Personal Learning free essay sample

There are many factors that can have an influence on my learning. One of them is my friends. My friends can influence my learning by distracting me during lessons and also by helping me to catch up on work. In some ways, friends can motivate me because they encourage me to do my work and to get my assignments done on time. They also motivate me because they assist me with my work when I need it instead of waiting to ask a tutor which cannot be done as easily; I can easily call a friend. Friends have a positive influence on me because they are aware of the things that I am doing so that they know what I should be working on, mainly because my friends are all doing the same course as me. A negative affect that they have on my learning is sometimes we spend a whole lesson going off topic and talking about what happened on our weekends which is something that can be discussed on the lunch breaks rather than the all important lessons. Another one of the factors that can influence my learning is my health. Health problems can influence my learning in many ways which could be tiredness, physical illness, poor diet or mental illness. Health problems could motivate me to work because it might make me more determined to show other people that being ill whether physically or mentally is not an excuse for me to slack on my work which could push me to exceed more with my work that I would do usually. Health problems have a positive influence on me because if I am ill, I will most likely be at home which is where I get most of my work done successfully as I find doing coursework at college difficult due to noise and the distractions around me. Health problems can have a negative effect on me because if I was very physically ill, I would not have the energy to be able to do coursework. Also, if I was seriously ill and had to go to the hospital for treatment, I would have to miss out on college work unless someone brought it into the hospital for me. Family can also influence my learning. This is because family is one of the most important things in my life. My family motivate me to succeed because I am the only person in my entire family to go to college and stay on without dropping out or getting pregnant which is something I take pride in. I will also be the only one out of my family that went to University besides my mother. My family has a positive effect on my learning because my mum is always pushing me to do my coursework and to make sure I do everything on time. I consider myself to be quite lucky because I have a very supportive close family. My family does not have a negative effect on my learning. Time can also influence my learning because sometimes I might not have enough time to do coursework or deadlines get moved forward/back and I might not have started the coursework yet. Time motivates me because it means that I have to do a set amount of work (coursework) in a set amount of time (deadlines), if I do not meet the deadlines, then my work cannot be submitted and I could possibly fail the unit which would then affect my overall grade and could leave me with a bad grade which would mean that my whole 2 years at college was pretty pointless. Time also motivates me because it makes me realise that I only have a short time at college in which I have to do as much as I can so that I can embark on my chosen career path. Time can be positive for my learning because it lets me know how long I have to do things and helps me to keep all of my coursework organised. Time can also be negative for my learning because sometimes I might run out of time which is not good because that means that I won’t be able to submit work if I have missed the deadline. Also if I have a lot of coursework to do in a short amount of time, I’m not going to be able to do all of it to the best of my ability which could leave me with a lower than desired grade. Employment can also affect my learning because my mind would be on the job that I’m doing. I would also be learning new skills which I might confuse with coursework. It could also be very confusing if I was learning new skills at a new job and also revising for exams because there would be lots of different information to be absorbed. Employment can have a positive effect on my learning because it motivates me to do the best I can so that I can achieve my career goals. It would also benefit me because if I was employed with a part time job, I could have money that I would buy nice things with. I enjoy luxury things so by getting a snippet of what I can buy with the money I’m already earning can be a motivator for me to do well so that I can get a proper job and earn a lot more money which means having nicer things which I would enjoy and be my reward for doing well. Informal learning is the things that we learn in our day to day life. They don’t necessarily have to be taught (formal learning) but we do learn them. We do this by figuring things out by ourselves. (Jeffs, T. and Smith, M. K) Informal learning has taught me a lot more things about the world and why things happen. It’s where I’ve learnt most of my general knowledge. I can work out why things happen due to things that are related to it. An example is me discovering that my eyelid primer that I use for my eye-shadow and eye make-up is sticky. Because it is sticky, the powder will stick to it which is why it stays on for extended periods of time. Using this logic, it can also work for my powder foundation if I put my eye shadow primer on my face after my foundation so then my powder will stick to it and make it last even longer throughout the day. Culture is the characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. I belong to many cultures such as western culture, gyaru (a type of Japanese street fashion) culture and LGBT culture. My gyaru