Cultivating the Secret Garden Within, Part 2
“Not the sharpest tool in the shed.” This expression is as ubiquitous as any, yet it perhaps misses the mark. We aren’t necessarily born sharp, after all. Like with any tool in that shed, we can be honed and improved. We might grow sharper as a result of observing new practices through visual learning. Or maybe we become sharper by physically doing.
Hence SurePeople’s research into cognitive processes. The methods by which we learn have long been studied in the attempt to harvest those most fruitful. Among the more popular models is VARK, described here by Philip Newton, PhD. While VARK and its precursor model VAK have been around for several decades (a century in the case of the latter), there are, of course, other ways by which we grow. It is then unlikely that everyone on our team learns the same way, or that we can expect consistent success when applying the same methods to everyone.
To get the garden around that shed to flourish, we must cater to the specific needs of each plant. One might need more sun than the other, or thirst for more water. So too should we expect variance in the way our team members learn and develop. One might absorb written instructions easily, while another prefers them to be told.
Yet people aren’t as fixed as plants, and as with the tool analogy, these metaphors only go so far. We can grow past the imposed limitations of planters, after all. In this video, Derek Muller, PhD, conveys how learning depends on a combination of various activities instead of rigid adherence to one.
In the effort to better learn how we learn, SurePeople has been conducting research around cognitive processes like decision-making and motivation with the aim to cultivate enhanced understanding of learning development.
Today, help everyone become a bit sharper by participating in our survey HERE.
“The capacity to learn is a gift; The ability to learn is a skill; The willingness to learn is a choice.”
– Brian Herbert
Author
by Faraz Gafoor
Faraz Gafoor is a content strategist, writer, and human-data aficionado. His passion for scientific analysis of everything—from the presentation of data to the way we communicate—is driven by a deep love of understanding how we process and make sense of our surroundings. His curiosity and a never-ending search for prolific and poetic perfection poignantly fit his Prism Personality of a double Scientist.
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