The Concept of Learning - Essay Example

Learning Methods Introduction Learning is an essential ax cerise in improving ones knowledge and the skills to fully perform a specific task or able to solve a specific problem. To achieve this one must always and be ready to fully commit him /herself to the tedious activities accompanied by the activity of learning. Various methods of learning have come up in order to fully satisfy people‘s desire to learn, as people have different learning abilities. However, most of the methods work hand in hand to satisfy one’s desire to learn. The methods include the Lectures, Presentation, Tutorials and group work assignments. Lectures A lecture is an exposition of a given subject given out before a class for the main purpose of learning or giving instruction. This is generally a method of teaching by formal discourse with the main purpose of offering an overview of a certain subject and delivering particular information on a specific subject. Lectures are of more importance in providing a synthesis of several researchers and textbooks or give out original or unpublished information. A lecture usually exists in four type’s i.e. participatory lecture, oral essays, problem-solving and textual exegesis. (Nunan, 1992, pg 56) 0728866156,072 However the oral essay, participatory and textual exegesis is more lecturers coordinated, controlled and they are closer to the traditional model in which a lecture is divided into specific topics and sub-topics and orderly covered. As the problem-solving and participatory varieties are conducted with apparently greater flexibility however it requires a tedious planning (Nunan, 1992, pg 57) Personal views Lectures being the mostly used methods of learning I found it vital in my learning ability but I was always challenged with a number of factors that would not easily allow me have the appropriate learning ability. For instance the big number of students always needed an early wake up in order to catch up with the population in order to have a front sit where u can easily have clear understanding of the lectures. Nevertheless my hard work to be the first among the front chair students inability to clearly understand the language of he lectures made my learning too harder. I would not clearly get the vital contents due to faster speaking lecturers. The large population greatly hindered the understanding ability due to different noises from every part of the room; with my inability to clearly getting the lecture’s fluency this added another burden on it due to message distortion. The most challenging part is when I came late in class. You would only be opted to sit outside the class due to the large population hence writing become a problem, hearing and understanding some contents became an issue too. Presentation Presentation normally the oral ones refer to form of assessments used by teachers to access the understandability of the students on a specific topic or area. Mostly, the oral presentation used largely involves explaining a concept to an audience mostly in classrooms, but the presentation is always in a work setting. Presentations come in various types varying from either group work to multimedia projects also to the speeches. Presentation, for instance that are done using the power point application are very efficient since they are easily created hence one does not need to be an expert to prepare. However, this presentation often proves detrimental as most individual tend to make them look full of images or full of plain text hence hindering the ability to give out the desired information. (Sharan, 1999, pg 75) Personal view The most challenging thing that greatly influenced my learning capability is the factor of language barrier in terms of presentation to other students. Presenting came a hectic part of my study since I was always in fear on how I should always frame my presentation in order to be understandable by every student since I was very poor in communicating the in their usual language frequently. This made me become more nervous in the presentation process till I could not manage to finish my presentation structure instead has to summarize. I experienced a lot of challenges in presenting when it became on the sector of explaining an Image or where drawing was being involved as part of my presentation .This is because I was very poor in drawing hence I would not efficiently draw a clear diagram for the large population visual as a result I would always call for help and this greatly affected my ability to clearly give out my best in presenting. Presentations became worse to me when it came to question part from my fellow students, I found it very challenging in answering students and lecturers question pertaining my presentation this made me more nervous. Tutorial learning It involves a self-paced instructional program, which gives out the procedural information in presenting a concept. Tutorial majorly consists of computer-based interactions between the lecturer and the students. Presentation and any activity are done by the computer system and incase of assignments they are offered online and provisions of the feedback done online. Normally, tutorial classes are of three types: Supervision tutorial , under this tutorial the lecturer selects students in the intelligence level who are above average intelligence, Group tutorials-involves the students of low intelligence, Practical tutorials –provides a resolution involved in practical work. The tutorials learning methods in individualized remedial teaching. Tutorial provision helps students to develop their individual cognitive and affective domains of behaviors. The tutorial method of learning is based on principles, which are, remedial teaching g and principle of personal differences. Tutorial structure always involves he following steps, Diagnosis, prescription, follow up. (Sharan, 1999, pg 9 0) Advantages Learners are able to reveal their problems due to confidence because of the help and the cooperation’s with the lecturers. It is an efficient and effective mode of teaching as individuals differences are always taken into consideration. Lastly, tutorial methods provides a personal contact with the students hence he/she is able to diagnose their weakness and on the basis of their weakness help in provision of a better solution (Sharan, 1999, pg 92) Disadvantages Due to the low rate of the student to teachers, i.e. many students and few lecturers it makes it difficult for the tutor to provide an individual solution to an individual subject. Most tutorials are always inculcated with jealousy feelings. Sometimes students do not benefit equally from the tutors due to biases. Students are also not provided with equal opportunities. A schedule for teaching is always demanding hence the tutorial end up avoiding some of the remedial teaching steps. (Sharan, 1999, pg 92) Personal view Tutorial became the most