Dansk folkeskole: visual-spacial learning

Jeg vil prøve at skrive kort, fordi mit dansk er slet ikke 100%.

I have been very happy with both vuggestue and børnehave. So I should have no worries when my 5 yo son starts 0 klasse in August. Yet I am concerned about classroom learning. Not necessarily in 0 klasse, but in 2,3,4.... But if I wait until then to ask, maybe it will be too late?

My son is an extremely visual-spacial learner. An example, last week he asked me how the winter turns into spring. I said "I can't explain it (with words), I will show you." I took a scrap of paper, drew a circle in the center and said "this is the sun." Then I drew a smaller circle and said "this is the earth." Then I drew an elliptical shape around the sun. Without a second to even explain, my son immediately pointed at the furthest end of the ellipse and said "this is winter." I said "yes". He understood the whole thing right away, that the furthest part would be the coldest, and therefore winter. Then he wanted to know where on the ring we were right now, where påske was, when our trip to california would be, his birthday, his sisters birthday...

This story is not particularly special or profound. What is important about this story, is that if I had told him, with words, how the winter turns to spring, he would not have understood at all. Even if I had explained 10 times, with different words, he would not understand. If I had read him something from a book, he would not have understood. It is because I drew the question that he understood.

My son gets his visual-spacial learning style from me. But being educated in the states, at a rigid catholic school many years ago, with a huge emphasis on memorization and verbal only learning, I did not do well. Something was obviously wrong with me that I could draw advanced mazes and write elegant poetry at 8, but I was too lazy to memorize my multiplication tables.... Nothing was wrong with me. 35 years ago no one knew about asynchronous development or visual-spacial learning.

My question is - do they know about it today? Here, in Denmark? Are schools and teachers aware of visual-spacial learning styles, as well as the more typical auditory-sequential learning? Do they understand asynchronous development? If so, do teachers have the time to be flexible with the diversity of their students? Is subject matter taught by talking, reading, memorization...? Or by doing - by hands on projects, by drawing diagrams....?

Hi Allison.

Your danish is much better than my english, so I hope, it`s OK, I write the rest in danish

Både ja og nej!
Jeg arbejder med testning af børn, og laver individuelle undervisningsplaner, og der er mange børn, der i større eller mindre grad har det som din søn.
For nogen er det visuelle en støtte i forhold til at forstå de sproglige instruktioner, men for andre, er sproget en støtte for at forstå de visuelle illustrationer.
Det vil være svært at finde en skole, hvor man bare sådan lige undervisere en elev ud fra det visio-spartielle som det primære. Der skal ofte laves individuelle materialer osv. Men er der en god lærer, der er oprigtigt interesseret i sine elever, så vil han lave materialerne, og de vil holde længe... og pludselig vil en række af andre elever bede om også at få de materialer, for de hjælper mange, der har problemer med at fange tingene.

Der er skoler, hvor man stadig bruger Howard Gardners MI pædagogik, og der er skoler, hvor man bruger tankerne fra Dunn og Dunn (læringsstile). Det vil være skoler, hvor din søn vil kunne finde plads til sin personlige læringsstil... hvis lærerne er engagerede.