From: oispeggy@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Peggy Brown)
Newsgroups: alt.magick
Subject: Re: Learning Styles
Date: 26 Aug 92 02:05:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <1992Aug25.224828.21707@samba.oit.unc.edu>, shava@hermes.oit.unc.edu (Shava Nerad Averett) writes...
> 
>Formal magick is a largely literate/intellectual art, as we discuss it.
>There is a great deal of pooh-poohing of non-literate traditions from some
>quarters, and the entire focus of some people on magick as science comes
>from a western academic tradition.  No problem with this -- but it is only
>one view.
> 
Agreed.
> 
>I have a taxonomy of learning styles which is not complete, nor is each
>category exclusive.  But I find that people tend to be oriented towards
>one of three styles of learning:
> 
>	Think -- study first, do later, integrate somewhere in the process
>	Feel -- conceptualize and integrate, then do and study
>	Do -- play with and do things, study, and then integrate
>
I agree with this too.
> 
> 
>Sarah, on the other hand, whether she picked up on the mechanism or not,
>appreciated the attention, and when I saw her months later, thanked me
>again for making her 'feel better about the damnable machine.'
>
I've found over the years that a lot of people, particularly 
women, are *afraid* of the computer and that inhibits their 
ability to learn.  One of those "techno mystique" things.  When I 
teach new users, whether they're secretaries or students, I'm 
more concerned about them learning to feel comfortable and 
self-confident than competing to see who learns it first/best.  

I try to de-mystify the monster.  This seems to work.  I tell 
them its just like making coffee, and not to worry about *how* 
its doing it just step-by-step do a,b,c.  Once the monster is 
de-mystified, and they stop worrying about what it is doing, and 
start focusing on what they are doing, they start making 
progress.
> 
>The point of this is that many of us deal better in a learning environment
>where we can *see* and *do* things with others, rather than try to get
>them from books.  This does not reflect on a person's relative intelligence,
>but rather on their adaptability to academic culture, if anything.
> 
Agreed.  Different ethnic groups possibly tend to have different 
learning styles too.  I'm no expert on this either, but one example 
I've heard from people who supposedly are experts is that native 
american students tend to learn better with visually oriented 
learning systems.  Something to do with their culture's use of visual symbols.
I expect that it is more difficult for someone *not* a member of 
the dominant culture to learn via methods of the dominant 
culture, but I'm going to stop now because I know little about 
this......
>
>I personally consider myself to be a Feel/Think, in this system, and it
>is important to me to be able to integrate systems as I learn them.  
>
I'm a Do/Think with things like computers, but I'm wired to 
respond more via Feel than Think in most situations.  I'm aware that 
some people do not learn the same way I do.  When teaching I explain, 
demonstrate, then have the students try what I did.  Sooner or later 
everyone figures it out their own way.
>
>Shamanic traditions, for example, are very Do/Feel in orientation, I think.
> 
I agree.  (We finally agreed on something.  Wow!) :)
> 
>-- 
>Shava Nerad Averett				shava_averett@unc.edu
>/*  all materials (c)1992, Shava Nerad Averett, and have nothing significant
>    to do with the University of North Carolina, a mostly owned subsidiary 
>    of the NC Legislature, a mostly owned subsidiary of the DOT.      */

- Peggy -
Newsgroups: alt.magick,soc.culture.german,soc.culture.jewish