Creating a Multi-sensory Learning Environment
How could you try using color, visuals, seating, creative supplies and music to improve the learning environment for your students?
I move around to different classrooms, but I'm going to try to find a way to incorporate some of these ideas by using the computer and projector in each room.
It certainly varies based on the subject matter and amount of students in the classroom. In my class, color would not matter much but the visuals and seating would help. It's also important that you implement different types of learning environments starting on the first day. Some students do not like the idea of changing their seat or even listen to music.
Since I work at a culinary school, I am very limited as to what can be on the walls and having anything hanging or arrange seating. I believe that it really depends on the teaching facility. The health department regulates our kitchens so we are really only permitted to hang sanitation posters.
my mind is racing in so many directions for my next class. It's going to be an interesting change for my students. We have done a lot of hands on training in the past few months, and next module it's all in the classroom and information overload with anatomy and business practices. Color, charts, index cards, markers, music and a new seating set up are all on the agenda. This is going to be great! I know these students well and I've been thinking about how to make the learning fun and engaging. We shall see how they accept it.
I think it is important to take into consideration the class that is being taught/facilitated. Incorporating color could be done by using colored paper for handouts, quizzes, and tests. Arranging the seating to allow for more interaction and facilitating of learning. With the power points I create I always end them with a motivational quote/picture. I would like to look at incorporating music.
I have a variety of ways to present some of the same content (bullet points/ keynote/ powerpoint, video, etc.)
I like to gauge how the class initially react to the first day and what is shown and change accordingly to their responses. I also like to have them discuss and fill out surveys in the beginning on what they gravitate toward/ comfortable in terms of delivery and interaction.
I have fairly small classes so I'm able to switch it up as necessary.
When making my powerpoints I try to make sure they contain bolder colors, pictures and animation if possible. If feel this keeps the students more interested and somewhat focused. It is a proven fact that you loose students after about 20 minutes. So by doing this I feel it "wakes up" students to the topic in class.
I would arrange seating in a manner where students can see and interact with one another. I would place colorful and motivational posters on the walls. I would play relaxing music at the beginning of class and during the break
I found this module very interesting. First I did not realize it was against copyright law to play a personal CD in class. Yikes. I do like to use music, art and film especially to enhance the topic of study and discussion. The module made me more aware of the needs of different learning styles and the need for varied sensory stimuli in the class. I have primarily focused on keeping the energy level high not always realizing how multi-sensory additions to the environment also aided student learning. I
That is my problem. The class before mine runs right up to and sometimes over our start time. Unless, I want to take up class time, it is difficult to set up the room with peripherals. However, I teach dental radiology and I can see that using the white board more or a pre-drawn flip chart might help though. I have several difficult concepts to teach. One is the working of the tube head of the Xray machine. This course has given me some suggestions that I will use next time I teach this. It made me think that I have been going about it all wrong by giving the students a diagram of the inner workings at the start and then showing them how it comes into the machine, travels through and leave as x-ray photons. I am now thinking of adding one part at a time and asking the students to tell me what has to happen next. I am always looking for a way to teach this particular concept and it is always very frustrating when students don't "get it".
Many educational facilities use institutional neutral colors on walls in classrooms that negates from the information in this module. With encouragement from those who have taken this module, accent walls were created at the front of classrooms with shades of blue. Students made many comments on how this has changed the dynamics of the classroom and the learning environment.
I teach culinary arts, so most of our kitchen labs are geared towards food production for the students to work either as a team or as individuals. There is not a lot of room to change things as far as the kitchen layout.
But when I do demos, or product id, then I can play with the set up, place all the ingredients in attractive displays and assemble the demo layout so that the students are close to the action. I also engage them as much as possible during the demo, so that I always have assistants.
For larger classes, we have cameras that we can use during the demos. However, I try to avoid using that, because I feel that is desensitizes them from the action, I much rather have them standing close, hearing the noises and smelling the scents, as the food is being prepared.
Alexandra
Jeff,
yes, these suggestions are not meant to be a one size fits all, but rather each instructor determining what would work best for their particular environment.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
As I reviewed this section, I am eager to use "peripheral" learning. Some new items could be introduced into my classroom.
I, too, believe seating is another important tool.
I like the music information and may experiment with that tool. (the "alpha" music playing during classroom exercises would probably be a good start).
These concepts are new to me a s a new instructor. I will incorporate several into the class and see how they work. My classes are quite long so trying them will help break up the time.
This is one of the ones that would be more difficult for me. Most subjects in these courses I agree with and fully believe are the right way to teach, some of these I don't necessarily buy into. Classrooms where teachers have put classical music on seems to help some students while annoy others. It seems like a one size fits all idea that, from my experience, doesn't always work. Some students actually find it distracting. The certain color paper for certain assignments, handouts, etc. does seem to work. We are in a paperless environment so we could highlight in different colors. I think I would like to see if it would work in a paperless environment. I think it would as I have seen it work well in a paper environment.
Edwin,
this is a great example of how we can explore different ways to mix things up, even when prohibited to use all changes.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Our classroom size and layout does not allow any diversity in arrangement of seating and music is not allowed by school policy. However we use power points to display schematics and colors to help students focus on the important parts of a circuit such as red to show the energized portion of an electrical circuit in a particular mode of operation. I found that if a student has difficulty reading text material particularly when they have some level of dyslexia by covering the text with a color tinted plastic sheet the students are able to read and comprehend better. I try different colors to see which is best for the student. Yellow seems to work best as it really brings out more clarity in the printing. I teach HVAC so our walls are covered with posters of systems, diagrams, charts and components that represent the instructed content.
You could use color, visuals, seating, music etc in a number of way to improve the learning environment including music at the end of class during clean up to get the students motivated. You could also use color to stimulate the interest of students with dry erase boards and messages.
