My Learning Journey in Higher Education
Since starting university I have reflected on my learning and developed as a learner. I know that I am a driven, self-motivated, determined and organised learner. I also know that I put a lot of pressure on myself to do everything to the best of my ability. The biggest thing I have learnt about myself as a learner is that I can relax into my learning and put a little less pressure on myself and to remember that I sometimes don’t need to get things done straight away, or to understand new things as soon as they are introduced to me. Which used to annoy me greatly, and still does but its more rare now! Also have also learnt that I enjoy and work well in a group and it is very beneficial to my learning. When it comes to learning something new I can also get very frustrated at myself if I don’t understand. This can make me panic. The strategy I use to help is- taking as many notes as I can and looking at them later when my head is clear and less busy. I find that this really helps and nine times out of ten if I didn’t understand it the first time, when I revisit it I can. I feel I am a resilient learner, for example if I didn’t have the best lesson or learning experience, I will to go back or revisit it with a positive outlook.
On this page I am going to be reflecting on myself as a learner in higher education. I will also be reflecting on my strengths and areas for development, what I have learnt through the Life long learning as a professional in a digital age module and how I will make use of my strengths and further develop them. |
Group WorkSince starting my course I have worked in groups more often and have found that there are many positives about working in groups. Such as, sharing ideas, challenging your own assumptions, shared workload and shared responsibility. Although there are many positives to working in groups there is also challenges, the challenges that I have identified are, one member not working as hard as others and members of the group not communicating well with other members . We were able to over come these challenges by talking about the responsibilities of everyone in the group, sharing the workload and tasks, and using Facebook to keep in contact and communicate with each other. In future group work situations I will suggest using these solutions as they were effective. I feel that group work has been very beneficial to my learning. In our Learning Network Group we created this Wiki.
Personal GoalsI feel I am good at setting myself goals and challenging myself to achieve the best I can. I set myself small goals daily and say to myself for example "When I get home from uni today I am going to do three of the non-contact tasks." I also set myself long term goals at the beginning of the year and write them down to refer back to for example the goals I set myself for this year were to pass my driving test, get three distinctions at college and get into uni. All of which I have achieved through setting myself the small short term goals to achieve the bigger long term goal. I am going to continue to do this throughout my time at university as it is a tool I feel is useful and works well.
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OrganisationIn the past I haven't been as organised as I am now. I feel since starting my course I have become more organised and I am able to prioritise my time more efficiently. I have done this through using a diary which I put all of my lectures into in advance, making "to-do" lists, labeling all of my folders, using dividers and having a designated space for me to keep all of my university work. I felt my organisation skills were essential to develop to get into good habits and create effective ways of organising and managing myself. These are skills that I can later transfer into a classroom environment.
This table shows examples of my short and long term goals. |
Critical ReadingI find critical reading quite challenging and as there is a lot of reading involved in my course I feel this is an area I need to develop. This is a useful to develop as it will help me engage fully in the reading and alow me to create an indepth undertsanding. I have researched how to be a good critical reader and created a Prezi with tips explaining how to be a good critical reader. I will use these tips during my course to further engage, analyse and reflect on the reading and to develop my skills in critical reading.
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Developing My Teacher Voice
Although I have had some experiences in school working with children I feel that my teacher voice is something that I need to develop. I have identified several things I need to work on, I have created an Audioboo explaining practial soloutions to develop my teacher voice.
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Contexts in Which Personal Learning Takes PlaceLearning takes place in a variety of different situations, places and with different people. In my Learning Network group we came up with the things that were most relevant to us and then created this video.
To create the video we took photos on an iPhone at each different stage and put them together using iMovie on iPhone which enabled us to edit the photos and add music. Through doing this we were able to recognise in which context we learn best. Now I can use this information in the future to maximise my learning and make informed decisions when deciding on contexts and places in which I work, for example when doing non-contact tasks. |