Visual and Auditory Learning - How To Teach It: Melanie West at TEDxManhattanBeach
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0:07 - 0:08I'd like to start my story
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0:08 - 0:09with my second year of college
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0:09 - 0:12when I signed up for chemistry.
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0:12 - 0:14Now, I love starting here
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0:14 - 0:16because it was in this class
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0:16 - 0:18that the most incredible things
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0:18 - 0:21started to happen to me.
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0:21 - 0:24I remember my attempts
at studying chemistry, -
0:24 - 0:29mostly because they were
extremely painful. -
0:29 - 0:34I remember reading these words
over and over again, -
0:34 - 0:37but for some reason,
when I was putting them together, -
0:37 - 0:41no new meaning was happening.
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0:41 - 0:46It was as if I had an inability to learn
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0:46 - 0:49from reading this textbook.
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0:49 - 0:51And as fate would have it,
this triggered in me -
0:51 - 0:55something that happens
to a lot of my students. -
0:55 - 1:01I started to wonder,
"What's wrong with me?" -
1:01 - 1:04And this triggered my interest
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1:04 - 1:06in educational psychology.
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1:06 - 1:09Now, as any good psychologist does
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1:09 - 1:12when wondering "what's wrong with me?",
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1:12 - 1:15I began to analyze my parents.
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1:15 - 1:18(Laughter)
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1:18 - 1:20Now, this is my father.
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1:20 - 1:24My father can be described
in a lot of ways. -
1:25 - 1:27Dyslexic.
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1:27 - 1:29Trouble-maker.
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1:29 - 1:31High school dropout.
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1:31 - 1:37He also can be described
as an outside of the box thinker. -
1:38 - 1:41Mathematical engineer.
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1:41 - 1:43Inventor.
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1:43 - 1:46Self-made millionaire.
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1:46 - 1:48I remember as a child
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1:48 - 1:51really important people coming to our home
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1:51 - 1:56to ask my father if their ideas would work.
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1:56 - 1:59So, one day when I was struggling along
with chemistry, -
1:59 - 2:01I decided to ask my dad,
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2:01 - 2:03"How do you know
if something is going to work? -
2:03 - 2:08How do you know when you know something?"
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2:08 - 2:13And he said to me the most profound thing.
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2:14 - 2:21He said to me,
"I can picture it in my mind." -
2:22 - 2:28And it was as if something
cracked open inside of me. -
2:28 - 2:30And I got it.
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2:30 - 2:34These chemistry words
were not making pictures in my mind, -
2:34 - 2:37but I also understood
I've got to figure out -
2:37 - 2:38a way to make pictures,
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2:38 - 2:41or I'm never going to be able to read
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2:41 - 2:45and learn from this textbook.
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2:45 - 2:48Now today, neuroscience
has a very good understanding -
2:48 - 2:50of what was happening to me.
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2:50 - 2:53If you comprehend a word,
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2:53 - 2:58your brain triggers a simulation.
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2:58 - 3:01When you comprehend the word "jump",
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3:01 - 3:04your brain fires off
a neurological pattern -
3:04 - 3:08that is very similar
to the same pattern you use -
3:08 - 3:12to physically propel your body.
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3:12 - 3:17Your brain experiences words.
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3:18 - 3:22If you're very good
at thinking with words, -
3:22 - 3:26you have a lot of words that move over
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3:26 - 3:28into that simulation process.
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3:28 - 3:32But I am a picture thinker.
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3:32 - 3:38And for me, words
can actually block my comprehension. -
3:38 - 3:40I might be able to read a word,
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3:40 - 3:42write a word,
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3:42 - 3:47memorize a long hairy definition
for that word, -
3:47 - 3:48but all of these things
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3:48 - 3:54are actually quite separate from learning.
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3:54 - 3:57Years later, I started my career
by working in school districts, -
3:57 - 4:01testing and diagnosing children
with learning disabilities. -
4:01 - 4:06And I started to see
a lot of common themes. -
4:06 - 4:08This is Sarah.
