PERSONAL LEARNING STYLEWho would have ever thought taking a college course would require one to learn how to learn? It is a good concept we normally undergo at a very young age. At the pre-school age one will find children learning their strength and weakness through their playtime. As adults we almost forget we have to learn how to learn to continue growth in our workplace, school, and in life. In our second week of online classes I learned strengths and weakness in my learning style with the aid of learning assessments, personality spectrums, and time management logs. In this paper, I intend to describe the various components of my learning style and outline a plan to improve my time management and study skills.
A big component of my learning style is hands-on experience; learning while doing. This usually involved someone with more experience instructing me as I performed the task. Through the hands-on approach, I picked-up the knowledge and gained proficiency as I went along. My learning style also involved standard classroom instruction, which usually meant listening to lectures and taking notes. My note taking was not the best so in order to make up for what I lacked in note taking, I would read the textbooks repeatedly until I understood what I was reading. I learned that in order for me to get a complete understanding from my readings and notes, there had to be a lot great deal of repetition through study. I started to get creative using repetition as a way of learning, and found myself take notes and typing them into a word document; with the hope that the material would sink in. Sometimes retyping my notes worked and sometimes it was just a waste of time I could have used doing other things.
Managing my time has been something that I have been able to do throughout my time in the military. Making the best use of my time by analyzing my use of time is what I am learning from our experience with our time-management logs. After reviewing my time management logs I saw clearly I needed to spend more time on school at home where I can have an ideal setting for learning. With the remaining three weeks of class, I plan to make good use of the free time I have at home for the required reading and work on assignments for the class. Study time at home will consist of me moving to another room that is quiet and informing my family of the time I plan to spend learning without interruptions. Presently I have time at work where I can login to class and read the postings and complete some of the reading. I intend to allow myself more free time in the morning, and complete more reading at home, study more of the reading and place more emphasis on the homework assignments.
Learning from the assessments I completed this week I, I plan to build on my moderately developed skills and my underdeveloped skills. Increasing areas such as my Body-Kinesthetic, will more than likely enable me to be a better reader. These assessments not only describe the personality you have or you thought you had, they also provide helpful tips on study techniques. After learning from the assessment that I was an organizer and a thinker, I read the descriptions and was a little shocked at how close they hit the mark. I plan to use my organizer abilities during my studying of the reading material. In this area I intend to set aside one hour of reading time after returning home from work. During this time I will highlight areas that are unclear and at a later time, come back to those areas and go over the material again.
Leaning how to learn during week two has been an eye opener. In all my training, schooling, professional academies, and conferences, I cannot remember one time in which I was taught how to learn from my on learning experiences. Everyone should understand that learning is not a process in which information is fed to us; knowledge will not just fall into our heads without any effort. The effort required of me is to learn what skills I already have and build upon them. In order for me to succeed in this class, or life in general I have to understand that learning is a process that requires me to learn about myself so that I can learn to the best of my ability.
