Kinesthetic Learner

You might have already read my posts about audio and visual learners. If you don't fall into either of the two categories, you could have a different way of learning and be a kinesthetic learner.

Kinesthetic learners, also known as tactile learners, learn by doing stuff rather than listening to it or watching it. They like to touch and experience new things. They are best at handling practical courses rather than theory. But that doesn't mean they cannot be good at theory.

If you are a kinesthetic learner, or doer as they popularly call them, then you may benefit from the following;

• take notes during the lesson,
• if the text is too lengthy, skim through it first and highlight the critical points with bright colors. You can then proceed to read the whole passage,
• make notes at the corner of a page as you read a long, boring chapter. You may even use paper tags as you read,
• draw charts, graphs, and diagrams to learn and memorize new concepts,
• offer to help your teacher out while she is demonstrating a new experiment, e.g., you could hand things over to her as she proceeds with her work,
• you could also write down on the chalkboard the steps that are being demonstrated,
• you may volunteer to do the experiment yourself while your teacher guides you,
• your mom may not like it, but you can try reading while walking,
• while memorizing, pretend to be a teacher or debater. You may even mimic someone to make it more fun,
• act out a play based on the lesson you are reading,
• chew gum while studying,
• trace words and diagrams while reading,
• use index cards to write and organize essential points,
• and most of all, only try to sit and study for a short time. Take a break often, take a walk, drink water, jump and hop around, and then get back to work afresh.

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Paulo Coelho's Aleph: An Awakening on the Trans-Siberian Express

This autobiographical novel is something beyond two people finding themselves kings of their kingdoms again. It isn't just a journey that Paulo Coelho took through the Trans-Siberian Railways; it is a voyage through the silent distance that separates two souls while they don't know that they have been touching each other for eternity. To understand how everything in time and space can exist in one place and moment, Aleph is what you need.

Aleph is the story of a book tour to various countries that Coelho took in 2006 when he was experiencing the pain of futility of everything he had devoted his life to. He was agonized by his spiritual stagnation. He could no longer withstand the awakening that, despite years of the quest, he couldn't - and probably would never - find peace. He was losing touch with himself, his soul. And above all, he was tormented by the thought that he would never be the king of his kingdom again. Little did he know that this impulsive trip he took through Africa, Europe, and Asia would end up uniting him with a Turkish beauty who would guide him back to his path, and towards the end of the 9289 kilometers through Russia, he would have regretted, as well as cherished, the moment when he decided to take this trip. And most importantly, this journey would have made him 'the king of his kingdom.'

This Trans-Siberian journey introduces him to the most annoying and stubborn woman he first avoids and then desires. He later finds out that it was this woman for whom he was destined to take this tedious book tour. Hilal is not only one of the eight women he had betrayed in one of his past lives; she is the woman who died because she loved him. She, along with the other seven women, haunted him throughout his present life and previous ones without him knowing why. He is adamant about finding the answer to this question in this incarnation and during this journey. The answer awaits him in a railway carriage when he experiences Aleph with Hilal. Coelho keeps his readers engaged throughout the novel by hinting at the cruelty he had meted out to the eight women. However, each hint increases the curiosity of the readers until a time comes when you have to try hard not to skip to the last page.

The setting of this novel is a train and its railway carriage where six people enjoy and bear with each other for 9289 kilometers across Russia, from Moscow to Vladivostok, in the spring of 2006. And the setting of this novel is every place on this earth during every second of past, present, and future. Its characters are Coelho, Hilal, seven women and their tormentors, a translator, a publisher, an editor, a shaman, tens of thousands of Coelho's readers, and the many men and women who have lived their lives are living their lives and will live their lives in future. To understand all this, you should read this novel more than once, as Coelho remarks: "Why did I take so long to write about this pilgrimage? Because it took me three full years to understand it."

We don't need to agree with Coelho's philosophy to like this book. Full of wisdom and spiritual insight, Aleph can show light at the end of the tunnel to even the darkest of pessimists. In a nutshell, it is an exciting book, and you won't ever regret reading it.

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A Handy Tip for Mastering Parts of Speech

Many schools require students to master not only the four basic language skills but also to acquire knowledge of grammar. Parts of speech are building blocks of a language, and teachers need help teaching these and students to keep confusing them. Here is a straightforward tip for students and teachers to do the Parts of Speech the fun way, and I call it Color-coding.

