Tactile learning: What is it all about?
Text books and other resources help us learn a lot. But experiential learning, that is, grasping something from our real-life experiences is always the best teacher. One of the most effective forms of this genre of learning is tactile learning, also called kinaesthetic learning. It involves learning through experience followed by doing things. Here is all about tactile learning.
What is tactile learning?
The word ‘tactile’ refers to something that is perceptible to the sense or feeling of touch. Tactile learning refers to learning by experiencing the world first hand and then acting out events. For instance, a tactile learner is someone who will remember a phone number by simply remembering the pattern of their fingers while they dial the numbers on the phone’s keypad. Here, the key is learning complicated things once they have been acted out.
Tips & tricks to practise tactile learning
As already mentioned, tactile learning is best done through movement. Many students often face challenges while focussing on long lectures, writing extended essays or while reading or studying for an extended duration. To combat this, tactile learning method involves active study techniques and strategies. Here are some of them:
- Dividing study time into short duration with breaks in between.
- Studying in groups alongside peers.
- Attending more of active and physical classes such as in the laboratories.
- Going on field trips, such as visiting the museum.
- Taking recourse to memory games.
- Making use of effective study resources such as flashcards and smart pens (this device records any kind of audio content while an individual is taking notes). These help students to review and revise class notes as and when required.
- Acting out topics, concepts, subjects and stories they are trying to learn.
- Using the journey method for retaining new information (mentally placing concepts in a particular location).
- Practising learning through games and group activities.
- Being part of classes that combine hands-on and conceptual learning such as culinary arts, home economics, performing arts like theatre, visual arts like sculpture and engineering.