Last Updated on October 9, 2023 by Editorial Team
Drop-outs, rejections, social isolation, and poor confidence – all these come as baggage along with learning difficulties. Only those who have the patience and perseverance to learn continue to chase their dreams. For many years, a lot has been emphasized upon understanding the learning style instead of trying to fit students into a fixed style.
Such an enhanced level of awareness and the need to voice out the concerns led to some of the most motivating and insightful quotes. In one of our posts, we have curated quotes on Kinesthetics learning. The idea is to motivate our readers and highlight the fact that strong thinkers are talking about alternative learning styles.
Let’s take a look at some of the most thought-provoking quotes that tell how visual learning deserves a place in our thoughts and discussions.
Thought-provoking quotes on visual learning
1.“It has been said that 80% of what people learn is visual.”– Author: Allen Klein
Allen Klein has always been vocal about the concerns related to education, experiences, learning, etc. This quote reminds us of the times when pictures spoke a lot more to us than words. The trend still dominates; the only thing required is to have an eye and attitude to accept that fact!
2. “Learning to see and create visual images must also be recognized as essential to the learning process” – Bette Fetter
Bette Fetter is one of the strongest forces among educators who have promoted the idea of visual learning. In her book, Being Visual, she has explained the importance of visual modes of absorbing information. Several notable quotes have emerged from this work of hers. The above quote beautifully and succinctly emphasizes the inclusion of visual means in the learning process.
3. “Visual-spatial thinkers need to see to think” – Bette Fetter
How exactly did the visual thinkers develop their perspective? Bette Fetter has demystified the whole process adopted by visual-spatial thinkers. She explains that inputs received by seeing stimulate the minds of visual learners more effectively. The quote sums up this idea and provides teachers with a direction on how to create a learning environment more effective.
4. “I guess through my learning disability, through dyslexia, I’ve always been a visual learner – I take in everything through my eyes”. –Scoot McNairy
Scoot McNairy is an American actor-producer. He has always been open about the learning struggles he faced as a child. This quote gives a fairer insight into the alternative learning ways like visual learning that can change the outcomes better for dyslexics.
5. “As children, as we learn what things are, we are slowly learning to dismiss them visually. As adults, entirely submerged in words and concepts, we spend almost all of our time thinking and worrying about the past and the future, hardly ever looking at or engaging with the world visually.” – Chris Ware
The world is way more expansive than the words written in books or explained through concepts. In the race of being erudite, the ability to understand and appreciate the form is being lost in verbal explanations. Visual learners still continue to learn things as they are. Perhaps, they enjoy the world around them better than the other types of knowledge seekers. Chris Ware tries to put forth this notion with this interesting quote.
6. “People are visual and hands-on learners.” – Author: Wolfgang Puck
Wolfgang Puck is an accomplished Austrian chef who had humble beginnings. Born in a family with limited resources, he learned a lot about cooking from his mom only by observing her. That part seems to have stayed with him all through his life and comes out beautifully in this quote.
7. “Humans had proven to be unusually good at learning to recognize visual patterns; we internalize our alphabets so well we don’t even have to think about reading once we’ve learned how to do it.” – Author: Steven Johnson
Steven Johnson points out the automaticity that emerges with complete learning provided by visual inputs. We see an alphabet first and then move on to its sound and further related concepts. In the process, visual learning remains more ingrained and allows us to become fluent readers. Hence, according to Steven Johnson, be visually receptive to be an expert!
8. “Fifteen percent of the students are visual learners. Those are the dropouts.” – Rachel Kirby
Failing to read and write like auditory-sequential learners or conforming to educational norms is one of the reasons behind school dropouts. This quote by Rachel Kirby hits the point most aptly and calls for the need to make education more accommodating.
9. “My entire learning process is slow because I have no visual memory “– Georg Solti
Georg Solti was a Hungarian music conductor. He developed his signature style of learning to be comfortable with musical notes and went on to make a music group The Orchestra for Peace. His quote on slow learning shows how important it is to be visually receptive to gain knowledge. Hence, visual learning is not just an option but a promoter of stable and sustainable learning.
10. “Learning styles Visual – learn best by seeing Auditory – learn best by hearing Tactile – learn best by doing Oral – learn best by saying Social – learn best in groups Logical – learn best in linear process Imaginative – learn best through art, story, and image “- Author: John Ortberg
John Ortberg segregated different learning styles in this quote and recognized visual learning as a valid way of acquiring knowledge. Yes, we have to dig deeper to know the reason behind a learner’s apprehension towards conventional teaching methods. This simple classification can help find the correct method that makes learning easy for all.