culture focuses on looking very cute with big eyes. To get these big eyes, contact lenses are often used. I have a pair of 16mm contact lenses that dry my eyes out considerably if I am in front of a screen for a long time. This can affect my learning because I find it difficult to work on a computer nad look at a computer screen if I have my gyaru make up on due to the contact lenses and me not being able to wear my glasses with my eyelashes on as well. It causes me to not do my work on a computer if I’m at college with my gyaru makeup. Motivation is literally the desire to do things (Psychology Today). On some days, I don’t have the motivation to do work. These days are when I will stay in bed all day and not leave the house. These days aren’t very good because I have wasted doing nothing when I should have been doing work. This will set me back in my work because I will have to set a date aside for me to do my work. When I am motivated, I can get through 2 assignments in a day and do work that doesn’t have to be handed in for several weeks. When I am motivated, I feel like I can do anything and that I am in control of my life. A learning style is a student’s consistent way of responding to and using stimuli in the context of learning. (Keefe) I’m a Tactile-Kinaesthetic Learner which means that I learn things by physically doing them, that I remember things by doing them and that I struggle with written formal information. This affects my learning because not all assignments are kinaesthetic based because for an assignment, we are given an assignment brief that details what we have to do. It would be much better for me if there were certain movements or actions that would be done whilst a teacher is explaining what I have to for the assignment. I would remember the movement and what they said and be able to repeat what they said as I did the movement. I can also read things better if they have a black back ground and green writing. I do most of my coursework this way and then change it to black and white before I print it off. IT skills are the skills that a person uses on a computer. My IT skills are highly developed because I am on my laptop for roughly 5-10 hours a day. This time consists of doing coursework and procrastination through games, forums and photo editing software. I am very aware of computer controls and how to access things on a computer. Because of this, I am quite quick at typing which means that I will get assignments done quickly as opposed to someone who types very slowly. I can also type without looking at the screen although I do often make minor spelling mistakes. A blindpsot is an area or subject about which one is uninformed, prejudiced, or they do not appreciate it. (Dictionary. com) A subject blind spot is a subject that people have difficulty learning. Someone might excel at one subject and struggle with another subject. For me, my subject blind spots are subjects where you have to state research data in a formal way. I struggle with collecting research data because once I’ve found one piece of data, I like to stick with that data rather than go with other pieces to back to up. Subjects that I excel in are subjects that ask me what I think of things and my person opinion on things because I enjoy expressing my views. Access to study centre is the access that people have for learning resources such as a local library, educational library and computer access, both personal and educational. I have limited access to a study centre because my college is in Birmingham and I live roughly 15 miles away from the college so it’s not always easy for me to go the college library. There isn’t a local library to me because the nearest one has recently closed down. Also, the library at college is often full and there aren’t many computers available to the people that need them which is why I prefer to do my work at home because there are some students who don’t have access to the internet and have to use the computers at college so I like to keep them free to people who need them. A learning need is someone that someone needs to progress their learning. My specific learning need currently is my qualifications for University. I need to do well in college and get my predicted grades so that I meet the conditions of my conditional university offer where I can further my education. If I don’t get my target grades, my University offer will get reclined and I won’t go to University and I’ll have to apply again next year which will mean that I’ve wasted year of my life and that I’ve extended the time for my personal goals. Attitude and self-discipline means that attitude that people have towards their education; positive or negative. I have a positive attitude to my learning as I know that I can get things done if I do them my way. However, I used to have a negative attitude to learning because I wasn’t ready to accept new knowledge and deemed it as unnecessary. However, I soon learnt that all knowledge is beneficial to me in some way even if I don’t feel that it is currently benefitting me. I have self-discipline because I must tell myself when to do my coursework as I tend to procrastinate over very little things and I often find myself focusing on something very small rather than doing my courswork. A lifestyle is the way that someone lives their life. My lifestyle is quite quiet although most people wouldn’t think it because of how I look. I prefer to stay in and watch programmes, go on the internet or look at makeup rather than go out. This affects my learning because I have more time spent in doors and if I fancy doing some coursework, I can because I’m already at home and I know where everything is. Because I’m inside a lot of the times, I have constant internet access so if I’m struggling with something, I can easily look It up on the internet