It has been theorized – and contested – for decades that every student learns in his or her own individual way. The way learners receive information, process information, and display understanding of that information is varied and complex. While it is easy to get drawn into the arguments for and against theses various theories, here are just a few highlights relevant to Visual Learning.
Gardner and Multiple Intelligences
It is important to note that Howard Gardner’s seminal research into multiple intelligences is frequently, yet erroneously, associated with learning styles. Intelligence, as Gardner defines it, refers to intellectual abilities. Every learner has multiple intelligences, or learning abilities, yet the strongest intelligences within individuals represent the form of greatest “computational power” for processing information. In contrast, Gardner says that learning styles are “the ways in which an individual approaches a range of tasks.” In many cases, these tasks represent learning.
As an example, think of someone who has picked up a foreign language exceptionally quickly. That learner may certainly have a strong verbal-linguistic intelligence, in that they are able to “compute” and present that understanding in a specific way, but this multiple intelligence label does not reveal how that learner best acquired that information. The acquisition of that information could have come from a variety of different paths: lecture, conversation, textbooks, etc. |
"I am good at..." vs. "I learn best when..."
Barbe and Learning Modality |
Fleming and VARK |
Walter Burke Barbe and his colleagues suggest that learning takes place within three modalities: visualising modality, auditory modality, and kinesthetic modality (VAK). These modalities represent the “channels through which perception occur” and the channels that most efficiently process information are called modality strengths. These modality strengths can come from a single channel, or be varied between multiple channels. According to their research (1979), Barber et al. observed the following of learning modalities:
Barbe et al. also made the distinction between modality strength and preference. A student’s self-reported preferred modality did not necessarily match the modality that fostered the most effective learning. |
A questionnaire developed by Neil Fleming at Lincoln University helps students to identify preference “for particular modes of information presentation.” This questionnaire expands on the Barbe et al. model to include reading/ writing as possible first preferences for taking in information.
In making the distinction between reading/ writing and visual learners, Fleming notes that visual learners “like information to arrive in the form of graphs, charts, and flow diagrams.” He also states that visual learners “ are sensitive to different or changing spatial arrangements [,] can work easily with symbols,” and “will sometimes draw maps of their learning sequences or create patterns of information.”
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Visual Learners
Visual learning is in the majority. In fact, the Social Science Research network reports that 65% of the population are visual learners. These people utilize aids like those seen below to efficiently process information. They tend to remember details like colour, size, and spatial relationships more easily, and prefer accompanying aids like images, charts, or demonstrations, in addition to verbal instruction. When studying, visual learners might incorporate some of these aids and elements to represent visually their learning and thinking. This may be done through symbols, doodles, keywords, and manipulation of spatial configurations (maps, charts, graphs, etc.) or aesthetic elements (fonts, highlighting, colour-coding, etc.).
Intelligences, Learning Styles, and Assessment
Consideration toward various intelligences and learning styles has been made in classrooms all over the world, and these considerations also factor significantly into assessment practices of teachers, institutions, and government bodies. In British Columbia, provincial examinations take into consideration multiple learning styles and intelligences when planning assessment for students.
Examples to the right have been selected from various past B.C. provincial government exams. How do these exams reflect consideration for different intelligences, learning modalities, and visual learning? |
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Activity #1
As part of an introduction to both Visual Intensive Learning and ourselves, the 2018 class cohort explored bubbl.us and created a mind map that introduced them as a learner. Feel free to participate in this activity as well and focus on all aspects of learning that best describes you, not just the visual!
(Post the mind map as an image)
(Post the mind map as an image)
Continue learning about visual learning by taking a look at infographics in the classroom.