Learning Style

Learning Style: Self-Assessment

For each course, your instructor sets learning objectives and skills that they expect you to gain over the course of the semester.  

Most college level courses expect you to know basic course information (REMEMBER previously learned information), and to take it a step further by demonstrating that you UNDERSTAND the information, and can APPLY, ANALYZE and CREATE.   

Most introductory courses (100/200) focus more on lower order thinking skills (Understand, Apply), while more advanced courses (300/400 – those in your major!) will focus on higher order thinking skills (Analyze, Evaluate, Create): Bloom's Taxonomy

Image retrieved from: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/ 

To help you best accomplish the learning objectives for each course, this assignment is designed to help you evaluate your study habits.

Instructions:

Answer the questions below and submit your answers through the link provided in Blackboard.  

STEP 1: EVALUATE YOUR STUDY HABITS

  1. Describe your current methods of study. How do you study for each class?  

~My current methods of studying for each class are very similar. For certain subjects that require memorization, I use flashcards. I also write what I know before studying, the use flashcards to study, and then write everything I know after I have studied. 

  1. What specific techniques do you use in class?  When I am in class, I make sure to have a very organized notebook. I write the date at the top of the page so I can know when I learned specific things. For every concept or event, I will use headers to label. I also write with colored pens, so I will change colors of my pen so I can differentiate topics, the notes will pop more, it will not look as bland, and it is easier to locate things. If something seems to be a very important concept, I will put a sticky note by it and write things on the sticky note. 
  2. What specific techniques do you use outside of class?  

~When I finish up after a class, I like to review what we learned that day and I would re-read everything and use highlighters to highlight important things. Sometimes, I will also start making my flashcards at that time so I will not forget later. It also reinforces what we learned in class by writing it down again. It is also nice to make cards at that time because when I finish homework and assignments later, I can just grab them and start memorizing the topics.  I will also do a “brain dump” which consists of me writing everything I know down, and then reviewing points I may have missed, and then seeing if I can expand my list. I feel like this is effective because it tests my knowledge so I can see what topics I really need to review. 

  1. Identify one class in which you are doing well (not HLTH 101).   What study methods work best and why?

I think I am doing well in my chemistry lecture right now. I take notes a little bit everyday and after I do, I make notecards for the notes from that day and look over them. I think this is helpful because when you make notecards, it really engrains the material in your head. Also I think it is helpful because since I am doing a little bit each day, at the end of the week I can understand everything I learned. 

STEP 2: IDENTIFY AND APPLY NEW LEARNING TECHNIQUES

  1. Identify one class where you are experiencing challenges and address the following questions.  

I think I am having challenges in my Interpreting the American past class. For studying strategies, I could probably try to do practice quizzes and maybe read more articles and analyze them as practice so I can expand my abilities to take an article or text and analyze it. I could do the practice quizzes to put me in an actual situation where there is question and I have to answer. I plan to try to study for thirty minutes to an hour each day of the week because then at the end of the week, I would have studied for seven hours. I think it will help because this is not necessarily my favorite subject so it will force me to sit down and try to get a better understanding.  I think I should spend more time on the analytical part of it because it is difficult for me to take a document and analyze it, especially if I do not understand what it is saying because that makes it a lot harder.  I think I am being pretty systematic as far as when I study. I just think I need to increase the amount of time I spend studying and explore new options like practice quizzes and reading and analyzing additional sources.  I also do not think I take advantage of all of my learning supports such as tutoring because sometimes I get so anxious and I really have to build myself up to ask for help. I do email my professor when I am confused about a question on an assignment. I will try to not be as anxious in asking for help. When it comes to motivation, I do struggle with getting motivated to study, but I think it is because history is not my favorite thing to study. But I do remind myself why I am taking this class and it normally does the trick in motivating me to study. I have had a few confusions an assignment directions and they’ve been clarified by me emailing my professor and asking for clarifications. As far as questions about materials or concepts, I will generally find videos that explain it or I will find the topic in the textbook. Certain topics still have me a little confused; I could look into tutoring to help me better my understanding.  I have not had an exam in this class yet, but I have had an exam in my chemistry lecture class.  When I studied for this exam, I seemed to know the information very well on topics pertaining to my flashcards, so I think that worked well. I think the parts where I just looked over my notes and went to the next topic did not work. I think I thought that I did not need to spend as much time on some topics and just take a quick glance at it. I don’t think that method worked because I think it just didn’t get set in my head. Some of the questions on my exam that I got wrong were pertaining to math. I think because sometimes it can be difficult to study for math-based questions. I think that I could’ve done a practice quiz because it would have provided me with practice problems. I don’t think I have any specific confusions, I feel like I need to practice the math portion more so I can know for certain what I am doing. 

Image retrieved from: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/2013/01/thinking-about-metacognition/

  1. Review at least 5 academic tips/resources listed here: https://www.odu.edu/success/academic/tips What is one new technique you could try in class to help you better understand the material? 

~One new technique I could use in class is preparing questions before class. I could prepare questions for my professor and look over information before the class. I think tis could be helpful because I could ask my questions in class and get them answered, and other students may have the same question as me so I could be helping them too. I think that looking over that specific course information before class would help because it would put me in the mindset of being in that class. 

  1. What is one new technique you could try outside of class to help you better understand the material? 

~ One new technique I could use outside of class is study groups. I feel like this could be helpful because I could apply my knowledge by engaging in conversation about the topic we are talking about. It will also help me learn other people’s points of view, especially if the topic is controversial like English or History. If someone in the group understands something that I don’t get, they could help me and maybe explain it to me