Explain key influences on the personal learning processes of individuals. Assess the impact of key influences on the personal learning processes on your own learning.

by amber1234567 (student)

P1 & M1

Explain key influences on the personal learning processes of individuals.

Assess the impact of key influences on the personal learning processes on own learning.

There are many different factors that influence a person’s learning; these can be negative or positive, stimuli’s or barriers. Visual learning styles are called kinaesthetic and auditory. A visual learner is someone who learns by watching something, such as a video and watching someone demonstrating something, watching them do something, for example a person may learn to drive by watching someone regularly driving. Kinaesthetic learning mean a person learn by doing something, such as a practical activate. Auditory learning is learning by listening, for example listening to a teaching during a lesson. An example of another stimulus would be inspiration from a former teacher because that teacher has had an influence a person and influenced them in a positive way, they now may practice or carried on learning what they were taught by that teach through their life growing up. TV programs that have educational influences can teach people something without them realising they are been taught, because what they are watching they are interested in, they are paying a lot of attention to it, and if it is said in a fun way, or a way they can relate to it, it will stick in their minds. Theses learn are normally auditory or visual. Barriers of learning include setting; noise and lighting are important factors whilst learning, for example, in a very noisy environment someone would find it hard to concentrate. Personal problems are also barriers of learning, people with personal problem will find it hard to consecrate and think about anything else, they will be concentrating and thinking of their problems, or they may have to take time out of education they are in, to deal with what is happening in their life, this would have a significant effort on their learning. Illness and disability can also be barriers to learning, illness can stop you from attending education that you are in, and because of pain and discomfort it would make it very difficult to concentrate while the person was there. Disability can cause many problems, if a person is physically disabled it can make it hard for them to travel, problems getting into the building and around the building where they are learning depending on the disabled access it has.

Evaluate how personal learning and development may benefit others.

Personal learning and development does not just involve self-help, it includes formal and informal way, teachers, guides, counsellors, managers, life coach or mentors. Personal development is helped with methods, programs, tools, techniques, and assessment systems that support human development depending on the individual.

For D1 I will describe how three psychologists explain why different individuals learn in different ways.

Honey and Mumford created a learning style theory to find out how different people learn better different ways, they came up with four categories activist, reflector, theorist, and pragmatist. Activists like to be heard and involved, they like to be the control of the situation, they like new possibilities and ideas. They think and plan before they act and can lose interest in what they are doing very easily. How they learn the most is working with others and taking control of the group. Their less preferred learning situations are doing tasks alone, listening, rather than visually learning what they are going to go. Reflectors like to observe what they have to do from a distance, they like to consider and reflex on the situation from different perspectives. They have all their information before they contribute and make a decision. How they learn the most is, observing and listening well and they like to work alone. Their less preferred learning situations are taking the lead of a group, having to speak aloud and performing in front of other students. Feeling rushed and pressured does not help them. Theorist like to work with other people, they like to develop different ideas and way round things to make something better, they think very logically and carefully, they are normally very organised people, that follow a routine within their studying life and they like rules. They are not emotional people and do not let things upset them for a long period of time. How they learn the most is working with different ideas, and working with people with open minds. They like to be able to question information so they can find out more information, having a clean structure and rules of what they need to do and having a deadline to complete work. Less preferred learning situations are when they cannot identify with the people who they are working with and having no structure or purpose within their working group. Pragmatists like to know what they are doing right and wrong, they like to know feedback from others, other study partners and teachers. They like to experiment with what they are doing, pragmatists like to get on with what they are doing and they don’t like to waste time. How they learn the most is having a clean plan of what has to be done, having the opportunity to try different things different ways. They are very happy to learn and copy from those they consider to be role models. Less preferred learning situations are not having enough information or guidance on how they need to do something and mainly learning with the focus on theory with no practical aspects. Honey and Mumford’s theory can be very helpful for people development and learning because it is useful for people working in health and social care to know when teaching other people so they can understand how the different individuals they are teaching will learn differently and they can incorporate this into their learning methods whilst teaching.

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Gibbs developed a reflective cycle, is a popular model of reflection that takes emotion strongly into account whilst looking at how different people learn better differently. Gibbs reflection cycle has 6 parts to it. Description – what has happened? This is the matter of fact, what has just happened. Feelings – what were you thinking and feeling? At the time of action what were your thoughts and what were your emotions. Evaluation – what was good and bad about the experience? Tell yourself what was good and bad about the experience so you can learn from it and try to avoid and eliminate the bad in your future experience. Analysis – what sense can you make of the situation? What does it mean what you have out or what you have learnt, can anything be improved. Conclusion – what else could you have done? If anything could be improved, what it is? And how could you of done it? What should you have not done? Action plan – if it arose again what would you do? If the situation and experience happens again think about everything you would do different to improve the situation. How would you change your practice now you have reflected over it?

Gibbs reflective cycle helps people learn and improves their development by breaking down the learning process into stages that people can follow, this helps them looks at what they have learn more closely and in more detail, when the person has completed each stage, they will then have a clear understand of what they have learnt and how they could of improved what they did.

