Archive for the ‘Learning Skills Exercises’ Category
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Analysing an essay question
Learning Skills Exercise
Unit: SSK12
Week: 4 (in Week 6)
Date: 08 October 2009
Exercise: Exercise 24 – Analysing an essay questionActivity 1: The essay writing process
Your approach to essay questions
I have learnt in the unit so far that the steps I should take when analysing an essay topic is to establish the directive words, call out the key concepts, and define those concepts.
My first step is to writing out the essay topic on a piece of paper. Then I go through the process detailed above. I circle the directive words, underline the key concepts, and shade the required sources. After I have followed those steps, I define the key concepts using a dictionary.Your approach to essay writing
The pattern that is set out in the exercise to examine and define the question or topic, research it, draw up a plan, write a draft and write a final copy before submitting is exactly how I have been attacking my essays. Unfortunately, sometimes the time between draft and final copy is far too short for my likely. That is poor time management, not a reflection of the strategy set out. It is my personal opinion that this strategy is an effective one, and at this point in time I have no reason to find out if there is a better way.
Activity 2: Selecting a question
Essay 1 topic
Using the concept of a ‘world view’, identify some of the beliefs and attitudes, particularly to education and learning, that you bring to your learning now. Reflect critically on how your world view has been shaped by factors such as your gender, age or community. In your answer refer to Hobson (1996) and Samovar and Porter (2004) from the SSK12 Reader, and Chapter 1 in A Guide to Learning Independently (Marshall and Rowland, 2006, 1-18).Activity 3: Analysing a question
Content Questions
What is the question about?
The question is about my beliefs and attitudes particularly to education and learning that I bring to my learning now and how my worldview affects and supports those beliefs and attitudes. Secondly, it asks me to reflect on what influences have helped to create my worldview.What do I already know about the question?
I believe I have a reasonable handle on the concept of worldviews and obviously I know my own views on education and learning. It might be difficult for me to articulate my personal views. Additionally, I have researched the basic definitions of education and learning, as well as more in depth definitions of belief and attitude to establish their differences.What are the possible main points?
My own context
My own views on education and learning
How my worldview affects my views on education and learning
The importance of worldviews in shaping our understanding of the world
How beliefs and values change our view of education and learningArgument questions
What might my thesis or theme be?
In my response to this topic I will argue that worldviews are important to how we understand the world and therefore frame how we understand and value education and learning.Questions on approach
How might I structure my answer to the question?
I am to identify my beliefs and attitudes to education and learning
I am reflect critically on how my worldview has been shaped by my surroundingsWhat role might my personal opinion play in this assignment?
How will you acknowledge and examine you subjectivity?
The essence of this essay is to detail my own beliefs and attitudes, as well as my own worldview. The role of my personal opinion within this essay is an essential component.How much breadth or depth can this essay have?
The essay has a 1000 word limit and so it will need to be fairly limited in its breadth and depth. It will be particularly difficult for me to make a credible argument for the importance of worldviews on understanding how they affect our views on education and learning in the space of 1000 words.Activity 4: Initial analysis of the question
Write out your analysis
Identify your beliefs and attitudesActivity 5: Revised analysis of the question
For this question I didn’t feel much change was necessary, but I had a lot of preparation outside of this exercise. I can see that if I used this exercise to analyse an essay topic that the analysis might change from start to the finish.Reflection
I found this exercise very helpful for understanding a essay topic and planning out my response to the topic. Completing an exercise like this is very time consuming and illustrates why preparation and appropriate time management is very important. -
Planning your approach to study
Learning Skills Exercise
Unit: SSK12
Week: 1 (in Week 6)
Date: 07 October 2009
Exercise: Exercise 3 – Planning your approach to studyActivity 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. -
Understanding tutor’s expectations…
Learning Skills Exercise
Unit: SSK12
Week: 4 (in Week 6)
Date: 07 October 2009
Exercise: Exercise 22 – Understanding tutor’s expectations and your objectivesActivity 1: Expectations of university essays
What you think is expected
I believe my tutor’s expectation of me in this essay is to demonstrate learning I have acquired regarding worldviews in this unit; to demonstrate essay structure, including an introduction, thesis and conclusion; to demonstrate fluent, correctly structured and well-articulated prose; and finally, to demonstrate appropriate referencing.Differences in expectations
I made no reference in my expectations of a university essay to the relevance to the set topic; use of sources; and reasoned argument. These items are a given for me, because there is no point writing the essay if it’s not relevant to the set topic; doesn’t use the sources instructed and doesn’t adequately articulate its argument.
