Lesson Tutoring reflection

As well as having a mentor to discuss parts of my course with I have also had in depth discussions with my fellow class mates and the respective teacher for the lesson that I’m having the problem with. I have found it very invaluable having many people to talk with about different sections of the course and it’s a great outlet for anything your feeling. I’ve found that all of the teachers have been very helpful with any question that I’ve had about the course as a whole or just a particular lesson, even if I don’t understand it initially they’ve come back with a better and clearer way to get the point across.

Mentor Session reflection

For my mentor I have used a Civil Engineering Graduate who has recently joined are firm after leaving university and completely a master’s degree in civil engineering. I found him invaluable with helping me from just the normal day to day tasks of a university student with the studying on your free time and with revision for the all important exams. There were a few people I could have chosen from work but I’ve found that because he’s around the same age as me and has also just finished his final studies it’s a lot easier and is still in touch with what’s happening within the education system. Unlike say an engineer you graduated some 20 odd years ago the whole learning experience would have been very different then and also the way you were taught.

Surface and Deep Learning

Surface Learning
- Learning to specifically meet course requirements
- Studying unrelated bits of knowledge
- Memorising facts and figures to repeat
- No linking or connection of learning

The surface approach to learning comes from “the intention to get the task out of the way with minimum trouble while appearing to meet course requirements” (Biggs, 2003, p14). This often includes rote learning content, filling an essay with detail rather than discussion and list points rather than providing background or context to the work.

Deep Learning
- Learning that seeks to understand and connect the concepts
- Relates ideas to previous knowledge and experience
- Explores links between evidence and conclusions
- Critiques arguments and examines rationale

The deep approach comes “from a felt need to engage the task appropriately and meaningfully, so the student tries to use the most appropriate cognitive activities for handling it” (Biggs, 2003, p16). Using this approach students make a real effort to connect with and understand what they are learning. This requires a strong base knowledge for students to then build on seeking both detailed information and trying to understand the bigger picture

In reflection of Surface and Deep Learning I’d very much say I was a bit of both learning techniques. On one hand sometimes I only learn what’s specifically required for the course and no more, I’m also very good at memorizing facts and figures but then I don’t study unrelated bits of knowledge which is all included within surface learning. For Deep Learning I also use some of those techniques for example relating ideas to previous knowledge and experience.

Literature Review

Do video games make people more violent?

There’s been a lot of research on whether playing violent video games effects the behaviour of adolescents playing them. Lots of physcologists and other people have written many papers on the positive and negative behaviours of the games.

I’ve chosen to review “Effects of Video Games on Aggressive Thoughts and Behaviours during Development” by Thomas A. Kooijmans from Rochester Institute of Technology.

This article concentrates on everything from the history of violence in video games, the general aggression model to considerations for future research. It also has excessive arguments for games that are clearly not violent, for example in his paper Kooijmans states that games like pacman and Super Mario brothers are violent. This is then contested by Joel D Collinsons commentary entitled “Are We talking about the same violence?”. There are many other comments about Kooijmans paper made by his peers. A couple of the other comments are entitled “Video Game Violence and the Emerging Psychopath”, “Getting to the Next Level” and “Positive Effects of Video Games on Development”.

In Kooijmans conclusion he talks about how the advancement of the video game research in the past decade has greatly helped their understanding of its effects on development but there is much more research still needed. It also states how the video game industry has grown to such proportions its now competing with the movie industry in its realism and graphics. “As we reach this understanding hopefully developers can create games which will help our youth, expand their minds, and shy away from the current trend of violence in video games.”

Reference:

http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/kooijmans.html

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving that objective. The technique is credited to Albert Humphrey.
A SWOT analysis must first start with defining a desired end state or objective. A SWOT analysis may be incorporated into the strategic planning model. Strategic Planning, including SWOT and SCAN analysis, has been the subject of much research.

· Strengths: attributes of the person or company that are helpful to achieving the objectives.
· Weaknesses: attributes of the person or company that are harmful to achieving the objectives.
· Opportunities: external conditions that are helpful to achieving the objectives.
· Threats: external conditions which could do damage to the objectives.

Below ive included a picture of my individual Swot analysis report.


In reflection of my SWOT analysis I’ve shown my strengths and weaknesses within a working environment. I’ve also included my opportunities and also threats. Within threats I felt that the main one was eventually loosing my job due the current economic climate even though its now picking up. I think now looking back I could have expanded into a little greater depth for threats but I just wanted to focus upon the main one.

