Honestly, I struggle a bit with this topic and teaching to different learning styles. By placing information and images on the screen I create a visual experience, students hear me as I speak, getting hands physically onto a model creates a third - correct? To strengthen a certain sensory experience I have the students close their eyes while they touch the model. To try and pull in olfaction I would again have students close theor eyes and then lead them on a guided medidtation to recall an experience that fit the need. I stressed with my students that each sense we could involve in the learning created its own memory and the more memories they had the more likely they could recall info when needed.
Liz,
I believe involving multiple senses in the learning process really does help. I think of the sense of smell. We can smell an odor or fragrance from even our childhood and instantly that memory reappears. That's a powerful sense! The other senses can be just powerful when we give extra attention to them.
Barry Westling
I have mostly taught hands on learning for the Allied Health field, so we use our senses a lot. We have to be able to feel for pulses, smell certain smells and look for certain signs. As our reading states "we use our senses to keep us connected with the world around us". When we have one sense that is weaker than the others, the others are heightened a little more. I have taken courses in the past that used senses as a part of my learning and it usually helps to trigger something later on when I come into contact with that type of scenario.
Caleb,
Sounds great. I like to use the sense of of smell to demonstrate the power of senses. We've all probably smelled something that instantly brought to mind a memory from the past, sometimes, way in the past. Wow, now that's retention!. And it goes to show how senses in learning can be a great asset.
Barry Westling
I teach at a school for audio technology, so in addition to traditional lecture I will typically give lots of audio examples of everything i am talking about. I will also bring the physical object/model to the class room, where applicable, and have the students handle/use it while I lecture about it.
Stimulating as many senses as possible when learning something new is the best way to store information. It is like saving a file on a computer, giving it a descriptive name will make it easier to find. Store something in your mind with different senses will help you locate it in the same way.
Susan,
Multiple senses used when learning increases retention, facilitates understanding, and assists with perfection of skills. Even in a classroom situation, a variety of senses can complement the instructional delivery and enhance lessons.
Barry Westling
In my clinical nursing group we will talk about a skill, observe the refernce nurse doing the skill then the students will practice the skill. When a student has mastered a skill, I have them walk another student through the skill both verbally and in a hands on setting to reinforce their learning. These skills have already been practiced in a lab setting but there is a big difference when you are completing the skill on a real patient instead of a fellow student! The more senses you engage in the learning process, the better the student is able to master the learning.
Polly,
More senses plainly help students retain information better, longer, and with improved application.
Barry Westling
I love this idea. I tried it in anatomy class and I lectured, then we got out the models and then we did the colored pencil with anatomy color pages! It worked well.
Jon (Jack),
More senses enhance learning, for sure. We tend to depend on auditory and visual so much, but it is really not too difficult to be creative with our assignments and delivery if we take a bit more time and planning to integrate alternative actions that require multiple sensory learning. Our students will benefit.
Barry Westling
If a teacher can apply two senses in the learning process, the student has a greater ablility to learn, i.e., don't just lecture, but add a visual to compliment it. Or, incorporate other senses such as touch, or smell to re-enforce the learning process.
Michael,
Right. And even without technolgy as a factor, dry and boring is difficult to tolerate for very long by nearly anyone. Engagement and student participation are enhanced when senses are incorporated into the lessons, especially when they facilitate the learning (and are not the focus). Stopping a lecture to trace a figure from their textbook will be a long remembered visualization. In this example the focus is on the drawing, not that the sense of touch, vision, pressure, thinking, and motion were involved in the process.
Barry Westling
I concur. When students see, hear, and handle knowledge and objects of learning they are far more likely to master the content and learn for the long haul. In this media "saturated" culture it is nearly impossible to effectively instruct students without learning adtivities which go beyond 'lecture' and pure 'mental stimulation.'
Gail,
Besides the visual, auditory, kinesthetic learning types, incorporating multiple senses into the learning process makes for a creative and more interesting learning environment and helps students retain learned material. A great example is a smell or odor that instantly brings back a memory.
Barry Westling
At the beginning of our program, we assess the learning style of each student in the class via a computerized program. That way all of the instructors in the program are aware of the student's learning styles in that particular cohort. I particularly utilize this information to change my teaching to meet the learning styles of the particular students in my class.
Paul,
It's amazing how much information one can gather through the use of sublte sensory input via touch, and other other senses that complement say, a physical examination. But senses can also be used in the instructional process if we put our mind to it. It's probably slighlty easier for some trades or professions (culinary, medical, etc.), but I think a creative teacher can make a lasting point in almost any course by including some sensory component to the lecture, demonstration, discussion, or activity if they just think about it, want to do it, and recgnize the importance of incorporating senses in the learning process.
Barry Westling
I teach massage so kinesthetic is very important. We do not use taste too much but smell, sight, hearing and touch are all factors in what we do and how we teach. It is terrific when we can use something more than sight. For touch we use models and do a considerable amount of palpation as we learn muscle attachments, etc. We are able to use smell in the aromatherapy classes and set up sniffing labs. Hearing is important because we have active listening modules so the students are not just listening to hear but learning to respond.
Patti,
More senses results in better retention of information, that's for sure. The key is to be creative and plan for ways to introduce more senses into the activities and lessons.
Barry Westling
It is important for students to not just hear, but see, touch, smell (if appropriate) and even use the sense of taste (effective with teaching nutrition) because the brain is able to create a much more cohesive representation of the the subject matter to be learned. The senses provide data that reinforces memory and learning and the more senses are used in delivering knowledge, the students will find content will be more interesting because it is multidimensial.
Alyson,
Good example. To demonstrate sensory deprivation, I have my students blindfolded, ears plugged, wearing nose clips, or taping their fingers together so they can mimic the difficulty individuals with these kinds of sensory impairments experience. It's a very effective exercise in both communication and kinesthethic abilities.
Barry Westling
