Never too late to learn to learn

Some people are smarter than others and those who are less smart fall by the wayside and do inferior jobs. Right? Wrong - and detrimental to future economic development - says an American academic. Dr David Andrews is professor of psychology at Keene State College in New Hampshire and visiting professor at the National College of Ireland (NCI) in Dublin.

"In the economy of the future," he says, "everyone will have to continue to learn new skills. Society is changing dramatically, even the jobs of manual labourers have changed enormously. It's essential and in the best interests of society that people become comfortable learners."

Andrews is a leading authority on teaching and learning styles. He argues that it's vital that educators and students understand that there is more than one way to learn. "Students need to learn how to learn," he stresses.

"People learn in different ways and have different learning styles. One way is no better and no worse than the other. But some learning styles don't work in some subjects. For example, you may learn well by feeling, but it's difficult to apply that process to science or maths."

The study of brain research has vital messages for educators, Andrews argues. "A high percentage of educational practice still acts as if there is only one way to do something rather than a variety of ways. There is good evidence to show that brains can do the same tasks in a variety of different ways and still achieve the same end."

A study of American high school drop-outs in which he was involved shows that, contrary to popular assumption, the drop-outs tended to be people with above average ability, but who "were never comfortable with the way school expected them to do things." Their learning styles and the schools' expectations didn't match, he says. "My conclusion is that teachers and schools need to be more sensitive to the way people learn."

People organise information differently because their memories are organised in different ways, says Andrews. "Anything you learn must get into your nervous system. To do so, it must pass through a sensory system and be selected for further processing. Inputs can come through a variety of channels including vision, hearing, movements, touch, smell, taste, language, thoughts, internal bodily sensations and direct chemical effects on the brain.

"Learning involves the storage of a model of what you have learned. Representations are your record of what happened. These may be in the form of any of the input channels or may be spatial, emotional, linguistic, logical, symbolic or combinations. They may be transformed from one type to another.

"Individuals have preferred forms of transformations. Difficulty in learning often results from an inability or unwillngness to transform what you have been exposed to into a form that allows it to be used in the way intended."

Students, says Andrews, should be aware of their learning styles and should be given help on how to learn. "Everybody isn't good at the same thing. We have large numbers of people who never learn the basic concepts of maths or science. I'm convinced that we are teaching some things in ways that are unsuitable for some students' learning styles."

The issue of how we assess what students have learned is of major significance. "It seems to me that in Ireland tests are mostly in written form. But some people are not good at writing but could be good at talking about subjects. Depending on the methods you use to appraise students' learning, you may get very different results, even from people who know the same amounts of information. I know a women who is very bright who can describe something orally extremely well, but if you asked her to write it down she struggles."

What then makes a good learner? There are a number of things that good learners tend to do, he says, and it's most important that people realise that these are things that can be learned. "A major problem for unsuccessful learners is that they are unaware that there are different learning methods. They get frustrated and quit." David Andrews was in Dublin recently to talk to NCI first-years about maximising learning and to discuss learning styles with staff. He has found, he says, a huge difference between the approach to learning taken by mature students and school-leavers.

"Mature students are extremely sensitive to these issues," he says. "They are eager to find strategies which they can use and which will help them. Most of the 18-year-olds, on the other hand, have never thought about these issues. If you ask them how they have learned something they look blank. It has never occurred to them that there is more than one way of learning things."

When talking to students, he focuses on the fact that we all get stuck from time to time. "Indeed," he say, "that's how most of us end up doing what we do - in order to avoid areas in which we get stuck. In school if you get stuck you may drop out. My hope is that students will begin to realise that they have options. They can do things to improve their learning and make it more efficient. You can improve over time, but it takes practice."

Teachers can encourage students to examine approaches to particular assignments and identify problems which may arise. "It doesn't take much to get students thinking about problems. By asking relevant questions, you can provoke them into thinking more about a subject."

For Andrews learning is less a case of if at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again but more a matter of if at first you don't succeed try doing it a different way.