The Concrete Learning Style

This post will look at the concrete learning style.  This is sometimes called the hands-on learning style.  However, it does not necessarily encompass learning through doing even though many lump hands-on and learning through doing into the same category.

A Child's "Bent"
Before I delve into this learning style, I want to have a discussion about children's "bent."  As I told my middle child when she was trying to decide between majoring in chemistry or creative writing in college, everyone on this planet has that one thing that makes them tick.  It is their "bent," and that term comes from the Hebrew word from the verse in Proverbs, "Train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."  The phrase "the way that he should go" actually can be interpreted "bent."  In other words, it means his/her natural leanings.  For us in the educational world, this would mean their personal learning repertoire.

We often tell children here in the United States that they can be anything that they want to be.  Actually, that is neither true nor is it fair to that child.  What we should be doing is helping each child find that one thing that makes them tick and doing everything in our power to help that child along that path.  However, in America we are so consumed with money-making power that we often forget it takes all kinds of people to make a society function.  We push our children toward those careers that bring in the bigger bucks instead of looking at our children to see where their talents and strengths lie.  The educational world is just as guilty.  We push the more academic careers that bring in the bigger bucks instead of offering a wide variety of educational opportunities for people from every sector of society.  I have been ridiculed for counseling my daughter in the way that I did.  Many people believe I should have pushed her into the chemistry field because creative writing does not have the same opportunities for making money except for the very few.  However, I know my daughter, and writing is her passion.  She will find the path that makes her happy by pursuing a career that involves words.  Chemistry would make her miserable.  We need to learn in this society that money does not equal happiness and fulfillment.  You can actually be below the poverty line and have a happier life pursuing your passion than a millionaire that has to work at a job he/she was not designed to do.  The trick lies in doing what your "bent" involves.

The Path to Contentment
I said all of that because many children that have the concrete learning style strongly will never be doctors, lawyers, architects, or any other field that requires abstract thinking.  These children will be mechanics, builders, and all other such careers that have skills with their hands.  They will be happy working with their hands at the thing that makes sense to them.  To force such children down a more abstract path is wrong.  Will these children make less than the doctors, lawyers, etc?  Yes, but these children could not handle the stress and abstract thinking that those higher paying jobs require.  Our society needs these people to function.  Instead of trying to instill greed into the people of our society, we need to instill contentment.  People that are content are rich no matter what their socio-economic status.  Working at our passion presents the easiest path to contentment.

Why I Am not a Concrete Learner
Now that I am off my soapbox, how can you tell if a child does or does not have a bent toward the concrete learning style?  I will start by explaining why I do not have a strong bent toward the concrete learning style in any shape, form, or fashion.  The best example I can present involves science experiments.  Every time I had to do science experiments in high school, I usually picked someone that needed an "A"desperately as a lab partner.  I would then tell the lab partner how to conduct the experiment in such a way that I touched it as little as possible.  You might think that made me lazy until I explained that I had a tendency to make things explode, catch on fire, etc.  I knew what was supposed to happen, why it was suppose to happen, and even the margin of error needed in the results to make it believable.  However, to actually make it happen in the real world was far beyond my ability.  Therefore, I wrote the lab report making it be what it needed to be regardless of what actually happened in the lab.  If I was lucky enough to pick a concrete learner as a lab partner, I did not have to doctor the results.  The concrete learner could make the experiment work, but could not explain the why, how, and technical details needed to write a good lab report.  When I had to do science experiments as a homeschooling mom, it became the running joke that they never turned out like they were supposed to turn out.  I always ended up explaining to my children what was supposed to happen, why it was supposed to happen, and any other technical details surrounding the experiment. I am an abstract learner, which I will cover next week.

What Makes a Concrete Learner
My oldest child, however, is a concrete learner.  She needed to be able to at least picture concepts in the real world for them to make sense to her.  She did not always have to necessarily put her hands on it, but it always had to be a concept that could be demonstrated in that way.  Any concept that required lots of abstract thinking gave her difficulty beyond measure.  Trying to teach that child abstract grammar rules and algebra nearly drove me crazy.  I did not push that child to go to college.  That is not her bent.  She loves to clean.  She can clean circles around most people.  Therefore, she cleans houses for a living, and her clients are very glad she found her calling.

In the early childhood world, the easiest way to find your concrete learners is to watch the block area.  The concrete learners will build amazing creations and take things apart just to put them back together.  They will have great fine motor skills, but may struggle greatly with academic concepts.  These children tend not to be the greatest at imaginary play.  Their play is based more in the real world and doing real work.  The children that create other worlds and grand schemes will tend to be your abstract learners.

Academic Concepts for Concrete Learners
Academic concepts for concrete learners needs to be broke down into tangible concepts from the real world.  For example, concrete learners can usually make more sense out of a word being made up of individual sounds that having to just memorize that word on sight.  Individual sounds to them is something concrete onto which they can latch.  These children may learn the sounds of letters before they learn the names of letters.  Learning the names falls into a more abstract concept.  For these children everything needs to relate to a tangible part of their reality.  Rote memorization for concrete learners can be absolute torture.  In math, these children will need to handle objects as math concepts are explained.  These children will grow up to be great skilled craftsmen at whatever they choose to do.  Let them develop along their bent and give them lots of opportunities to work with their hands.

I hope you have enjoyed this post.  Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at:  https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457