Learning Styles and “Finding Nemo”

Hands up who remembers the blue fish Dory from “Finding Nemo”? The one who suffers from a short-term memory loss? (“I forget things almost instantly. It runs in my family! Well I mean... at least... I think it does. Hum... Where are they? ... Can I help you?”)

Have you ever wondered why she can’t remember anything? Or rather, she can’t remember anything she hears, and yet she has no trouble remembering how to read? In fact the only thing Dory can remember throughout the movie is the address label she’s read: “P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney”; and she only recognises Nemo’s name when she reads a prompt?

Those of you who know about Learning Styles already understand where I’m going with this one: some students learn better by listening, others by reading, others yet by doing or watching.

Of course, a person’s learning is not constrained to the senses. For optimal learning and memorising conditions, you need to take into account information processing, the learning environment, the time of day and many other factors.

Have a look at a sample Learning Style Report to see learning preferences in action.

(Some trivia about the movie “Finding Nemo”, from the IMDB website:

• Factual errors: When the fish are in bags and the bags are in the ocean, the bags should float with their inner water level at just about the same level as the surface of the ocean.
• Factual errors: Marlin and Dory are advised to swim to the back of the whale's throat and then are blown out of the whale's blowhole. This is not physically possible as whales mouths and digestive systems are not connected to their respiratory system and blowhole.
• Factual errors: Coral should be bigger than Marlin. Female clownfish are always bigger than their mates.)