There is ample evidence that individuals have preferences in how they receive or perceive information. But because of the challenge involved in personalizing education based on individual comfort zones; even Parents, Teachers, and Academicians who are aware of the advantages, often overlook this as a neuromyth.
Maneuvering Around Learning Challenges:
There are many clinical conditions that make learning difficult for children during their early years in school; I used to suffer from minor learning challenges during my years in school and then managed to maneuver around them knowingly or unknowingly. Those lectures went over my head most of the time in school. The movie Tare Zameen Par highlighted the intensity of such a challenge and how it affects a child’s self-esteem and overall performance. So, in such cases, engaging with the individual learning styles would make a world of difference. A more visual and kinesthetic mode of teaching got me more interested; irrespective of the subject. Another is ADHD; possibly caused by the world of processed food, carbonated drinks, and hours of digital content exposure. There could be many other medical reasons too; but there are studies that make sure the child finds the mode of learning interesting to him, which would generate deep curiosity in them to focus more.
Expert Studies:
We do understand that each one of us uses different learning modes and thinking styles for learning or knowing; prominent experts like Neil Fleming, and David. Kolb and Richard Felder think there is much more to this than just having a dominant learning style.
The common understanding is that most people use all the learning styles to a certain degree based on the situation, but the experience of learning is better and more interesting when we do it with the style, we are most comfortable with. Even though the VARK theory [V – Visual, A – Auditory, R- Read or Write, K – Kinesthetics] is the most commonly known classification for learning styles; for ex: My daughter always has a problem with understanding history in her class and since I understand she is more visual and loves learning by reading or writing; she can’t visualize the past, as her teacher tries to explain it over a lecture. Maybe visual aids or a movie would’ve helped.
The same is the case with lazy kids to do projects by themselves and even though studious, would require someone to always initiate it for them. This is again because they are not very comfortable being kinesthetic and have an inhibition for the manual exercise and once it begins, mostly you would see them get going.
Recently one of my friends was looking for a Kindle that could play audiobooks, which obviously is easily achieved with an iPad or tab; but the point is, there are people who are so oriented with the auditory style for perceiving information, even digital books aren’t enough; they need to hear it played.
Learning Modes, Thinking Orientation/Knowledge Acquisition, an d Learning Styles
Learning Abilities or Modes:
Remember: – As part of our inheritance or past experience or demands of our current environment, we all develop learning styles that emphasize one learning ability over the other.
The rather sophisticated process of learning churns out an individual, unique processing style of learning. Based on the choice of experience as we grew up, each of us programs ourselves to grasp information through varying degrees of apprehension, comprehension, adoption, or even intentionally.
The above self-programming determines in situations what mode of the learning process
[ Concrete experience (Visual or feeling /emotion that triggers memory) OR
Reflective Observation (Watching and grasping all the information on how an event unfolds first before moving ahead) OR
Abstract Conceptualization (Thinking deeply, primarily for understanding logically or scientifically) OR
Active Experimentation (By getting into action right away and learning on the go)]
the child would fall into and accordingly will be oriented in thinking at different scenarios.
Thinking Orientation & Knowledge Acquired:
As per expert research based on experience learning there are four ways of knowing;
Convergent Knowledge: A convergent thinking mode involves abstract conceptualization and active experimentation; a mode very useful for problem-solving, decision-making, and practical application of anything.
E.g.: – Engineers etc. and other Yes/No focused professions.
Divergent Knowledge: This mode is just the opposite of convergent thinking and emphasizes concrete experience and reflective observation. A person in this mode very generally has faculties that make them imaginative and hence great at conceptualizing ideas out of nothing and for these gentlemen it’s about transforming communities with value- oriented solutions. E.g.: – Artists, Historians, and Psychologists.
Assimilative Knowledge: People who learn with this orientation have dominant learning abilities like Reflective Observation and Abstract conceptualization. They are good at creating concepts and hypothesis that could create logically sound theories. E.g.: – Mathematicians, Chemists, Physicists, and Economists.
Accommodative Knowledge: Those in this mode, emphasize a lot on learning abilities like Concrete experience and active experimentation. They are action-oriented and turn amazing risk-takers to achieve the idea in mind. E.g.: – Businessmen
Tip: – Managers and leaders, it would be useful to coin your team keeping these thinking orientations in mind; there will be a ton of difference in achieving the objectives.
Will discuss more about these modes of thinking and knowing in future blogs.
Learning Styles:
As mentioned earlier, we usually follow the VARK theory by Neil Fleming, even though there has been intense and in-depth research in this space by other experts too like David Kolb’s learning styles through experiential learning.
Visual:
If you are visual, it’s more feeling or emotion-oriented and such a person will be able to not only absorb a concept fast visually but also correlate a concept from experience. Visual learning style is a trait that won’t be weak in most of us if not dominant, because we get adapted to this style of learning from childhood itself; but still, using color codes for learning or drawing pictures will help.
Auditory:
People with this learning style prefer to listen to everything and are generally comfortable with lectures over textbooks and hands-on exercises. Even though 90% of our schooling is in this mode, these days teachers do realize the importance of mixing the lecture with visual aids and some manual activities to engage the kids better. To trigger their curiosity, it is advisable we initiate teaching in their comfortable style.
Read /Write:
This type of learner likes to learn from textbooks, the internet, handouts, notes, etc. You may notice that silently they rewrite their notes or recreate their notes. It requires an element of confidence to explore, read, and reflect on them by writing, and helps a lot in Research. We can develop this style by asking kids to read more books and write reviews on them. And slowly entertain purposeful reading and active experimentation of what they read. This way we can build this style in kids, in case it’s not their comfortable orientation.
Kinesthetic:
Those with this learning style generally don’t feel that good in lectures alone and tend to get bored in class easier. Kids with this learning style loves to learn with manual exercises or projects. This type of learner needs to either experience or feel it or move around to learn better. So, their learning should incorporate body movement preferably tactile, and should be hands-on.
Learning Flexibility:
One of the most important aspects of learning style is learning flexibility. The ability of an individual to adapt his/her learning style based on the demands of a situation. Learning style is not a fixed trait that cannot be altered, but more like a habit of learning programmed in your brain by experiences and orientation from childhood. It is usually an unconscious mode of adapting and with conscious effort could be modified.
Since a specialized learning style uses or represents an individual preference for one or two learning abilities of the learning styles, its effectiveness will be limited to such learning situations alone. So, from schooling, we need to develop a more holistic learning process. Learning flexibility is the ability to use each of the four learning modes to move freely around the learning cycle and thereby we will be able to modify our approach to learning based on the situation. So, the flexibility to move from one learning mode to another in the learning cycle is important for effective learning.
Conclusion:
“Learning how to learn should be a focus of our education” – James Zull
It’s always advisable to initiate learning for any child in their comfort learning style first and then mentor them slowly to be more effective with other learning styles too or develop more learning flexibility. Because developing flexibility with learning styles is the key to unfolding the capabilities of your child.