What is the 4MAT Model?

To Perceive & Process


The 4MAT model awakens our understanding of how we learn.
We learn by perceiving new information then processing it to make it ours. Perceiving and processing are the two fundamental dimensions of the 4MAT model.


What does it mean to "perceive" new information?

Perceiving is the way in which we take in new information as an interplay between experience and conceptualization.
For example, if we taste a new type of fruit, we'll experience it through taste, how it makes us feel, its texture, and what it reminds us of. The experience is then translated into conceptual thoughts and ideas, such as, "sweet and sour," and how it may belong in the same plant family as apples!

Experiencing / Feeling

The experience is feeling by personal engagement–sensations, emotions, physical memories. It is the immediate; the self. Being in it.
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Conceptualizing / Thinking

Conceptualization is thinking and the translation of experience in conceptual forms–ideas, language, hierarchies, naming systems. It's an abstract approach to learning. Being apart from it.

What does it mean to "process" new information?

Processing is what we do with the new information we perceive and is achieved between the continuum of reflection and action.

Acting / Doing

Action is the application of ideas to the external world; testing, doing, manipulating.

Reflecting / Watching

Reflection is the transforming of knowledge by structuring, ordering, intellectualizing.
For example, in order to learn how to ride a bicycle, we watch how others do it and play it through in our minds by reflecting on it. And we must get out there and try it out through action and testing in order to become competent.

What's the relationship between perceiving and processing?

The 4MAT model is the overlay of the two dimensions of perceiving and processing. They are the two primary actions that define learning.
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While we all engage in all four ends of the two dimensions, we have different preferences in where we feel most comfortable along the two axes. These preferences determine our learning styles.
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