Thursday, June 23, 2011

The Visual-Spatial Learner

I am very interested in this area right now. Working at late night hours to read all the relevant articles. May be, just may be, others interested to know too.  

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The Visual-Spatial Learner:
An Introduction
Linda Kreger Silverman. Ph.D.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the visual-spatial learner! We’re excited to share with you information about this important learning style, and to share with you about recognizing, assessing, teaching, counseling and living with visual-spatial learners.

The visual-spatial learner model is based on the newest discoveries in brain research about the different functions of the hemispheres. The left hemisphere is sequential, analytical, and time-oriented. The right hemisphere perceives the whole, synthesizes, and apprehends movement in space. We only have two hemispheres, and we are doing an excellent job teaching one of them. We need only become more aware of how to reach the other, and we will have happier students, learning more effectively.

I’d like to share with you how the visual-spatial learner idea originated. Around 1980, I began to notice that some highly gifted children took the top off the IQ test with their phenomenal abilities to solve items presented to them visually or items requiring excellent abilities to visualize. These children were also adept at spatial tasks, such as orientation problems. Soon I discovered that not only were the highest scorers outperforming others on the visual-spatial tasks, but so were the lowest scorers.
The main difference between the two groups was that highly gifted children also excelled at the auditory-sequential items, whereas children who were brighter than their IQ scores had marked auditory and sequential weaknesses. It was from these clinical observations and my attempt to understand both the strengths and weaknesses that the concept of the "visual-spatial learner" was born.

Visual-spatial learners are individuals who think in pictures rather than in words. They have a different brain organization than auditory-sequential learners. They learn better visually than auditorally. They learn all-at-once, and when the light bulb goes on, the learning is permanent. They do not learn from repetition and drill. They are whole-part learners who need to see the big picture first before they learn the details. They are non-sequential, which means that they do not learn in the step-by-step manner in which most teachers teach. They arrive at correct solutions without taking steps, so "show your work" may be impossible for them. They may have difficulty with easy tasks, but show amazing ability with difficult, complex tasks. They are systems thinkers who can orchestrate large amounts of information from different domains, but they often miss the details. They tend to be organizationally impaired and unconscious about time. They are often gifted creatively, technologically, mathematically or emotionally.

You can tell you have one of these children by the endless amount of time they spend doing advanced puzzles, constructing with Legos, etc., completing mazes, counting everything, playing Tetris on the computer, playing chess, building with any materials at hand, designing scientific experiments, programming your computer, or taking everything in the house apart to see how it operates. They also are very creative, dramatic, artistic and musical.

Here are the basic distinctions between the visual-spatial and auditory-sequential learner:

AUDITORY-SEQUENTIALVISUAL-SPATIAL
Thinks primarily in words Thinks primarily in pictures
Has auditory strengthsHas visual strengths
Relates well to time Relates well to space
Is a step-by-step learner Is a whole-part learner
Learns by trial and error Learns concepts all at once
Progresses sequentially from easy to difficult materialLearns complex concepts easily; struggles with easy skills
Is an analytical thinkerIs a good synthesizer
Attends well to detailsSees the big picture; may miss details
Follows oral directions wellReads maps well
Does well at arithmeticIs better at math reasoning than computation
Learns phonics easilyLearns whole words easily
Can sound out spelling wordsMust visualize words to spell them
Can write quickly and neatly Prefers keyboarding to writing
Is well-organized Creates unique methods of organization
Can show steps of work easilyArrives at correct solutions intuitively
Excels at rote memorization Learns best by seeing relationships
Has good auditory short-term memoryHas good long-term visual memory
May need some repetition to reinforce learningLearns concepts permanently; is turned off by drill and repetition
Learns well from instructionDevelops own methods of problem solving
Learns in spite of emotional reactionsIs very sensitive to teachers’ attitudes
Is comfortable with one right answer Generates unusual solutions to problems
Develops fairly evenlyDevelops quite asynchronously
Usually maintains high grades May have very uneven grades
Enjoys algebra and chemistryEnjoys geometry and physics
Learns languages in classMasters other languages through immersion
Is academically talentedIs creatively, mechanically, emotionally, or technologically gifted
Is an early bloomerIs a late bloomer

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