challenging method of study in my leaning methods. Lectures are always in an early hence understanding them came my biggest weakness nevertheless the consultation I usually made day by day. Nevertheless the personal contact with the lecturers I found it very hard participating fully due to the inability to have the fluency in speaking to them. Since once they were in class they would only spend very few minutes. Asking for clarification became a hard task because even if I really asked I may end up not being satisfied due the fastness by the lectures. Tutorials always involve personal contact with the tutors the fear being odd in terms of language my personal fear would not support me have the courage of ask for any clarification ,even if I ask I would not manage to argue or have a good conversation with the lecture. This greatly affected my courage to tackle challenging issue in my learning hence I had to make an extra mile to have more of my personal studies to help me understand the concepts better. Group assignments This is assignments given in groups to enable the group members to discuss and come up with the answers. The main objectives of the group assignments are providing the best platform for the students to discuss the assignments for better understandability. (Stephen M. Alessi, 2001, pg 64) Advantages Students are able to learn effective and efficient project group skills; Students are able to acquire quality insights and skills from one-another.it helps the students in achieving the professional and socializing networking. (Stephen M. Alessi, 2001, pg 64) Disadvantages Learning is inconsistent since the group is a discussion forum the cleaver students tend to be strong over the weak ones since they tend to always contribute a lot in comparison to the weak ones. Time is wasted in terms of poor communication most probably in of conflicts arise resulting from the compatibility of meeting places. (Stephen M. Alessi, 2001, pg 65) Personal view Group assignment seemed to be the easier way I would better understand the exact role of my learning ability. However within the group I found it very hard to easily adapt with my group members. This was greatly influenced by some factors like the inability to communicate effectively and efficiently. This was enhanced by the different cultures and the custom differences that highly hindered our socializing ability. Through this in most of the group work assignment I found myself being un participative due to personal challenge of fear of being discriminated incase I get into an argument considering my poor communication ability. This greatly affected my personal satisfaction to the required answers given out but I would not clearly convince the members with my inappropriate language. Generally communication barrier significantly hindered my ability of even asking for clarification from the group members and this greatly affected my ability to understand the contents in deeper meaning. Lack of courage to associate with other group members greatly affected my ability to form groups hence once given group assignments I found it very hard to find a group that I can easily fit into. Progression Learning experience gained from the institution is of high help in being an independent student for instance from the tutorial classes I really learned all idea of being innovative and always being ready to tackle any type of task. The tutorial method helped being understood the ability of fully depending on myself in terms of understanding the challenging concept through a trough research. Through the method of learning, it also encourages the idea of being a good researcher who does not actually lie on the lecturer materials. Through this, it helps in improving your carrier knowledge by fully engaging in frequent personal research. A presentation is an essential part in the learning environment. It really creates a sense of understanding and the confidence in you. Presentation fully entails the ability to research and make the idea presentable to the audience hence you have to conduct a good research on the field. The general knowledge of understanding on how to handle different individual with different cultures and beliefs as greatly improved my socializing ability and the intensiveness of networking growth. This was greatly achieved from active participation in the group, nevertheless the challenges of not coordinating effectively with the group at first. Ways of becoming an effective learner Becoming an effective learner mainly requires the ability to coordinate your mental ability in order to efficiently acquire the required information. Thus, for one need to implement the necessary skills and strategies for effective learning. Becoming an effective learner primarily, one must have the desire and the urge to improve one’s knowledge and skills. This will trigger you to start looking for the accurate answers of fulfilling the desire. (Nunan, 1992, pg 125) After developing the desire to learnt setting goals should be the second step, as this will help you in identifying my objectives and always help me when evaluating myself in order to be within the required limits. Thirdly, prepare to learn, this majorly entails the activities that should always be following the layout schedule of learning, either by listening to a conversation, making notes or reading novels. The forth point is by taking action of fully engaging yourself in the real acts of learning. In case of in school it is always encouraged to listen to the tutors attentively, make notes and maintain the notebook on which the notes have been made. In case of un, understood explanation always asking questions is the solution of understanding better after class you must go through the notes made, the manuals, handouts, and textbooks if available. After the all activity of going through the notes always, summarize your notes to foolproof everything after some few hours. (Sharan, 1999, pg 201) The fourth step is getting a mentor who will clearly guide you on important role in the learning process, then practice what is learnt, and most sixth point is to track, observe and gauge your progress as per the goals set and the last most wonderful way of enhancing your learning is by sharing with other. Conclusion Better learning strategies are always fulfilled by the desire and the morale of achieving the best you really need to learnt. No matter the hardness in learning involved as you go through your goals persistence, motivation is the determinate. Overall, to comprehend the main ideas learnt one must always practice as practice always makes it perfect Bibliography Nunan, D., 1992. Research Methods in Language Learning. s.l.: Cambridge University Press. Sharan, S., 1999. Handbook of Cooperative Learning Methods. s.l.: Praeger, Stephen M. Alessi, S. R. T., 2001. Multimedia for learning: methods and development. s.l. Allyn & Bacon, Incorporated. Read More