Varsity College Learn

Learn about your own learning – the jaw breaker used in academic language for this concept is METACOGNITION (thinking about your own thinking).

Learning is About?

We do not think; we “perfink” (H. Smith) PERCEIVE, FEEL & THINK.

Learning involves all of you – not only your thoughts (head). In fact your feelings and your perceptions largely determine how much of your brain (IQ) you can use.

<%– If, for example, you perceive yourself as unintelligent then you will feel unintelligent and you will think unintelligent thoughts. It’s that simple. And by the way, social scientists have proven this over and over again; here is one famous social experiment that shows the negative effects of labelling:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6189991712636113875

–%> So the good news is that EVERYBODY IS ACTUALLY WAY SMARTER THAN THEY KNOW…….When you accept this about yourself, learning becomes easy.

Let’s start with the feelings. The most important feeling you need to generate is that YOU CAN LEARN, YOU ARE IN CONTROL OF YOUR DESTINY, IT’S YOUR FUTURE – so go for it and see what this young woman did:
http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_purdy_living_beyond_limits.html

Now how about you?
But what if I don’t like learning or find it difficult to learn?
If, by learning you mean memorising information in order to write and pass an exam we are not surprised – very few people like doing this. Unfortunately this is what learning has come to mean for many people. Real learning is much more than this. At Varsity College we hope you will come to see that writing exams is a small part of lifelong learning. If you really do what it takes to learn you will spend very little time, if any, sitting at a desk memorising lists of disconnected facts.

Medical & Social Stuff that makes learning difficult
This comes in the form of either things that happened to you (e.g. accidents, diseases etc.), or drug/alcohol abuse, some of which can affect your ability to learn if one of your senses has been affected or your brain was damaged.

Genetic stuff you inherited from your parents: this could be something like dyslexia, ADD, hearing problems, a reading disability, and others. These are often called learning disabilities and in most cases are picked up at school level. However sometimes highly intelligent people are not detected at school because they find other ways to cope. Alternatively, not all schools or teachers are equipped to detect these.

If learning has always been a desperate struggle for you, have a look at this site. If you suspect you might have one of these disabilities talk to the ADC who will be able to refer you to somebody who can help.

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/learning_disabilities.htm

You can also have had or are having a really rough time emotionally: breaking up with your partner, fights with your parents or moving from another place can make you feel down and not want to study.

You think you are dumb, stupid and will never succeed – this might have been reinforced by teachers or other people who have yelled at you and told you this.

If any of these are the case then you need to do one thing now:

TELL US! Your ADC, SRM, HOD or lecturer can help you. Most of these conditions can be fixed; and if not fixed then certainly made easier because you reached out for assistance. Why struggle alone when all this help is available? If you want to stay stuck as a VICTIM of your circumstances, that is your choice – but it could be different starting from today!

Here is what we could do for you if you ask for assistance

Your Learning Styles
So here is the thing: we might all learn the same things but we learn them differently. This is because each of us has a unique learning style. If we work with these styles then we learn quicker. To some people who do not have ‘our style’, how we learn can appear a bit weird and vice versa. What is important is that you become comfortable with your style as quickly as possible.

The test is simply this – am I an effective learner? In other words can I learn something quickly and easily and only experience a minimum level of stress or cause a minimum level of stress in my social network?

If you turn into a drama queen before assessments: you weep and wail, are grumpy and rip the cat’s head off, your learning style is not right for you!

If, for example you have developed a learning style that involves any of the following, your style will be ineffective. Learning while:

All of these are bad learning styles.

People who have mastered their learning styles arrive at exams chilled – sometimes the night before they have even gone to a movie! They then obtain good marks and we all say ‘Oh they have this natural ability to study and write exams!’ This might be true. What is probably the bigger truth though is that they have mastered their unique learning style.

Some online tools & what to expect
Check out the following learning style profiles. If you are pressed for time just do the first one on our list. Each profile will ‘test’ how you approach your learning – this involves answering some questions. Then it will give you an interpretation based on your answers. After this it will make some recommendations on how you might learn better based on your unique profile.