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You are not a visual learner

TTOOLL

Member
This is a complex issue but as a teacher I feel like all these educational theories are kinda bullshit, I’m sorry but I mean no disrespect.

We only need a couple of things for people to learn. Knowledgeable teachers and dedicated students. I do think each student will prefer a specific method but each teacher will have their own style.

Now think about it. How can a single teacher cater to all those students’ needs? It’s impossible and we fail when we tell teachers to do this and that all the time.

Students have to adapt and be interested in learning. They have to do their fucking jobs, which is studying, and they will do it individually the way they prefer.

It won’t always be easy and fun, some things are just boring or hard by nature, but if you have a purpose you’ll do it. And here lies another issue with education theorists, it seems like they want teachers to please students and always deliver fun, engaging and interesting classes, but hey, what’s good for student A will be suffering for B.

We should face education in a more realistic way, it can be boring but it’s extremely useful so do it the best you can, take the most from the teachers you have but remember that the class is just the first part of it.

You need to get home, review all of that, do some exercises and try to do things by yourself. If you succeed then you have learned the basics, if you fail ask for help next class and a good teacher will help you unlock something that was holding you back.

In summary, if you wanna learn something you’ll do it even by yourself, we have all done if before. If you don’t want to learn things will be even harder so don’t blame it on teachers. It’s not their job to convince you of anything. Some may impress and motivate you but that’s just pure luck, the same teacher will be the devil for others.
 
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Scotty W

Banned
Who is this myth perpetuated by? Is it actually the teachers themselves? I think thought this is was one of those misconceptions largely for anyone outside of education, but it seems most teachers believe this. With that said, any teacher worth their weight in pedagogical knowledge and learning theory should know this. Yeah, multi sensory instruction is best. There's still that moderating component of learning styles to engagement which is important for learning.
This stuff is heavily pushed in English teacher training programs- do or die. It wouldn’t surprise me if it is being pushed in other programs as well.
 
You can manage a class with students of varying abilities and interest levels. One way to deal with low engaging students is to call on them and “hand them the mic.” If they still don’t participate, move on and monitor the student. You get your more engaged students to explain concepts in class and encourage them to help other students.

Don’t fall in love with self-fellating “progressive” ideas floating the edusphere. Yes, the traditional method has flaws but we should also care about overall learning goals and learning outcomes. There’s nothing more infuriating than a teacher who doesn’t teach.

As far as teacher’s salaries, yes they should be high - if you’re a good teacher.

that’s easier said than done. Managing a classroom is incredibly difficult when kids don’t have any interest (even when presented with the freedom to choose or content catered to them) in learning, have parents who are lazy, not involved, have a cultural barrier, or an admin that that doesn’t hand out consequences for misbehavior and other crazy crap that transpires at school.

the progressive ideas are pretty bogus and don’t fly well with veteran teachers. It’s a lot of fluff and ideation but the reality is is that the kids still don’t respond well to it. My admin is all about the progressive stuff but I still see no real change in the kids demeanor or classroom habits. As for student centered learning, I think it works well with children who are academically curious.
 

tsumake

Member
that’s easier said than done. Managing a classroom is incredibly difficult when kids don’t have any interest (even when presented with the freedom to choose or content catered to them) in learning, have parents who are lazy, not involved, have a cultural barrier, or an admin that that doesn’t hand out consequences for misbehavior and other crazy crap that transpires at school.

the progressive ideas are pretty bogus and don’t fly well with veteran teachers. It’s a lot of fluff and ideation but the reality is is that the kids still don’t respond well to it. My admin is all about the progressive stuff but I still see no real change in the kids demeanor or classroom habits. As for student centered learning, I think it works well with children who are academically curious.

Teaching is hard. That said, if you have little/no support from admin it becomes a real uphill battle in the classroom.
 

Dark Star

Member
Best way to learn is by doing. You can’t learn to drive a car by sitting in the passenger seat.

Same thing with math. You can watch someone solve a problem and “get it”. You have to do the process yourself, pen and paper.
 

JimboJones

Member
Best way to learn is by doing. You can’t learn to drive a car by sitting in the passenger seat.

Same thing with math. You can watch someone solve a problem and “get it”. You have to do the process yourself, pen and paper.
Yeah, give me a general understanding first and then just give me a way to get stuck in and practice, let me make mistakes so i can learn from them, so many people freak out about people making mistakes when they are just beginning to understand.
 

tsumake

Member
Yeah, give me a general understanding first and then just give me a way to get stuck in and practice, let me make mistakes so i can learn from them, so many people freak out about people making mistakes when they are just beginning to understand.

The classroom is the best place to make mistakes.
 

