4.4.8 Time-limited Setting yourself a time frame for achieving your goal helps to concentrate the mind. If you say, for example, ‘By Christmas I will have …’ or, ‘In three years’ time I will be …’, it may prompt you to set things in motion. Again, be realistic about how long it will take, so that you do not set yourself up for failure. 4.4.7 Realistic This reminds you to take into account, for example, your current knowledge, skills and qualities; the knowledge skills and qualities you are aiming for; the help and hindrances you are likely to encounter along the way; and the time you have available. Setting realistic goals can help to foster a can-do attitude – success helps to breed success, while failure can breed further failure, as you become more downhearted. So, reach for something that stretches you, but which will not overwhelm y 4.4.5 Measurable It is also useful to word your goal in a way that allows you to monitor progress towards your goal. Sometimes this is straightforward – you can ‘measure’ achievement directly. For example, you may be aiming to get a job and you can easily tell whether or not you have achieved this. Sometimes, though, with the ‘real world’ skills we have talked about in earlier sections, it is not so straightforward. How can you ‘measure’, for example, developments in your communication ski 4.2.1 Theories of globalisation There are many different theories relating to globalisation. Some see globalisation as positive or beneficial. These theories argue that globalisation will encourage ‘good things’ like the growth of online communities that can span the world and might be able to break free of repressive regimes. Others suggest that there will be negative consequences to globalisation. They argue that globalisation makes it easier for jobs to be exported to wherever labour is cheapest. In this view there a References 3.5 Conclusion In this section you have explored two aspects of learning. The first has encouraged you to consider the importance of the views of people you come into contact with. These views can give you additional perspectives. This can be really useful, as a new perspective can make you stop and think and reconsider aspects of your learning in ways that may not have occurred to you before. However, these additional views can give you new problems to solve. You have to decide what you are going to do wit 3.4.1 Academic skills We hope that one result of studying this unit is that you will feel more confident about using your academic skills. In this unit, these skills include: However, referring to these skills as ‘academic’ creates the risk that they are only seen as useful fo 3.3.7 Entwistle’s theory – students’ approaches to learning Noel Entwistle’s ideas are much more concerned with the ways in which individuals approach learning. They focus on how people go about learning a body of knowledge. This contrasts with community of practice theory which is more interested in how groups of people together create knowledge or understanding, as the St Kildans did about ‘high-rise’ egg collecting. This might suggest that we are going back to where we started on this unit. You may recall that this starting point involv 3.3.4 The importance of other people in our immediate social and learning environments Yes, I had a lot of support from my family. You know, I suppose you could say you take that for granted but, yes, I did have a lot of support from my family. But in terms of feedback and a sounding board – colleagues for instance over the phone. Your tutor is another example. 3.3.3 How might it be possible to integrate theory and personal understanding? The answer to this question depends partly on the outcome of your work on the rest of this section. This should help you to bring academic theory and personal understanding together in ways that you find interesting and enriching. Sometimes it is important to realise that you are being asked to produce different sorts of writing. To do this you will need to draw on a skill that you probably already have. This is the skill of adapting your communication, in this case your written communication 3.3.2 What problems might you have with this? One way to think about the problems you might have with using academic theory on Learning to change is to think about the difference between getting personal feedback and using academic ideas. Academic theory about learning is unlikely to have considered your particular experiences or the story of your life. This may mean that some parts of theory may not seem to apply to you. Often theory is found written down in books or journal articles which are read by other academics; they 3.3.1 Why it might be useful The main similarity between using academic theory and getting feedback is that both can offer you a perspective that may be different from your own. We have already seen how additional perspectives can be valuable in rounding out the understanding that you have about yourself. One possible big advantage with academic theory is that this additional perspective can come from someone who has become recognised as an expert or authority. Drawing on theory opens up the possibility of building on th 3.3 Your learning – what does ‘theory’ offer? The previous section of this section focused on using feedback to enhance what you already know about your qualities, knowledge and skills. This section explores how you might draw on theory in the same way. However, it can be very difficult to include theory with other sorts of understanding. Let’s start by thinking about why it might be useful to pay some attention to what theories about learning have to say. This leads on to a brief discussion about the difficulties that can arise 3.2.4 Johari window This idea is being introduced at this point so that you can use it as you think about the impact of feedback. The Johari window is named after its originators, Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingram (for some reason there is only ever one ‘r’ in ‘Johari’). It consists of four different areas which are shown in Figure 15 and looks rather like the separate panes of a window. The open area covers what you know about yourself. You know about this aspect and are happy to shar 3.2.2 What problems might you have with getting feedback? Only you can answer this. However, you might think that you will not find it easy to ask someone else to be a mentor and give you feedback about your own qualities, knowledge or skills. There may be all sorts of reasons for this. You might not feel that you know anyone that you would trust to give you feedback in a way in which you would find helpful. Acting as a feedback giver can put someone in such a powerful position that you might feel uncomfortable. You might feel that you do not know a 2.4.8 Decision making Let’s move on to think about decision making. Remember that when we talk about decision making we are focusing on the smaller chunks that become clear when you use problem-solving skills. Each of these chunks will need decisions to be made. A technique which has been found to be useful is called PMI, which stands for ‘Plus’, ‘Minus’ and ‘Interesting’. For this, you need a table with 3 columns, similar to the one below. We have given the example of Jim going back to college 2.4.1 Qualities Clearly, some qualities are easier to recognise than others. We might be able to identify some of our qualities, but we might choose to skate over some of which we are not very proud, or have little awareness. We might be inclined to be too hard on ourselves and ‘beat ourselves up’ unnecessarily. However, it is impossible to deny that qualities are important. They influence how we come across to other people. Our qualities are also shaped by our values. To give an example, someone’s qua 2.2 Everyday learning – what’s going on? This section will start with two examples of the sort of learning that occurs on an everyday basis. The aim here is to start you thinking about the ways in which learning goes on all the time. To illustrate this, read Jim’s story. As you read, you might like to begin to think about whether any aspects of Jim’s story might also be a part of your ‘story’. (In this context, we are using the word ‘story’ to mean what has happened in your life so far. We are not using it to mean someth 1.5.2 Planning your study time One of the most difficult aspects of being a student is fitting in your studying with everything else in your life. This is why this unit focuses on organisational skills including time management. It is important both to find enough time to study and then to try to make the most effective use of your time. Finding enough time can be quite a challenge! It often means giving up some activities you currently enjoy or perhaps negotiating with your family and friends to pass on some of the daily 1.1 Welcome Learning to change is a unit for people who are interested in learning about making changes in their lives. We think that you will find the unit interesting and that it will give you ideas that are useful for bringing about personal change. The aims of this section are to:
Case Study: Levene
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Boud, D. and Middleton, H. (2003) ‘Learning from others at work: communities of practice and informal learning’, London, Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 15, no. 5, pp. 194–202.
Coffield, F., Moseley, D., Hall, E. and Ecclestone, K. (2004) Should We Be Using Learning Styles? What Research Has to Say to Practice, London, Learning and Skills Research Centr
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