Carly's Ramblings Blog - Style

Learning Styles of a Lifelong Learner

Blog City - Day 3115 May 28, 2021

What's your learning style? Do you prefer learning in a group and in an interactive setting? Or one-on-one? Do you retain information best through lectures, or visuals, or simply by reading books?

This is an interesting topic. As a child, I preferred to learn on my own by simply reading books. I hated group work. I was shy and did not think my opinion mattered. I was not a fan of my peers in school and they were not into me. I was a wall flower.

As I got older and began to work with interesting people - in university - I expanded my learning style to include others. I found working with another person, one I respected, was far more interesting. We got to bounce ideas off each other and challenge each other to be our best selves.

When I got to teachers college, this expanded further to morph into small groups. I tend to choose people that inspire me and challenge me to do my very best.

I think the older I got the more focused I was on the area of interest. In university, I studied Sociology and Psychology and in Teacher's College I was learning to take a curriculum topic and make it interesting for kids to learn. Collaboration became important and sharing ideas opened up my thinking and my learning.
I love to read and sharing my ideas with others helps to reinforce the learning.

With teaching, I find I learn so much from my students and am amazed at the learning that can happen when everyone is engaged in a topic. The trick is to get them engaged. Get them excited about the experience and watch it bloom.

I know that when it comes to tech stuff, I prefer to learn hands on. I need to see and experience how to do the new technology and applications. If I need to do something on the computer that I have not done before, I will often ask for one-on-one help to get that hands-on, visual experience. I need to walk through the process to see what to do, so that I can do the rest on my own. Covid has made that kind of learning a challenge, but luckily I work in a school with two other special education teachers who are willing to help me out when I run into a new venture.

I am a lifelong learner. I like to change things up. I read a lot. Usually one fiction and one non-fiction selection at a time - Most of these non-fiction choices are writing reference books, but I also enjoy books like Atomic Habits by James Clear to help me learn how to live my best life.