VARK® Communication Preferences

Neil Fleming and Colleen Mills described four ways people prefer to take in information:

1. Visual: diagrams, charts, maps, flowcharts and other designed graphics that show relationships.
2. Aural: listening and talking: briefings, discussions, questions and answers, podcasts.
3. Read/write: text: reports, procedures, FAQs, written instructions.
4. Kinesthetic: practice, concrete examples and doing: demonstrations, simulations, hands-on trials.

Fleming stressed that many people are multimodal, with more than one strong preference, and that preferences can shift with the task. He presented his questionnaire as a prompt for reflection rather than a diagnosis.

VARK therefore describes preferences, not fixed types or abilities.

The practical use is variety. At Larchfield Logistics, a new returns process is explained in four ways:

• Visual: a one-page process map pinned in each depot.
• Aural: a short team briefing with time for questions.
• Read/write: a written procedure and an FAQ on the intranet.
• Kinesthetic: a walk-through on the warehouse floor, processing three real returns.

No one is tested or sorted. Each important message simply reaches people through several modes, which also repeats it, and repetition helps it stick. The kinesthetic route matters most for changes to physical work, where people learn by doing.

VARK is therefore most useful as a checklist for the communication and training mix.

Change texts also describe modes of communication, which overlap with VARK but are not the same:

A frequent mix-up concerns non-verbal signals. They are seen, but they belong to non-verbal communication; the visual mode refers to designed images. Non-verbal signals can contradict the words, and people tend to notice the mismatch.

VARK and the modes of communication together remind a change manager to align what is said, shown, written and signaled.

VARK is often grouped with "learning styles", the idea that people learn better when teaching matches their preferred style. Harold Pashler and colleagues reviewed this idea in 2008. They found little sound evidence that matching instruction to a person's preferred style improves learning.

That finding does not make VARK useless. People do report preferences, and offering information in several formats helps a mixed audience. Some content also suits one mode naturally: a route is easier on a map, a procedure in writing, a physical task by doing it.

VARK is therefore best used to vary communication for everyone, not to assign each person a style.