From Jane's Back Porch

by Jane Vella, Ed.D.
GLP Founder

When the windows of perception are cleansed, the world will appear as it is, infinite.

~William Blake, 18th century poet

A basic tenet of Dialogue Education is that human beings learn via cognitive effort (dealing with ideas and concepts), affective effort (dealing with feelings and emotions) and kinesthetic effort (dealing with the physical, muscular responses).

Drinking tea on my back porch – sweet southern tea, of course, or Earl Grey’s afternoon blend or a fantastic green tea with pomegranates – we learn. We delight in the pleasure of the hot tea and the sweet taste. We smile at the friends surrounding us and celebrate the warm North Carolina sun and the blue Carolina sky. All of this – sometimes pedantically entitled the learning environment – involves kinesthetic learning.

My first course taught at a notable southern university in 1981 was held in an antiseptic, large classroom, with movable student chairs. The lighting was from fluorescent lamps perched in the high ceiling. I had to confess to those graduate students that I could not teach in that setting: the kinesthetic learning manifest in that environment was too loud. 

We moved to the tiny living room in my small ranch house and my first graduate course in Adult Learning was an outstanding success!

The warmth of your initial handshake is kinesthetic learning; the delight in the artistic and aesthetically pleasing course materials you prepare is kinesthetic learning; the smiles and challenges of a small group engaged in a learning task around a table are sources of kinesthetic learning. What are the learners learning? They are being made aware of how valuable and how cherished they are, how possible this learning is, how good they are as individuals and as a large group. The physical action is a symbol: the meaning is what they learn.

Kinesthetic learning is not mere physical activity. Learning is always the triangulation of cognitive, affective and physical. Kinesthetic learning begins in the meaning you, as Teacher, bring to the event: that handshake is not empty but full of your affection for this person. That course manual was prepared with their excellent learning in mind. That learning task is designed to bring together Subjects who feel esteemed enough to be honest. The symbol - the kinesthetic movement – is informed by the intention of the Teacher.  That’s your real job…cleansing the windows of your perception…

<<back