Kinesthetic Learners - How To Help Them Process Information

Kinesthetic learners prefer to learn by doing, by moving around and through hands on learning.

We need to be careful that we don't label students as specific kinds of learners, because although human beings do seem to have different preferences when it comes to learning, all learners can learn to process information in more than one way, or style, and in real life it is necessary to be able to process information in a variety of ways and all students need to learn how to do this.

It's just as important to remember that a major element in successful learning is enjoyment and fun, and most students find at least some kinesthetic learning activities enjoyable and fun. Of course, some students will feel uncomfortable with some kinesthetic learning, but teachers can become skilled at devising activities that appeal to all learners and that satisfy the kinesthetic need.

So kinesthetic learning approaches can benefit all students, not just so-called kinesthetic learners, when these approaches help to add another dimension to their overall learning capability. Even critics of 'learning styles' agree on this, but their proviso is that the nature of the meaning to be gained from the information being learned is the reason for choosing to present information kinesthetically, not a particular preference for an particular learning style on the part of the learner.

However, it may well be true that using their particular strengths enables students with a preference for learning in a kinesthetic way to process any information more effectively and then use specific strategies to understand and memorise that information that will allow them to recreate the meaning from that information in different formats.

Students who have a strong kinesthetic learning style often:

• like to move around in the classroom
• may not be able to sit still for long periods of time
• remember what they physically DO, so need to do something to 'learn' it
• are able to remember something perfectly after doing it only once
• enjoy activities tht involve 'acting out' such as role play or drama
• find many ways to keep their hands busy, such as tapping a pencil, or taking their pen apart [and putting it back together]
• need the help of physical objects, that they can handle, as aids to sequencing and learning
• have poor handwriting
• have difficulty with spelling
• enjoy subjects which inherently satisfy the need for 'hands on' learning, such as science [experiments and practical science] and subjects where they can use computers and other forms of technology
• perform well in sporting activities and activities such as dance
• express their interest in an actvity enthusiastically and excitedly - sometimes they can become over-excited
• have difficulty with learning that involves learning by rote or sequencing
• appreciate being able to have short breaks in lessons
• are classed as underachievers
• are considered to be hyperactive

Learning activities that can help kinesthetic learners take in information effectively:

• providing a varied menu of learning activities - within each lesson if possible, but certainly over a series of lessons
• making sure some activities require learners to move around - this works best if it's not just movement for movement's sake [although this can be a useful 'safety valve' for some learners] but movement with an inherent learning purpose: for example, instead of students reading information from a text book or worksheet, you can put the information on pieces of card and stick them to the wall in the form of an information trail or 'Treasure Hunt' - students visit each card in turn to find the relevant information
• providing concrete learning aids that students can handle: very often teachers can do this very easily - for example, putting a selection of everyday objects in a bag that students then feel to identify is a simple way to make a learning activity kinesthetic
• giving lots of opportunities for writing - not as a way of assessing learning - but rather as way of helping students understand the shapes of letters and words and to reinforce them, as writing helps 'trace' the words through neural pathways in the brain - sometimes we can disguise the writng input by asking students to create posters, not just for information, but also as a way of getting them to assess their own learning
• encouraging learners to role play the learning: for example, in a Spanish class, kinesthetic learners will understand more easily the words needed to book a hotel room if they can act out the scene at the hotel reception
• making appropriate use of technology such as computers, video and DVD etc
• keeping it 'real': kinesthetic learners often find it hard to work in the abstract, so teachers can find ways of 'wrapping up' abstract concepts in real tasks: for example, I once asked a class to write a few paragraphs about their own house in French [a typical examination question], and while most were able to do just that, some kinesthetic learners created a mini project in the form of a booklet including photographs of the rooms in their house with captions to accompany each photograph. The booklets were very good and these students told me they had enjoyed making the booklets, but would have found the initial writing task boring and may not have completed it
• keeping it 'really real' by giving students whenever appropriate and possible the chance to take part in museum visits, field trips, practical learning sessions both in and out of the school environment
• using games for 'serious fun' - most kinesthetic learners love games because they often involve movement but are also enjoyable - kinesthetic learners pethaps more than other students who have different learning preferences need the element of enjoyment and fun to sustain their concentration, especially when they are younger - and it's worth developing a repertoire of successful games that you can play in many different contexts - even something as simple as throwing a soft ball to a student when you want them to answer a question works well - and not just with kinesthetic learners - because it's fun - I have used this technique for over 30 years and have yet to find a student who did not respond positively to this activity

The learning input is only half of the story - the output also has to be successful. Learners must use effectively the information they have learned. They can do this by transforming all the information into different formats, by reconstructing the information.

For example they can:

• rework any notes they have made - the notes may be incomplete or of poor quality because the topics may have been delivered in ways that were not 'real' or concrete enough to really appeal to a kinesthetic learning style - encourage students to include as many 'real' examples as they can - getting them to 'relive' the kinesthetic parts of the learning can help
• associate specific case studies or examples with abstract concepts they have to learn
• include pictorial cues such as photographs and pictures in the notes to provide more of a 'hook' for the information they need to memorize
• if it's possible encourage students to carry out the kinesthetic activity again at home: this has obvious limitations, but I have known kinesthetic learners who have 'revised' very effectively by recreating the classroom situation: for example, students who learned words and phrases to use in a presentation by walking up and down the 'learning wall' we had in our classroom, stuck the same information on their bedroom walls and went through at home the same moves they did in the classroom, in order to make the information 'stick'
• practise writing the kinds of answers they will face in the examination - remember that the act of writing does seem to help information become clearer to kinesthetic learners
• talk over their learning with other students who learn in the same way, as a means of recalling all the important points

In an average shool class one third of students may be kinesthetic learners. This group of learners are often the most misunderstood group, often labelled as underachieving, and although this may be sometimes be accurate, it's also true that many kinesthetic learners do not fulfil their potential because their learning 'diet' does not fully meet their needs to succeed.

Interestingly, work done in some fields of learning disability, suggest that a significant proportion of students referred for attention deficit disorder or hyperactivity, may, in fact, be kinesthetic learners who need more appropriate learning structures to succeed. As with many areas of educational thought, the 'jury is still out' on this, but as teachers we should be open to the possibility that kinesthetic learning may alleviate some real difficulties that some students encounter in our school systems.

We need to help students maximise their learning potential so they can take their place in the adult world, where it is becoming more and more important to become skilled in diverse ways, so helping all students, not just so called kinesthetic learners, to use effectively a kinesthetic learning style when it's appropriate to do so is a positive step.


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