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24 2 MULTI-SENSORY COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION
in a normal brain the two hemispheres operate together. In harmony with this
reality, educational researchers showed that a balanced involvement of both
sides ofthe brain in the classroom can significantly improve the teaching-learn¬
ing process (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999; Eisenhower SCIMAST, 1997).
The work of Howard Gardner has also revealed that each man has a mixture
of different ways of learning. In his first book, Frames of Mind, Gardner (1993)
identified seven “intelligences”. Subsequently, an eighth and a ninth intelligence
were added to the original list. This list includes, among others, the musical,
the bodily-kinaesthetic and the logical-mathematical intelligences. Gardner calls
attention that people are born with all intelligences but usually only one or two
are completely developed in any individual. One of the important messages of
Gardner’s work for all teachers is that students need to learn in various ways, not
only in their obvious and most natural way. For example, teachers should not
permit for their visual or logical learners to rely only on their most comfortable
intelligence (Eisenhower SCIMAST, 1998).
2.2.1 Memory and multi-sensory learning
Another vital element of the learning process is memorizing. If we do not re¬
tain the learned matters, how shall we be able to utilize our knowledge? “Tantum
scimus quantum memoria tenemus.” It has been estimated that people retain
only 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, and 30% of what they see.
However, a striking improvement takes place in retention if the above-mentioned
senses are combined (TPUB, 2020). The same evaluations tell us that when
someone hears and sees the subject at the same time retention jumps to 50%. If
questions that stimulate thinking are used as a background for the eyesight and
sound, retention level can be pushed close to 70%. If along with procedural steps
and principles, the students are asked to use all their senses in skill training,
then their retention can be increased to as much as 90% (TPUB, 2020). All this
implies a fair degree of mastery of teaching and learning.
The more senses are used in presenting or exploring new material, the great¬
er the possibility is that this will be recalled by students in the future. This can
be explained by the fact that there will be more pathways of locating the stored
information. Furthermore, there are people who prefer auditory learning style,
others favour visual ones, and others have strengths in receiving information
through their kinaesthetic senses (OEF, 2001). Consequently, a multiple senses
approach of education will provide equality of chances for each student.
The path from sensation to memory is a complicated process. The senses
are bombarded by stimuli that must be encoded into meaningful patterns (in the
working memory) and then sorted in the long-term memory (Mead et al., 2006).
According to the dual coding theory, sensations are handled by two different
subsystems. Verbal input is handled by a subsystem specialized in language,