By Nusa Maal
Tools for Schools, February/March 2005
This article was originally published as "Learning via multisensory engagement," by Nusa Maal, Association Management, November 2004. Reprinted with permission, American Society of Association Executives, Washington, D.C. Copyright November 2004.
If you really want to engage learners, try taking a multisensory approach. Presentations that appeal to auditory, visual, and kinesthetic modalities simultaneously connect more deeply and have a lasting impact. Everyone has a dominant learning style. Much like cross-training works for athletes, developing programming in other styles enhances learning. Learners will get more benefit from exercises, and they'll feel energized along the way.
Talk to them. Only 20 to 30% of people are auditory learners, but most people have grown accustomed to auditory teaching because it's the way schools work, with learners listening to and recalling information in sequence. Orderliness appeals to auditory learners. They understand ABCDE, but if you jump to Q and back to F and then to R, it can frustrate their thinking processes.
Show them. While visual learners - representing 20 to 40% of the population - appreciate images, charts, and diagrams, their perspective and recall can be interrupted when the graphic is removed, as is common in PowerPoint or slide presentations. To remedy this, speakers create a graphic wall by physically securing images to the wall with one image leading to the next in sequence. Studies have shown that hand-drawn, imperfect graphics are more appealing than perfect, computer-generated ones so go ahead and use your doodles. Photos, particularly close-ups, can evoke emotional empathy, but speakers should be judicious in their use to avoid shutting down circuit breakers of emotional-intimacy tolerance.
Let them participate. Kinesthetic learners need movement and action. They like practical applications and process information best from hands-on, team activities and animation, including changing seats and moving around. The kinesthetic modality is the farthest from language. Kinesthetic learners relate to family (groups, belonging), friends (interaction, dialogue), and fun (colors, boldness, changes).
To balance your presentations so that they engage all types of learners, try this sequence:
1. Prepare. Identify and qualify yourself to establish credibility and integrity. Tell the audience what you expect them to think, feel, and do in the session. Be truthful: body language reflects falsehood, and inconsistency undermines your message.
2. Generate. Ask questions and encourage group interaction to uncover the audience's issues and problems. Use the brainstorming principle that there are no wrong questions or answers. Then focus on content and new ideas.
3. Incubate. Allow time for reflection. Give participants alone time to write down personal applications or schedule breaks during which content can be absorbed individually. Humor plays a role in presentations, too. It creates instant incubation by breaking people out of their dominant learning modes.
4. Evaluate. Assess what is useful and what is not, what works and what can be tried. Consider the various domains of culture and personality.
5. Organize. Direct learning and engagement. Use groups or pairs and then change them to modulate between learning styles.
6. Act. Involve the group in planning next steps and implementation of new ideas.
Teachers are broad-bandwidth, two-way broadcasters. To create meaningful presentations, span different learning modalities. And remember this paradox: Communication is a repetitive act; speaking is an act of listening; and teaching is an act of learning.
This article was originally published as "Learning via multisensory engagement," by Nusa Maal, Association Management, November 2004. Reprinted with permission, American Society of Association Executives, Washington, D.C. Copyright November 2004.
Nusa Maal, SenseSmart Consulting International, 8315 N. Brook Lane, Suite 1007, Bethesda, MD 20814, (301) 652-8464, fax (888) 228-6323, e-mail: nusa@sensesmart.com.
posted by AcrosticGuy @ 6:52 PM
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