Learning Modality Examples: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Learning Modality Examples, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
About 2 minutes
Try it here: pair one idea with two ways to learn it
Pairing something you hear with something you see can help. Write one thing you're learning and two ways to take it in.
What are you learning, and how will you take it in?
Practices that may help
- Use multiple modalities to encode information, not just one
Read about it, draw it, say it aloud, and use it in an example — all in one session.
The Learning Styles Myth: What the Research Actually Says - Use spoken audio for explanations paired with visual diagrams
Split visual and auditory working memory resources to process more information than either channel alone can handle.
Cognitive Load Theory: Learning Within Working Memory Limits - Stop studying "to your style" — study to the content
Choose your study method based on what the material requires, not what feels comfortable.
The Learning Styles Myth: What the Research Actually Says - Keep verbal and visual channels separate
Avoid presenting spoken narration and dense text at the same time.
Working Memory: How Your Brain Holds Thoughts in Play - Match study format to content type, not to self-concept
Spatial content deserves diagrams; sequential content deserves narrative — regardless of your preferences.
The Learning Styles Myth: What the Research Actually Says - Use multiple varied examples to map the concept’s true shape
Three different examples reveal what one example hides — the edges of the concept.
Concrete Examples: How to Make Abstract Ideas Stick - Learn through action, not just observation
Do the thing — physically enact, build, or rehearse — rather than studying it at one remove.
Embodied Cognition: How Your Body Shapes Your Thinking - The Learning Styles Myth: What the Research Actually Says
The popular idea that people have fixed learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) and learn best when instruction matches their style is not supported by controlled research. Dozens of studies have found no benefit to matching instruction style to supposed learning style. The better question is which study method works best for the specific type of content — and the answer to that question is well studied and quite different from the learning-styles framework. - Generate your own example after learning a concept
Immediately after encountering a concept, create a fresh example from your own life or field.
Concrete Examples: How to Make Abstract Ideas Stick - Gesture while learning or explaining
Move your hands to trace or enact what you are thinking — it aids comprehension and recall.
Embodied Cognition: How Your Body Shapes Your Thinking
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I learn everything in just one channel
- When I’m teaching something visual I cram the slide with a busy diagram and a wall of text on top of it, and I can see people’s eyes glaze over trying to read and look at once
- I always reach for the way of studying that feels most comfortable to me, and I’m starting to wonder if "this is how I learn best" is just an excuse to avoid the methods that actually work but feel harder.
- I try to read the slides while the lecturer is talking and somehow take in neither
- I force everything into the format I’m comfortable writing
Related concerns
- Visual Auditory Kinesthetic Research
The popular idea that people have fixed learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) and learn best when instruction matches their style is not supported by controlled research. Dozens of studies have found no benefit to matching instruction style to supposed learning style. The better question is which study method works best for the specific type of content — and the answer to that question is well studied and quite different from the learning-styles framework.
- Abstract Conceptualization Learning Style
Read about it, draw it, say it aloud, and use it in an example — all in one session.
Use multiple modalities to encode information, not just one
- Audio Visual Learning
Split visual and auditory working memory resources to process more information than either channel alone can handle.
Use spoken audio for explanations paired with visual diagrams
- Mayer Multimedia Learning
Read about it, draw it, say it aloud, and use it in an example — all in one session.
- Modality Effect Learning
Read about it, draw it, say it aloud, and use it in an example — all in one session.
- Are Learning Styles Real
The popular idea that people have fixed learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) and learn best when instruction matches their style is not supported by controlled research. Dozens of studies have found no benefit to matching instruction style to supposed learning style. The better question is which study method works best for the specific type of content — and the answer to that question is well studied and quite different from the learning-styles framework.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.