Research Report: Multisensory Learning: Poetry

 [Poetry Interpretation]

 

 

Abstract:

 

 “The Benefits of Multisensory Teaching and Sensory Words” is an article published by Performance Learning Systems (a program to develop effective educators). This article suggests that there are four major “learning styles” that are prevalent in our society: kinesthetic, tactical, auditory, and visual; and that by using methods of teaching that focus on each style all students in the lesson are benefited. Quoting: “‘By employing a variety of strategies, the teacher may address the mixed efficiencies of those students as well as the dominant and secondary preferences of others. Thus, they reinforce strong preferences and strengthen weaker ones (Silver et al., 2000; Haggart, 2003).’” The article concludes with various stratagies and techniques helpful in multisensory teaching.

 

 

 

Description:

 

            Preformance Learning Systems publishes an online newletter for educators. PLS is an online organization dedicated to training eduactors all over the world to become “effective teachers”. Their aim is to teach proven skills observed in sucessful teachers to others with an emphsis on various learning stlyes. In their article “The Benefits of Multisenory Teaching  and Sensory Words” the authors outline the four major “learning styles” that are predominite in our society. The first style of learning discussed in the article is kinesthetic which is discribed as path to understanding that is physical, where the student literally engages their body movments into their logical process. An example of kinesthetic learning would be a student who retains more information from taking a hike and learning the Latin names of regional plants than by being in a classroom reading from those names from a book. According to the article twenty-five to thirty-five percent of the general population are kinesthetic learners. The next style of learning that the authors present is tactical which is said to also be a physical process of logic but is more passive than kinesthetic. We can say that tactical learners are hands-on in the sense that they prefer to touch and feel examples of what they are being taught. This style of learning makes up fifteen to twenty-five percent of the gerneal population according to the authors. The next stlye of learing suggested is auiditory which, perhaps surprisingly, make up only ten to fifteen percent of the general population of learners according to the article. The auiditory sytle of learning is characteriszed by processing knowledge most effeciently when it is presented verbally. The final style of learning that is presented by the authors if the visual learner who, according to the article, make up the largest precentage of learners in our genral population: twenty-five to thrity-five precent. This style of learning is said to retain more information when it is presented in a visual way such as maps, graphs, images, and intatcive programs such as video gaming.

 

            The benefical aspect of this article to the environment of educators and students is an advanced understanding of the human mind and how it receives and retains information, resulting in an education community that models their instuctive methods to closer exemplify the natural logical processes. Futhur into the article the authors provide modeling tools and techinques that educators can incorporate in their instruction that allow for learners of various styles to all successed in a given lesson without having to teach each learning styles seperatly. The authors suggest that whenever poosible the instructor should trying to incorporate multisensory experiences in the instruction to include and benefit all students but when time or circumstance does not allow for a variety of exprerience instructors should use word key learining style words to engage a varity of students in the conversation therein striving for the best understanding of each student. Key words for kinesthetic learners are: jump, walk, kick; for tactial learners words like: touch, pat, and hold engage their logic; auditory learners respond to words such as whisper, growl and sing; and visual learners are inticed by words such as glace peak notice.

 

 

 

Commentary:

 

            The “Poerty Intreptritation” project has at its foundation the notion that in the face of an advacing technological word the traditional methods of teaching and intreprtitiong poetry (and literature) will themselves need to advance to become compatible with new ways that the human mind is training itself to recieve and retain information.

 

In the article “The Benefits of Multisensory Teaching and Sensory Words” the authors focus on four proven methods, or “styles”, of learing that are only begining to be addressed in the educational community as a path to successful learning. If we, as members of this community, can accept the implications of this articale (namely that the human mind has the capacity [or in fact pefers] the abilty to receive information in a multidemensional, or “multisensory’ way) than it would be a logical step to move from learning subjects such as poerty in a traditional auditory way to a technologically compatiable way of multisensory learning of these same subjects.

 

Online Universtities, Google, and video gamming are merely a few sources where techonology and mutlisensory education combine. In these instances, through the computer screen, we have a feeling of psdo- reality because our senses are enaged at the same rate that our minds naturally interperate our surrounding. The difference between our reality away from interacting with the computer and the reality when interacting with the computer is that when we are online we are not only absorbing the experince of interacting but we are simultaniously absorbing critical information; information that we perhaps previoulsy only abosrbed in single dimension print. In the case of online Universities we learn information that was tradionally only taught in classrooms. By taking this experience out of the classroom the possiblites for deeper understanding expand because the opportuinty for a varity of learning styles to be implemented are increased.

 

The “Poerty Interpretation” project aims to address the beneficial uses of technology in the implimentaion of multisensory education where our computer program will effectivly result in exemplifying the mutlidemensional informational sources that this and next genreations will be accustomed to.

 

 

Resources:

 

Preformance Learning Systems.: “The Benefits of Mutlisensory Teaching and Sensory Words”. Doolan, L. S., & Honigsfeld, A; Haggart, W; Sadler-Smith, E., & Smith, J. P.; Silver, H. F., Strong, R. W., & Perini, M. J.; Thomas, H., Cox, R., & Kojima, T

 

http://www.plsweb.com/resources/newsletters/enews_archives/63/2007/05/07/

 

 

Dania Gioia, The Hudson Review, JSTOR. “The End of Print Culture”. 2003. www.jstor.org] This is an article that discusses the impact of technological advancements on the literary world.