• Planning your approach to study

    Date: 2009.10.07 | Category: Learning Skills Exercises, Unit SSK12 | Tags: ,

    Learning Skills Exercise
    Unit:     SSK12
    Week: 1 (in Week 6)
    Date: 07 October 2009
    Exercise: Exercise 3 – Planning your approach to study

    Activity 1: Previous formal learning experiences
    It is difficult for me to think back and remember any skills that I might have developed while I was in school. I spent the nearly the entirety of high school mucking up or simply sitting in class to pass the time. There was no where else to go. I could have done an apprenticeship, but at the time I didn’t want to work. It was easy to stay at school and play the fool. I must have used some skills. What I remember of elementary and secondary school is that the curriculum is taught at you. The teacher teaches you directly; you are lead by hand. Thinking critically about what you are taught is less important than writing what has been written on the board. Well, at least that is how it was in my classes. Maybe that is why I never really enjoyed school. Only partly, I was still lazy and teaching methods probably wouldn’t have changed that. Upon deeper reflection I am still struggling to thinking of any skills that I should have been doing that I was any good at. I used to write notes verbatim and I was too slow to write it from the board, so I used to copy the guy next to me. I wasn’t a strong reader. My essay skills were lacking. I never completed my assignments, I didn’t even hand them in late, I just didn’t do them.

    Activity 2: Preview your unit study guide
    The expectations of this unit is that by the end I will have identified myself as an independent learner, I will have learnt to situate that independent learner in the university culture and in the process I will have developed fundamental learning skills, like effective reading, essay writing, efficient note taking, how to learning from discussions, etc.

    Activity 3: What is expected in your unit

    No written entry required.

    Activity 4: Skills you need for effective learning
    University learning is vastly different from learning in high school. The responsibility to learn is place squarely on the learner. The lecturers and tutors are provided by the university to guide and teach, but not by the hand, not spoon-feed. The learner will truly only get out of it what they put into it and through determined application. Skills that will be important for effective learner will include reading at rates that are appropriate for the application, taking relevant notes in lectures, learning from group discussion, knowing where to research to gain information on a topic, etc.

    Activity 5: Planning your study for the next few weeks

    No written entry required.

    Activity 6: Questions for your tutor
    The focus of this unit is me and the other students. Much of the first module is about our respective worldviews and how they affect the way we understand and value education and learning. I am interested to know what my tutor’s worldview is and how she understands the world and the self?

    Reflection
    It was extremely difficult for me to find anything useful to write about my early schooling. Despite being relatively self-aware I find it quite difficult to write about myself. I can write at length about others, but I hit a road block when it come to writing about my own issues, desires, shortcomings and strengths. I can see that this is going to make things a little more difficult in this unit.