Vast majority of Teachers Say Visual Learning Boosts Student Engagement

Whiteboard paint is the ultimate tool for creating visuals in the classroom. Teachers around the globe regard visual learning as a valuable way to improve student comprehension and class involvement. Educators appreciate the ability of graphics to make concepts easier to understand. Visuals are also easily adapted to students’ diverse learning styles, skill sets, and cultural backgrounds. Moreover, many teachers believe visuals support better student retention and interest in learning. 

Recent research on students’ ability to retain information and its ties to visual learning shows that visual aids boost knowledge acquisition by up to 400%. Studies also reveal that teaching with visual learning aids is 83% more effective than teaching with text alone. Such findings may well affect how teachers around the world function to boost students’ focus and participation during lessons.

Dual coding is the key

The dual coding phenomenon helps explain why visual learning has exceptional power to enhance students’ understanding and engagement. In dual coding, data is processed and stored in both the verbal and visual parts of the brain, thus boosting learning and memory. Consequently, learners more easily encode information when it’s presented in the form of both words and images. Psychological studies show that dual coding is among the most effective ways to help learners recall lesson content over time. Students’ learning efficiency improves when they simultaneously use their listening, reading, and visual skills in the classroom.

Research and theories on memory also state that students are much more able to retain “richly encoded” bits of information. Multi-modal instruction involving imagery, text, and speech is a way to encode lesson content richly. So, when it comes to lesson material, learners should hear it, see it, read about it, and discuss it.

Walls coated with whiteboard paint are great for applying this approach. While presenting lessons verbally, teachers can simultaneously write and draw on their whiteboard walls. Then, when they deliver all the lesson content, students can come up to the front to discuss it in small groups while writing comments on the whiteboard wall.

Visual Teaching Methods Appeal to Today’s Digital Native Students

Today’s students are known as “digital natives. “Having grown up with smartphones, social media, and online videos, they are known as “digital natives.” Due to the simplicity and convenience of accessing cutting-edge technology and resources, students’ learning preferences nowadays are unlike those of earlier generations. For example, members of Generation Z, born from 1995 to 2010, are highly visual in the way they learn. In fact, approximately 60% of students from this age group say that browsing YouTube is their favorite way to gain information.

In addition, Gen Z students place a high value on interactive lesson content. As digital natives, they grew up at the forefront of the educational technology boom. Thus, tools like smart boards and computer software are essential parts of their schooling. For Gen Z, hands-on, visual, interactive educational materials and methods are the norm.

Therefore, whiteboard-painted walls are ideal teaching tools for effectively addressing digital natives’ learning needs. They are both highly visual and highly interactive. So, educators can readily integrate whiteboard walls into their teaching strategies with Gen Z students. In this way, they implement the visual, interactive learning approaches that digital natives prefer. Moreover, the broad surfaces of whiteboard walls offer handy platforms for creating lesson plans, tracking students’ progress, and encouraging group collaboration.

Walls coated with whiteboard paint help meet the needs of digital native students, who thrive on interaction, immediate rewards, and visually exciting materials. Although non-digital by nature, whiteboard walls still have an appeal for digital natives. They can provide a refreshing break from their constant use of electronic devices throughout the day. When learners get the chance to express their ideas with dry erase markers on a whiteboard wall, there’s no limit to what they might come up with.

Multi-modal learning is essential

Using wide-ranging teaching strategies and making education as engaging as possible are the best approaches for today’s digital native learners. When educators integrate whiteboard painted walls into their instruction, they can target multiple senses in diverse ways. Doing so creates the best possible conditions in which digital natives learn.

Installing whiteboard paint also aligns with the current trend of educators seeking to upgrade their teaching methods by using visuals and more engaging content. As animation software marketer Ashden Walker says, “We are teaching a generation that has grown up online and it doesn’t make sense to continue with archaic teaching methods from decades past.” Generation Z students’ great fondness for platforms such as Snapchat and TikTok shows they’re deeply involved with visual, short-form entertainment. And this should be reflected in today’s classroom teaching.

Using whiteboard walls during lessons addresses Gen Z’s preferred type of learning. When they create visuals on a whiteboard wall, they engage in lesson content only for as long as needed and then move on to new material. Whiteboard walls also foster intense engagement, as the act of drawing fires up the brain.

Drawing positively affects brain activity by boosting memory, arousing creativity, reducing stress, and improving a wide range of cognitive functions. It engages several brain regions and bolsters neural pathways, leading to increased gray matter growth and improved brain fitness. 

Active and Experiential Learning

.Generation Z students prefer learning by doing, by vigorously interacting in group discussions, and by working together with their peers on class projects. They blossom through hands-on, concrete learning experiences, and enjoy applying the knowledge they gain in class to life in the real world. 

Whiteboard painted walls provide ideal platforms for such a dynamic learning style. The walls’ vast, unrestricted surfaces are great for use in whole-class or small group discussions. This approach appeals to Gen Z students, who greatly value collaboration in their educational experience. Although they pride themselves on being self-reliant, they also appreciate the value of collaboration.

A recent survey of Gen Z students found that 80% preferred to study with friends, saying that it makes the experience more pleasurable. With today’s sophisticated technology, collaboration goes beyond such in-person sessions. In the same survey, 40% of students said they study with their peers both face-to-face and online.

Teachers can complement this practice by having students prepare for collaborative class projects on whiteboard painted walls. Planning teacher-assigned projects is effortless when Gen Zers have free access to whiteboard walls. Creating visuals on the walls to clarify their projects’ key aspects can go a long way toward bringing their efforts to fruition. After the visuals are completed to everyone’s satisfaction, students can photograph them for personal reference and for sharing online.

A break from daily digital immersion

Gen Z students are continually connected to the world through digital media and are accustomed to always having information at their fingertips. Like Gen Alphas, who were born between 2010 and 2024, they flourish when engaged with visual content, short-form videos, and interactive activities. Their attention spans tend to be short, but their skill at steering their way through the digital world is unmatched.

These qualities can be easily complemented in the classroom through the use of walls coated with whiteboard paint. Since Gen Z and Gen Alpha students are in love with visuals, they deal with data more successfully through images, videos, infographics, and interactive simulations. For his reason, they may view traditional text-oriented learning methods to be overpowering or uninteresting in the classroom setting.

This is where whiteboard painted walls come into play. The chance to use the uncomplicated analog medium of a whiteboard wall can offer digital native students a refreshing new, non-textual way to learn. Free-form drawing and doodling on a wall can appeal to their infatuation with the visual. It can give them a break from the constant barrage of digital data they get from laptops, smartphones, and tablets.

In fact, many digital natives enjoy drawing and expressing themselves through the visual arts. This is especially true now in the social media age when Gen Zers and Gen Alphas can display their work and effortlessly hook up with their peers through the internet. 

In view of its many potential benefits for today’s students, installing whiteboard paint in the classroom is a winning proposition for everyone involved.

Summary

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Vast majority of Teachers Say Visual Learning via Whiteboard Paint Boosts Student Engagement

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Discover how whiteboard paint supports visual learning—boosting student engagement, according to most teachers nationwide

Author

Susan Anspach

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ReMARKable Whiteboard Paint

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