Students have different methods of studying and understanding a particular subject. Two of these ways are visual learning and verbal learning. Verbal learning is defined as the verbal association of a prompt and its response whereas visual learning is defined as the style of associating diagrams or pictures with the material learnt to remember it later on. Students remember visual images better when they apply it to the material learnt and for those who are verbal learners:difficult person test they are better at rote learning and stimulate their mind to retain what has been learnt.
Pros of visual learning
Learning through videos is considered to be extremely powerful as the combination of sound and visual content, a student is more prone to remember what they saw. This makes it easier to learn the hardest of subjects and it’s easy to recall the material learnt during the exam as well. Visual learners also have great memory and they have a higher chance to apply what they have learnt in school to their everyday lives also. Visual methods of teaching potentially have a higher chance of being retained by students also thus students have a higher chance of remembering what they were taught as well. It is a unique method of teaching and so grabs the attention of even the most stubborn students. Visual learners have a tendency to plan things carefully as they divide all their goals into small tasks which they then choose to focus on. They can also connect pieces of information from various sources and then use the new ideas they have learnt and implement it into what they already know. Technology has become so advanced that it is easy to find material for subjects. For example, whilst teaching medical students the human body and parts of its anatomy, videos can be shown to help them understand the inner workings of the body and they can grasp the concept behind it smoothly and with more efficiency. These learners also benefit from open ended assignments with little instructions as this way they can explore different ideas and so take more interest in assignments do them quickly rather than procrastinating.
Cons of visual learning
Sometimes, when using images the mind can tend to wander and before you know it, the focus of the student is lost completely and they have missed the lecture completely. Younger students also tend to get over excited about the images and videos and amidst the excitement miss what is being said by the teacher. These learners are less organized as well as they only rely on the visuals to aid them in learning and sometimes not all subjects or concepts have materials available to help visual learners and this can greatly reduce their learning. There is also the danger of visual learners to only learn the basic concept and not get all the details that the concept has to offer. There is also the disadvantage to blind or deaf students which cannot either see the material or hear the material and this proves a hindrance rather than a benefit.
