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Article Excerpt
Abstract
This manuscript describes the impact of traditional auditory and visual learning as opposed to tactual and/or kinesthetic learning on the achievement of primary-through adult-students' grades in varied subjects. Its findings suggest that the perceptual strengths of low-achievers and Special Education students appear to be essentially tactual, kinesthetic, or a combination of these two and visual inclinations, and that traditional lectures and discussions may be the most important reason that certain poor learners do not do well in conventional schools.
Impact by Educational Level
Reinert (1976), a pioneer in the study of perceptual modalities and learning, became interested in research after observing that some students in his high-school German Language classes preferred memorizing foreign phrases by first listening to, and then verbally repeating them, whereas others preferred reading first, followed by verbal repetition. Other early researchers, including Buell and Buell with adults involved in staff development (1987), Clark-Thayer (1987) with college students, Carbo (1980), Urbschat (1977), and Wheeler (1983) with primary school children, Braio, Dunn, Beasley, Quinn, and Buchanan (1997), Ciarletta (1998); Drew, Dunn, Quinn, Sinatra, and Spiridakis (1994-1995); Dunn (1988); Gardiner (1986), Hill (1987), Jarsonbeck (1984), Martini (1986), and Weinberg (1983) with elementary-school students, and Kroon (1985) with high-school adolescents, all examined the impact of learning-style responsive resources or strategies on individual achievement in multiple subjects and reported the positive effects on student achievement.
Impact by Age, Achievement, and Talent
Subsequent researchers and practitioners confirmed that significantly more successful learning was evidenced by students of varied age and ability groups--particularly among poverty, minority youngsters classified as Special Education (SPED) when their perceptual strengths were identified and then accommodated with responsive resources or strategies (Dunn and DeBello, 1999; Dunn, Griggs, Olson, Gorman, and Beasley, 1995; Harp, 1990; Lovelace, 2002; Schiering and Dunn, 2001; Searson and Dunn, 2001; Sullivan, Dunn, Denig, Lynch, and Cantelmo, 2001; and Turner, 1992). That also was true for gifted and highly achieving students (Santano, 1999). Even in eleventh-grade chemistry, when Curry (1994) identified the perceptual strengths of high-academically performing and average students, she found that instruction congruent with their tactual preferences statistically increased their science achievement. Falkner (1994) found positive relationships between perceptual strengths and third-grade students' musical aptitude and Kreitner (1981) reported that most musically talented students in his high-school population were kinesthetic rather than auditory or visual.
Impact on Science...
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