Color-coding

What You'll Need

• English Reader/coursebook/any written document
• Color pencils/highlighters in different colors

 

How to Do It

• Dedicate one color to one Part of Speech, e.g.;

 

Noun
 

Verb
 

Adjective
 

Article
 

Preposition
 

Pronoun
 

Adverb
 

Conjunction
 

Interjection

 

• Now take your English reader and start reading your lesson. Keep your colored pencils/highlighters handy.
• Now highlight all words according to the color codes you or your class decide.
• When you come across a word you cannot classify, try to guess by using your knowledge and understanding.
• Look up in the dictionary whether your guess is correct or not.

 

Caution

• Don't get upset if you're not getting it right. Keep practicing, and you will see a marked difference in your understanding of Parts of Speech within a month!
• If you are a teacher thinking of adopting this method in your school, have a mutual consensus on the color codes so that all classes in your school use the same code list.

 

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Three Disadvantages of Traditional Classroom Learning

In a traditional classroom setting, students sit passively while the teacher delivers a lecture. There are reasons why many teachers seem dissatisfied with this practice. For now, I shall limit myself to only three:

a. Students' focus is set in the wrong direction; in taking notes rather than understanding and absorbing new concepts.

Result:

• Students' inability to grasp key ideas and concepts,

• Failed lesson objective.

b. Too much focus on presentation, little time left for practice: Since a teacher has to deliver a fixed number of concepts within a limited time, most classroom activities comprise the presentation stage. Students practice at home.

Result:

• This strategy does not allow students to experiment with new concepts, and it causes little learning. Students usually end up cramming ideas and cannot produce anything fruitful except generic answers to exam questions.

• Furthermore, many students might get stuck while doing problem sets at home. This, too, thwarts their performance. If they are unable to master one concept and have been unable to practice it effectively, we cannot expect them to grasp a newer concept based on the previous one,

c. A teacher's lecture is generally one-size-fits-all. Some students have different paces of learning. While some students can follow the teacher's class conveniently, others require time to chow on the information they are getting. Also, each student has a different learning style. You can't expect a kinesthetic learner to master a concept by listening to a lecture without hands-on experience. If a visual learner gets worse grades than an auditory learner, it doesn't mean that the former is slow or dull; it may mean that the classroom strategies accounted for the auditory learner.

Result:

• This results in the student's inability to keep pace with the teachers'. The world stereotypes them as 'slow learners.'

• Poor grades and lagging in classroom performance significantly contribute to a poor self-image and lack of confidence. It is a major contributing factor to the failure of many students to achieve what they are capable of.

• This not only mars potential talent, but it also causes distress to a lot many dedicated and hardworking teachers.

The traditional public school system and classroom practices could be better. The responsibility befalls the shoulders of us, educationists. We must review the factors which make the present school system ineffective, and only then can we rectify these problem areas to create classrooms that deliver.

Buffaloes and Spoken English: A Story of Determination and Perseverance

Ayesha Mirza                                                                 

One of my teachers said that if you have nothing left to say, it's about time you started reading more, or, better still, observing more, or, a still better option, experiencing more. I've been doing none of these lately, hence this writer's block.

This teacher I just mentioned used to teach me English literature some ten years ago and always had something to talk about. He is one of those few people whose words inspire me. It was a treat listening to memories of his rustic childhood days. Once, he told us how he learned English in a remote village where all they studied in school was the ABCs and some basic grammar rules. He is, by far, the most authentic person known to me regarding vocabulary and spelling. At least so, when it comes to pronunciation, you'll soon understand why. He used to learn words in his English dictionary by heart, and by the time he was a graduate, he had learned all the words in his dictionary. But he didn't have anyone to tell him about phonetics. So, he remained a constant amusement for his class fellows at G.C. Lahore, as he was wont to pronounce unanimous as un-any-mouse and veteran as wet-ee-ran. This was not unusual for me, though, as I have known people who pronounce giraffe as Jira-fey and buffalo as boo-fallow. But, unlike most of us, that unflinching spirit made it a point to amuse the people around him with his bloopers and perfected his pronunciation (he still pronounces lawyer as laai-yer, though).