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4:08 - 4:12Now, Sarah can be described
in a lot of ways. -
4:12 - 4:14She's highly distractible.
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4:14 - 4:17She makes a lot of careless errors.
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4:17 - 4:21She's not a good test taker.
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4:21 - 4:23Jackson hates to read.
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4:23 - 4:25He has low reading comprehension,
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4:25 - 4:27and to be honest, most of his teachers
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4:27 - 4:31just think he has average ability.
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4:31 - 4:35Joy appears unable to learn.
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4:35 - 4:38She has a diagnosed learning disability,
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4:38 - 4:43and experiences school failure
in many academic ways. -
4:44 - 4:48But the more I started
to get to know my students, -
4:48 - 4:52the more I really started
to see my father. -
4:52 - 4:56And the more I really started to see me.
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4:56 - 4:58And I began to wonder,
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4:58 - 5:01"What if your child
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5:01 - 5:06is not being measured
by their ability to learn? -
5:06 - 5:10What if school performance
is actually measuring -
5:10 - 5:15your child's inability
to think with words?" -
5:16 - 5:18So, I left working with schools
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5:18 - 5:20and I went into private practice
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5:20 - 5:22where I was researching and designing
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5:22 - 5:24some approaches to learning.
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5:24 - 5:28And I ran across
three powerful statistics. -
5:29 - 5:3450 to 60% of all students
will be perceived by school -
5:34 - 5:39as having average
to bellow average learning potential. -
5:41 - 5:4350 to 60% of all students,
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5:43 - 5:48will test as being very strong
at picture thinking, -
5:48 - 5:52with weaknesses in word thinking.
-
5:53 - 5:5750 to 60% of all words
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5:57 - 6:00that a kindergarten child
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6:00 - 6:03needs to learn how to read
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6:03 - 6:09is taught to them
using rote memorization only. -
6:10 - 6:13So, I decided, "You know what?
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6:13 - 6:16I am going to take my students back
to kindergarten, so to speak, -
6:16 - 6:23and look at where
their learning inability really began." -
6:23 - 6:26And we've honed in on the first 40 words
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6:26 - 6:30that their brain had been forced
to memorize, -
6:30 - 6:34but, this time, we engaged
their creative thinking -
6:34 - 6:37and we activated
their problem solving skills, -
6:37 - 6:41And we moved those words from memorization
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6:41 - 6:45over to experience and meaning.
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6:46 - 6:51And we started to see some amazing things.
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6:53 - 6:55This is Sarah today.
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6:55 - 6:57She's an 11th grade.
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6:57 - 6:59She's an A student,
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6:59 - 7:01and she's actually
actively looking for ways -
7:01 - 7:04to capitalize
on her social networking skills. -
7:05 - 7:09Jackson is above average in all areas,
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7:09 - 7:13and he's an avid water polo player.
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7:14 - 7:19Joy has defeated all the odds.
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7:20 - 7:24She now loves to read,
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7:24 - 7:27and she's an elegant writer.
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7:28 - 7:30Over the last ten years,
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7:30 - 7:33my students have been showing me
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7:33 - 7:37the crippling effect rote memorization
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7:37 - 7:39
can have on a developing brain. -
7:40 - 7:43But they've also been showing me
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7:43 - 7:49that there is nothing average
about the human mind. -
7:49 - 7:52Because, as it turns out,
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7:52 - 7:57all our children really need from us,
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7:57 - 8:01is to be given the opportunity
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8:02 - 8:07to see learning.
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8:10 - 8:13(Applause)
- Title:
- Visual and Auditory Learning - How To Teach It: Melanie West at TEDxManhattanBeach
- Description:
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Melanie points out the necessity for schools to adapt their ways of teaching to visual learner students who represent, according to estimates, 50 to 60% of all the students.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 08:20