I have been working my way through reader two, and have found Kolb’s ‘Cycle Of Learning’ particularly interesting. What I hadn’t realised, was that by being introduced to Kolb and his theories by reading recent posts from fellow students and tutors Sonal, Stephanie, Paula and Adesola, was that I was already ‘inside’ the circle myself. Having the experience of creating my blog, using others comments coupled with my own creativity and ability to improve on something to ‘better’ my blog, then receiving constructive criticism and general feedback from my tutors, learning and concluding from this, and then learning from this and onto planning the next step on improving on it. Where of course the whole process starts to repeat itself once again.
After reading through the first section of the reader, (Ref Page 11, thanks Adesola), I have also come up with my own diagram, with my sort of own mini philosophies. I have found it a really useful way to discover traits about myself, and how I personally use reflection to turn experiences into learning. If you have time to do one, it’s a really interesting exercise, part of the huge journey to understanding how you do work as a person, as well as how this affects your professional practise.
Finally, reading about Howard Gardner has also been particularly thought provoking. His three theories of ‘multiple intelligences’, ‘VAK’, and ‘multiple lenses’. Personally, with regards to the lenses that I look through as a learner shouldn’t limit me. I realise I should use them as a tool to recognise how I, and others learn as well. I know I find specifically ‘Visual’ learning from Gardner’s ‘VAK’ concept the most helpful. It is also the one I use most on my Professional Practise. With being Dance Captain and having to teach routines to foreign cast members - usually we couldn’t speak the same language so this visual aid was essential. Also, in my Foundation In Dance Instruction studies in Classical Ballet, I realised children must rely on this method of learning too - after all, what child really knows French well enough to be able to translate that ‘pile’ means to bend, and ‘jete’ to throw, for example.
2 comments:
Thanks for commenting on my post about Approaching the Reflective journey Sophie - I know what you mean about relying on technology! It can be a gamble I guess, I always like to back things up as much as possible if I store them solely on my computer. It's very interesting to hear about the different ways you have to communicate with your different ages and types of students and dancers. I imagine it must have really helped you to hone your communication methods which is great as it's such a valuable asset in any walk of life. As many of us on the course are already, or would like to teach, I think it's really useful to be aware of other people's learning styles as well as your own so you can adapt your teaching and get the best out of every student.
This is a really interesting post, I had never thought about visual learning and as a teaching this is how I translate to my students, although quite obvious now. I agree with Stephanie aswell it’s also important to make sure you demonstrate all VAK styles as every student is different.
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