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| Types of Learners | Sequential learners tend to gain understanding in sequent logical steps and concepts, with each step following logically from the previous one. Global learners like to study with an abrupt transfers and jumps over the material, absorbing material almost randomly without seeing connections, and then suddenly understanding it completely.
Sequential learners try not to lose logical sequence while making a decision; global learners can solve great problems out of the blue without any difficulty. Thought it may be hard for them to explain the way how they managed to do it.
Many people who read this description may conclude incorrectly that they are global, though everyone had some when the abrupt bum of understanding some unknown before concept. Global or not, we make this differentiation. Sequential learners may not comprehend the material at first site, but they are always able to do something with it (for example do homework or pass test or an exam) since the pieces they have absorbed are logically connected. Pure global learners who don’t possess great sequel thinking ability, on the other hand, may have serious difficulties until they have the big picture. Even after they have it, they may find problems with detail understanding, while sequential learners may know all general info about the topic, but may have trouble relating them to different aspects of the same subject or to different subjects. So the happy medium should be found.
How Can Sequential Learners be Helped?
Sequential manner is most commonly offered by the majority of colleges. But if you are a sequential student but your teacher or tutor jumps over some parts of the material course or misses the logical sequence, you may have difficulty following and remembering. Ask the instructor to fill in the skipped steps, or fill them in you by consulting references. Don’t be ashamed to do it because otherwise you will miss the train! When you are studying, take the time to state the lecture material in logical order for your needs. Soon doing so will save you time. You might also try to improve your global thinking skills by relating each new topic you study to things you already know, or have just learned. The more you can do so, the deeper your understanding of the material will be.
How Can Global Learners be Helped?
If you appear to be a global learner, it’s quite necessary to know for you that you need the whole wide picture of the situation or material, and only after that you will need understanding details. If your teacher or tutor rushes to new topic and concepts without dealing enough with the previous ones, you can have a number of problems. But there are methods to see the whole picture more closely and understand it better.
Before going to the next part of material for example lecture or synopsis, look through the whole lecture first. It will take a lot of time but will also prevent from boring many times reading the same material in future. Instead of spending a short time on every subject every night, you can find more beneficial to look through the big parts of the text or task. Try to find some relations between new material and the previously learned concepts, either by asking the instructor to help you see connections or by consulting references.
After all, don't lose faith in yourself; you will eventually understand the new material, and once you do your understanding of how it connects to other topics and disciplines may enable you to apply it in ways that most sequential thinkers would never dream of.
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