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This is btw. a big issue when you teach things. As someone who can imagine geometry and light, rotate and manipulate it in my head, saying things like: "Just im
by atoav 3y ago
This is btw. a big issue when you teach things. As someone who can imagine geometry and light, rotate and manipulate it in my head, saying things like: "Just imagine a sliced donut intersected with a cylinder".
Some people will and some people won't be able to do that, and those who can't very likely will blame themselves for not being able to understand it. But as educators we need to make sure we give people without mental images actual images they can look at.
- mercutio2 3y agoThis is a fascinating question. I can visualize mathematically described shapes without any issue. But if you ask me to visualize anything real world, I get absolutely nothing.
- nicklecompte 3y ago"Just imagine a sliced donut intersected with a cylinder" I have trouble with linguistic reasoning and I would greatly struggle with a phrase like this, even in a context where I am sure the meaning should be obvious. Visually I can imagine hundreds of ways to slice a donut and hundreds of ways to intersect that with hundreds of cylinders. But linguistically I am slow and dumb :) and would need you to specify how you're slicing the donut and where the cylinder is going. I have to work hard to connect verbal reasoning with non-verbal implicit information - even in simple numbers sometimes I have to carefully think "no, she said from zero, that means you start AT zero, not at one. Otherwise she would have said after zero." The verbal confusion - and psychological insecurity - can sometimes obliterate what had been a solid intuitive understanding of the problem.
- dmcq2 3y agoI think a sharp knife cutting a donut at an angle through the center is quite enough of a problem to imagine for most people! ;-)
- atoav 3y agoThis was just a contrived example, in reality I would A.) try to express the details using my hands or B.) Explain it more detailed (e.g. Imagine the donat is laying flat on the desk and we slice it sideways so we get two rings, we take half of it, ..." or best C.) Show a visualization (obviously the best option) Language is imprecise as you rightfully mentioned and mamy people will have similar problems to yours, which is why adding the context needed to have the picture is needed.
- barrysteve 3y agoOdd and surprising, I've never done that kind of imagining and now that you describe it in a relatable way, I found myself doing it. There is a natural instinct to return back to my normal way. Thank you for the insight!