A Preference for Learning
If you’re like me, sitting in a chair and listening to lectures for hours on end is a chore. Of course, a well-prepared lecture with useful insights can give us new knowledge, and we often benefit from a lecturer’s style in delivering his message. Beyond a certain point, however, this approach can be stifling. Most teaching—as well as many learning events in corporate and other venues—consists only of lecture.
Research shows that human beings have individual preferences for specific learning styles. Some are auditory learners who gain a great deal from just listening. Some are visual learners who benefit more from watching a demonstration or a well-presented PowerPoint. Those with a strong psychomotor (kinesthetic) preference learn best when engaging physically with the material through movement or other activity.
To demonstrate the concept of “preference,” I have learners draw a vertical line down the center of a piece of paper and ask them to sign their names as they normally do on the left side. I then ask them to place the pen in their other hand and sign their names again on the right side of the paper. This activity helps to differentiate an activity that “comes naturally,” one we hardly think about when performing, from an activity that is more difficult, time-consuming, and poorly performed but that we can achieve when we focus our minds. It shows that we can learn to do something in a manner we don’t “prefer,” while maintaining a default preference.
The best teachers acknowledge preference as a gateway to engaging the learner, but they also push the boundaries of knowledge and skill acquisition in non-preferred areas. The best teachers also blend teaching styles. A short lecture may be commingled with a clear demonstration and then followed up with a practical exercise where learners can apply what they learn.
The problem with the lecture-as-education model is that it fails to recognize differences in preferred learning style. The teacher focuses on the lecture, and learners with a strong capacity or preference for passive, auditory reception of knowledge benefit. Visual—and especially kinesthetic—learners usually don’t benefit as much.
For many learners, “lecture-as-education” is experienced as being “talked at,” an active experience for the teacher or lecturer and a passive one for the learner. The approach often fails to engage our more critical faculties and keeps us from applying what we’re learning to our experience or understanding its relevance to our real-life situations. It also rewards those whose learning preferences, such as listening, are primarily passive.
Because most traditional instruction is conducted through the lecture, with occasional question-and-answer sessions, listeners tend to excel while learners with other preferences become alienated from the process. Modern entrepreneurs (e.g., Jobs, Gates) have a high rate of dropout from traditional classrooms to pursue more hands-on projects and ventures, some of which lead to impressive success. Many early American entrepreneurs (e.g., Edison, Ford, Rockefeller) were also largely self-educated men and women with a penchant for doing. Intelligence and ingenuity are not the isolated provinces of listeners. Learning events and models should take this truth into account.