THE PROCESS OF ASSIMILATION
Until very recently, little or no attention was given to a pupil's rate of acquiring or assimilating tutorial information at school or any other learning environment. Previously, educational planners, especially curriculum planners, hardly gave much attention to the pupils' assimilatory abilities, other than mapping out their anticipated levels/grades of attainment at specific ages.
However, with recent revelations through research works, education psychologists have come to recognize that the two major avenues for assimilating tutorial or any mundane information are the human ears and eyes.
Furthermore, it was discovered that a variant exists between the rates at which such information are taken in through these two channels, and that majority of people fall into either of these two categories, while only a small fraction have equal capabilities of assimilating facts with both organs.
In other words, in most cases, a pupil is either "eye-minded" or "ear-minded" when it comes to learning, while a few, usually those who cannot easily identify their basic types, come within the cycle of 50-50 assessment rates; those that could assimilate information by hearing or reading, at the same rate.


The implications:
Given a situation where a student who is "ear minded", one who learns faster and better and retains more information through hearing than reading, spends more time with his books, both at home and in the library, while giving less time to classroom instructions or group/team activities, might, regrettably, find it difficult to retain or recollect a larger part of what he/she had learnt through reading.

We often come across this type of situation when a student's hobby is reading. But reading as a hobby and reading for the purpose of learning are two different activities.
While the former requires little or no efforts at assimilating or retaining factual information, but mere passive attention, the later calls for concerted efforts at assimilating, retaining and reproducing the factual details being imbibed.
To re-adjust, the pupil would need to be encouraged to do less private reading and attend more classes, indulge in group discussions, and listen to audio-versions of lesson notes and video practicals. Fortunately, this is made possible today with the advent of digital science and the Internet.

The reverse holds for a pupil that is "eye-minded".

Those in this group usually find it easier to understand faster what they read from texts, than through oral instructions; they hardly attend classes, yet they often perform better than some of their mates that spent more time in classroom works. This group would be better off reading more in libraries and in private settings, if given the right direction.

A NOTE OF WARNING

It is not intended or implied that a student that is "eye-minded" should stay off classroom activities neither should the one that is “ear-minded” do no reading aside from attending classes.
On the contrary, what was implied in both scenarios is for those finding themselves in these two categories to carefully plan their study/learning schedules, including extra-curricular activities, to be in tune with their Basic Learning Types (BLT).
Thus, given a situation where two pupils, Peter and James have different basic learning types, where Peter tends to appraise and assimilate information more rapidly from listening to spoken words or sounds, and James does same better by visual perceptions, both will still have to attend classes on regular basis, but during free periods or prep sessions, both would do better to indulge in activities that tallies more with their respective BLTs.
Going by the above example, a student in Peter's situation should be advised to engage more in group sessions at free periods, while those in James' position should visit the library or other reading locations.
All this calls for careful planning with the help and cooperation of parents, teachers and close associates.
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