We try to use as many of our senses throughout the day to stimulate learning. By having listening, reading touch and feel, and hands on demonstrations We are helping the student learn and grasp the material more effectively.
The key is to attack the senses with various teaching methods. By using different delivery methods, guest lectures, media, and field trips you can appeal to different senses and keep the students interested.
Hi Jennifer:
You've got a good reward system there!
All speial senses (hearing,vison, smell, etc) and the general senses (balance, pain, pressure, etc.) can be used in the learning process, especially if the student can learn to:
* Tune in to the sense (sensory stimulation)
* Associate it with pleasure
* Merge the two: sensory stimulation with pleasure to create improved learning
In this way, many senses can be involved when studying, listening or watching a demonstration, writing, even thinking. This takes practice, but with guidance and consistent use, our senses can be hightened and enhanced to improve the learning process.
Regards, Barry
Hi Lynn:
Good ideas and activities.
All students have a blend of learning styles with one, sometimes two being more dominant. Besides learning style, there's sensory stimulation to enhance learning.In this instance, there's two parts.
The first is to practice becoming aware or sensitive or stimulating one of the dozen or so of the general and special senses.
The second part is to pratice associated that sensory stimulation with enjoyment and learning. With enjoyment and learning, every time that sense is stimulated, the student begins to associate studying, or reading, or writing notes, or thinking, or....whatever, with pleasure. It works!
Regads, Barry
Hi Mary:
Good use of the visual sense. I think all learners rely on the arual and visual senses to great degree. Obvisoyuly, when doing skills, the tactile skill is being stimulated.
But what about the other senses? I believe the dozen or so can all be stimulated to assist learners. It takes some practice but the idea is first the learner has to be able to tune-in to a particular sense. Then the key is to associate that sense with enjoyment or pleasure while studying or participating in class.
With practice, increased retention of material and information will occur. It works!
Regards, Barry
I work in medicine and all five senses are needed. How something feels. The distinct odor of infections. The sound or lack of sound in vital organs. Visual watch you can see. Taste can be useful but thanks to science and new technology this factor isnt need as much.
I like to incorpriate all five senses when learning even if I need to hand out treats for correct answers.
I generally involve students in learning of all types including visual aids, experiential exercises, groups, and presentations so the course appeals to all learning styles.
Sight contributes 83% to information processing. Providing students with visuals such as posters, power point presentations, physical examples of things they might come accoss on the job, could be invauable.
For example, I teach Dental Assisting. I have dental instruments, anatomical teeth, impession materials all available for demonstration and study.
Hi Lisa:
Senses: Touch and motion are especially good when repetitive skill or manipulative action is being taught.
I think just about all of of our senses can be trained to be tuned in to be aware or sensitive or stimulated to enhance the learning process. It just takes training. It's reallt=y amazing how much asscoiation with sensory learniny can occur when there is motion,willingness, and sustained practice.
Regards, Barry
I like using the kinesthetic sense - having materials in class the students can actually use, hands on, and experience by touching and feeling is worth a lot of knowledge and gets the student excited and increases enthusiasm about what they are studying.
Hi Pandora:
Yes, a trained individual can detect much about a patient and their status, even just standing at the door - if they learned to be observant.
Of course in earlier times, health workers senses had to relied upon due to the lack of sophistication of lab, technology, and accurate bedside measurments.
Many of the senses tend to be lied upon more than others. But I truely believe almost any of the dozen or so sensense can be trained to be stimulated and used in the classroom or lab for student study, classroom lessons, or skill testing. It takes skill and practice, just as anything new will require. But it can tremendously valuable as a result.
Regards, Barry
Hi Heather:
Certain professions are going to naturally lend themselves to enhanced use of the senses. Healthcare is one of them.
But I also believe all of our senses can be trained to tune in and contribute positively to the learning environment. One of the keys is to learn to stimulate or "wake up" a sense. Then, associating bthat stimulation with some type of enjoyment. Finally, merging enjoyment with study, engagement, or thinking cloes the loop.
So essentially every sense can be used to assist students learning and retaining needed information, and storing it in the long term memory portion of their brains.
Regards, Barry
What are some strategies for helping students to use their senses in learning? As an instructor, I strongly believe that " hands-on" is the best learning method. Therefore, the "skills lab" is the best method strategy in helping students to use their senses. The use of their sight, hearing and sense of touch, is the most important senses in nursing followed by smell. Teaching the student to be aware when they first walk into a patient's room the use of these senses can denote the patient's condition without having to do a complete assessment.
Being a healthcare instructor, getting students to use all their senses in the clinical setting is critical for good patient care. My student 's spend alot of time in a lab setting practicing "hands-on" care of each other so when they get to the hospital their are less "afraid" and more in tune with the sites, sounds and feel of patient care.
Hi Melissa:
It seems to me that certain procrams, course, and professions can utilize sense more than others (Chef school, auto mechanics, medical).
I believe we can train all of our senses to enhance learning. The key is to learn to associate a particular sense with enjoyment, then the student is getting more benefit from their studying and classwork than if they hadn't learned to stimulate that sense.
Take reading. Visual, right? Well (with training), a student can stimulate other senses such as touch (feeling the page texture, moving their fingers along sentences, thumbing through chapters or glossary, or index). Next is smell. (the newness of the text, the smell of the ink, perhaps the scented candle burning while reading). Associate stimulation of various sense with pleasurable events. It's a proven learning technique.
The more senses involved always will improve learning outcomes. Actually, teaching others produces the greatest level of learning. So using a variety of instructional methods and involving the student will contribute more.
Regards, Barry
I try to use a "building up" approach. I teach cardiopulmonary disease and ECGs, surgical supplies and setting up sterile fields. First we do the reading and lecture, then we discuss any past experiences, then we look at equipment and talk about how to approach it and then we do hands on role playing demonstration. By the time we do the hands on, we are pretty much having professional conversations using correct vocabulary and the students are able to answer questions and work through anything I may throw at them. Its awesome to be a part of!
Hi Gerald,
I am really interested in hearing more about how the student's individual sense experience affects their individual learning. I teach beginning nursing courses (one is Anatomy) and I was wondering if you have any suggestions about how to use this technique with my students?
Thank you,
A. Dyal
Hi Erale:
That's an interesting comment. Senses can help with keeping students engaged, alert, "sensitive" to what the teacher is trying to convey. And ther are a lot of senses that can betrained to be "stimulated" to facilitate the learning process. In general, if a student can associate pleasure with sensory stimulation, then we can train those same sense to work to improve memory, facilitate retention, and instill a permancy of knowledge.
Regards, Barry
Hi Marianne:
I think all students can train to get "tuned-in" to their senses if they want to improve study, class performance, and practical sills. This does take some training.
With practice, developing or enhancing a sense can be used to assist with memory, thinking, processing and tactile stimulation. For example, while reading for comprehension, a student can learn to feel the pages and texture of the textbook pages, enjoy the sound of the page turning, explore the the various images on a page (even down to the font and colors), smell the newness or scent of the text.
I know these are not the usual way we think of senses, but if a student can learn to asssociate pleasure with learning, they're likely to remember. I think there is a lot to this senses thing. And the more senses involved, the more the student will likey remember and store in the long-term memory banks.
Regards, Barry
In teaching radiology the sense of touching is essential. Students need to know landmarks by palpating different areas of the body to properly position patients for exams. Radiology is a "hands on" profession. Students also need to listen to their equipment for sounds that may be unusual. We all know when there is a different noise when driving, that there may be somthing wrong with the car. The same can be said with the equipment we use in the field.
Marianne