Talking of boofellows, they have a substantial contribution to his life; they were his first (perhaps, only) Spoken English academy. Each morning, he would go to the ranch, caress his buffaloes, and start talking to them in English. Buffaloes are very intent listeners, so he says; they never interrupt you, never correct you, never laugh at you, never mimic you, and are courteous enough to occasionally nod their heads and move their tails to show that they are all ears. Unlike men, who keep looking in the space ahead and claim to be listening, you would never complain of a buffalo not being attentive- their firm, yellow gaze on you being cogent evidence.

I have never been a good speaker because I've never raised a buffalo. But following my teacher's advice, I tried one thing; I would lock myself up in the bathroom and stay there for hours on end, talking to my reflection in the mirror. My sister used to share a room with me back then. Soon enough, I had to quit this spoken practice because, with each passing day, my sister was more convinced that I was either possessed or mentally deranged. Hence, I continue to be a not-good speaker, and one of my biggest regrets remains not keeping a pet buffalo.

Visual Learners

by Ayesha Mirza

In my last post, I mentioned a few dominant qualities in auditory learners. Now is the time to explore another category; visual learners. 

As the name suggests, visual learners understand and retain things better when they see them instead of hearing them. They tend to store snapshots of people and places in their minds. Such learners remember pictures better than words, colors better than black and white print, maps better than spoken directions, flow charts better than description, and faces better than names. Such people try to 'picture' everything they read or hear. They, therefore, have a strong imagination. Much of what they remember is in the form of images. Their brain organizes information and ideas in the form of pictures. However, translating concepts into words can be challenging. So they might need help communicating their ideas and knowledge to others, and it is more complex to fathom why others can't understand things they can 'see' so clearly. Despite this, they are also often fast talkers and often interrupt other speakers. They often use words and phrases related to vision like 'try to picture that,' 'I can't see why,' 'envision it,' 'from my perspective,' etc. Such learners love to draw and doodle. They also possess an incredible sense of direction and space and are apt with maps. Therefore, while some are habitual to taking the wrong exits on highways, visual learners remember precisely which street to enter and which turn to take. In short, they make reliable travel companions.

If you have some or all of these qualities, read on to figure out what works best for you as a student. Generally speaking, visual learners can benefit from anything and everything that appeals to their imagination and sense of sight like;

• drawing flowcharts and diagrams,
• using highlighters of different colors while reading long and tedious paragraphs,
• using three or more colored pens while writing, 
• giving a lot of headings,
• using numbering and bullets with a particular focus on layout,
• using a timeline to remember historical facts,
• creating word-picture associations to remember names 
• making charts and flashcards, and displaying them in your study area,
• finding colorful picture books or websites related to your syllabus,
• using a whiteboard to draw, write and doodle,
• creating mind maps

Now you are aware of two types of learners. Do you fit into any of the two categories? If yes, you can change your study habits according to your learning style until you find out what works best for you. If not, chances are that you are a kinesthetic learner, a category we will look into in my next post. 

Types of Learners: Auditory Learners

by Ayesha Mirza

So here I am as promised, to share a few words on different kinds of learners. When I was a child, my father used to make me write down answers from chapters various times. This was to ensure that I retained the study information well. This did help to a degree, but not as much as dad desired. At that point, neither of us knew why exactly I was unable to score that high despite so much of an effort. But now we seem to know the answer. 

The simple answer is; each individual has different learning styles. What works for dad doesn't necessarily have to work for me too. So, in order to make best use of your time, it is important to know what your learning style is. There are primarily three types of learners: auditory, visual and kinesthetic. I will discuss the first category of learners in this post.

Auditory learners remember best the things they learn by listening. They can remember songs, for instance. They can recall their professor's lectures easily. They like to read out loud in order to remember things. They, if given the choice, prefer to listen to an audio tape instead of reading from a book. They are good in study groups and enjoy explaining things to themselves and others. I, for instance, enjoy acting as participant of a heated discussion on the topic I have to prepare for an exam. Auditory learners are also good at remembering tongue twisters. They are better at following spoken instructions instead of written ones. 

Does any of it ring a bell in your mind? If yes, you can bring a remarkable difference in your grades by making only few changes in your study habits. You can:

• audiotape your written notes,
• create chants, rhymes and word associations to remember facts,
• read out in a loud voice,
• repeat words/facts out loud with eyes closed,
• participate in group discussions,
• teach your class fellows who cannot understand the lessons well,
• listen to audiotapes on the topic, or watch related videos, or,
• record her lectures if your professor allows

So much for auditory learning, I will be posting about the other two kinds of learners soon.

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