Learning with the Senses?

Many learning theories have been posited to explain more and more efficient ways of transmitting educational materials and lesson plans. These can range from behavioral repetition to needs and intelligences theories. Some theories have stressed the need to involve more parts of the brain in the learning experience by making the focus of the learning experience take on different sensory cues such as movement, or logic, or language and even art expressions.

We can and often do involve many different parts of our brain in whatever we happen to be doing. Being primates, we are serious sensory creatures, primarily visually oriented. If we involve the eyes, ears, nose, taste sense as well as tactile sensation to the learning tools we may have a learning process very much like evolutionary adaptation features to a given environment.

When I was going through my undergraduate studies I was an odd individual. I wore the same color of shirt and pants to the same class week after week. I wore a different cologne for every class I was in. I wore different clothing styles (that hung or clung in different ways or felt different as in the difference between cotton or polyester shirts). I even used rubbing stones in a few classes for added tactile sensory association. I did have to explain myself quite frequently but the results were hard to argue with once I got into graduate school and perfected the technique.

Traditional studying had my GPA circling the 3.0 mark and I was not happy with that at all. But while I was increasing my knowledge of behavior analysis, sociology, as well as professional and applied ethics applications, I also developed the somato-sensory learning technique exemplified above in part. Somato-sensory simply means body-senses. We are learning with our body's sensory apparatus in full gear.

As an adaptive feature an organism has to have the ability to sense its surroundings in order to adapt to that environment. There is the key to somato-sensory learning abilities. The senses are the tool so it is entirely up to the function ability of those senses and the training of those senses in conjunction with a given subject matter that allows the body to recall and therefore remind the mind of the information.

This is very similar to the notion of smelling a flower or a given perfume scent and remembering the instance in which that was a powerful sensory addition, such as meeting a particular woman for the first time or falling in love. We often have those sensory remembrance moments with music as well, remembering specific events with major clarity after hearing a sound when we haven't thought of that event for decades. Or the feel of a nice shirt or blanket and the remembrance of a comfortable time shared with loved ones.

The same sort of learning is mirrored in nature with the smell of smoke issuing remembrance of fleeing in terror or the feeling of being burned. The smell of sweetness in the air a path for finding honey, flowers or berries. Senses are how we absorb the information that our environment presents to us. It makes sense that keener those senses are the better off the possessor of such senses would be.

Therefore, as educators, our task may not be simply in the straight dissemination of information but also the study of the sensory impressions that those activities in application would present. We would then need to make sure those sensory elements were present in the learning environment as in a application setting the sensory or body lesson may not be attuned to the task otherwise and create a stumbling, confusing, frustrating moment for the person trying to apply that information.

The mere presence of somato-sensory learning on a professional level may in fact give the possessor of those particular lessons the ability to feel much more confident and comfortable in the scene. The comfort level and confidence level then may contribute to more meaningful endeavors by that particular researcher or applier as the case may be by allowing them to circumvent the frustration, confusion and stumbling that others may experience in that environment.

As a student I used somato-sensory learning techniques developed by myself. My GPA in graduate school has been above a 3.5 with the latest graduate degree being at a 3.8 level. I believe the theory works and is quite applicable.

The question that we should be asking is, what would be the increase or ease of increase in maintaining such a GPA if in fact the schools, colleges and universities also used the techniques to make their classrooms and teaching/learning experiences more environmentally, sensory correct for the students' future application environments.

This may be an area that needs to be further researched for any applicable benefit to the species' development and our nation's educational processes.