaire, there are now customized versions targeted at younger people and athletes. Because they deserve to know their learning styles, too?

The general idea is that VARK can be used by employers, employees, teachers, students, coaches, parents—essentially anyone who wants to better understand their own learning style or the learning styles of those around them.

Why this could be helpful for teachers is a no-brainer. If most of your students are visual learners, you might want to cut down on your lecture time, or at least make sure you're using charts, diagrams, pictures, and other visual aids to get everyone on board.

On the other hand, if you've got a bunch of kinesthetic learners, you may need to bring in some hands-on models or build in more movement and discussion breaks so students enhance their learning by getting up and interacting with others before they nod off.

And the good news for educators is that although VARK is copyrighted and trademarked, many of the VARK materials are free for use in educational institutions, as long as you ask first and obtain permission.

What Can 16 Questions Possibly Tell Me?

According to Fleming and his colleagues, a lot. In their FAQ , they explain that tests with too many questions (more than 25 or so) may cause survey fatigue or boredom, or may cause test-takers to place less value on each question. And we can't have that.

In addition, the VARKsters acknowledge that there are a slew of learning style assessment tests out there, and that many of them leave people with a fleeting sense of insight followed by a lasting sense of "so what?" Proponents of VARK say their questionnaire is different because it provides follow-up materials that can be used to help people better understand particular learning styles and know how to work with them.

For a price, of course.

The underside is that the brief strategy guides for each modality that are available for free on the website are pretty limited. They have some good ideas, sure, but they don't offer a whole bunch that most educators couldn't come up with on their own. There are, however, a couple of levels of membership that provide greater access to more in-depth materials, as well as access to test results for multiple students and, in some cases, faculty and staff members.

Ready to reach for your wallet? The basic business or school membership is currently $650 NZD (New Zealand Dollars), and it provides access to VARK results, profiles, and strategies for up to 100 respondents with a small add-on fee ($1-3 USD) for each extra person who takes the test. There is also an individual teacher membership—designed for a teacher with up to four classes. That costs $125 NZD.

And yes, this is starting to sound a little like Scientology.

Is It Really Worth It?

Ultimately, only you can make that call. If you're interested in finding out your VARK profile, or having your students determine theirs, you can always just take the questionnaire online for free, have your students do the same, and then record the results on your own. Now that we mention it, it's not too tough to beat the system…

Plus, the mini (and we do mean "mini") strategy guides provided on the site may help you come up with a few new strategies for targeting different learning styles. And if you feel like more information would be helpful, you could test out an individual teacher subscription to see what you get.

It's worth noting that while VARK isn't necessarily the wellest known in educational circles, the VARK questionnaire has been used in numerous scientific studies of learning styles and preferences, including the following:

• Study #1: "Using VARK Approach for Assessing Preferred Learning Styles of First Year Medical Sciences Students: A Survey from Iran," published in the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research

• Study #2: "A Comparative Analysis of Preferred Learning and Teaching Styles for Engineering, Industrial, and Technology Education Students and Faculty," published in the Journal of Technology Education.

• Study #3"VARK learning style and student satisfaction with traditional and online courses," published in the International Journal of Educational Research.

And if all those fellas think it does the trick, there might be something to it.