Changing Your Learning Strategies Can Make a Difference!

Changing Your Learning Strategies Can Make a Difference!
by Jason Stewart & Dan Lang

Have you ever thought about how you learn? Each one of us has different ways of learning and that can have an enormous effect of either how well or how easily we learn in different learning situations. Also consider that there have emerged techniques that can first identify your current learning strategies as well as actually show you effective ways of learning, suitable for the type of learning task at hand.

How we learn is critically important. If there are 2 people of equal capability, the learning strategy each chooses can have significant impact on their ability to learn.

When we approach a learning situation we adopt (unusually unconsciously) a learning strategy. Some of us come up with a good strategy; while others use a less than ideal strategy. Those who come up with an effective learning strategy, in many cases, are the ones that excel. They manage to find ways to acquire skills and knowledge extremely well. Many of us will use a 'less than ideal' strategy first and when it doesn't seem to be working very well, we assume there is a problem with us. We then try harder because we believe that greater effort will be the remedy. This "stick to it ivness" only leads to frustration and, in many cases, self doubt because the acquisition of the skills and knowledge does not come easily. Yet this may be less about our "intelligence" and more about having an effective learning strategy

The real tragedy of an ineffective learning strategy is that the consequences are high. Not only can it lead to frustration and self limiting beliefs about one's intelligence, but it can also affect the person's confidence and sense of self outside the classroom. This is truly unfortunate as a more effective strategy can be learned in moments, and easily developed over time.

Let me give you an example. Most people, including myself, learned how to spell exclusively auditorally. We learned how to sound the word out loud and write the letters according to the sounds we made or the rules we learned (i.e. I before e except after c). This strategy is a very good strategy to learn how to speak or pronounce the words. However learning how to read or spell is best done visually, for the simple reason that one-third of the language can't be spelled phonetically. Some examples are -

• … ph's that sound like f's
• … silent x's, z's, k's and p's littered throughout the language
• … there are " ' " that make no noise at all
• … "tion" and "sion" which make a 'shun' sound

There are now several correct letter configurations in front of a child that in some circumstances are correct and in others are not. For example tension is spelled "sion" and Attention is spelled "tion" however, auditorally, they are indistinguishable. This can be confusing to anyone - not just children. The only really reliable way to sort it all out is to capture the word visually.

As a way to start understanding what is a learning strategy, first recognize there are two types of learning outcomes - what we learn (the content) and how we learn (the process). Most of the schooling experience is focused content outcomes. Limited time and attention is given to the process that the learner goes through in acquiring these skills and knowledge.

Learning strategies are the "how" we acquire and process information as mentioned above. Yet it is the "how" portion of the learning process that directly affects the speed of acquisition, the quality of our learning of the content, and the length of retention of the knowledge and/or skills . Given its importance let's take a closer look at some of the big picture learning modalities.

There are 3 predominant sensory pathways through which we learn, and some of those ways are more effective for learning some things better than others. Some things are best learned visually, others auditorally and other still kinesthetically. Each mode has distinct characteristics and capabilities. The chart below provides an introductory view of the capabilities of each of the learning modes.

Learning Mode & Associated Capabilities

Visual - absorbing and retaining information, accuracy of recall
Auditory - spoken language
Kinesthetic - Physical movements, i.e. athletics

Due to these differences, there can be distinct advantages to using one mode over another in learning. Visual learning is best suited for anything that involves a lot of data or accurate recall . As the old saying goes "A picture is worth a thousand words". Learning areas that do not involve masses of data and detailed recall like physical movements or different forms of art in many cases are best done through Auditory or Kinesthetic modes.

Let's return to our example of learning how to spell. An effective learning strategy for spelling was tested at the University of Moncton in New Brunswick by Francois Loiselle. The research began with 44 average spellers. They tested different Visual strategies against the students own personal strategies (largely auditory) to notice the results. The results showed a 20-25% improvement in the number of correct words spelled when the students used a visual component in their strategy. In another study conducted by Thomas E. Malloy at the University of Utah, he tested the performance of students using straight phonetic and rule based spelling strategies vs. a strategy that paralleled visual based strategies with phonetic and rule based. He showed that retention of words increased by approximately 15-20% when using a parallel visual and auditory strategy.

An example of a visual strategy related to spelling would includes the following steps:

• … print the word up on a blackboard in their minds (visual internal)
• … give each letter a different color
• … the educator then asks what color a couple of the letters are
• … the educator then asks what the entire sequence of colors are.

If the learner can successfully go through the sequence of colors for each of the letters then the probability for remembering the sequence of letters is enormously increased. This technique incorporates memory peg techniques. (This, in large part, is how people can memorize phone books) With this simple strategy a child will be able to know with certainty that attention is spelled attention and not "attension", or "attenshun", or "a tension".

This will not be the "be all and end all" strategy as some children do not have refined visual capabilities. However this imagery is an important step to increasing spelling capabilities within a student group.

Developing a child's ability to refine within each of the modalities can be fostered. Employing different techniques that use all representational systems will lead to a better learner. The more capability a child has to make refined sensory distinctions, the better learner they will be. The example mentioned in this particular article is one example that can be used. The important thought here is that you can actually learn how to learn.

Jason Stewart

Dan Lang