so that I can understand it easier and learn it accurately. Care responsibilities are people that you have to look after. My care responsibilities are my mum, brother and cats. My mum is disabled and so is my brother so I have to help them with daily activities although my mum is quite independent and I don’t have to look after her as much as I used to. However, my brother requires assistance when he goes out so if I’m doing my coursework and he wants to go out somewhere, I have to stop what I’m doing and go out with him. If it’s just popping to the shop, it can take up to an hour because I have to assist him around the shop and he takes a long time to choose what he wants. Study space is the space that someone is studying in. My study space is usually a decent size for me to have my laptop or computer on and for my notes and books to go beside me. I have a desk in my room that I have my laptop on and I put my notes next to it in a line so that I can easily glance over and look at them. If I’m in the library at college, I try and get a computer with a similar set up. However, it’s not always possible to get a computer space like that so I often will have to make do with what I have which can make it very difficult for me to learn because I will be balancing a thick book on my lap and resting on my arms whilst I’m trying to type which can be distracting if it keeps on moving around. Also, the pages tend to turn by themselves so I spend quite a bit of time changing the page to the page that I was originally looking at. An aspiration is a strong desire, longing, or aim. (Dictionary. com) My career aspiration is to be either a forensic analyst, scene of crime officer or a mortuary cosmetologist. These aspirations affect my learning because I know that I need to learn about what I want to do before I do them just to make sure that it’s what I want to do and how I go about achieving those aspirations. They can also motivate me to do well because I have a goal to work towards. My college friends don’t really affect my learning. I’m not the type of person to follow the crowd and I don’t like to do what other people are doing. For example, if my friends are going to go out and not do coursework, I’ll want to stay in and do coursework so that I have the advantage of doing my work. However, my best friend does affect my learning. She lives in Lancashire so I often have to take whole days and weekend out of my schedule so that I can see her. This takes up my learning time and time for me to do my coursework. She also motivates me to do my work because she does her work as well and I see her doing it and it motivates me to do my work. We also help each other with work sometimes as she is an art student and often uses me as the basis of her projects because of how I look. If I can’t make sense of something, I’ll often as her to interpret it for me because she knows how I think and will be able to interpret it into a way that she knows that I’ll understand which will make my work easier for me to do. I don’t receive much funding for study from the college that I attend. However, I do receive an attendance bonus if my attendance to college is higher than 95%. This affects my learning because I need to be at college every day so that I can get a high attendance percentage. Because I’m at college all of the time, I’ll be learning more and I won’t be missing out on valuable information in lessons. I don’t really have a relationship with anyone either. I tend not to form emotional connections with anyone so I wouldn’t really say I have a relationship with anyone apart from my best friend. This doesn’t really affect my learning because there isn’t anyone to distract me with my work. If I did have a relationship with someone, I doubt that it would affect my learning because I tend to keep myself to myself when it comes to learning because I work better on my own. I’m also very good at managing my time so if I was spending time with them, I’d still get my coursework in on time because I’m very efficient at time keeping and like to set out time limits in my head for when I should get things done. I do have access to books and internet. This affects my learning because it gives me most of the resources that I need to learn new things. Books and internet are especially useful because the information is already there and I just have to seek it out. If I were to seek out my own information through research and asking people, it would take a lot of time and it would be very stressful for me. My main method of researching for coursework comes from books and the internet so they do affect my learning greatly because without them, I would not be able to do my coursework. These resources have been especially useful throughout my 2 years at college because most of the teachers aren’t very reliable due to them leaving, not turning up or just not teaching a lesson so I’ve had to teach myself quite a few subjects which I wouldn’t have been able to do if it were not for the internet and books. My previous educational experiences have not been very good. In secondary school, I experienced a sudden total isolation which made me not want to be in school and I’d take every opportunity not to go. Lessons were very hard for me to do because I’d be working on my own and being ridiculed for everything. However, this has developed my learning because I learnt to work on my own and now I find that I can work better and produce a better quality of work when I am totally secluded from distractions. When I do my coursework, I have my earphones in with music playing to cancel out any background noise, I have a dark room so that I’m not distracted visually, my screen is turned down to the lowest brightness setting and the page background is black so I’m just seeing words on a screen so that I’m totally focused.