An integral apart of any gathering of educational professionals is
the inevitable “learning styles preference” discussion. Depending on what is in
fashion at the time you could be discussing:
·
Neil Fleming's VAK/VARK model.
·
Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences.
·
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
·
David Kolb's model
While I completely agree that different people learn in different
ways. I tend to view the psychology based pseudo sciences with the same level
of disdain that Richard Feynman did. Still I’ve filled in enough of these damn
questionnaires to know exactly where I stand. Using the Kolb model that was
being thrown around in today’s discussion I know that I always come out as an
Assimilator**. In that I prefer observing to doing and thinking rather than
feeling to put it crudely. I usually fit
quite strongly in this category as well. No questions.
Except that now I don’t apparently. The last one of these things I
filled in has me absolutely smack bang in the middle of all four categories***.
And of course I blame flying!
I have been forced to use parts of my brain that simply weren’t
allowed to function before. I can read
all I like about landing a plane but now I’m being forced to experience the visual and kinaesthetic
feedback that you need to in order not to bounce the plane to high heaven. Watching
Bob doing something is one thing but I need to experience what a stall feels like and do the recovery myself. This has shuffled me from one polarity towards the other enough that I'm now on the fence as it were.
While I find it vaguely interesting that flying can change your
mindset in such a way. I actually find it more interesting that people make a
living by coming up with these “models” in the first place!
* Bracing myself for the inevitable barrage of rude comments!
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