How We Learn
People learn in different ways. Two extremes of this are what I would call 'Sequential Learning' and 'holistic Learning'. Sequential learning is learning in a step-by-step process: this happens, then that happens. Sometimes there is a series of procedures: you do this, then that. Holistic learning is like seeing the situation as a picture. Initially, the picture is fuzzy and out of focus, then as understanding builds up, parts of the picture come into focus.
Nobody exclusively learns using one technique or the other, but people tend towards one of these ways of understanding a problem. Even the sequential learners have to have some vague picture in order to have some context, similarly, holistic learners have a procedural understanding when it comes down to details.
Generally procedural thinking predominates in Western society. Education is becoming more specialised which means that having an overall picture does not help the learning process. People who learn in a sequential manner are usually better at exams, especially the modern type of multiple-choice, 'factual' exam. A holistic learner may not know enough details to do well in an exam, though they do better in essay type exams. Unfortunately, essay type exams are considered too time consuming and too subjective to mark.
For certain types of jobs, sequential learners are better. For example in programming, sequential learners can sometimes be better at coding from a design. Microsoft handbooks are invariably geared towards sequential learners. However, when it comes to designing a system, a holistic learner can have a view of how the whole system integrates together. Too often, good programmers get promoted to system designers with disastrous consequences. It's like promoting a good bricklayer to an architect.
Because many people don't understand these two aspects of the learning process, there is a lot of confusion and wasted resources. Teachers who think sequentially often have no patience with people who think holistically, and often their poor exam results simply confirm the teacher's opinion. Holistic teachers are often the most successful but they are, to a large extent, swimming against the sequential tide. Schoolteachers are forced to conform to a curriculum geared towards sequential learning and getting kids through exams.
These two ways of learning correlate loosely with what has been called 'left'
and 'right' brained thinking. In a previous article ('A Colourless World') I
illustrate how people cannot perceive what is outside of their experience. Sequential
learners tend to be logical, left-brained thinkers, whereas holistic learners
tend to be right-brained thinkers.
I will examine this more later.
