Ways of learning

One of the issues confronting students when faced with a new instructional approach in the classroom is fear of the unknown.  To help deal with this fear, it is important to know the ways that you learn best.  During the first day of class, I asked everyone to write a short description of one time when you remember learning something.  For me, there have been numerous times when I remember learning something.  For instance, I remember taking apart a 10-speed bicycle when I was in grade school.  It took me only a few minutes to dismantle everything, but many hours to put it back together.  It was challenging to put the spokes back in the tire so that the wheel was not twisted and rotated smoothly.  Sometimes, I had to take something apart because I had not put in a key part first.  But, as long as I took my time and tried different ways of putting things together, the bike was rebuilt.  Along the way, I learned a lot from the experience.

The most important thing I learned was that I like taking things apart and putting them back together.  That is, I like to work with my hands.  And I learned it by struggling with the tools and bicycle parts.  Now I know that I as long as I am patient, I can build, or rebuild many things.  While this experience now helps with household projects, it also has helped reduce the fear I might experience when faced with a new learning experience.

To help the class understand about different ways of learning, please take a few minutes to describe a time in your life when you remember learning something, including how you learned it.   When done, please take a few minutes to read some of the other posts to see how similarities and differences between how you and others learn.