Martial Arts & The Best Ways To Learn & Remember
By Jeff Baines
5th Degree Black Belt in Kempo
2nd Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do
Level 4 Apprentice Instructor in Jeet Kune Do
Owner of Dojo Source
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Being a teacher and attending countless Teacher Development days, workshops, and classes I remembered being shown a chart or graph similar to this one several times:
I went to look it up recently and struggled to find it partly because I couldn’t remember that it was called the Cone of Learning, and partly because all the numbers on this chart are apparently made up! I am happy that I struggled to find this information because it led me to this website: https://www.worklearning.com/2006/05/01/people_remember/ where the author essentially debunks this chart. Apparently, the source of this information is usually cited as Edgar Dale, but he only ever posted one of these types of charts and it did NOT have any numbers on it. This was his original chart that he called the “Cone of Experience”:
Source: https://www.worklearning.com/2006/05/01/people_remember/ and they got it from Edgar Dale
He came up with this without doing any formal study, this was mainly a reflection of his own noticings about himself and others. He didn’t include any numbers, so the Cone of Learning from above really is just based on that person’s own noticings and not based on any real study that collects the numbers about retention of information. Of course this comes up in Education because this also looks similar to “Learning Styles”. People learn better when they receive information in the way that matches their “Learning Style”, the styles are: Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Verbal, Social, and Solitary. This may be one of the reasons why many students who struggle with school are so successful in Martial Arts. At school, students are often given Readings, Videos, Written Assignments, etc. and less time is spent doing Kinesthetic and Social tasks for learning. If we look at Edgar Dale’s diagram, you can see that Kinesthetic and Social activities are located at the bottom of his Cone of Experience showing in his experience that learning things in this way creates deeper and longer lasting information retention. The same is true for the “Cone of Learning” which indicates that this seems to be true not just for Dale but many other people who have created similar diagrams based on his work. Martial Arts classes lend themselves more easily to Kinesthetic and Social learning tasks. You may be shown a move or told how to do a move for a short part of the class, but it quickly moves into students actually moving and doing the move by themselves or often with a partner through pad work or partner drills.
If students struggle in school with doing lots of reading, writing, and listening tasks that make up most of class time. This may be because their “Learning Style” is more Kinesthetic and Social, these are the kids that love sports and Martial Arts because they can be moving and doing things while engaging with their instructor or peers. So I think that there may be some merit to the idea that Kinesthetic and Social tasks lead to a higher retention of information, but it appears as though there are no actual studies to back this claim up. However, there are lots of students who are successful in school when they receive mainly reading, writing, and listening tasks. If there isn’t a study done on it maybe you can’t claim one type of experience is superior to another so maybe the goal shouldn’t be to stack them and say do this instead of this. The goal instead should be to incorporate as many styles of learning as possible. Maybe a better diagram would show the learning styles as just parts of a whole and teaching should be done using as many ways as possible. Maybe something like this instead of a cone that puts some learning styles above others:
The goal of teaching something new should be to make sure that your students can learn and remember the skills. Every student learns differently so it is important to give your students different ways to learn and remember. My goal as a teacher is to make sure this Hexagon is as full as possible for you to learn in as many different ways as you can. Here at Dojo Source, here are some of many the different training tools we use to fill in the Hexagon:
Visual
-The Instructor demonstrates the moves for students, and we have mirrors so students can watch themselves do the moves.
-Instructors will show things that students need to correct about their form or the move itself
-We have an App and while you are a current student you can access videos of all your techniques
-The App also has the longer techniques written out
-At the Dojo there is a binder with all the techniques written out
-Flashcards with pictures of moves and things to know
Auditory
-Instructors say the names of the moves that they are demonstrating
-Instructors will say things that students need to correct about their form or the move itself
-Some lessons involve the students saying the moves they are doing
Kinesthetic
-Students are encouraged to or required to do the move at the same time of the instructor so they can feel what it is like to do the move.
-Moves are practices on pads and bags
-Partner work is used, so students can do the moves gently on an actual partner
-When students are wearing proper gear, we will spar and play games that use the moves and strategies that they have been learning.