Learning Plan

Today i completed a learning line, a learning line shows what you have learned in the past and what you want to learn in the future. This will consist of area's such as schools's, college's, work places and much more.

With reflection on my learning line I could have included a few more points through out my learning life but they aren’t as major as the things I have already included. Maybe with more extensive research I would I have included a lot more things but I feel that the ones I have included are the more important and have been a big influence on what my learning style is today.

Self Evaluation

Last Week I completed an assesement on my Current Skills and Qualities. There were a number of questions on different subjects:

-People
-Activites
-Personal Qualities

I ticked all of the boxes as i felt that they all related to me in some way or another. The questions ranges from things about teamwork, setting priorities, assertiveness and making decisions.

I also learn't about Reflective Practice. This is shown below in the link -http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/reflecti.htm

I think its important to reflect on things that you do as it makes a great learning process.

PDP Personal Development Plan

Today I completed a self evaluation on my current skills and qualities.

The questions were on a number of subjects which include.

-People
-Activities
-Personal Qualities

I felt that most of the multiple choice options applied to me. I therefore ticked all of them as in one way or another they applicable.

The next stage was turning personal skills into academic skills. This consisted of a number of questions about academic skills which included things like:

-Managing deadlines
-Writing things in my own words
-Being able to argue my point of view, giving good reasons

Thats just a selection of the questions that were asked, you then scored yourself with a rating raging from 5 which is good to 1 which is very weak. I had a varied amounts are ratings ranging from 3 upto 5.

Study Skills: Priorities, stage 1:

In this part there is another table setup with a column for questions, this is true, skill needed?, current ability? and priority. You again had to rate each questions. Skill needed was rated on a scale 6-10, Current ability was rated on a scale 1-5.

This also varied in answers and capabilities.

VARK Questionnaire

VARK Analysis
I’ve recently completed a VARK Questionnaire to find out about my preferences for the way I work with information. Everyone has a preferred learning style and one part of that learning style is your preference for intake and output of ideas and information. When the questionnaire is completed I used a marking guide which you’ll find attached to find my score for each of the categories.

The categories are:

Visual (V):
This preference includes the depiction of information in maps, spider diagrams, charts, graphs, flow charts, labelled diagrams, and all the symbolic arrows, circles, hierarchies and other devices that instructors use to represent what could have been presented in words. It could have been called Graphic (G) as that better explains what it covers. It does not include movies, videos or PowerPoint. It does include designs, whitespace, patterns, shapes and the different formats that are used to highlight and convey information.

Aural / Auditory (A):
This perceptual mode describes a preference for information that is "heard or spoken." Students with this modality report that they learn best from lectures, tutorials, tapes, group discussion, email, using mobile phones, speaking, web chat and talking things through. It includes talking out loud as well as talking to yourself. Often people with this preference want to sort things out by speaking, rather than sorting things out and then speaking.

Read/write (R):
This preference is for information displayed as words. Not surprisingly, many academics have a strong preference for this modality. This preference emphasises text-based input and output - reading and writing in all its forms. People who prefer this modality are often addicted to PowerPoint, the Internet, lists, dictionaries, quotations and words, words, words...

Kinesthetic (K):
By definition, this modality refers to the "perceptual preference related to the use of experience and practice (simulated or real)." Although such an experience may invoke other modalities, the key is that people who prefer this mode are connected to reality, "either through concrete personal experiences, examples, practice or simulation" [See Fleming & Mills, 1992, pp. 140-141]. It includes demonstrations, simulations, videos and movies of "real" things, as well as case studies, practice and applications.



And a Mixture. Multimodals (MM):
Life is multimodal. There are seldom instances where one mode is used, or is sufficient, so we have a four-part VARK profile. That is why the VARK questionnaire gives you four scores. Those who prefer many modes almost equally are of two types. There are those who are context specific who choose a single mode to suit the occasion or situation. There are others who are not satisfied until they have had input (or output) in all of their preferred modes. They take longer to gather information from each mode and, as a result, they often have a deeper and broader understanding.

My VARK Questionnaire and Answers
Please find attached an enclosed copy of my completed VARK Questionnaire. After checking my score against the scoring chart I scored highly in two styles and they were Visual and Kinesthetic.

With reflection I knew all along that I had a very visual orientated learning style as I always found that charts, maps and labelled diagrams explained something a lot better than if someone was trying to explain it all to me.