Using 4MAT
Instructional Model
PCC
Community Education Center
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
4MAT is based on research from:
•Education
•Psychology
•Neurology
•Management
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
•The purpose 4MAT is a simple and potent
instructional model for designing and
facilitating adult learning in schools.
•The 4MAT method is
especially effective for
increasing learner
motivation, retention,
application, and extension of learning.
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
The purpose of 4MAT is for :
•More dialogue, less monologue
•More interactive exchange of
information than just giving
information
•Greater appreciation for diversity as a
positive outcome to enhance learning
•A deeper sense of responsibility for student
motivation
•A new urgency for creating curiosity and
interest
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
Inherent in the 4MAT system are two
premises :
•People have major learning
styles and hemispheric
(right-mode/left-mode)
processing preferences
•Using multiple instructional strategies to
teach these preferences can improve
teaching and learning
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
Differences in our learning styles
depend on many things :
•Who we are
•Where we are
•How we see ourselves
•What we pay attention to
•What people expect and ask of us
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
David Kolb (1976, 1984, 1985) described two
major differences in how people learn:
•How they perceive
•How they process
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
How people perceive
•Some people respond by sensing and feeling their
way
•Others think things through
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
Those that respond by sensing and feeling:
•Project themselves into the reality of now
•They attend to the actual experience itself
•They immerse themselves directly
•They perceive through their senses
•They intuit
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
Those that think things through:
•Attend to more abstract dimensions of reality
•They analyze what is happening
•Their intellect makes the first appraisal
•They reason
•They approach things logically
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
Those that respond by sensing and feeling
&
Those that think things through
•Every person needs both for the fullest possible
understanding of experiences
•Perception alone does not equal learning
•You also learn by processing information
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
How people process:
•Some people are watchers first
•Some people are doers first
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
Watchers:
•Reflect on new things
•Filter them through their own
experiences to create meaning in a slow,
deliberate way
Doers:
•Act on new information immediately
•They reflect on it only after they have
acted on it
•They need to do it in order to make it theirs
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
Sensing/Feeling
Dynamic
Learners
Doing
Imaginative
Learners
4
1
3
Common Sense
Learners
2
Watching
Analytical
Learners
Thinking
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
Left Brain:
Right Brain:
Analytical
Global
Rational
Visual
Verbal
Holistic
Common Sense
Learners
Dynamic
Learners
Analytical
Learners
Imaginative
Learners
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
Comfort Zones
&
Stretch Zones
Left Brain:
Right Brain:
Analytical
Global
Rational
Visual
Verbal
Holistic
Common Sense
Learners
Dynamic
Learners
Analytical
Learners
Imaginative
Learners
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
Imaginatively Learners:
•Perceive information concretely
•Process information reflectively
•Believe in their own experiences
•Work for harmony
•Need to be personally involved
•Seek commitment form others
•Are interested in people and culture
•Because they see all sides, often have difficulty making decisions
•They school to fragmented and disconnected from personal issues
•Struggle to connect the content of school with their need to grow
and understand the world
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
Analytic Learners:
•Perceive information abstractly
•Process information reflectively
•Devise theories by integrating their observations
into what they know
•They learn by thinking things through
•They need to know what the experts think
•They use sequential thinking
•They need details, and are thorough and industrious
•They enjoy traditional classrooms and find ideas fascinating
•Sometimes they enjoy ideas more than people
•They are highly skilled verbally and are avid readers
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
Common Sense Learners:
•Perceive information abstractly
•Process information actively
•Integrate theory and practice into common sense
•They believe if something works, then use it
•Down to earth problems solvers
•They resent being given answers
•They value strategic thinking
•They like to experiment and tinker because they need to know how
things work
•They edit reality and cut right to the heart of things
•They find school frustrating because they want to work on real
problems
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
Dynamic Learners:
•Perceive information concretely
•Process information actively
•They learn by trial and error
•Enthusiastic about new things and like change
•Excel when flexibility is needed
•Reach accurate conclusions in the absence of logical justification
•Are risk takers and at ease with people
•Often seen as pushy and manipulative
•Like to influence
•School to them is often tedious and overly sequential
Faculty Development Workshop
4MAT Origins
Imaginatively Learners:
•Emphasis is on PERSONAL MEANING (Why?)
Analytic Learners:
•Emphasis is on CONTENT (What?)
Common Sense Learners:
•Emphasis is on USEFULNESS (How?)
Dynamic Learners:
•Emphasis is on CREATIVITY (If!)
These four create a complete development cycle for teaching
and learning
Faculty Development Workshop
8 Steps to 4MAT
Progressive Steps for Learning:
•Step 1: Create an Experience: Link the concept to the individuals
in a personal and meaningful way. Include sharing personal
reflections and autobiographical information, brainstorming,
listening, speaking, mind mapping, drawing, interacting, idea
generating, and role play.
•Step 2: Reflect on the Experience: Ask learners to think about the
experience and share it with others. Create and reinforce the
meaning that brings real understanding and the reason to learn.
•Step 3: Integrate the Observations into Concepts: Synthesize the
reflections from the previous personal experience into a visual or
poetic image or feeling that links the personal experience to the
concept under study. Include seeing relationships and
connections; patterning; creating analogs, metaphors, and nonverbal or spatial representations; discussing.
Faculty Development Workshop
8 Steps to 4MAT
Progressive Steps for Learning:
•Step 4: Developing Theories and Concepts: Give learners
conceptual and factual information from experts. Present
information in an organized, sequential fashion, moving from parts
to the whole. This is the traditional instructional presentation
format of public schools.
•Step 5: Using Information Practically: Learners practice using the
information to see "how it works" in the real world. Include
exploring, manipulating, applying the facts and concepts, field and
lab work, adapting knowledge to personal use, demonstrations,
worksheets, puzzles, diagrams, computer experiments,
conversations with peers and instructors.
Faculty Development Workshop
8 Steps to 4MAT
Progressive Steps for Learning:
•Step 6: Integrating Material with Self: The learners add something
of themselves by extending what is learned through their own
project choices and individualizing their own experimentation.
Learners begin integrating the information with themselves to
evolve a personal synthesis. The learner can choose to work
cooperatively on a team or alone and share resulting products
later.
•Step 7: Analyzing for Usefulness or Application: The learner
moves beyond simple practice and reinforcement and uses the
information in a creative way. This includes editing (revising,
refining); assessing quality of evidence; synthesizing original
performances; analyzing what they have planned as their "proof"
of learning based on relevance to content, originality, and
excellence; preparing and presenting exhibitions and publications,
taking a position, coming to closure.
Faculty Development Workshop
8 Steps to 4MAT
Progressive Steps for Learning:
•Step 8: Integrating Application and Experience: The learners
present or perform the original example of their learning, sharing it
with others in a meaningful way. This is also the time to celebrate
the learners' accomplishments.
Faculty Development Workshop