I work as a dental lab assitant and my students get lecture and instruction and dont get the full understanding of some procedures and materials until they actually able to hold a dental instrument or mix a cement.
RE Using senses in learning 11142010
What are some strategies for helping students to use their senses in learning?
While there is no substitute for empirical experience in a real-world, or simulated laboratory setting, to get a student to acquire a skill; such is not always possible.
In a world filled with budgetary cut-backs and profit considerations, the equipment and environments we desire to teach our students are often less available than we would like.
However, we always have available to us the most powerful tool the student possesses for their learning; their imagination. By drawing upon the instructors clinical experiences, the student’s life experiences, and emphasizing the significance of the materials were teaching, we can create a rich level of sensory involvement for our students.
The environment they create in their own minds can be your most powerful educational ally. It has been well documented that an imagined experience can, and often does, produce the same neuro-endocrine responses as an actual empirical experience.
The challenge then is to create enough involvement, and employ the right type of imagery to allow this type of approach to work. It is one that can yield excellent results.
All of senses are amazing. I am especially fond of cranial nerve #1,the sense of smell. To this day the scent of Pinesol reminds me of preschool. As a nurse,it's manditory to develop all your senses. For example, I had a 92 year old patient who complained of hip pain after physical therapy. The hip was X-rayed and the results were negative. Following up the next day, I could smell a foul odor eminating off of him. I turned down the sheet and rolled him over and there it was, a stage VI pressure ulcer that had become infected. Even though several people had moved him (phyical therapy, doctor, x-ray tech, nurses, CNAs) we had missed the pressure ulcer. I've learned to really evaluate my patients. It pays to inspect, palpate, and listen to the patient.
Keep in mind that each student learns differently but as a rule...sight and hearing make up about 94% of the five senses in an academic setting. Mix it up as much as possible focusing on these two senses. Each time you direct their attention to a media, it's like saying "wake up", this is important!
Hi Brad:
I want to take your class! Seriously though, that's a fun way of incorporating the use of sense into a learning situation. What we're talking about here is using a variety of methods in the teaching process to try to help make the learning environment more robust.
Regards, Barry
I find when conducting training ie is easier to involve more of the senses of your student but when educating you must have an excellent plan to stimulate multiple student senses.
Hi - I agree that touch is very valuable in an A and P class. I recall that labs were a vital part of the learning experience when I took biology classes. Pictures in a text just do not do justice to the beauty and intricacy we experience by seeing and touching the real structures. Lyn
Hi all, I thought I would answer this question because, as an online Biology instructor, there are some limitations on using all five senses.
Touch, Taste, and Scent are not easy to use online! But I suppose I could use words that evoke those senses in my class materials to help them visualize them better.
Speaking of visual - I was glad to see that visual input comes in high on the list of how this sense contributes to learning, at 83%. Much of the delivery of content in my course is visual, and I can certainly strive to make presententations, announcements and even email communications visually appealing.
I can do this first by clear content organization, and also by use of some color or font selections. I can encourage them to strive to make their assignments visually appealing as well, especially in discussion boards in which all students read posts and make comments.
I do conduct an online chat session, and in this they can hear me. Like any audio presentation, I need to speak clearly and be prepared for what I say. I back up the audio with visual presentations such as PowerPoints and even use the assignment questions themselves. In other words, here is the assignment question. Let's investigate how to approach it by outlining what might need to be covered in an answer.
Background noise would be very distracting so I make sure that when I am live with them online my environment is as quiet as possible. :-) Lyn
I teach in a medical assisting program and it has been easier to incorporate the use of the "tactile sense" in the clinical skills laboratory as there are many pieces of medical equipment that the students must be familiar operating. The challenge came for me when I taught A&P as well as pharmacology. In pharmacology, I found that letting the students 'handle' syringes/needles and vials, as well as instruments used when dispensing oral medications, helped the content 'come alive' in the classroom. During the A&P class I had them handle skeletal bones, and asked them to feel all the 'nooks and crannies' on the individual pieces and it helped them to understand the relationship between these 'skeletal landmarks' and the body's muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Some students told me that having these 'tactile' experiences helped them when it came time for the chapter exams.
Hi Kathleen:
Here agiain we see a great example of using a different method of presenting information by the use of the sense of touch. It illustrates well that not every learning topic needsto be in the form of a lecture.
Regards, Barry
Hi Kathleen:
Excellent! Here again, we're talking about using the sense as part of the instructor's variety of methods.
The main idea with any presentation style is that ideally, you can teach to visual, audio, and kinesthetic types of students.
Regards, Barry
Hi Simon:
Using a variety of methods in the learning environment is considered the most effective way of teaching. It can help to address every type of learning style.
Regards, Barry
Hi Michael:
Good point - we know from studies that there are many ways people learn.
By incorporating visual aides, audio files, and kinesthetic activities, we can address every type of learning style.
Regards, Barry
Reflective writing where students are asked to describe the learning experience or a concept, etc. in different sensory terms helps students to relate to the concept on a deeper level and actually has him/her then make that sensory connection.
Hi Brigette:
Right - and, using activities that require the use of more than just "hearing" can serve the other types of learners - visual and/or kinesthetic.
Regards, Barry
Hi Stephen:
To broaden this module a little, we can think of using activities that require other senses than just hearing is an illustration how other instructional activities can serve to help all types of learners: visual, ausio, and kinesthetic.
Regards, Barry
Hi Cindy:
Good point - by using other senses in class, in brings more awareness to the student in a different way than just "hearing" new information.
Regards, Barry
Hi Debra:
Exactly! As instructors, we always need to keep in mind that there are many ways students learn information. Some learn best by listening, some by seeing, some by doing (hand-on).
Most consider a combination of teaching styles is the best way to deliver information to be sure of hitting all types of learners in the way they learn best.
Regards, Barry
Hi Alison:
True - definitely one of the most important. However, lets keep in mind all learning styles.
Most instructional strategies agree that a combination of teaching methods is most efficient in a group of students.
Regards, Barry
Hi Alison:
You're absolutely correct - by giving the student the chance to use another approach to learning keeps the information fresh and interesting.
By having this type of learning environment, we help keep morale to a high.
Regards, Barry
