Instruction and Learning Styles - Essay Example

At this level of higher learning, I would say that auditory learning style is dominant over the other styles which are only used in some subjects. To enhance that the auditory method is effective there are various learning habits tailored to get much out of the study time. These study habits may include recording of lectures for later hearing, group discussions, reading out lecture notes softly to you, tutoring others and participating in classroom discussions. Not all of the mentioned habits may be effective to me since some like taping the lecture for later hearing may lead to time wastage and poor attention during the actual lecture.

I would prefer reading quietly rather than reading loudly except for exercises to enhance reading skills. The other three study habits facilitate active learning, and by this, different points missed during the individual study time are shared. After an individual study, one may tutor others so as to instill knowledge and enhance understanding for a lifetime. .The study habits to enhance effective usage of time in visual learning may include drawing diagrams relevant to the study contents. Mind mapping may also be effective in cases of flowing materials, chains, processes and may used to link related information.

Others may include use of flash cards, creation of mental pictures and rewriting of lecture notes in own words. The last style, kinesthetic, is the use of concepts given in a practical environment. It includes study habits such as underlining and highlighting key points in the notes. Answers to various exercises to be used in a lifetime such as of multiplication tables, squares and square roots may be repeated during other activities such as jogging and walking. One may also create own practice tests and teach the learnt topics to your group again.

Reflective judgment Reflective judgment is a model that describes the development of reasoning from adolescence to adulthood. It looks into the thinking where knowledge is obtained by solving problems from both the certainty and uncertainty. The model describes a dimension of cognitive development gathered from theoretical work of the scholars; John Dewey (1933, 1938), Piaget (1960, 1970 [1956], 1974), Flavell (1963, 1971, 1977), Perry (1968, 1981), Broughton (1975, 1978), Fischer (1980; Lamborn & Fischer, 1988) and Kegan (1982, 1994).

The model is featured in seven developmentally related stages of assumptions on how knowledge is acquired. The seven stages are summarized into three levels of reasoning namely pre-reflective (Stages 1-3), quasi-reflective (Stages 4 and 5), and reflective (Stages 6 and 7). The pre-reflective reasoning involves the belief that knowledge is certain if only it is acquired through direct observation or from an authority figure. It is divided into three stages i.e. stage 1 to 3. In stage 1, assumption is that, knowledge is absolute and concrete.

Knowledge is obtained from direct observation and beliefs need no justification. In this stage, a belief is true if is the taken as the truth. In stage 2, assumption is that knowledge is absolutely certain though not immediately available since it can also be obtained from authority figures other than through direct observation. Justification of the beliefs comes from correspondence to those of an authority figure such as a teacher or a parent. In stage 3, the assumption is tha