Journal of learning style - Essay Example

I decided to begin with a short ‘Study Skills Assessment’ questionnaire provided on-line by Columbia Basin University (Appendix 1), containing fifty-six questions; received feedback indicates that I could improve strategies used for reading as well as for concentration and memory. Thinking about this I wrote up a personal SWOT analysis in an attempt to find further evidence of my strengths and weaknesses. I found a downloadable example from Bristol Business School, belonging to the University of Western England (Appendix 2), which helped me with the questions I should ask myself.

This exercise proved quite time consuming and needed much effort on my part to really think about and answer each question as fully and as honestly as I could; nevertheless I did persevere and ascertained my strengths as an outgoing, imaginative and very personable at a social level. My weaknesses include writing, especially long assignments or reports – this Journal assignment is not too difficult because it is broken into manageable sections, oral presentations and making decisions. The most useful aspect of this task was that it induced me to really think about my strengths and weaknesses, as well as any considered threats and how I intended to deal with them.

Next I completed a learning approaches questionnaire (based on Approaches to Study Inventory (Tait & Entwistle 1996) and provided on-line by Bournemouth University (Appendix 3). Results indicate that I have a surface/passive approach to learning and that I tend to reproduce information and try to memorize subject matter rather than delving further or seeking to extend that information, that I keep closely to the syllabus provided by the lecturers and do not follow up interest of my own. At this point I wanted to know more, so because a discussion on learning styles is a component of this Learning Journal, I decided to spend time researching learning styles and