Activity 2: Your objectives for essay writing
My objectives in doing this essay are first and foremost to develop my essay writing skills. I look forward to the constructive criticism that I expect from my tutor in order to improve my essay writing ability. Secondly, I am excited by the challenge to successfully complete the essay according to the instructions. I must admit I am finding the topic more challenging than I had expected. It is stimulating for me to have to examine myself, and my understanding of the world and how they ultimately affect my beliefs and attitudes toward education and learning.Reflection
I want to say that this exercise was helpful for me, but I feel that it didn’t add anything new to what I have already learnt about essay writing and expectation of my tutor or myself. Maybe I am being too hard; maybe I didn’t put enough into it and consequently didn’t get enough out of it. It bothered me a little that the exercise referred to Exercise 21, but we don’t do that exercise until later in the course. I would have liked to have done the exercise beforehand, but I am a little pressed for time at the moment and couldn’t fit it in. -
Previewing edited books
Learning Skills Exercise
Unit: SSK12
Week: 1 (in Week 6)
Date: 07 October 2009
Exercise: Exercise 16 – Previewing edited booksActivity 1: Previewing the edited book
The title of the edited book:
A spectator’s guide to worldviews: Ten ways of understanding life
The book is clearly about worldviews. The word spectator suggests that it is an overview of ten different worldviews by which we might understand the world and life.
What might those ten worldviews be? And how does seeing world through their respective lenses change our understanding of life?The editor:
Simon Smart
The editor is unknown to me from the front cover. He is not someone I have come across before.
From the about the authors section (Smart 2007, 253) we learn that “Simon Smart taught History and English for ten years before moving to Vancouver for theological study. He is a full-time writer for Anglican Youthworks…”The date:
Published 2007
This is important because it shows how up to date the content should be. It also helps us contextualise its authors to what time and place they are writing from.Table of contents:
There is a table of contents, which indicates a very structured book, clearly laying out the ten themes (or worldviews) that are detailed by the various authors. Unfortunately all of the authors are unknown to me. It appears that all chapters have been compiled and published together.Preface, foreword or introduction:
There is an introduction written by the editor. Smart (2007, 5-17) details what a worldview is; briefly covers how they shape our understanding of life; provides a history of worldviews; and explains why he thinks it is important to think about worldviews, which indicates the purpose of the book. Another important feature of the book which contextualises its content is that it is written for a Christian audience and all its authors are Christian.Section or parts:
There is an introduction to each chapter, while there is no conclusion as such, each chapter is concluded by a small section subtitled “Contact and departure from Christianity”. Each chapter is accompanied by a selection of thought provoking questions.Conclusion:
There is no conclusion in the strictest sense of the word. The book is wrapped by an introducing narrative and a concluding narrative.Index:
There is no index for this book.The readings:
The readings have been put together especially for this publication. They are clearly targeted at a Christian audience. They have been written in a Basic English and an easy to understand style.Activity 2: An interesting reading
Utilitarianism
I chose this reading as my interesting reading because I know very little about it and so it interests me to find out more.
The essence of utilitarianism is expressed in the idea (Cameron 2007, 86), “I’ll do whatever it takes to make more happiness in the world”.
The utilitarian weighs the consequences of their decisions to determine what is right in that moment. What is right is what will produce happiness for the greatest number of people when all is weighed up.Activity 3: A familiar reading
The Christian worldview
I have selected this as my familiar reading because I am most intimate with this worldview. I was a Christian from the age of 13 years through to 28 years (it’s hard to say when period ended because it was a gradual process of dissolution and deconstruction). For many of my post high school years I have read many books of this type from a Christian perspective. Even one of my favourite philosophers, James Sire, is a Christian.Activity 4: A difficult reading
Feminism
Although I grew up in a family with 5 sisters and raised by my mother, who for most of my life was a single parent, and in a world that had already triumphantly overcome many of the birth pangs of the Women’s Liberation Movement, and although my own worldview is greatly influenced by many elements of the feminist movement. I chose this reading as a difficult reading because despite all that is written above I am not a woman and therefore I feel I am unable to wholly identify.
Feminism had two major waves. The first wave, which is considered a retroactive term, was just prior and leading up to WW1, its central campaign was female suffrage. The second wave came in the 1960’s, also known as the women’s liberation movement, the one I am more familiar with, “placed issues around sex, pregnancy and childbirth as crucial to the welfare of women. These issues were seen as important as the fight for equal rights and opportunities in the workforce” (Fisher and Smart 2007, 154-155).Activity 5: Reflection
I believe previewing books (especially ones required for study) is an extremely beneficial practice. I must admit I haven’t done much of this in the past, mostly I would read the back cover, flick through the pages and maybe reading some of its contents. It is rewarding and insightful to systematically preview the contents of a book. It gives you a far better understanding of the value of the book and it helps you to understand where to look in the book when you need to look something up.Smart, Simon. ed. 2007. A spectator’s guide to worldviews: Ten ways of understanding life. South Sydney: Blue Bottle Books.
