Saturday, November 21, 2015

What kind of learner are you?

When you see a couple of references to the same idea within a 24-hour period, it makes you take notice. As is evident from some of the excerpts I've posted recently, I just finished going back through Josh Waitzkin's book, The Art of Learning. In the book, he talks about different types of learning styles, and compares and contrasts his own way with some other people that were a part of his life at various times. I had made a note to explore this further, and I got a little clarity on some of it while re-listening to his 2008 talk at Google today. The whole discussion is good, but the key minutes about this idea occur in the 31:17-35:36 range. Toward the beginning of those minutes in the video, Josh says:
"The biggest flaw in the educational system is that people are trying to fit all students into the same cookie-cutter mold.... I think people have to become much more observant about their own character; about the way they learn. Are you a kinesthetic learner, a visual learner, an auditory learner? Are you a naturally more aggressive person, or are you a more cautious person?"
That comment made my ears perk up because I had just finished reading an article about the football coach at my alma mater (which also has a couple of good quotes from Warren Buffett). This paragraph from that article is the one that sounds a lot like the above:
While Moglia may not pick apart the offense's play-calling strategy, he remains passionate about teaching. All of his players are required to take a VAK learning test, so the coaches know if they're visual, audio or kinesthetic learners. Coaches should be aware if they should teach a specific player by acting out technique, drawing on a whiteboard or providing verbal instruction. Moglia doesn't want his assistants to tell him they explained something to a player who didn't get the message. It's incumbent on coaches to communicate their points more effectively. "That's our fault if a player doesn't understand something," Moglia says. "So, if he doesn't understand it, why doesn't he understand it? Coaches need to be great teachers."
It looks like there's a good overview HERE, and a short book on it HERE. But if anyone has more familiarity on applying this or some good resources, I'd love to know more.