By Chan Mon/reporter
Interrupting a classroom lecture with a question or comment can be a good learning technique even though the teacher might not appreciate it, SE Campus students were told Sept. 11.
SE instructor Wes Wettengel, in his presentation The Best Way to an “A”: Know Your Learning Style, said students can benefit by breaking up what they may think is a boring lecture.
“If I am a person in class, and the lecture is going on and going on, I will ask a question,” Wettengel said. “I will potentially break up the lecture whether an instructor likes me or not.”
Wettengel said he not only broke lectures into segments in his own student days but also divided his studying into 15- to 30-minute periods by, for instance, going outside to relieve the boredom.
Visual and tactile learners, Wettengel said, can find ways to strengthen lectures. While a student, he visited museums to make history lectures come alive.
“I touched the things and went to archives, looked at an old letter and held it,” he said. “It made me alive.”
Using a visual learning style, he said, can improve a student’s learning by as much as 37 percent. He added, however, that students should be able to adapt to all styles, such as lecture or lab.
Wettengel’s presentation, done along with his wife Sharon, a SE sociology assistant professor, was part of Learning Skills Week sponsored by the SE advising and counseling center.
“It’s a great perspective they gave that some students cannot approach visual [learning] and some auditory,” said Renetta Wright, coordinator of the event.
First-year biology student Preston Pettit said he thought the speech was interesting and said he learned things about himself as he is a visual learner.
“I am able to see things as described,” he said. “I want to use these things in my classes to learn better. I think the information is beneficial to me and hopefully to everyone here.”
The Wettengels’ presentation was one of 18 making up Learning Skills Week.
The event will be held annually, Wright said, as part of a districtwide initiative to give students a stronger academic foundation and make them more prepared for the fall semester.
