lifehacker.com: If you focus too hard on your “learning style,” you run the risk of getting boxed in by it. Whether you prefer to learn visually, auditorily, by reading or writing, or kinesthetically, there are benefits to using methods that align with all four of the main styles—and times when you’ll have to, whether you like it or not. Each style has something to offer, so embrace what works within each of them.
8 comments:
As someone who has always felt like they have had to spend twice the amount of time as their peers just to obtain the same information. I have always been the first to click on a video that claims to teach you how to study or some tricks to the trade that after 18 years of life I haven't figured out yet. So naturally, when I saw this article and clicked on it. I will say that I am pleasantly surprised that I think it might actually be legit. Some of the things I already knew, the information about muscle memory and how that can help you reinforce the connections in your mind. But the idea of role playing, rehearsing or pretending things that extend off of what you can study for in a test is proven to help you. I found this so interesting because I get really nervous before presentations or events when I interact with people I don't know yet. This article says that if you practice while doing a repetitive movement it can be calming and can help you recall your memory in the moment. Not the most groundbreaking article but things I will keep in mind for the next four years.
Figuring out what study method is most suitable for each person can take a long time. I remember switching and testing my study methods every few weeks when I was in middle school. Some worked better than others and stuck with me longer, but nothing lasts forever as I would keep ‘evolving’ (at least I hoped I was) my method. By high school, I had the large skeleton set, but still had to adjust depending on the subject area and the nature of the test I was studying for. Though this is an ongoing process, I’m really glad I had this opportunity to explore for myself. What we study here at Drama is quite different from other subject areas, and a lot of my previous study methods no longer apply. But I think they will still be helpful somewhere down the road in the future, and the exploration and evolution will continue.
As someone who struggles to obtain and remember the information taught in class, I’ve always been trying out new study methods that my friends have been recommending, or ones I’ve seen online. I’ve tried out most of the tips and ways recommended in the article already, but I do think that the way I tend to remember information the most is by actually doing the things being taught. In high school, this was much harder, as we were taught mostly conceptual things, except for chemistry, where I was actually able to try out some of the things being taught, and it really helped me grasp the material. Now, as I’m doing a lot of art, it’s also really helpful, because I can have a lot of time to understand the concepts, and I can also try out and draw the concepts being taught, such as in drafting.
The opening line of this article really resonated with me. So many different study methods have been thrown my way as something to try or a holy grail meant to fix all of my problems. But if you dive too far into one method you may be missing out on a mix of methods that might work even better for you. I thought the methods mentioned in this article were interesting. Some of them I have heard of and even tried, like working with other people around which is one of my tried and true methods of study. But I prefer what is called ‘body doubling’ which is when you are working with other people in the room but on different things. I think that from this article I will take away that it is important to get involved with the stuff you are studying, Taking an active part in your education will always pay off though it may take more energy.
The idea of learning, and retaining information has been [pushed onto kids from a pretty early age. I never liked the idea of learning temporary information for a test and then quickly forgetting the information because you have no real reason for keeping what you learned. However, it was intriguing to learn about Kinesthetic methods, which are ways to better a persons ability to retain information when studying. It is really a scientific thing, but more, a personal thing. It is key to make sure you have a specific relationship with what you learn. Whether it is from your own flashcards, moving around, put yourself in a real world situation, or even work in groups to structure a more open and receptive kind of learning. Although I dont think that short term learning is effective, learning new information is critical, and these methods can help build repertoire, and improve students experiences when studying.
Honestly, I’ve always kind of felt that my learning style seems to just depend on my mood mostly. A lot of these kinesthetic studying methods seem to be tied to concepts that I think teachers have been telling me my entire life, stuff about the importance of handwriting notes because it’s shown to be better for memory retention than taking notes on a computer, and things like that. I’ve often found that movement really helps me study and work (I pace around while writing essays a lot) and it’s pretty cool that I now know what concepts and words describe the idea of movement while studying to help focus so that it seems legit. It also seems like a lot of the kinesthetic stuff can also be a combination of the other learning methods, for example, the article mentions balling up paper to create a solar system model in order to visualize it better. That could be both kinesthetic and visual learning.
Studying has been one of the hardest things for me to do throughout middle and high school. I had undiagnosed ADD and it was hard for me to sit down and actually take the time to study and actually complete assignment on time, I was taught a couple of methods that have helped me over time but it took a lot of trial and error to get to the point where I am now where I can just sit down and study. The article has lots of tips on the methods that are actually effective and I have used most of them to get to the point where I am now and study. It is important to realize that everyone is going to have different tactics in the way that they are studying and it is important to learn what works best for you or else it will be extremely hard for you to actually learn the material.
This was a very interesting read. Often when I see the “helps you study super well” or “how to get a great memory” articles I’m a bit skeptical, as everything seems to work differently depending on the person. However this article seemed to have notes that were quite achievable, and that one could fairly easily work into their schedule. I wonder if it would work for everyone though, as I feel like everybody does focus quite differently. Sometimes it helps me to tap my foot (as per the article mentioned) to focus, but other moments that can be more distracting. Similarly, I like to listen to fairly loud rock music often when I’m working, but I have some friends who need silence or quiet to work more productively. It would be interesting to see how versatile kinesthetic learning is for different learning-types. I do appreciate how it is more of a hands-on approach, as I think that being hands on is a really great way of fully grasping a topic, not just cramming it into your head for short period of time but instead working it into your memory to become more ingrained.
Post a Comment