-Instructors can demonstrate the moves on students so they understand how the moves is supposed to feel.
Verbal
-Some lessons involve the students saying the moves they are doing
-Some lessons involve the students telling other students what moves they should be doing.
Social
-There is almost always some partner work where students work together to practice their moves on live opponents, have fun, and solve problems without the instructor.
-Students also build relationships with their instructors and work with their instructor seeing that their instructor is also working to improve.
Solitary
-When students first learn their moves they are given time to work on their own in the mirrors to practice and improve.
-We have heavy bags and dummies so students can practice their moves using contact.
-Students can use our app to practice at home on their own.
Here is an example of how we use several different training methods within a single lesson to fill in the Hexagon to reach students of all different learning styles:
When an instructor is first teaching a move, they will demonstrate the move in front of the mirrors explaining each step of the move out loud to the student as they go. The student follows along with the instructor several times through the move and then the Instructor will get out pads or allow the student to gently do the move on the instructor so they can feel what it is like to do the move. This training activity does a great job with Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Learning Styles. There are some Social and Verbal parts to this training activity, but I wouldn’t say this activity fully fills those Learning Styles. This activity also requires an Instructor to be there so there isn’t much Solitary time.
After this activity, the Instructor will usually have the student practice on their own:
The Instructor is nearby when the student is doing their individual practice, but usually the instructor allows the student to practice and struggle a bit on their own. When you allow some struggle, the student will work out the issue on their own. The student can watch themselves do the moves in the mirror, this helps with Visual Learning Styles. The student is actually practicing the moves and moving, the Instructor may hold pads or have the student do the moves on a bag or dummy as well, this helps Kinesthetic Learning Styles. Of course this is mostly individual work so Solitary Learning Styles get lots of benefit during this activity.
Next the Instructor will have the student work with another student on the move, or the Instructor will be their partner:
This activity again helps Visual and Kinesthetic Learning Styles, and there are some chances to get some Auditory Learning. However, the main focus of partner work is so students can learn through Verbal and Social Learning Styles. Students will talk with each other to work out issues, ask questions, and teach each other parts of the moves the other student forgot.
As you can see none of these activities on their own perfectly fill in the Hexagon of Learning Styles, but when you do all 3 activities in a lesson it does fill it all in:
The Instructors at Dojo Source use a variety of different activities to help all kinds of students learn.
As I wrote this article, I thought back on a recent conversation with my Instructor. He is a Professor at a University in addition to a dynamite Martial Arts Instructor, so of course we talk about Teaching Pedagogy during our lessons. He brought up Bloom’s Taxonomy and how it informs his instruction, and I realized that of course my years of teaching and doing Martial Arts has blended good Educational Practices into my Martial Arts instruction. Bloom’s taxonomy is often drawn as a triangle as well and I saw the similarities between the “Cone of Learning” and Bloom’s Taxonomy:
I changed the colors that I normally see on Bloom’s Taxonomy to point something out, the colors I chose are similar to our belt colors. As you advance in the belts you should be moving up in Bloom’s taxonomy towards “Create”. The earlier belts are about remembering how to do the moves and understanding when to do the moves and how to do the moves with good form. The later belts are about applying what you learned at the earlier belts, analyzing and evaluating the effectiveness of those moves and your application of them. To learn more about how we analyze the form of our moves check out If You Can’t Do It Slow, Then You Can’t Do It Fast. Ultimately allowing you to be free to create your own style of fighting that is most effective for you. Not only is this true for the belt system as a whole, but for each individual belt. The stripes at each belt progress up Bloom’s Taxonomy in a similar fashion. The final stripe on each belt is earned when you show that you can be creative with the moves that you have learned up to that point. To learn more about our Belt System and the Stripe Progression check out Why Do Martial Arts Schools Have Belts?.
Dojo Source uses good teaching practices to help all of its students learn and be successful. To learn more about what kinds of moves you learn try reading What Type of Martial Arts Do You Do At Dojo Source?. If you want to see what Dojo Source has to offer you, try a free class, sign up by going here: www.dojosource.fit/free-trial.
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