week 8 memo to myself

by

Christie J. Cajina

Throughout my studies in the Research, Writing, and Ministry Preparation course, I’ve had the privilege to get learn more about myself as an online learner. In the last half of the semester, I was able to take four different learning inventories to try and better understand how my brain learns most efficiently. After taking the first inventory, I learned that I was 78% left brain dominant. This means do well when education or work challenges include rules, strategy, rationality, logic, and details. My brain would rather solve problems by using logic and strategy rather using creativity and fantasy. After taking the second inventory, I learned that I have a concrete experience learning mode and a divergent learning style. This means that I deal involve myself in human experiences primarily in a personal, feeling approach that a cold, conceptual approach. My divergent learning style has its greatest strength in its awareness of meaning and values. This learning style can take every bit of information and try to weave many relationships together into a meaning community or “gestalt.” In my third inventory, I learned that I learn and work best in the morning and worst after dinner. Lastly, I learned that I have a mild aural learning preference.

Using all of this information, I can pre-emptively figure out how my brain will react to a variety of challenges. For example, I’ll likely be more comfortable amassing lots of research and sources when writing paper rather than expanding on one point for pages and pages. However, on my discussion board posts, I will likely try to reply to a thread with a story in order to communicate on a more personal level and weave everything together into a “gestalt” with the author of the thread and anyone else who might read it. The most effective change I could possibly make would be to start working on school work in the morning and avoid doing so late at night. Though the quality may be the same, working at night is more stressful and takes more time for me to focus and stay focused. I’m unsure of how to best tailor my online learning experience to my aural learning style, but I can start to incorporate different sermon series into my sources and perhaps read all my assigned reading aloud to myself to help me better grasp the material.