Visual vs. verbal

The way an individual thinks influences the way that person learns.

This was the larger conclusion reached by University of Guelph-Humber psychology professor Jean Choi and her research assistant, Shaila Sardar, a fourth-year student.

They co-authored an article on their research that appears in the latest issue – the fourth – of The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. The peer-reviewed quarterly is published by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, a national organization for academics in higher education based in Hamilton, Ontario.

“We were able to find a relationship between different cognitive abilities and learning preferences,” said Choi. “There’s a whole realm of learning preferences. And it’s contentious: are they clear cut or not? But for this we just looked at the dichotomy of the visual and verbal.”

Humber College students from different degree programs were given a series of tasks to complete using only pencil and paper.

These exercises revealed two things, explained Choi. “Those with particularly well-developed spatial abilities – seeing and rotating three-dimensional objects in their head – tended to prefer to learn in a visual way, whereas those who had strong vocabulary knowledge, there wasn’t a clear cut relationship.”

Choi and Sardar had predicted that vocabulary strength would indicate a preference for verbal learning.

Teachers, including Choi herself, could benefit from the research.

“It’s informative as an instructor. If I know about these differences, I can ensure that my teaching practices are diverse enough to address them,” she said.

In a way these findings give added depth to the phrase wheels turning, the visual representation of thinking and learning. Choi observes her students' responses to ensure the wheels are turning and not, to use its opposite, spinning. “The classrooms are fairly small so you can see students’ reactions far more clearly,” she said.

Read the article in Vol. 2, Issue 1 of The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Sean Flinn, Web Communications Specialist, 416-798-1331, ext. 6299, sean.flinn@guelphhumber.ca.