How Do You Learn Best?

How Do You Learn Best?

by Alice Macpherson -
Number of replies: 4

(This is a beginning prompt with the objective of surfacing personal preferences and sharing points of view without needing to analyze anyone else's ideas. A "Get to Know Ya" that focuses on the topic of learning.)

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Think back to one of your best learning experiences. This can be recent or far in the past, your choice. A situation where you learned something very well (and not necessarily what you were supposed to learn). What was the best part of the learning for you? What helped you learn? Who helped you learn.

If you can't think of a good learning experience, pick the most terrible one that you are willing to share. Identify what you would prefer to have happen in that situation. What did you need that didn't happen?

Post a short thumbnail of the situation (one or two sentences) and then describe the best part of your learning and/or what you needed from the situation to help you learn.

You will not need to respond to anyone else at this time.
We will aggregate our collective "best learning" and use this for further analysis and expansion as the course progresses.

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AliceMac

In reply to Alice Macpherson

Re: How Do You Learn Best?

by Susan Glynn-Morris -

Alice - I like the use of a personal experience and the option to choose their best OR worst example (it can be hard to participate if you can't think of a good example). I also like that you will collaborate on a collective list. 

I was involved in a discussion forum once where, after individually listing elements that contributed to a positive learning experience, we worked in small groups to come up with a short list of what we agreed were the most important elements. The act of narrowing the list and coming to agreement on a limited list forced us to discuss/debate our choices, which I found valuable.

In reply to Susan Glynn-Morris

Re: How Do You Learn Best?

by Alice Macpherson -

"The act of narrowing the list and coming to agreement on a limited list forced us to discuss/debate our choices, which I found valuable."

Great idea for another prompt on narrowing lists - Thank You! <grin>

In reply to Alice Macpherson

Take 2: How Do You Learn Best?

by Alice Macpherson -
Thanks you for your comments and suggestions.

Edited Prompt
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Think back to one of your best learning experiences. This can be recent or far in the past, your choice. A situation where you learned something very well (and not necessarily what you were supposed to learn).

What was the best part of the learning for you? What helped you learn? Who helped you learn.

If you can't think of a good learning experience, pick the most terrible one that you are willing to share. Identify what you would prefer to have happened in that situation. What did you need that didn't happen?

Create a short description of the situation (one or two sentences) and then describe the best part of your learning and/or what you needed from the situation to help you learn.

You will post this in the Q & A forum. Once you have posted you will be able to see what others have posted. You do not need to respond to anyone else at this time. 

We will aggregate our collective "best learning" and use this for further analysis and expansion as the course progresses.

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In reply to Alice Macpherson

Re: Take 2: How Do You Learn Best?

by Leonne Beebe -

Alice,

Your prompt reminds me of a presentation given by Rita Smilkstein who wrote "We are born to learn" about brain-based learning (early 2000s). She totally changed how I teach students. She used a very similar prompt to get students to start thinking about how they were already successful learners. I have done this activity in my F2F classes with a lot of input from the students. Thank you for reminding me to start doing it again.

The fact that students do not have to respond to someone's personal story allows for the acceptance of the story without judging anything about it.  Following this up with a group activity to collect the successful learning strategies helps to bring the success or failure stories together in a positive way.

Out of confusion comes clarity.

Leonne