Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Power of the senses

So I'm taking this online writing workshop this month called The Power of the Senses: Enhancing Author's Voice, Characterization and Conflict. Yeah, it's a mouthful but it's also a pretty interesting class. One of the first things we did was to take a survey to find out what type of learner we are. The instructor uses four – auditory, visual, kinesthetic and tactual.

The general idea is that we tend to use one or two modes of learning frequently and everyone is different. He does state that women tend to be more auditory/visual and men kinesthetic/tactual. Auditory is related to listening, visual to what you can see, kinesthetic to movement and tactual seems to be more instinctual. Here's an article that goes into more detail about the different types of learning - http://www.new-oceans.co.uk/new/learn.htm.

I found out that I am auditory/visual. This makes total sense to me. My husband tends to call me the human tape recorder because there are times that I can recite a certain conversation word for word. I am inspired by music. I get all kinds of plot bunnies from songs I hear on the radio. Many times I have to see something or see how it works before I catch on, depending on what I'm trying to learn. Apparently knowing our learning style can help us learn faster and can also help us relate to others more easily if we know their style.

I took this class to make my writing deeper and richer. I'm learning what I need to do that, but I also learned something interesting about myself too. Isn't that what a great class should do?

Want to find out what type of learner you are? Here's a quiz with scoring instructions - http://www.depts.ttu.edu/passxl/pdfs/Sensory_Learning_Styles_survey.pdf. I'd love to hear how you learn best.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

That sounds like a great class. I thought I knew what type of learner I was, but I took the quiz anyway. And I was surprised - pleasantly so.

My Visual and kinesthetic were the same, and my audio (which I thought would be the highest) was 2 points lower. But all were above 10, so based on the quiz, I'm okay. LOL

The problem with being a tactile learner, is that it doesn't do you a whole lot of good in most circumstances. My youngest son is very much like. In science - in a lab when he can do experiments - he scores in the upper 90's. Always. The same with auto teck. He loves being in the shop working.

French? We won't talk about. LOL We're just keeping our fingers crossed that he scrapes by in French II like he did in French I and then we'll never have say another word about it.

Have a great day and thanks for posting the quiz!

Rachel Lynne said...

FUN Riley! I love quizes anyway but this one is useful. I'm going to be using it with my daughter this afternoon though I'm pretty sure she is a kinestetic learner. Now for the laugh: I'm a 14 on the visual learner, a 7 for auditory and a 2 for kinestetic. God has a sense of humor in giving me a child with polar opposite learning abilities then having me home school, don't ya think?

Elise Logan said...

I did the quiz and came out 14 on the Visual, 11 on auditory and 5 for kinesthetic.

I tend to mix modes a lot - studying and writing to music.

I think i might have underscored my kinesthetic a bit because now that I think about it, I do get up and move often - every half hour or so, because I get too antsy if I just stare at a screen. Also, I thought about it, and at this point, my fingers are moving 99% of the time I'm working - typing, mousing, etc. If I take that into account, my kinesthetic number goes up significantly, though it doesn't cross the 10 threshold.

Interesting.

Riley Quinn said...

I'm so glad you all enjoyed the quiz. I thought it was pretty interesting and fun, not to mention useful. Thanks for sharing your quiz results.

Debra St. John said...

I did this for a graduate class once! Fun stuff. I am also visual/auditory. I don't remember what my exact scores were. I'm going to hop over to the link you posted and see if it comes out the same again...it's been a few years!

Thanks for the post.

Unknown said...

It sounds like an interesting class. I wish I was taking it!

I got a 14 on visual, and 10's on the other two. Seems I am mostly visual and I hate the sound of my own voice on a tape recorder!

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