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Using All 8 Senses in Learning
Most people involved in learning facilitation know about sensory preferences used
when communicating with others and the standard VAK – Visual, Auditory,
Kinaesthetic is regularly rolled out for discussion.
We have, of course, 5 senses through which we gain input – sight, sound, touch, smell
and taste – but at Matrix FortyTwo we believe that 3 others should be considered by
Learning Facilitators to get the best out of learning events.
Sixth sense is associated with psychic ability, which few of us have access to, but it is
also known as Extra-Sensory Perception (ESP). Defined by the fact that we do not
appear to gain information from any of our known senses but that we ‘just know it’
we might also call it ‘Intuition’. A very valuable tool for Learning Facilitators,
intuition is called upon when you ‘just know’ that something is wrong (or right) with
a learner or a group of learners. It guides you towards something that you can then
use your other senses to validate.
But that’s only part of the story. There are two other senses that are available to us –
one that should ALWAYS be at the forefront of what we do and one that should
ALWAYS be avoided.
Click the links below for the next two blogs to find out what they are and how they
impact learning facilitation. By the way, if you are already an ELF (Excellent
Learning Facilitator) you know how important they are.
The 7th Sense
The 8th Sense
Using your 7th Sense
Leading on from our last post about the use of a sixth sense in Learning Facilitation,
there are two others that are part of what we, at Matrix FortyTwo, consider essential
components of Excellent Learning Facilitation.
Common Sense should ALWAYS be considered when facilitating
learning. Common Sense is knowledge and/or understanding held by people ‘in
common’. It is very important when working with learners to find out what they
consider ‘common’ – it may be different to what you yourself know and/or
understand. Avoid imposing your common sense on others but find some common
ground on which to build the foundations of learning and your learners will make
sense of the learning much more easily and quickly.
Rapport is built with those with whom we feel comfortable, who speak the same
language and see things our way. In other words, with those with whom we have
something ‘in common’. Find out where you have common ground with your
learners and then maximise it to build and maintain exquisite rapport. Learners are
much more likely to follow where you lead when they trust you.
Watch this space for the next blog about the sense to avoid in order to be an Excellent
Learning Facilitator.
The 8th Sense
I’ve already mentioned the importance of the 5 senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and
touch in learning and in earlier posts we discussed our 6th sense and the very
important 7th sense – common sense. So what about the 8th sense?
The 8th and final (or is it?) sense that we need to take account of as learning
facilitators is nonsense. There’s so much of it about and sometimes it is difficult to
tell what is real and what is nonsense. Some people take models and theories at face
value and then ’spread the word’ as if it was undeniable fact. That results in learners
being put in a ‘right brain’ box and assuming that they will be the creative spark for
everyone else in the group or trainers saying ‘well, you are not going to like this
activity because you are a Theorist’. What nonsense!
Models and theories are there to form a framework for consideration not a constraint
to be borne. Beware of models and theories as facts as many are misleading and
misquoted. The classic example of this is Professor Albert Mehrabian’s often quoted
research on non-verbal communication. You don’t have to look far to find lots of
information about it:


7% of meaning is in the words that are spoken
38% of meaning is in the the way that the words are said
55% of meaning is in the facial expression of the speaker
What a lovely idea that is easily quoted as fact by trainers all over the world but it is
actually a great example of training nonsense. Even Professor Mehrabian himself has
had to clarify his research because of the nonsensical way in which it is quoted. His
equations were actually derived from experiments dealing with communication of
feelings and attitudes and cannot be applied to any other communication. Have a look
at his website for a nonsense antidote about his work. Having said that, the figures do
provide a really useful starting point to discussions about other types of
communication and when used in that way, properly validated, they become a useful
learning tool.
I could go on because there are so many models and theories that become nonsense
the moment they get misquoted, misunderstood or at worst misused but perhaps they
could be the basis of further posts in the future.