Learning Styles
Tom Wayman is a Canadian poet who wrote about what he called the “central experience of everyday life which is what people do for a living, their work.” His poems are often humorous and ironic. In his poem entitled Students (1993)he writes about the learning styles of students. These styles although now some 25 years old are still in vogue. In my own teaching career spanning 40 years, I have encountered all of these strategies and many more.
The first of these styles he describes as, The Vaccination Theory of Education. Once you have studied a subject you are immune and never have to consider it again. these students tend to be oblivious to the world, truth, knowledge, enlightenment and could likely grow up to be Trump supporters as they will only read fake news on social media sources and yet feel fully aware and act as if they know it all.
Other students entertain the Dipstick Theory of Education: as with a car engine, where as long as the oil level is above the add line there is no need to put in more oil, so if you receive a pass or higher, why put in any more learning? These students are true minimalists and experience actually physical and emotional pain if they are forced to perform outside the narrow parameters of their comfort zone which is the size of a small closed box.
The Kung Fu Theory of Education has to do with learning as self-defense. The more you understand about what’s occurring around you the better prepared you are to deal with difficulties. This theory is the only one that seems to have a morsel of potential, yet it is one that does not engage the world. It is the opposite of life long learning as it is isolationist by nature. These students remain with the status quo and do not grow intellectually, emotionally or morally.
The fourth theory called the Easy Listening Theory of Learning has been almost universally adopted by students today, in which time spent in class is far more enjoyable with ear phones or ear buds implanted in their ears allowing for silent enjoyment in a pleasurable world of music.
When Wayman wrote he referred to: “her tape recorder earphones on”...my how the technology has changed. This approach has been so alarmingly and overwhelmingly embraced that the tsunami of its advance is virtually unstoppable in the classroom. Teachers are nearly paralyzed as many administrators and parents enable and promote the continued use of cell phones in a learning environment.
When it comes to the use of cell phones in class I have been physically attacked when separating a highly anxious student from his most valuable possession in life. He went at me with fists flying like an Argentinian cowboy swinging bolo balls. If viewed only from a slapstick perspective, from an out of body experience, the whole thing would probably appear quite comical even surreal.
I guess what I learned out of the attack experience,
that is trying to separate a student from cell phone...
as an educator, is that the Smart Phone is not a simile
for life.
It is not like life. It is a metaphor.
It is in fact life itself in all its multi media forms.
I have witnessed a student sit and listen, text, email
engage in social media activities during an hour of class time.
As I watched this phenomena unfold I bit my lip, said nothing,
as oblivious to her surroundings she remained absolutely off task
for the entire class.
After class, as she slowly re-entered orbit and gained consciousness
she began gathering her effects.
I then quickly asked if her Smart Phone was a distraction.
She picked up her things, left in a huff, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Clearly I had crossed a line.
Understandably many addicts can not face their addictions.
