Educators have known for a long time that students learn in different methods.
The three main kinds are visual, auditory, and tactile, or kinesthetic.
Visual learners learn best through seeing diagrams, mindmaps, videos pictures and the like.
Auditory learners learn best through hearing lectures, podcasts, and discussing.
Tactile learners learn best through action, doing experiments and exercises.
A person can be a combination of all of these, however 1 style (sometimes 2 styles) tends to be dominant and preferred for that student.
It is reasonable to assume that a mixture of these three learning styles will be present in all classes. It would be a reasonable assumption that most professors should provide material in a way that accompanies all learning styles.
But most don't.
If we recall our time in formal education, we often think about listening to someone talk for an hour or two upfront with some bullet points on screen (or black/white board) while we struggle not to fall asleep.
I'm a dominant visual/tactile learner. I get bored and start day dreaming to escape a lecture like that. Instead, I'll go home, try to create diagrams or charts or someway to visualize the knowledge I need, and I'll do a few exercises. And this way, I get A's. But my time spent in lectures like the above are almost completely wasted.
Occasionally I'll get a teacher who creates visuals or thinks up interactive exercises to do. Often my attention will snap back to reality when there is something visual to work with on screen. Unfortunately, it's quite rare.
For some reason, we have the idea that complex subjects can only be explained through large chunks of technical text. While that might work for some learners, it disadvantages the rest of us.
I've used this graph a couple of times in the economics section of this blog, and I will use it again several times.
Even though I have omitted most of the detail and technical information from this graph, it can still be used to explain a variety of concepts, such as opportunity cost, production capacity, excess and surplus, consumption versus investment, choice of investment, etc.
Not only does it apply on a country (macro), or industry (micro) level, it also applies on a personal level, which I try to bring it down to in my posts there.
The point is, that visuals can often be just as capable as explaining concepts as text.
Exercises in addition to benefiting tactile learners also provide a link from theoretical to practical. For me, I often don't feel like knowledge is cemented in my long term memory until I have practiced it a few times (such as conducting a strategic analysis report of a business).
Regardless of a students inclinations, it is not hard to argue that all three styles should be used in classrooms wherever possible to accompany for all students.
This is not revolutionary, but it is optional. The system allows for this kind of apathy and behalf of professors. The difficulty in implementing something so widely accepted as important in the classroom makes me concerned for the system, and for education.
It is one reason why I feel that in the next few decades we will need to reform the education system from the ground up, into a student-centered system of learning.
