Online Learners and Their Learning Strategies, Essay Example

Self-Assessment Reflection: My learning style is INTJ, Introvert-Intuition-Thinking-Judging (Dewar & Whittington, 2000, pp. 5-6). As an introvert, I’m very internally focused, which means I do a lot of thinking and reflecting, and tend to do most of my learning by myself, in my own head (pp. 5-6). I’m also very imaginative, though there is a trade-off in that I’m terrible at paying attention to details: I often can’t see the trees for the forest (p. 6). I tend to be very logical, and prefer truth over tact if it comes down to that. I’m also very procedure- and process-driven (p. 6). What all of this has tended to mean is that I do very well on school work when I actually buckle down and apply myself without getting distracted: then I can get fantastic results. However, any kind of group work is a challenge, and paying attention to finer points of detail (say, in a math problem) is difficult for my mind to process.

A key advantage of my learning style for Capella: written work is no problem for me, as long as the expectations are clear (Dewar & Whittington, 2000, p. 8). Once I’m on task, there’s really no stopping me: I’m very intent and determined. A key challenge is that I tend to spend too much time reflecting and thinking things over, so sometimes getting started on an assignment is the real issue: I wait because I’m trying to make sure I have everything clear in my head.

Obviously it’s important to have knowledge of learning styles when working with clients because they affect how one goes about the business of learning: how one understands directions and carries them out, and what types of tasks are easier or more difficult, etc. This all matters because it affects performance, plainly and simply: if I am to maximize my clients’ performance, I will need to know how they learn. I certainly learned much about my own scholarly writing abilities: I feel more confident that I know what to do and how to do it, though I recognize that I’ll need to be careful in paying attention to detail. Effective writing skills are of paramount importance to my professional identity, because they determine how I will be received.

References   

Dewar, T., & Whittington, D. (2000). Online learners and their learning strategies. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 23(4), pp. 1-14. Retrieved from http://www.personal.psu.edu/