Oldal 25 [25]
OCR
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-learning 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 retain 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 greater 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,
