Many people are afraid of learning. Somehow they have painful memories of being forced to memorize page after page of facts just to blurt them back on some test. I don’t blame many people for not enjoying learning because many times in our lives the learning process has been painful and ineffective. While these is some reason to memorize facts and procedures, there are better, more interesting ways to gain information and experience.
The first thing that you want to do is figure out what type of learner you are. There are visual learners who like to see things presented to them. These are the people that remember faces and can vividly describe a scene to you from memory. Another type of learner is the auditory one. These are those good listeners that you know. They like the lecture part of a lesson. Many of these people are really into music or are musicians themselves. The last type of learner is the kinesthetic one. These are the hands-on people. You can tell them how to do it, show them how to do it, but they prefer to get their hands in there and do it on their own. Now everyone falls into mainly one category. Many people have a mixture of the three. That mixing is usually an adaptation that they have discovered over the years to help them perform better in school. The reason that it is good to figure out your primary learning style is so that you can adapt whatever you are learning to better suit you. Do not wait for an instructor to come around to your style. There are subjects that just do not lend themselves well to all three styles.
A good class will mix together the three approaches. So I might lecture on aperture, shutter speed, and ISO as it relates to camera exposure. I then show people where to set these on their cameras. Then I would have people practice changing these settings, taking pictures, and seeing the effect that each parameter has on their final image. All three types of learning have been covered and everyone should be accommodated. You can read more about these in ‘Photography’s Holy Trinity‘, ‘What the Heck is ISO?‘, ‘Shutter Speed – It’s About Time‘, and ‘The Elusive F Stop in Photography.’ If your learning style is not presented, like in a history lecture when you are a visual or kinesthetic person, then reinterpret the event to accommodate your style. Maybe you watch a movie over that period of history or re-write your notes, or whatever it takes.
We should not become averse to learning. We should also not stop learning no matter how much we think that we know. The brain does well when it is challenged, exercised just like the rest of the body. There is always something new to learn. It is always good to review what you think you already know well. We should be embracing learning instead of avoiding it. Reading blogs is a good start, so read on.
Gary Miller
Houston Fine Art Wedding Photographer
Eye Candy and Brain Veggies
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