Modes of Understanding

From a presentation by Bret Victor, a simple description of the ways that we can gain an understanding. It is a meta-model, pulling together the ideas from Bruner, Gardner and Egan.

From a presentation by Bret Victor, The Humane Representation of Thought, the Modes of Understanding is a simple description of the ways that humans can gain an understanding. It is a meta-model, pulling together the ideas from Bruner, Gardner and Egan.

Screenshot of Modes of Understanding from Bret Victor!

Victor started with the common modes:

Visual Aural Tactile Kinesthetic Spacial

The added in those from Jerome Bruner:

Enactive Iconic Symbolic

Then Howard Gardner:

Visual Verbal Logical Musical Bodily Inter-personal Intra-personal Natural

And finally Kieran Egan:

Somatic Mythic Romantic Philosophic Ironic

These Modes of Understanding should be seen as distinct from Types of Learning, although they are connected. The Modes are ways that we interact with information, how it can be presented and ways that we can make meaning of things, whereas the Types outline the processes in which we can take that information in and connect it to our schema. Rather than compete, the two concepts should live side by side.

For example, we might want to engage in Assimilative Learning and then use the Modes to choose how to present that information - using a Visual means.