Relfection Blog 25/02/15

Reflection Blog- 25/02/15

Today in Academic studies we focused on the Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory, a system devised by David Kolb to aid people in understanding their learning styles. Apparently I’m a “Converger” and use Abstract Conceptualization and Active Experimentation. This meaning that I apparently “can solve problems and will use my learning to find solutions”. It also states that people who are convergers are “less concerned with people and interpersonal aspects” and also that they are “more attracted to technical tasks rather than social and interpersonal issues”. This description is certainly not how I view myself. I find that technical tasks are far more uninteresting than social and interpersonal issues and that the description of being less concerned with people also does not fit my learning style or my personality. After researching further about David Kolb and his learning theory I discovered that the learning style of a converger did actually fit some ways I learn.  A converger is a mix of Active Experimentation and Abstract Conceptualization, which basically means that a converger’s learning style, is to think and do.  

Another learning theory is that of the “Honey and Mumford,” which is modelled on the Kolb Theory. The Honey and Mumford theory is quite similar to the Kolb Theory, both having four styles of learning that are almost identical. The Honey and Mumford learning style which matched Kolb’s Converger style was the Pragmatist. This style includes seeking and trying out new ideas, being practical, down to earth, enjoying problem solving, making decisions quickly and being bored with long discussions. I find that the Pragmatist learning style does fit my sort of personality and I the way I like to learn. It depicts my enjoyment in trying new ideas and but I also like to make decisive decisions and to problem solve and how I bore with long discussions and explanations.  So in some ways I believe that the Kolb and the Honey and Mumford theories do fit the way that I learn. This task has also made me contemplate and realise the type of learning styles that I prefer which I hope will aid me in future studies as I will now know the most decisive and productive way to learn.

The Conscious Learning Matrix was another idea that we researched; it depicts the four stages of our learning. Unconscious incompetence, we don’t know that we don’t know. Conscious incompetence, we know that we don’t know. Conscious competence, we know we know. And finally unconscious competence, we don’t know we know. This matrix aided my understanding of the cycle of how we learn and the processes that we go through whilst learning. To further our comprehension of the matrix we wrote a paragraph detailing a situation in which we went through the entire conscious learning matrix. This paragraph forced me to contemplate a scenario in which I had begun without any knowledge and progressed to such an understanding that I no longer had to think about what I had learned.

Time management and organisation is a key idea that we have started to study which will in turn strengthen our learning skills and will be an important ability that will assist us in our future studies. Organisation of our learning materials such as filing on the computer is a significant system that will allow us to always know where our documents are and prevent the loss of them. We learnt how to efficiently create a document filing system in which all documents would be under a certain folder and also how to back up documents into different storage areas which would ensure that we would always have a copy. We were also provided a sheet in which we would record how we spent our day. This would illustrate to us how much time we spent on certain activities and allow us to understand the amount of time left we had to study. The time management sheet allowed us to understand that we would need to make more time to study in order to get the marks that we desired.