Being a management consultant necessitates one to listen to all sorts of cock-and-bull stories - almost on the verge of it being a professional hazard. Yet, of all the crap things that I have heard in the last one and a half decade, none is so consistently painful and for so long as the theory of adult learning styles - you know, the 'visual', the 'auditory' and the 'kinesthetic' learning styles.
Part of my job is to facilitate learning for these 'adults' in various parts of the world, and mostly in a corporate environment, and mostly to the peril of these adults. Apart from that, I also provide vocational learning sessions for young students in business schools, as well as high school children in secondary grades. So you can see that my audience comprises of a spectrum of age groups, and having done this for a reasonable time now, I can assure you that you have never heard of anything as lame as the theory of adult learning.
Agreed, maybe when the thoery started off, it had some base and some potential. But today its use and misuse is so rampant that it has lost its meaning. See for yourself. When someone introduces the learning styles to you, they will invariably add that "like, you know, personally, I am a kinesthetic learner. I like to do things with my own hands ... " etc. --- Dear lord! Everyone likes to do things with their own hands, unless what you want to get done requires someone else's hands!
It seems that there are several flaws in this theory, and let's look at some of these one by one. First, some subjects are better learned visually, while some are more conducive for auditory reception. And no - I do not mean this as a limitation to senses - for example, art (painting, sketching) is better learnt by watching great paintings and music is better learnt by listening to maestros.
I mean that some skills require visual input, while some require auditory or kinesthetic one. The skill "ability to identify patterns in data" requires a learner to view, see, observe, assimilate from graphs, charts, diagrams, flowcharts, tables that are conditionally formatted. On the other hand, the skill "ability to draw these charts" requires kinesthetics - the learner has to attempt preparing charts and in that effort, learn. Verbal communication skills probably require more auditory inputs than others.
Agreed that some knowledge transfer can be done through different media, and in some cases the visual style is better - as they say a picture says a thousand words. But does it not depend on the thousand words? ... Visual learning suffers from making it too obvious to the learner, thereby destroying the possibility for the learner to see it through his/her "own mind's eye".
Those who argue against this, try reading LOTR books after watching the movie series. The point is not whether the book is better than the movie; the point is once you see the movie, the incredible place that the book had created in your mind's 'memory palace' got destroyed and replaced by the images from the movie - forever! And those who read the book before the movie will agree, it is an inconsolable loss. Not that we hate the movie, we would have preferred both to co-exist somehow.
Visual learning expects the concepts and knowledge to manifest in physical form. However, in some cases this is entirely impossible, and I do not mean mystical or metaphysical knowledge. Try teaching the concept of a five-dimensional space - or the good old imaginary numbers - using just a visual medium. Great scientific minds like Hawkins go a great length, and sometimes with great difficulty, when trying to explain basic concepts in math and physics visually. Heavy reliance on visual medium therefore creates a 'dumbing down' effect on topics at hand, as well as on the learner over time.
Case in point - In the 2014 movie 'Interstellar', director Christopher Nolan went to a great length to build a Tesseract with 3 spatial dimensions and one Time dimension. Although it is appealing, the visual effect is more offsetting than convincing.
Auditory learning has its own issues, apart from reliance on the sound medium. Because there is nothing physical manifesting in front of your physical eye, it is possible that your mind starts wandering. The learner is unable to absorb much, and this eventually leads to poor learning experience, with the learner unable to retain much that transpired.
Kinesthetic learning requires an activity. Again, some concepts require reflection, not activity for the learner to learn. How does one teach the theory while people are busy tinkering with things? And what if the activity leads to an anomaly - the learner learns the 'exception' more accurately than the 'rule'. If I learn typing a keyboard with one finger first and consistently due to poor training experience at the start of my professional life, then it is rather difficult to change the style to move to the QWERTY style with four fingers.
The other problem with the theory is that ability to learn changes within the individual over years. One can easily read physical books visually at a stage, but is more comfortable listening to an audio book - especially if it comes free with the latest kindle. One cannot compartmentalize people and hope it will work all the time. You are limiting yourself by saying your learning style is one or the other.
But there is hope. More and more people are able to understand the actual application of the theory of three learning styles. The theory does not say classify people and then train according to their styles. It does not say identify your style and learn accordingly.
The theory says that all people learn through all sorts of media, and therefore - to the trainer and the facilitator - make the learning experience such that there is a good mix of opportunities to learn by all three styles for all people for all concepts and skills and topics.
Give some theory. Read something out loud. Ask someone from the learner group to read. Tell a story. Tell a really bad*ss joke. Ask someone to tell a joke or a story. Laugh. A lot.
Draw a diagram. Show a chart. Show a table with colors. Write down a key word on the white board. Write down some numbers. Use two different colors to draw a chart. Show a cartoon or a graphic if that fits into your demeanor and topic.
Get into doing some activity. Give the learner an opportunity to doodle on his/her pad. Ask to underline or highlight things. Give some small exercise. Ask them to take out their calculators (on their phones) and do some quick math. Flip pages. Make them go to specific parts of the training material and locate stuff.
If you are facilitating and if you these things, you will usually not need ice breakers and fillers. You will probably also not need to worry about identifying what learning style the audience or part of audience has.
An adult learner is no different than a little learner. Kids do not have different learning styles, although they have different learning needs. Adults also have different learning needs. Each of us gets into a learning opportunity for a reason. Some do it to get specific skills for growth, some for doing their current jobs better, some to fulfill an organization's expectation, while some just want the course added in front of their name.
