Getting ready to learn, Essays (high school) of Business

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Lecture 1

Getting ready to learn

I. Characteristics of successful students

II. Understanding your learning styles

III. Understanding instructors’ teaching styles

IV. Meet instructors’ expectations

V. Career awareness

Outline

• Although there is no exact formula for success,

research indicates that some factors do lead to

success.

• Active learner : talk and listen, write, read, and reflect on (think about) what they are learning.
• Strategic learner : are students who view studying and learning as a systematic process that is, to a good degree, under their control.

I. Characteristics of successful students

(cont.)

• Writing summaries, taking notes, developing concept maps and study sheets, and writing out answers to predicted essay questions à help you organize and synthesize (combine the parts into a whole) the information as you learn it.
• Reflecting on the information helps you gain a deeper understanding of the material and form connections between the new information and your prior knowledge. à (^) Getting actively involved in your learning is the first step toward succeeding in college. You’ll learn many active learning strategies in this course.

1. Active learner (cont.)

• Weinstein’s model of strategic learning involves three main components: skill, will, and self-regulation. - Skill : strategic learners possess a wide variety of skills to aid their learning, which include knowledge about yourself as a learner, knowledge about different types of academic tasks, knowledge about strategies for learning, prior content knowledge, and knowledge about the contexts in which that knowledge could be useful. - Will: involves setting goals, selecting appropriate study strategies, and believing in your own ability and in the study strategies that you have chosen. In addition, strategic learners are motivated— they are willing to work hard to achieve their goals. - Self-regulation : They manage their time well, monitor their learning, evaluate the results of their effort, and approach learning in a systematic way.

2. Strategic learner

• Activity 2: Complete the questionnaire ‘What’s Your

Learning Style?’

• The questionnaire is taken from Course book 1 (Blerkkom, 2008, p.54).
• Task:
  • Complete the Learning Style Inventory in Figure 1.1A.
  • Then use the information in Figure 1.1B to determine your preferred learning style among the following three styles: auditory, visual and kinesthetic styles.

2. Three main learning styles

Activity 2 (cont.)

• Active learning strategies:

a. Auditory learner (cont.)

Read difficult passages out loud Teach materials to someone/something else Explain information out loud Discuss the text assignment or lecture material with a study partner/group Tape the lectures from your most difficult class & play them again when you commute or do household chores Cover the details in your lecture notes and recite from the headings Recite out loud the answers to questions appearing in the margin or on word & question cards Recite the main points at the end of every headed section of the text Create a taped self-test & recite the answers before listening to correct ones Explain the steps for solving math & science problems Create rhymes, poems & songs to recall information

• Learn best by seeing things.
  • Reading; looking at pictures, diagrams, and charts; and watching films, videos, and demonstrations are all ways to learn new information.
  • Probably understand the professor’s lecture better if reading the text chapter ahead of time.
  • Probably reread your text and lecture notes, rewrite your notes, take notes, and fill in study guides or make study sheets when preparing for exam.
  • During an exam, you may be able to “see” the correct answer in your mind’s eye. Have you ever closed your eyes and pictured the information on the textbook page, the chalkboard, or your study sheets?

b. Visual learner

• Learn best by doing things.
  • Prefer hands-on tasks that allow to touch and feel.
  • Many of the strategies used by visual and auditory learners also appeal to kinesthetic learners. E.g: - Mapping: Whereas the visual learner can recall the information from a concept map by seeing it, the kinesthetic learner will be able to remember it by the feel of how he or she created it. - Flash cards: Many auditory learners use flash cards to recite definitions or information about a topic. The kinesthetic learner also learns well from making up the flash cards as well as from the action of self-testing.
  • Learn well from doing experiments, taking self-tests, or replicating the tasks they will later have to perform in the testing situation.

c. Kinesthetic learner

• Active learning strategies:

c. Kinesthetic learner (cont.)

Take notes as you read the assignments Work problems Practice in study groups and review sessions Predict questions in the margin at the end of each headed section Create word, question, problem cards & practice them in groups of 10 or 15 Make up self-test in the same format as the actual test & take them Practice labelling diagrams, recreating maps, filling in charts to learn information for exams Construct diagrams, models, problem cards to practice math & science material Make up puzzles or games (e.g. Jeopardy or the Match game) to learn text & lecture material Develop acronyms & acrostics to recall information & practice using them Take end-of-chapter & online tests to prepare for exams

• Activity 3: Complete the questionnaire ‘Find out more

about how you learn best’

• The questionnaire is taken from Course book 1 (Blerkkom, 2008, p.58).
• Task:
  • Complete the quiz by yourself.
  • Compare and discuss your rankings with what you actually do most of the time (e.g. you may find study best in the morning but you do most of your learning in the evening à why?, efficiency of your learning then?, etc.).

3. Other characteristics of learning styles

• Activity
• Activity