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Re:How I spend less time on YouTube by bena on Thursday December 09, 2021 @09:16AM (#29497555)
This has been shown to be not true many times over.

Different subjects need to be taught in different ways, but there are optimal ways to present information that works for everyone.

No one is a "visual learner", there are topics that are best presented in a visual format.

Re:How I spend less time on YouTube by endisneigh on Thursday December 09, 2021 @09:25AM (#29497645)
Where’s this list of the so called optimal ways to present information that works for everyone?
Re:How I spend less time on YouTube by rincewind on Thursday December 09, 2021 @09:42AM (#29497820)
No, it's not about the "optimal way", it's about the oft-cited the factoid "90% of people are haptic learners, 30% are visual learners, 15% are auditory learners, 25% are text-based learners". Somebody did an experiment and found out 90% of subjects remembered something later when they had to learn to do it, but only 25% remembered when they had to read it. (All numbers made up, does not matter in the context of this comment)

Of course, this completely misrepresents the experiment! After learning to do something, you are 90% likely to retain it for a certain duration, after you read about it, you are only 25% likely to retain it, so in aggregate you only retain 25% of what you read.

The idea was never to find people who are "visual learning type" or the "non-learning-by-doing type".

That's what became of this idea in education through the game of telephone that mangles experimental results on their way from developmental psychology and cognitive science into education departments, and then into future high school teachers during undergrad lectures. Even my own high school teachers in Germany talked about learning types as if there was such a thing.

Re:How I spend less time on YouTube by bena on Thursday December 09, 2021 @10:37AM (#29498544)
Sorry if I was unclear. There is no singular optimal way of teaching. But for every subject, there is an optimal way to teach it. And usually that optimal way is a combination of visuals, auditory, reading, etc.

Way too often, someone achieves understanding when information happens to be presented in an optimal way for that information and they instead believe that the way was optimized for them rather than for the information.

Then they get stuck on "I need to watch videos to truly understand it".

Re:How I spend less time on YouTube by endisneigh on Thursday December 09, 2021 @03:23PM (#29502448)
Ok, where’s the list of the optimal way to teach every subject?
Re:How I spend less time on YouTube by mkaic on Thursday December 09, 2021 @12:24PM (#29500234)
Anecdotal counterargument: I am a visual learner. For almost all topics I learn about, watching a video is by far the most effective, fastest, and most impactful way for me to grasp and remember new concepts. A very large part of my education in math, science, machine learning, music theory, filmmaking, screenwriting, visual effects, history, and chemistry was video lectures/essays/content.

I agree that the famous "three/four types of learners, everyone belongs to one of them" factoid isn't true, but disagree that "No one is a 'visual learner.'" I am a visual learner.

Re:How I spend less time on YouTube by bena on Thursday December 09, 2021 @02:33PM (#29501847)
This is a self report of a self assessment. So the most unreliable form of reporting coupled with the most unreliable form of assessment.

I believe you believe all of that, but I don't believe it is true. Even in your case.