Over the last 10 years or so the term Neurodiverse used to describe individuals who think differently has become more of a commonality. Research is showing that this is on the rise and that 25 years ago it was roughly 1 in 150 individuals were neurodiverse. 5 years ago it was 1 in 36. I am working on not how or why this is happening, there are already doctors, psychologists, geneticists, and people within the community doing that research, I am here to ask the questions on how we teach and train these brilliant minds. Did you know that the arts is 3xs more likely to have Neurodiverse students? Did you know that 40% of the Neurodiverse population is unemployed or those that are are under utilized. Why is this? I believe that we have spent years creating an education system that is quantitatively driven through test scores and numerically based ranking systems instead of qualitative through connections and hands on experiences that solidify the material. Many studies show that students who are able to practice and apply skills that they learn are 75% more likely to retain the information. Where as rote learning or memorization is shown to only be 28% effective in recall and application of the material presented.
Why is this such a difference in our ability to learn? What is missing? Students taught through multimodal learning are even more successful at recall and application than singular style learning. The only downside is that we cannot generate completely accurate percentages because the mix match of those styles can be quite broad. With 24 different combination patterns of all four styles together. Break that into pairs (12 variations) or triples (24) and you are looking at a very diverse combination of learning options in any variety of order.
Things to think about and challenges we face as we move into tacking these different modalities of learning: How can we take existing curriculums and make them more accessible without creating difficult transitions for educators. Who belongs in the room when we start building adaptive curriculum for our education system. How do these teaching styles continue into work place trainings, work shops, and education out side of schools? This Blog will track the research, presentations, and conversations that I have with people in and out of the community navigating these interesting and sometimes challenging waters.
Until next time,
K
Comentarios