This post is about learning and appreciating the variety of ways people learn and understand things.
Here’s an excerpt from a great read that touches on this subject. It’s by Pete Warden @typepad.com from his article “Harness the Power of Being an Idiot”:
“I learn by trying to build something; there’s no other way I can discover the devils-in-the-details. Unfortunately that’s an incredibly inefficient way to gain knowledge. I basically wander around stepping on every rake in the grass, while the A students memorize someone else’s route and carefully pick their way across the lawn without incident. My only saving graces are that every now and again I discover a better path, and, faced with a completely new lawn, I have an instinct for where the rakes are.”
I find that I learn in much the same way. I recall my high school algebra teacher, Mr. Johnson, trying to explain the concept of A + B = C to me without success. He finally sat me down at a desk with 3 different sized boxes and encouraged me to move them around and assign different values to them. Only then did I begin to understand the concept.
If Mr. Johnson hadn’t taken the time to try to discover how I learn, I might have failed my course. And, more importantly, I might never have discovered how I learn. It’s a real eye-opener to realize that not everyone learns in the same way. I have had clients, for example, who have suffered from dyslexia or some other learning disability, and because the way they learn is not readily accepted, they struggle for many years in school. Making the discovery of how they learn and adjusting the way they take in information is very liberating for them.
Think about how you and others learn. Do you take in information and easily find ways to apply it without a lot of show and tell? Maybe you learn by participation like I do: I have to ben actively involved with the thing I’m learning or participating with others in an active exchange of ideas to increase my understanding. Some people memorize information easily and can immediately come up with the right answers from their vast storehouse of facts and figures. They learn by lots of input and can often recall all that information at a moment’s notice. And then there are people who learn things through their senses and experience the world through sight, sound and touch. I took a master cooking class once, and discovered what it was like to make something without measuring or reading a recipe. Most master chefs cook by taste and feel.
If you’re trying to explain something to other people, don’t be afraid to ask them if they understand you. And don’t be surprised if they take in the same information in a completely different way. There are as many ways to learn as there are ideas, and no one way is better than another. Assuming that we all learn in a similar fashion is one of the unfortunate characteristics of most educational systems, and when you find a teacher or manager who takes the time to help you discover how you like to learn, a whole new world opens up to you.
The best part about exploring how we learn is that we often learn something new!
Kathleen