Cameron, Andrew. 2007. Whatever it takes: Utilitarianism. In A spectator’s guide to worldviews: Ten ways of understanding life. ed. Simon Smart, 86. South Sydney: Blue Bottle Books.
Fisher, Mary and Michele Smart. 2007. Sleeping with the enemy: Feminism. In A spectator’s guide to worldviews: Ten ways of understanding life. ed. Simon Smart, 154-155. South Sydney: Blue Bottle Books.
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Transferring learning strengths…
Learning Skills Exercise
Unit: SSK12
Week: 1 (in Week 6)
Date: 06 October 2009
Exercise: Exercise 2 – Transferring learning strengths into university studyActivity 1: Previous learning experiences
I spend approximately 1/3 of my day at work so it should not be surprising that a lot of my learning is as a consequence of my employment. Since I started in I.T. and more recently in Project Management I have learnt a great deal. When I worked in Application Delivery (which is a team that repackages software for the company’s desktops) I developed the skill of fault diagnosis and resolution. This has given me a strong problem solving ability. My ability to be analytical and my attention to detail nicely to my work as a project consultant. In project management I have learnt how to plan, how to manage people and the situation at hand. I need to take information in; process it; determine the objectives and deliverables; set milestones; and establish any risks, their mitigants, and finally call out any risks to those who need to know.Activity 2: Conditions that enhance your learning
My personal experience is that I learn best in a positive environment where guidance is provided and I am surrounded by intelligent and experienced people to draw knowledge from.Activity 3: Your learning strengths
<Activity 3 summary goes here>
Activity 4: Gaps in your learning
Activity 5: Lifelong learning
Activity 6: Transferring reading skills
Reflection
It was good to do the quick preview exercise at the start of this exercise. It reinforced to me the importance of previewing text, especially in the context of tertiary study. Although it is not uncommon for me to preview my books by reading the back cover and index, I am reminded of the value of thoroughly reading the introduction in order to get a big picture understanding to the book.I never was a strong reader and even now, although I tend to read a lot of books, I don’t read them very fast. One of my biggest challenges is going to be whether I am able to improve my reading ability, especially in the area of reading rate variation. I may find it difficult to learn to read at any other rate than the snail’s pace I am used to.
<Write more…>
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Previewing a book
Learning Skills Exercise
Unit: SSK12
Week: 1
Date: 06 September 2009
Exercise: Exercise 15 – Previewing a bookActivity 1: Finding out what books are about
A Guide to Learning Independently
This book is design to help the student adjust to university learning. It gives technique that the student can you to be a successful independent leaner. Skills such as: reading; writing, including essay writing, learning by evaluation; etc…. The authors claim that the book isn’t just a collection of techniques, but rather the book helps the student discover who they are as a learner and encourages the readers to learn how the techniques can work for them.Marshall, L. & F. Rowland. 2006. A Guide To Learning Independently. 4th ed. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Education Australia
A Learning Companion
A Learning Companion is a learning guide design to help the student develop effective and efficient learning skills. It is a collection of exercises that the student can complete in order to foster life long learning skills that can hopefully used for the duration of their studies. Exercises cover such topics as: Learning how to learn; reading; and writing essays, amongst others. The book’s hope is to be a learners’ companion.Marshall, L. 2006. A Learning Companion: Your Guide To Practising Independent Learning. 4th ed. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Education Australia
In my attempt to get to know the two unit texts I read the back cover first, then I overviewed the table of contents, before quickly reading over the Preface or the Introduction. I found the back cover to summarise the book’s contents clearly and concisely. The table of contents also gives an excellent overall understanding of the information covered. If I had more time than 5 minutes to preview the books, the introduction would be the best part of the book to find the most information.
Activity 2: Previewing a book
No written entry required
Activity 3:
<Activity 3 summary goes here>
Activity 4: Reflection
It was good to do the quick preview exercise at the start of this exercise. It reinforced to me the importance of previewing text, especially in the context of tertiary study. Although it is not uncommon for me to preview my books by reading the back cover and index, I am reminded of the value of thoroughly reading the introduction in order to get a big picture understanding to the book.I never was a strong reader and even now, although I tend to read a lot of books, I don’t read them very fast. One of my biggest challenges is going to be whether I am able to improve my reading ability, especially in the area of reading rate variation. I may find it difficult to learn to read at any other rate than the snail’s pace I am used to.
<Write more…>
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Skills Sample
Learning Skills Exercise
Unit: <Unit Code>
Week: <Week Number>
Date: <Date>
Exercise: <Exercise Name><Activity>
<Activity description, application and reflection>Reflection
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