Hillary Hines
ENG. 111
3 April 2013
AMS:
Lack of Senses
The key barrier to adult learning is the absence of
engaging more than one of a student’s senses at a time during educational
experiences. The norm seems to be—in a classroom environment—that students sit
in their seats and listen to an instructor’s lecture. Inherently, students have
been taught to just listen and remember. However, when a person sets about
learning a task individually, does that person just listen to someone explain
how the task is accomplished? Or, does that individual attempt such a task
repeatedly and learn through trial and error? Take learning to ride a bicycle,
for example: the process involves sitting in the seat, pedaling, and holding
the handle bars while another person supports the individual on the bike to
ensure they do not fall until they are accustomed to the feel and function of
the bicycle. Now, imagine if that person had to learn to ride a bicycle by
simply lecture alone; would they have ever accomplished this learning task? The
answer is ultimately no, they would learn the concept of riding a bicycle, but not its actual function. Learning the function of
riding a bicycle is a tangible learning experience.
Learning by concept alone—or by lecture, is not enough to
leave a long-lasting impression. In Paulo Freire’s, “The “Banking” Concept of
Education,” Freire describes learning by concept alone as the “banking”
concept, which means, “Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiques
and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat”
(Freire 240). The trouble with this form of education is that once these
students are no longer required to repeat this information, it will be
discarded and forgotten because such information was so inanimate to them.
Freire then continues, “the scope of action allowed to the students extends
only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits” (Freire 240).
During a lecture, this is ultimately the only option many students—if not
all—have to categorize information they are “absorbing.” Susan E. Cooperstein,
User Education Librarian at Notre Dame, and Elizabeth Kocevar-Weidinger,
Instruction Librarian at Longwood University, support and extend upon Freire’s
claims in their article, “Beyond Active Learning: a Constructivist Approach to
Learning,” through this statement, “Students are not passive receptacles. They
do not easily process or transfer what they passively receive” (Cooperstein
& Kocevar-Weidinger 142). Taking the bicycle example into consideration,
the individual would learn to ride the bicycle by going beyond lectured on the
how-to and instead pursuing the actual action and experience of riding the
bicycle. Freire proceeds to make a called point against learning by concept,
“Implicit in the banking concept is the assumption of a dichotomy between human
beings and the world: a person is merely in
the world, not with the world or with
others; the individual is spectator, not re-creator” (Freire 243). In order to
truly learn, students cannot act as simple spectators of the lesson or subject.
Students must be given the option to re-create what they have learned through
tangible experiences to enforce a deeper, long-lasting understanding. Hence,
utilizing the senses which have been numbed in a classroom setting for too
long.
After a person learns to ride a bicycle, do they forget?
Of course not, because they learned this task through the utilization of all
their senses, not just one. Susan E. Cooperstein and Elizabeth
Kocevar-Weidinger suggest, “Abstract concepts become meaningful, transferable,
and retained because they are attached to performance of an activity. The
activities lead to concepts; the students construct the meaning” (Cooperstein
& Elizabeth Kocevar-Weidinger 145). When a student engages in the actions
of learning a task, instead of merely listening to the concept of the activity,
the student is able to discover a deeper and long-lasting understanding of the
activity. The student is then able to engage in the conceptual aspect of the
activity—also known as the lecture, with new found understanding. The activity
should come before the concept, in order to promote effective learning.
According to Daniel J. Glisczinski, in his article “Lighting Up The Mind:
Transforming Learning Through The Applied Scholarship Neuroscience,” “the body
and the brain are part of the same continuous organism, and what happens to the
body happens to the brain…” (Glisczinski 8). Here, it is apparent that learning
through activity—while engaging all of the senses, causes the body and brain to
permanently remember the task, forever changing and enhancing the ability of
memory retention. Students are used to lectures coming before engaging in any
sort of activity. Looking back at the bicycle example: by engaging all of an
individual’s senses toward the learning task of riding a bicycle, they are able
to understand the concept of riding a bicycle with perfect clarity. This
process could then be explained to others; however, other individuals would
still have to engage in the activity of riding a bicycle in order to fully comprehend
the concept for themselves. This is why teaching by lecture alone does not work
and cannot promote long-lasting memory retention.
Only from learning through tangible experience can
students be able to develop memory retention from short-term to long-term. Once
an individual has performed an action, they area able to understand its
significance and will not be liable to forget the process of said action.
According to Cooperstein and Kocevar-Weidinger, “through activity students
discover their own truths” (Cooperstein & Kocevar-Weidinger 142). When
giving a student an activity, they develop questions and their own answers
through the process of utilizing their senses; this process supports and
nurtures critical thinking skills. Glisczinski extends upon active learning and
its benefits, “Enduring learning, characterized by deep understanding, emanates
from experience that engages multiple senses and learning modalities”
(Glisczinski 3). Which means, to truly understand what it is students are
learning, they have to physically experience the subject in order for it to
have any affect. Lectures are constructed so one person generally speaks and an
audience listens, numbing the other senses to the potential of long-term
memory. Continuing with Glisczinski, “While hearing is one route to knowing,
it’s power for long-term recall or behavior change is limited if not partnered
with metacognition and deliberate action” (Glisczinski 7). Re-capping the
bicycle example, an individual could explain the concept of riding a bike to
another; however, the process cannot be truly learned unless the auditory
experience is coupled with the more tangible experience. As Freire mentioned,
through simple auditory experience the individual may feel “in the world” as spectators and instead
be “with the world” as recreators.
Lectures ultimately make students feel
detached from the lesson being portrayed and they inevitably learn
nothing of use to them. Only through tangible learning experiences will students
immerse themselves in the lesson and develop useful knowledge through the
enlightment of sensory interactions and stimulation.
If more than one sense cannot be stimulated during
educational experiences, adult learning will not be successful; this is our
barrier. Learning by concept alone produces students with a sense of detachment
from the lesson being portrayed to them. Through the student may retain the
concepts of the lesson, the concepts will soon be discarded when they are no
longer needed because the student is not able to relate such concepts to
tangible experiences. Engaging all of a student’s senses through hands-on
experiences—such as riding a bicycle, students are able to retain the
experience and describe the concepts because, as Glisczinski stated, “What
happens to the body happens to the brain” (Glisczinski 8) creating
long-lasting—if not permanent, memory retention and recall. In the famous words
of Confucius, “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I
understand” (Glisczinski 3). Paulo
Freire, Daniel J. Glisczinski, and Susan E. Cooperstein and Elizabeth
Kocevar-Weidinger, all share similar views that educational experiences are
deemed unsuccessful when not coupled with materials to stimulate multiple
senses. The standard lecture is not enough to capture student’s profound
interest or leave a more permanent, long-lasting impression on memory
retention. To relate to Confucius: hearing education will soon be forgotten,
seeing education will be remembered; but for how long? Doing education promotes
understanding and the utilization of the senses—leaving long-lasting
impressions. By promoting active learning and going beyond the norm of the
simple lecture, students could permanently understand both the concept and the function of what they are learning; making learning experiences
more applicable and useful to everyday life.
Works
Cited
Freire, P. (2007). The "Banking" Concept of
Education. In R. Norgaard, Composing Knowledge: Readings for College Writers
(pp. 239-251). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Glisczinski, D. J. (2011). Lighting Up the Mind:
Transforming Learning Through the Applied Scholarship of Cognitive
Neuroscience. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and
Learning, 1-11.
Kocevar-Weidinger, E., & Cooperstein, S. E. (2004).
Beyond Active Learning: A Constructivist Approach to Learning. Emerald
Volume 32, 141-148.
