321 – 4.2 The Personal Development Journal

This is a reflective post as it relates to my Learning Styles class. We are using the Strenght, Improvement, Insight model. (Beyerlein & Apple, 2005)

Strength – Describe the strongest learning experience(s) you had thus far and why it/they were important to you.

I have very much appreciated creating and participating in the blogs in this course. The interaction is much less formal and allows for a more true representation of thoughts and feelings on particular topics. It allows for informal conversation and reflection on topics of interest.

Improvement – Reflect on how you could improve your learning in the future.

As I went through the Learning Styles course, I found out much about myself in terms of how I learn and some different applications to help me develop the skills to improve my learning process in the future. As indicated by my Memletics learning styles scores, I can use my strengths in logical, kinesthetic, visual and interpersonal learning preference to bolster my comprehension of the topics. I can also work on weaknesses by combining a weakness with a strength. For example, I might use my visual strength to enhance my linguistic weakness by using tools such as Wordle.net or Inspiration.

Insight – What new discoveries/understanding did you get in the learning process? How will you apply it to what you are doing in your daily professional or personal life?

Sean Peck’s blog, “My Thoughts on Adult Learning,” really sparked an element in terms of how I can review my preparations for workshops I do in the future. His statement, “we provide a service and we should strive to have people want our service,” made me think about how I could organize and “advertise” my workshops differently and force myself to think about using a balance of learning styles throughout the day. Not every learning opportunity or topic lends itself well to all learning styles but having a mix and balance would engage more students in the learning process.

The other discovery I had while blogging with other students was that to really learn, I feel you need to put yourself out there and be willing to make mistakes. It is too easy to try and “mediate” a blog post to make it just perfect when really you just want an honest conversation. I believe this, too, needs a balance in terms of being able to effectively disagree with or have a debate and still have a sense of professionalism and still honor the other individual’s accomplishments and views. I believe this is a skill every good teacher/facilitator needs in terms of questioning views and opinions and still having a trusting learning environment for the students.