Sensorial Education: An effective way to grow intellect as well as senses

“I hear, and I forget, I see, and I remember, I do, and I understand” – this is how the great Chinese philosopher Confucius once described a process of learning. For making any learning more effective, it is important that you do it yourself. Only memorizing things are not going to help the learners in the long run. That’s why educationists and experts are always on the lookout for more innovative learning methods that will help the students to learn things in interesting ways. One such method is sensorial learning or education.

Sensorial learning is a teaching approach that focuses on the child’s five senses - taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing – while imparting knowledge or lessons. In this method, the learners are encouraged to use their senses to explore and understand the world around them. Activities are designed in such a way so that the children can study their surroundings in real contexts. Sensorial education is effective in many ways, and that’s why it’s a widely accepted method of teaching. This method is very effective in developing a child’s intellect. As the children are exposed to different activities and asked to process information, they put their intellectual ability into action. It creates more opportunities to further their thinking ability. Sensorial activities give the learners a purpose. When they are asked to perform a task, they explore ways of using their senses to complete the task. This helps them understand the power of their senses in better ways and use those for learning.

Early sensorial educational materials were developed by Dr. Montessori, which later came to be known as the Montessori method of educating the senses. In this method, you educate the senses of the learners, not the learners. This approach focuses on lessons and activities that help the children/learners clarify, classify and understand the world around them by taking help from the five senses. Materials are designed with built-in feedback, which helps form positive reinforcements, making the educational process more effective and helping the children grow amidst a positive learning environment. The sensorial area, in this approach, is divided into different categories - size, form, color, tactile, gustatory, olfactory, and auditory. Activities usually remain focused on these senses. For example – children are assigned a task to form shapes like triangular or rectangular boxes. This kind of activity helps a child develop the visual recognition ability of shapes and forms.

This approach is being pursued by many schools nowadays to sharpen the thought process of their learners. DPS STS School Dhaka has also recently taken steps to introduce sensorial activities following the Montessori method of educating the senses. Dushani Rajaratnam, the Head of Pre-Primary, has recently conducted a workshop on ‘Introduction to Sensorial Activities in the Montessori’ where pre-primary teachers were enlightened with the ways of this innovative approach. The teachers got the opportunity to work with the Montessori materials, which will later be provided to the students, and they will be given the opportunity to work their sense.

* Bijo Kurian is the vice principal of DPS STS School