Carts And Horses
The overlying assumption in this sort of topic, which is something familiar to me over long standing, is that somehow the material needs to be adapted to the students, so their intelligence types and learning styles are maximized. Of course, in a lot of cases, this is exactly what should happen.
Not in all, however. It seems to me incredible that someone who is not verbal/linguistic could be successful in the practice of law, since that is the core of the profession. Which in turn means that trying to 'juice' law studies up by appealing to other intellectual styles is a gin, snare, and delusion. I think IT is another one of those fields in which success will only be granted to the verbal/linguistic group; and the same argument could be made _mutatis mutandis_ about the suitability of intellectual bents to other fields of application, with their consequent teaching and learning styles. Jacques Barzun, in _The House of Intellect_, had a lot to say about this which is worth hoisting inboard.
Yet one of the wonderful things about generalizations is the degree to which they are not true. One of the definitions of genius is 'looking at the same thing everyone else looks at, and seeing what nobody else sees'. I think there are good examples [a recent presentation on the use of musical cues to help demonstrate trends in big data analysis comes to mind] when the application of an 'incommensurate' intellectual style to a specific are of knowledge can yield spectacular results simply because 'nobody thought of it that way before'.
Amongst other things, this has a lot of application in scientific data visualization.
Amber,
I agree with your belief. I see many students in my classes that are not really sold on being in this career field. The result is that they are not passionate about what they are studying and this is not to their benefit. They need career counseling so they will select a career that excited them and in which they are willing to work hard to achieve success.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I believe that many students are simply not ADVISED well before they attempt a specific field. An honest appraisal of ones intelligence types and learning styles would help combat this issue.
Of course, we have a responsibility as instructors to create courses that reach the varieties of intelligence, but other administrators should be assisting in this realm.
Trinity,
The value of having them work in other areas to receive information is that they will be better prepared to do so when they are out in the workplace. They may not, just as we have not been able to select our preferred way of receiving information so we need to learn how to adjust. While students it is good for them to have different deliveries so they can be successful in their coursework. As you say there needs to be middle ground sought when doing your instructional planning.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Interesting... What I am hearing is that we need to be responsible, as learners, to learn and not expect it to be catered to our preferred method of learning. I think this is an important thought. Maybe we should be teaching students to consider how to learn, rather than trying to reach all learning types. I think there is a middle ground, of course. Teachers should try, but students cannot feel entitled.
Richard,
This is a great example of how an individual student took it upon himself to find a solution to his learning preference and become a successful student.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
One of the Lawyers that I know is not a visual learner, and while it was frustrating for him to learn law, he took a speed reading course and found that he started looking at words like images and he improved his processing of reading.