TTOOLL

Member
Best way to learn is by doing. You can’t learn to drive a car by sitting in the passenger seat.

Same thing with math. You can watch someone solve a problem and “get it”. You have to do the process yourself, pen and paper.

That’s true but you can learn the concept of driving by observation and that will help you a lot. Imagine someone who has never been inside a car, he won’t know where to begin.
As I said before, this is the first step in learning, you’ll then try to do it by yourself.
 

BigBooper

Member
After watching it, I'm not convinced that his point is arguing anything but semantics. His ultimate conclusion is that a multidimensional learning approach is best, but then he also makes claims about people with better spatial reasoning ability being better at learning geography. Well ok, but why can't someone with better audible comprehension learn better by lecture than someone with better reading comprehension?

Maybe I have a misunderstanding of what the learning styles crowd claims. I think it's possible that they just don't understand what it is specifically that they should be observing to measure how well people do. I don't know though. I went to a private school with self driven reading lessons. It's certainly possible that I didn't want to get used to lecture based learning because it wasn't familiar. I think there's more to it than that.

As for the video, this one seemed a little phoned in to pay the bills.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
After watching it, I'm not convinced that his point is arguing anything but semantics. His ultimate conclusion is that a multidimensional learning approach is best, but then he also makes claims about people with better spatial reasoning ability being better at learning geography. Well ok, but why can't someone with better audible comprehension learn better by lecture than someone with better reading comprehension?

Maybe I have a misunderstanding of what the learning styles crowd claims. I think it's possible that they just don't understand what it is specifically that they should be observing to measure how well people do. I don't know though. I went to a private school with self driven reading lessons. It's certainly possible that I didn't want to get used to lecture based learning because it wasn't familiar. I think there's more to it than that.

As for the video, this one seemed a little phoned in to pay the bills.
When it comes to learning, personally I think most of the disinterested people are simply disinterested because they dont give a shit about the topic at hand. Doesn't matter if it's text based, audio, charts or videos.

I did well in school as a whole because I was a keener, but for those subjects I hated and knew I could let fall as I had other better course marks to submit to university, I didn't give a shit at all and let my marks slide. I was even good at math, but hated calculus and algebra and geometry as my thoughts are those subjects are 100% pointless unless you need it for a job requiring awesome math skills. As someone who knew wanted to do business jobs since high school, I have zero interest in those courses. And those subjects have zero to do with business. But accounting and business admin class I did well and liked it even though those were just as lectury and textbooky as calculus.
 
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I looked through the scientific papers as well. Checks out. There's little evidence supporting the widely popularized "learning styles" hypothesis which groups students into visual learners, auditory learners, reading learners, etc., and aims to give each group specialized instruction.

Combined approaches -- i.e. traditional instruction that utilizes textbooks, lectures, blackboards, media, and interactive exercises -- are the best way to learn for everyone.


I always wondered if this was pseudoscience and yeah it looks like it is.

I’ve found when teaching music - you can explain a concept all day… but playing/doing it hands on… it works so, so much faster.
 
Given the shitty state of reading comprehension on the internet, I'd argue those claiming to be visual learners really just have sub-par reading and literacy skills.

Teach folks to read more on their own and you'll see their ability to learn improve dramatically.
 

Sakura

Member
After watching it, I'm not convinced that his point is arguing anything but semantics. His ultimate conclusion is that a multidimensional learning approach is best, but then he also makes claims about people with better spatial reasoning ability being better at learning geography. Well ok, but why can't someone with better audible comprehension learn better by lecture than someone with better reading comprehension?

Maybe I have a misunderstanding of what the learning styles crowd claims. I think it's possible that they just don't understand what it is specifically that they should be observing to measure how well people do. I don't know though. I went to a private school with self driven reading lessons. It's certainly possible that I didn't want to get used to lecture based learning because it wasn't familiar. I think there's more to it than that.

As for the video, this one seemed a little phoned in to pay the bills.
The learning styles would say that a "visual learner" learns everything better visually, auditory learners learn everything better via audio, etc.
What he is saying, is that there is no science to support this. Instead, certain methods work better for certain subjects, for example, learning where the countries are located, everybody would learn better with a map (visual).
Everyone will benefit from a good diagram regardless of whether you are a so called "visual learner" or not, as such there is no merit in trying to group people into learning styles.
 
Man I don’t know as a patent attorney I see some crazy shit. I identified as a visual learner and it definitely helps seeing how the inventions work. Audio explaining complex machinery just bounces off me.
 

Mexen

Member
I only learn things after I've fucked up. I'm a software developer and you shouldn't push to main on Fridays. Here for other life advice if you need it, just wait for me to make a mistake first.
 
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