Who Am I?
Learning Skills and Styles
MINDS ON
How often do you reflect on the way you learn? You are a unique learner and it is essential to know yourself.
Knowing your learning style and having strong skills can help you study, finish projects and meet overall success in school and throughout your life.
- Is there something you do now that you could do differently to find greater success? Maybe it could be the way you manage your schedule or how you prepare for a test.
- Is there something you are doing now that works well for you? Maybe you practice your oral presentations on your family and friends, or you keep a detailed agenda of things you need to get done.
ACTION
Part of being successful is knowing your strengths and challenges. To successfully meet your goals, you need to consider how you are going to get there. The journey looks different for everyone and knowing your learning style(s) and developing strong learning skills will increase your chances of success.
Learning styles refer to how every student learns differently. Technically, it is about how each student processes, takes in, understands and stores information. Because each student is a unique individual, styles vary depending on the situation, information and emotional and environmental factors.
Before you determine which learning style you prefer, explore them all. You will discover that you have lots of strengths and skills in more than one category.
LearningStyles
How many of the definitions and questions about learning styles made you think, “I do that” or “that sounds like me?” It is important to recognise that there are no right or wrong learning styles, that they may change over time and that you more than likely fall under more than one style. It all comes down to your preferences and what works for you.
Learning Styles Inventory
After reviewing the learning styles, which apply to you? Complete the following interactive to figure it out.
LearningStylesInventory
Take a screenshot of your results and save to your Journal.
Journal: My Top Three Learning Styles
What are your top three types of learning styles?
Find a website that elaborates on each of the seven learning styles.
In your Journal write two strategies and techniques you can use to maximize your learning/success for each of your top three learning styles.
For example, if you are a visual learner, a strategy you can use is creating mind maps or pictures to organize ideas, their connections, sequences and conclusions.
Once you know your learning style, you can begin to implement some of the learning techniques to help you understand concepts faster, better and with more ease. As long as you are successful, there is no wrong way to learn.
You should also consider your learning skills and work habits. We know that developing learning skills and work habits is very important in determining student success at school and in life. In Ontario, students are provided with learning opportunities to improve their learning skills and work habits. You can find them on your progress reports and report cards. Review the six learning skills and work habits by scrolling over each light bulb in the interactive below:
LearningSkillsAndWorkHabits
How well-developed are your learning skills and work habits? How can you continue to develop your Learning Skills and Work Habits? One way to continue to develop skills and habits is to set goals and work on finding and using strategies to achieve them.
Journal: Learning Skills and Work Habits
In the table below, self-assess your learning skills and work habits as either "I've got this" or "I need to work on this”
| Learning Skill Work Habit |
I've got this | I need to work on this |
|---|---|---|
| Responsibility | ||
| Organization | ||
| Independent Work | ||
| Collaboration | ||
| Initiative | ||
| Self-Regulation |
Take a screenshot of your results and submit to your Journal.
Improvement Plan
Complete the interactive below by identifying two skills or habits you would like to improve and choosing four strategies to help you achieve success.
ImprovementPlan
Knowing how you learn and becoming a good learner will help you develop a love for learning. Learning and continuing to learn even after your formal education is done is necessary for many reasons:
- It can create a lot of personal and professional opportunities;
- Keeps you sharp and up to date with new information;
- Provides self-improvement;
- Can provide a better quality of life.
The concept of lifelong learning is that you as an individual have the motivation to deliberately seek out opportunities to increase your knowledge. But to do this, you need to have some personal goals.
The video below will help you understand why it is important for your success to set goals and how you can do it.
- Where do you see yourself in the future?
- What goals can you set to help you move forward?
- What kind of ongoing learning will be necessary for you to meet your goals?
The answers to these questions are key to your success!
CONSOLIDATION
Journal: Learning Skills, Work Habits and Strategies
Ready to put it all together? Record a summary of your learning skills, work habits and strategies.
Include the following:
- Your top three learning styles;
- Two learning skills and work habits you consider to be your strength;
- Two learning skills and work habits you need to work on;
- Two specific strategies you can work on to improve the two learning skills and work habits;
- How all of the above styles, skills and strategies impact you as a lifelong learner.
Learning Goals and Success Criteria
Learning Skills and Work Habits