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.