Correspondence Discourses are perspectives on learning that assume a radical separation of mental (or internal, or brain-based) and physical (or external, or body-based). That separation sets up the need for a correspondence between what’s happening in the real, objective world and what’s happening in one’s inner, subjective world. Most assume object-based metaphors, linear/direct imagery, and Newtonian mechanics, thus framing learning in terms of acquiring, attaining, inputting, and/or linking.
Learn More...Learning Styles Theories comprise dozens of discourses that purport to characterize and categorize ways that individuals take in information. The most popular versions focus on diverse perceptual preferences (e.g., hearing versus seeing), modes of engagement (e.g., active doing versus passive watching), and format of information (e.g., concrete versus abstract), but the spectra vary across such concerns as social structures, affective settings, and time of day.
Learn More...Coherence Discourses regard distinctions and descriptions as useful devices to make sense of the complex dynamics of learning, but they caution that such devices are mere heuristic conveniences. Coherence Discourses suggest that truths do not exist independently or outside of a system – which is a commentary on humans’ understanding of reality, not a commentary on reality. Most Coherence Discourses employ biological and ecological metaphors, with dynamics framed in evolutionary terms.
Learn More...Embodied Cognition asserts that humans are doubly embodied. That is, human cognition simultaneously depends on having a biological body and being part of a socio-cultural corpus. These two nested bodies are intimately intertwined: one’s physical body defines possible movements and ranges of perception; the grander context in which one is embedded defines appropriate actions and the scopes of interpretive possibilities.
Learn More...Cognitive Science is the study of cognition in humans, non-human animals, and machines. It brings together psychology, linguistics, computer science, neuroscience, anthropology, philosophy, and other domains. Typically, the foci of Cognitive Science are identified as learning, development, perception, attention, reasoning, emotion, consciousness, memory, language, creativity, and intelligence, and its are identified as better understanding the mind, advancing practical knowledge of learning, and developing intelligent devices.
Learn More...Neuroscience is a multidisciplinary branch of biology that focuses on the structure, functions, and development of the nervous system. With a scope that spans the thousands of distinguishable substructures between the molecular to the cognitive, Neuroscience combines domains as varied as molecular biology, physiology, and psychology (among many others) while it has given rise to many other disciplines.
Learn More...Focus
Supporting rich and robust learning through active, sensorially diverse engagements
Principal Metaphors
- Knowledge is … the scope of possible action and interpretation
- Knowing is … doing, being
- Learner is … a perceiver/interpreter (individual)
- Learning is … creating; bringing forth (to meet to demands of a situation)
- Teaching is … designing
Originated
2000s
Synopsis
Multisensory Learning begins with the awareness that concepts are distributed across entire networks that span multiple regions of the brain. That is, the brain integrates prompts from all sensory systems into already consolidated-but-ever-evolving concepts and protoconcepts. The advice of Multisensory Learning is thus to aim for a broad spectrum of active and sensorially diverse engagements when learning a concept. (For example, having students engaging in appropriate gestures when learning a new word or interpreting a mathematical form can positively effect learning.)
Commentary
Multisensory Learning is often confused or conflated with Learning Styles Theories, but they are profoundly different. As Correspondence Discourses, Learning Styles Theories assume uncritically that learning is about “taking things in” and see the senses as portals for the flow of those things. (Hence the advice to focus on preferred portals.) In contrast, as a Coherence Discourses, Multisensory Learning attends to broad and varied body-based experiences out of which learners continuously construe coherent understandings of their worlds. Consequently, although appearing superficially similar, it offers much different teaching advice.
Authors and/or Prominent Influences
Diffuse
Status as a Theory of Learning
Multisensory Learning offers no new insights into the complex dynamics of learning.
Status as a Theory of Teaching
Multisensory Learning is principally concerned with offering advice to educators on structures and tactics that are highly effective in promoting the learning of pre-selected topics. One of the perhaps-surprising (and somewhat contested) insights is that systematic direct instruction may be one of the most powerful modes of teaching, owing to the manner it can be used to structure learner noticing and action.
Status as a Scientific Theory
Multisensory Learning is attentive is based on well researched theories such as Embodied Cognition, and it attends closely to developments in Cognitive Science and Neuroscience. As well, although fairly “young,” it is associated with a robust and growing research base.
Map Location
Please cite this article as:
Davis, B., & Francis, K. (2019). “Multisensory Learning” in Discourses on Learning in Education. https://learningdiscourses.com.
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