Reflection On Self Learning Experiences
At the time I was 21 years old which classed me as a mature-aged student. After not having studied since I graduated high school in 2014 I felt nervous. There were a lot of study habits and writing skills that I had to re-learn and re-develop. In order to go to university, I had to make changes to my work life because I had to reduce my working hours in order to make time to attend classes and study. Throughout this essay I discuss myself as a learner and how I adapted to the above-mentioned changes in my life. I will explore how specific learning theories explain my experiences. Finally, I will then consider how my own experiences and specific learning theories relating to this can be applied in a classroom setting to cater for all types of learning diversities.
Development
Urie Bronfenbrenner suggested that the physical and social environments that people are a part of are ecosystems because of the interactions that they have with each other. This is called the bioecological model of development and is made up of five specific systems; ‘micro’, ‘meso’, ‘exo’, ‘macro’ and ‘chrono’. Each specific system is interdependent and is closely embedded within each other. Every individual person is a part of their own bioecological system that is constantly changing as they mature. Bronfenbrenner’s belief was that a person’s development is influenced by their immediate environment. When considering Bronfenbrenner’s biological model of development and then comparing it to my own personal circumstances, there were many systems in my life that were changing. My microsystem expanded as I became a part of a new educational institution which included making new friends, peers, teachers and mentors. Additionally, changing from working full time hours to part time hours meant that my mesosystem had changed. With all of these changes and expansions occurring, my macro system was expanding; in studying to become a teacher my overarching values were being strengthened. Finally, as I was embarking on a journey in my life and taking the first step towards a new career, my chronosystem was expanding.
Another theorist who’s work that I can relate this experience to is Albert Bandura. Bandura’s social cognitive theory focuses on how people develop emotionally, socially, cognitively and behaviourally. He suggested that the majority of learning occurs in social environments and is influenced by internal and external factors. Bandura identified the interaction between behaviour, personal factors and environment as triadic reciprocal causation. For myself, the personal factors that effected my learning were the high expectations that I held of myself in regards to academic achievement; I wanted to achieve a minimum mark of a credit for each subject in order to achieve a high grade point average (GPA). This in turn affected my behaviour in the classroom environment as I was focused in class so that I would be able to achieve the grades that I was striving for. Likewise, the lecturers also had high expectations of myself and my peers as they wanted everyone to succeed – this created an environment in which each student had the opportunity to achieve their goals. Reflecting on this I can see that all of these factors played a huge role in my successful transition into my undergraduate degree. As a result of this, I finished my first semester with the high GPA that I had wanted.
Intelligences and learning styles
Howard Gardner believed that there were numerous ways in which people learn. He identified eight intelligences which are referred to as Multiple Intelligences. Gardner (2017) says that his multiple intelligences theory “seeks to describe and encompass the range of human cognitive capacities. ” Most people will have a main prominent intelligence that they identify with however it is not limited to just one. When considering Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, I would identify my most prominent learning style as intrapersonal. People who are interpersonal learners have the “ability to accurately know themselves and how they learn”. I like to take the time to think about my thinking in relation to the specific topic that I am studying; this shows that that I am metacognitive in my work. In addition, when I am learning new things I tend to try and relate them to my own life. A weakness that I have identified with this is that if I have trouble relating a subject that I am learning to my own life, or if I cannot find relevance in the subject, I tend to struggle to stay engaged.
Socio-economic, cultural and gender factors
Mallam and Lee (2017) suggest that younger mature-aged students often struggle to fully participate in the university experience due to differing ages and life situations. In addition to this, they also tend to feel as though they are not “complete members of the university community”. Often this is because of their differing views and beliefs regarding higher education. As a younger mature-aged student myself, I can relate to these feelings. Because I had spent the previous three years working full time, I found that the majority of my younger peers had a very different work ethic to my own. I also felt that I had more life experience than a lot of them. Having said that, I also felt that I could not relate to the ‘older’ mature-aged students either as they were again, at very different stages of their lives: a lot of the ‘older’ mature-aged students had children and families that they had to provide for. As a result of these differences, there were many time that I had felt secluded. The majority of undergraduates who are studying education are female. I found that this was also the case within my own cohort at ACU. Due to this I did not find any struggles with gender differences. In fact, there were often times that I found that this was advantageous.
