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“Multi-Modal” Learning
by David Lazear
What does multi-modal learning
mean? In a nutshell it means that the more different ways you
learn something the more you will really learn it! The more
different ways you learn something, the more you will remember it!
The more different ways you learn something, the more you will
genuinely understand it!
In formal education you basically learn to learn in two or three
ways--the famous “reading, and writing, and ‘rithmetic” ways which
are at the heart of most of the learning we did in school.
However, look again at the list of learning strategies at the
beginning of this chapter. How many of the items you checked–items
which really help you learn–did you get to use when you were in
school? In order to learn smarter, we’ve got to learn to tap our
true genius for learning.
Let’s play with this a bit right now. I want you to see how easy
and fun it is to re-teach yourself to learn this way! We’re going
to be using the multiple intelligences which we looked at in
chapter 2. If you’ve not yet read this chapter I suggest you do so
now. It will help understanding multi-modal learning much better.
The eight ways of knowing, which are already part of each of us,
provide us an easy and practical way to learn smarter in our daily
lives.
1. Begin by making a list of
things you want to learn. It may be something you are already
involved in learning such as a home study course you ordered on
TV. It may be something you’ve got to learn for your job. It may
be something you want to learn for your own personal
development. Make a list of at least ten items.
2. Select one item from your list which will be your focus for
this exercise. Make some notes to yourself about some of the
parts or concepts involved in this area. For example, if you
wanted to learn about marketing you would need to learn such
things as getting to know your customers and their needs,
knowing the difference between the features and benefits of a
product, writing sales copy, procedures for test marketing, and
so on.
3. Look over the learning strategies listed on the chart below.
Begin matching the smart learning strategies to the various
concepts involved in the learning focus you’ve chosen. I suggest
that you use at least three strategies from different smart area
for each concept. The reason for this is, as I mentioned above,
the more different ways we learn something the more we really
learn it!
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