Understand the need, and more often than not, you will be able to drive a successful learning experience without having to worry about the learning styles.
Best
- S
10 March 2015
Part of my job is to facilitate learning for these 'adults' in various parts of the world, and mostly in a corporate environment, and mostly to the peril of these adults. Apart from that, I also provide vocational learning sessions for young students in business schools, as well as high school children in secondary grades. So you can see that my audience comprises of a spectrum of age groups, and having done this for a reasonable time now, I can assure you that you have never heard of anything as lame as the theory of adult learning.
Agreed, maybe when the thoery started off, it had some base and some potential. But today its use and misuse is so rampant that it has lost its meaning. See for yourself. When someone introduces the learning styles to you, they will invariably add that "like, you know, personally, I am a kinesthetic learner. I like to do things with my own hands ... " etc. --- Dear lord! Everyone likes to do things with their own hands, unless what you want to get done requires someone else's hands!
It seems that there are several flaws in this theory, and let's look at some of these one by one. First, some subjects are better learned visually, while some are more conducive for auditory reception. And no - I do not mean this as a limitation to senses - for example, art (painting, sketching) is better learnt by watching great paintings and music is better learnt by listening to maestros.
I mean that some skills require visual input, while some require auditory or kinesthetic one. The skill "ability to identify patterns in data" requires a learner to view, see, observe, assimilate from graphs, charts, diagrams, flowcharts, tables that are conditionally formatted. On the other hand, the skill "ability to draw these charts" requires kinesthetics - the learner has to attempt preparing charts and in that effort, learn. Verbal communication skills probably require more auditory inputs than others.
Agreed that some knowledge transfer can be done through different media, and in some cases the visual style is better - as they say a picture says a thousand words. But does it not depend on the thousand words? ... Visual learning suffers from making it too obvious to the learner, thereby destroying the possibility for the learner to see it through his/her "own mind's eye".
Those who argue against this, try reading LOTR books after watching the movie series. The point is not whether the book is better than the movie; the point is once you see the movie, the incredible place that the book had created in your mind's 'memory palace' got destroyed and replaced by the images from the movie - forever! And those who read the book before the movie will agree, it is an inconsolable loss. Not that we hate the movie, we would have preferred both to co-exist somehow.
Visual learning expects the concepts and knowledge to manifest in physical form. However, in some cases this is entirely impossible, and I do not mean mystical or metaphysical knowledge. Try teaching the concept of a five-dimensional space - or the good old imaginary numbers - using just a visual medium. Great scientific minds like Hawkins go a great length, and sometimes with great difficulty, when trying to explain basic concepts in math and physics visually. Heavy reliance on visual medium therefore creates a 'dumbing down' effect on topics at hand, as well as on the learner over time.
Case in point - In the 2014 movie 'Interstellar', director Christopher Nolan went to a great length to build a Tesseract with 3 spatial dimensions and one Time dimension. Although it is appealing, the visual effect is more offsetting than convincing.
Auditory learning has its own issues, apart from reliance on the sound medium. Because there is nothing physical manifesting in front of your physical eye, it is possible that your mind starts wandering. The learner is unable to absorb much, and this eventually leads to poor learning experience, with the learner unable to retain much that transpired.
Kinesthetic learning requires an activity. Again, some concepts require reflection, not activity for the learner to learn. How does one teach the theory while people are busy tinkering with things? And what if the activity leads to an anomaly - the learner learns the 'exception' more accurately than the 'rule'. If I learn typing a keyboard with one finger first and consistently due to poor training experience at the start of my professional life, then it is rather difficult to change the style to move to the QWERTY style with four fingers.
The other problem with the theory is that ability to learn changes within the individual over years. One can easily read physical books visually at a stage, but is more comfortable listening to an audio book - especially if it comes free with the latest kindle. One cannot compartmentalize people and hope it will work all the time. You are limiting yourself by saying your learning style is one or the other.
But there is hope. More and more people are able to understand the actual application of the theory of three learning styles. The theory does not say classify people and then train according to their styles. It does not say identify your style and learn accordingly.
The theory says that all people learn through all sorts of media, and therefore - to the trainer and the facilitator - make the learning experience such that there is a good mix of opportunities to learn by all three styles for all people for all concepts and skills and topics.
Give some theory. Read something out loud. Ask someone from the learner group to read. Tell a story. Tell a really bad*ss joke. Ask someone to tell a joke or a story. Laugh. A lot.
Draw a diagram. Show a chart. Show a table with colors. Write down a key word on the white board. Write down some numbers. Use two different colors to draw a chart. Show a cartoon or a graphic if that fits into your demeanor and topic.
Get into doing some activity. Give the learner an opportunity to doodle on his/her pad. Ask to underline or highlight things. Give some small exercise. Ask them to take out their calculators (on their phones) and do some quick math. Flip pages. Make them go to specific parts of the training material and locate stuff.
If you are facilitating and if you these things, you will usually not need ice breakers and fillers. You will probably also not need to worry about identifying what learning style the audience or part of audience has.
An adult learner is no different than a little learner. Kids do not have different learning styles, although they have different learning needs. Adults also have different learning needs. Each of us gets into a learning opportunity for a reason. Some do it to get specific skills for growth, some for doing their current jobs better, some to fulfill an organization's expectation, while some just want the course added in front of their name.
Understand the need, and more often than not, you will be able to drive a successful learning experience without having to worry about the learning styles.
Best
- S
10 March 2015
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