Teaching How They Learn: VARK Learning Types

The "aha" moment

I was on a call with a colleague who'd seen the project, when she mentioned something that should have been obvious: "You know Max doesn't learn like Lena, right? He needs to do things, not read about them."

She was right. When I explain a math concept to Max with a formula first, his eyes glaze over. But if I say "imagine you're buying three Pokémon packs at five euros each" — suddenly he's engaged.

Lena is the opposite. Give her the rule, let her write it down, and she's got it. Real-world scenarios sometimes confuse her more than they help.

The tutors needed to know this.

The VARK model

There's a well-known framework for learning styles called VARK, developed by Neil Fleming. It categorises learners into four types:

🖼️ Visual

Learns through images, diagrams, spatial understanding. Prefers charts, mind maps, and colour-coded notes.

Tutor adaptation: Uses ASCII diagrams, number lines, structured layouts. "Picture this: the number line looks like..."

💬 Auditory

Learns through listening, discussing, explaining out loud. Processes information better when spoken.

Tutor adaptation: Asks more questions, encourages "explain it back to me", rephrases concepts multiple ways.

📝 Read/Write

Learns through reading and writing. Loves lists, definitions, and written instructions.

Tutor adaptation: Gives clear rules upfront, uses bullet points, encourages note-taking.

🛠️ Kinesthetic

Learns through doing, examples, real-world application. Needs to try things to understand them.

Tutor adaptation: Starts with scenarios ("Imagine you're at the store..."), uses trial-and-error, lots of practice problems.

How it works in ClawTutor

When a child first talks to their tutor, the tutor runs a quick, playful assessment — four simple questions that don't feel like a test:

Matteo: Hey Max! 👋 Quick question before we start —
        when you learn something new, what helps most?

        A) Reading about it 📖
        B) Trying it out right away 🎮
        C) Someone explaining it to me 🗣️
        D) Seeing a picture or diagram 📊

Four questions later, the tutor knows the child's primary and secondary learning type. This gets saved to a LEARNING_PROFILE.md file in their workspace.

From then on, every explanation is adapted:

Kinesthetic Max gets: "Imagine you have 12 stickers and want to share them equally between 3 friends..."
Read/Write Lena gets: "The rule for division is: dividend ÷ divisor = quotient. Let's apply that..."

Same concept. Different delivery. Better understanding.

It's a guide, not a cage

Learning types aren't destiny. They're a starting point. The tutor also observes what actually works — which explanations lead to correct answers, which ones cause confusion — and notes it in the profile.

"Max responded well to the shopping example for percentages. Less so to abstract ratio explanations."

Over time, the profile becomes a personalised teaching playbook for that specific child.

Try it yourself

The learning type system is now part of ClawTutor. If you're running your own instance:

Update to the latest version
The tutor will automatically run the onboarding on first contact
Check LEARNING_PROFILE.md in the child's workspace

The onboarding questions and tutor adaptation rules are in ONBOARDING_LERNTYP.md and SOUL.md respectively — both fully customisable.

Thanks to Katja for the idea. Sometimes the best features come from a casual phone call.

— Oliver, Feb 2026