Wednesday, October 31, 2012

LEARNING STYLES: THE MEANS OF RETAINING INFORMATION


LEARNING STYLES: THE MEANS OF RETAINING INFORMATION
(A short personal essay for my COLL100 class)
While taking one of my first courses in College, English 101, I was introduced to the three Learning Styles: Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic.  Almost immediately I knew my most prominent style was visual, never doubting the existence of the three, since I found that they were very prevalent in my College learning experience.  However, after reading an article “The Myth of Learning Styles” by Cedar Riener and Daniel Willingham, I realized that people may have different views on what Learning Styles mean.  While it is true that interest in the subject, personal background, and the teacher’s skills all effect learning, Learning Styles are specific to the retaining of knowledge, or our memory.
A few personal examples of this would be studying skills in the classroom, and even in my choice of degree.  After a few bad grades in which classes presented information entirely new to me, I began making note cards that were full of color, and contained many pictures, graphs and diagrams.  I found this helpful regardless of my interest level in the class.  In fact, some of my favorite classes were also the most difficult because I was taking in brand new information, not because I didn't enjoy the class, or have a lack of interest in the subject.
The other example is my choice of major. I decided on English because of my love of researching, and writing.  And this major actually uses the Learning Style that I am most comfortable with: visual.  Researching and then writing about a subject, is a sure way for me to retain information.  I have learned and remembered much more in the few English classes I have taken, then in other classes where similar topics were studied.  Why?  Because I was able to formulate the information I was given into my own words in the form of a something visual: an essay.
Further examples of the use of Learning Styles to retain information can be seen in the other two styles.  Upon taking two Online Learning Style Surveys, both determined that I was a Visual Learner and secondly an Auditory Learner.  Looking back on my study habits, I realized that I used this style frequently as well.  About two years ago I took Japanese 101. This class required a vast amount of memorization and was fairly difficult.  One night, while searching the Web, I found a rap song of the Japanese numbers one through twenty.  Within ten minutes, I had them memorized and haven’t forgotten them since.  Needless to say, while I had a wonderful teacher, good studying habits, and great interest in the subject, this class was extremely difficult, further proving that Learning Styles are merely a means of memorizing and retaining information.
As can be seen from these examples, while there are many factors that influence a person’s ability to learn, these do not inhibit a one’s Learning Style.  Learning Styles stand alone, and are simply a person’s specific way of retaining of knowledge, whether it be through Visual, Auditory, or Kinesthetic aids. 
P.S. The thing to remember is that I had a word limit, and I had to somehow incorporate my degree plan into an essay about learning styles  If I had written just about the learning styles without any requirements, this would have been so much more informational!!! Oh, well. 

3 comments:

  1. Oh My Gosh Look It's Jordan TalkNovember 4, 2012 at 3:06 PM

    Pretty cool essay! Well, about as cool as any... essay... can be. Informal writing is so much more interesting, but I can tell you were thinking a lot about how to write this!

    I've been told before that I am an auditory listener, but truthfully I think I learn well just about any way, and how much I retain is based on how much I am paying attention... Which legitimately sometimes isn't very much... Oh ho ho ho I need to stop doodling in classes.

    Right now I'm trying to figure out the best way for me to memorize kanji >< Just terrrrrrrri8le!

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  2. I'm going to reply to the content of your post soon, but I just wanted to say that I find i funny that you still use commas and punctuation in your name titles considering it comes up as It's. You should use PROPER English IT IS....eh hem...

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  3. What luck! None of that Apostrophe junk.November 6, 2012 at 6:16 PM

    Mmmmmm....... Yeah I know it never turns out, but I hate saying "it is!" That's not what I would actually say. :|

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