11. “80 percent of learning is visual, so children who can’t afford vision correction are at such a disadvantage. “- Author: Ellen Hollman
Imagine the plight of a student whose vision needs correction and visual learning forms a major part of his concept-ingraining approach! That is why not only does the learning method need to be checked; but vision correction also requires our focus. Maybe a simple solution to learning becomes available by simply correcting the vision! Ellen Hollman, the CEO of Visual Impact, emphasizes various problems children face that affect their learning, be it physical or intellectual.
12.” Active learners absorb material best by applying it in some fashion or explaining it to others. Reflective learners prefer to consider the material before doing anything with it. Sensing learners like learning facts and tend to be good with details. Intuitive learners like to identify the relationships between things and are comfortable with abstract concepts. Visual learners remember best what they see, while verbal learners do better with written and spoken explanations. Sequential learners like to learn by following a process from one logical step to the next, while global learners tend to make cognitive leaps, continuously taking in information until they get it.” — Ken Robinson
Learners have myriad ways of absorbing things from the world around them. They may show different levels of performance or fluency in learning depending upon the inputs. Ken Robinson, an education thinker, explained all learning styles in this quote and gave us a quick recap of how to design the learning programs.
13. “Don’t be afraid of books, even the most dissident, seemingly ‘immoral’ ones. Culture is a sure bet in life, whether high, low, eclectic, pop, ancient or modern. And I am convinced that reading is one of the most important tools of liberation that any human being, and a contemporary Arab woman in particular, can exploit. I am not saying it is the ONLY tool, especially with all the new alternatives – more visual, interactive, and hasty – ways of knowledge, learning, and growth. But how could I not be convinced of literature’s power, when it has been my original emancipator?”— Joumana Haddad
Though emphasizing the importance of reading and books in gaining knowledge, this quote from Joumana Haddad does recognize the fact that visual learning is coming up as an alternative and being accepted as a learning method!
14. “I think that there’s a strong crossover in that Janis, studying the visual arts, was learning how to break it down into details and see how to get the expression that we wanted. And her visual art is as emotionally expressive as her singing. And, I think, when she switched over to singing, she already knew that it was something serious that you broke into pieces so she developed the ability to break it down and learn little riffs that she could throw in here and there.” — Laura Joplin
Visual learning finds its use in developing creative ideas and forms, Laura Joplin explains it effectively in this quote. Also, the quote hints at the possibility that visual learners may be gifted too. Their unique talents help them apply their learning style in various fields and may make them multi-talented in the long run.
15. “Ability to draw and communicate visually can no longer be seen as optional.” – Bette Fetter, Author
Better Fetter, the author of the book Being Visual, has made the point quite clearly and firmly that visual communication and expression abilities are to be embraced and recognized. These may help extract more from the untapped potential available around us in the form of gifted and talented individuals having different learning styles.
16. “It’s a great way for students that are visual learners to do well in a foreign language because it can be a really difficult subject for a lot of people.” – KRISTEN FRAISSE
Since visual learners have better memory recall, they can learn a foreign language more easily. It is because the foreign language also comprises alphabets which we all learn by seeing first. Kristen Fraisse quirkily puts this fact in the quote above.
17. “For usage-based theorists, the acquisition of language, while impressive, is not the only remarkable feat accomplished by the child. They compare it to other cognitive and perceptual learning, including learning to ‘see’. That is, the visual abilities that we take for granted, for example, focusing on and interpreting objects in our visual field, are actually learned through experience.” — Patsy M. Lightbown
If you want to have practical knowledge of any topic, you may find the perfect solution in visual learning. Patsy explains this idea in this quote and highlights how visual learning improves interpretability and focus.
Conclusion
Who is a visual learner? One who learns by seeing. But, what does this mean? And how do these learners shape their careers? All such questions find meaningful hints in the quotes from the learned people who embraced this learning method or used it to fill the gap for others. Absorb more innovative ideas around this learning style from the quotes mentioned above and share with us how these have motivated you or helped develop a new perspective.
I am Pratiksha Bhatt, Bachelor of Life Science, and Masters in Management Studies. I have done certification courses in early education counseling. I am a writer, a mother of a child with spelling difficulties which drove me to alternative resources of education like manipulatives and participatory activities. My areas of expertise are learning difficulties, alternative learning methods, and activity-based learning.