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2. What type of information do you preferentially perceive: sensory
(external)—sights, sounds, physical sensations? Or intuitive (internal)—
possibilities, insights, hunches?
3. Through which sensory channel is external information most effectively

perceived: visual—pictures, diagrams, graphs, demonstrations? Or verbal—
words, sounds? (Other sensory channels like touch, taste, and smell are relatively
untapped in most educational environments, and are not considered here.)
4. How do you progress toward understanding: sequentially—in continual
steps? Or globally—in large jumps, holistically?
TRY IT OUT HERE: http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html
Active and Reflective Learners
Everybody is active sometimes and reflective sometimes. Your preference for
one category or the other may be strong, moderate, or mild. A balance of the two is
desirable. If you always act before reflecting, you can jump into things prematurely
and get into trouble, while if you spend too much time reflecting, you may never get
anything done.
“Let’s try it out and see how it works” is an active learner’s phrase; “Let’s
think it through first” is the reflective learner’s response. If you are an active learner,
you tend to retain and understand information best by doing something active with
it—discussing it, applying it, or explaining it to others. Reflective learners prefer to
think about it quietly first.
Sitting through lectures without getting to do anything physical but take notes
is hard for both learning types but particularly hard for active learners. Active
learners tend to enjoy group work more than reflective learners, who prefer working
alone.
Sensing and Intuitive Learners
Everybody is sensing sometimes and intuitive sometimes. Here too, your
preference for one or the other may be strong, moderate, or mild. To be effective as a
learner and problem solver, you need to be able to function both ways. If you
overemphasize intuition, you may miss important details or make careless mistakes in
calculations or hands-on work; if you overemphasize sensing, you may rely too much
on memorization and familiar methods and not concentrate enough on understanding
and innovative thinking.
Even if you need both, which one best reflects you? Sensors often like solving
problems by well-established methods and dislike complications and surprises;
intuitors like innovation and dislike repetition. Sensors are more likely than intuitors
to resent being tested on material that has not been explicitly covered in class.
Sensing learners tend to like learning facts; intuitive learners often prefer discovering
possibilities and relationships.
Sensors tend to be patient with details and good at memorizing facts and doing
hands-on (laboratory) work; intuitors may be better at grasping new concepts and are
often more comfortable than sensors with abstractions and mathematical
formulations. Sensors tend to be more practical and careful than intuitors; intuitors
tend to work faster and to be more innovative than sensors.

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