RSSLearning styles. The term is unfortunate, I think, seeming to suggest that we could choose a different style, just as, say, we could choose to dress Goth today.
Some of us can choose our learning preference, or at least, sometimes can. I know, for example, that I don’t do well when listening to a long set of directions. More than 3 pieces of information, and I’m lost (no pun intended!). But if I write down the spoken directions - even if I never look at the paper again - I can often make my way there with no problem! That’s because I’m a very kinesthetic learner, and if I combine the two (auditory and kinesthetic), it works well for me. But that’s for those of us who function relatively well in several different learning styles. My experience tells me that there are those who don’t.
We’ve all heard the stories about how, when one sense is lost, another compensates. This myth is a great detriment for some of our differently-abled neighbors and friends. Here’s my first epiphany along these lines:
In the 90’s, I was working as a sign language interpreter. For the first two years, my client was a high school student. When I met her, she was 16, and was placed in Algebra 1, though she could not multiply. She also, I discovered, could not draw a triangle or a circle - the ends didn’t meet.
Curious about how to reach her, academically, I began experimenting with different learning styles. Clearly, visual learning was not an effective tool for her. This would, unfortunately, include sign language itself! Over the weeks of my very active experimentation, a very interesting thing occurred.
One day, in her remedial English class, the teacher began talking about nouns. To make sure my student remembered and understood the concept, I asked if she remembered what a noun was. She signed “A person,” the screwed up her forehead, as if what her brain was telling her didn’t make sense. “…PLAYS??” she added, incredulously.
I knew that it was not the visual similarity between the words “place” and “plays” that caused the confusion. This student generally did not recognize the similarity between words when a simple ending was added to them, such as -”ly”.
But “place” and “plays” sound virtually the same. Stunned, I had a devastating realization: This profoundly deaf girl appeared to be “wired” for auditory learning!
I further confirmed my theory over the coming days, then went excitedly to the professionals with whom I worked, sure that they would be happy that this young woman had finally been “decoded”. But these were the same professionals who had allowed this non-multiplying student to be passed through the grades until she ended up, way out of her league, in Algebra I: No one wanted to see the truth. No one wanted to see that this young woman had yet another challenge to deal with. She’d been “aided”, for years, on her tests and her homework by teachers and sign language interpreters who didn’t want to see that she had other issues, not just deafness. “Don’t you mean?,” they’d suggest, referring to the correct answer. And “Yes,” she would sign in reply, knowing that this was the right answer they wanted from her.
So-
Some Deaf people can develop what seems to us to be “super vision”, and some Blind people can develop “super hearing”. These are the people for whom the still-functioning learning style is strong (A blind person whose primary learning style is NOT visual, for example, and with strong auditory and kinesthetic abilities for learning). For us to compare what one learner is capable of doing, how one Deaf person adapts to his or her circumstances and to impose that expectation on another… Well, that’s going to create just one more (unnecessary) obstacle for someone who just doesn’t need one more.
- Shanti Mai
I’d love to hear your experiences and perspectives on learning styles…