Kolb’s learning cycle how adults with learning. They way adults learn he called it their cognitive abilities. He said that in adolescence and early childhood people start to develop instinctive preference to process information and they use this instinctive preference throughout their life to learn. Kolb identified two pairs of opposing factors that combine together to create a cycle of four stage of how adults learn better. The first part of the cycle is concrete experience (action/actual practice) – this is the doing stage, this is where a person carries out or participates in an action or actions. The second part of the cycle is reflective observation (analysing) – this is the reviewing or reflecting stage, the person reviews and reflects upon what they did and what happened during the concrete experience. Abstract conceptualisation (sense making) – this is sometimes known as the theorising stage. In this stage the person uses all the information they have gained about the experience and all of the information they have gained by reflecting on the experience to assess all of their thoughts into an order to make full sense of the experience to gain the most information they can gain from the experience. Active experimentation (exploring/ revising approaches) - this is the last stage in the cycle, this is the planning stage, what you will do next time differently, the person learns to deal with the different aspects differently from what they have learnt.

Kolb’s learning cycle is useful for people to recognise looking over what they have learnt and thinking about it in detail involves a series of stages, this will help peoples development and learning because they will think over what they have learnt in more detail which will provide them to make a full understanding of the information.

Produce an action plan for self-development and achievement of own personal goals.

Personal Development plan.

Produce evidence of own progress against action plan over the duration of the programme.

The goals in my action plan were to organise all my assignments and the criteria’s in all of the assignments and to get all distinction criteria’s completed in the assignments I needed too and find a course I want to study at university.

Short term goals

Organise assignments -

01/01/11 wrote a detailed list of all of the criteria within all of the assignments that needed to be completed, crossed off the criteria that was met.

10/1/11 organised all assignment’s to be completed in plastic wallets.

20/1/11 I wrote a new detailed list of all of the criteria within all of the full assignments to what criteria I needed to complete them to, to achieve my target.

Medium term goals

Achieve distinction in all the assignment’s I need to –

01/05/11 Finished a few units to distinction

10/05/11 Behind on assignments

20/05/11 Over the course of the two years to achieve distinction in all the assignments.

Long term goals

Apply to University.

1/06/11 I looked at course at different University’s.

20/10/11 I didn’t complete a UCAS application because I decided I would wait a couple years before studying at University.

Assess how the action plan has helped support own development over the duration of the programme.

My action plan helped me complete units on this course because it gave me a clear way to focus on, by the key goals I set.

At the start of the course I wanted to study nursing at University, having a target pushed me towards this, however during the course of the two years I changed what I thought I’d like to do at University. At one stage through the 2nd year of the course I thought I would like to study midwifery, for a week I worked on the maternity ward at the Leeds General Infirmary (LGI), I shadowed the matron of the ward, the experience of it was great and I loved it, however it made me confirm I did not want to study midwifery to become a midwife. By the end of the course I hopefully will have an idea to what career I want to go into.

From the start of the first year of the programme I had a goal to achieve Merit, I was very confused to what assignments I had done, needed to do, or needed to finish and what criteria’s I needed to improve. Having a target of what I wanted to achieve made me write down a detailed list of all the assignments and criteria’s I needed to complete and to what criteria I needed to complete it too. This list I kept for the whole year and make a new one for the second year, it helped me a lot, when I had finished a piece of work I would cross off that criteria of that assignment, I then knew exactly what I needed to complete.

Reflect on own personal and professional development.

Use three examples to examine links between theory and practice.

Honey and Mumford

The learning style I have is visual, this means I like to watch things to be done before I do them or start to learn about them. I remember things a lot more when I had seen something to do with it, rather than just hearing the information. Out of the different learning styles of Honey and Mumford, activists, reflectors, theorist and pragmatists. I would be an activist because I can lose interest in what I am doing or what I am learning about very easy if I am not interested in it at all, if I am working in a group I would like to be in control so I am heard in that group.

Gibbs reflective cycle

An example whilst I was on placement of Gibbs reflective cycle is when I had to carry a baby from outside to inside and repeat that, I have experience carrying babies, however I had to open a gate when I had a baby in my arms and the weather conditions had changed it had started to rain heavy so we had to quickly get the babies inside. Despite having experience carrying babies and I am very confidence when doing so, I became slightly panicked because of the rush we were in and I was solely reasonable for this baby I couldn’t help but go over in my head to be careful as I am walking. Next time I repeat that task I will make sure I am fully confidence before doing it.

Kolb’s learning theory

An example whilst I was on placement of Kobl’s learning theory is when I was doing activities with the children, one example being reading a story to them. Reflecting on that, I think that it should be a group decision what they want read to them, a different children got to pick each day, however some children really didn’t like some of the story, the girls didn’t like a certain books and the boys knew this which is why they picked it for the reaction of the girls. The teacher would laugh because she knew but that was his choice so they read it. There were many books that all the children enjoyed together that’s why I think it would have been a lot fairer if they were allowed to make a group decision. When I was given this activity to do I asked all the children what they wanted to read by giving them a choice of a quite a few books.

Evaluate own development over the duration of the programme.

For D2 I will evaluate my own development through the duration of the two years during the course. During the two years of the course I did two sets of two weeks on placement in a Nursery and a week at the Leeds General Infirmary (LGI), these placements gave me knowledge of the work that is undertaken in these work places, the jobs, the roles of the different staff and their responsible and many other aspects of the jobs. Having worked in these establishments helped me make decisions of what I wanted to do in my future, I had a great time on placement but it made me realise they were not the careers I wanted to go into this helped with my development because I was able to realise this and it made me discover and look at new career opportunities I may want to go into. I learnt over the two years that I work better under pressure and I get much more done when I have pressure on me, given this, too much pressure makes me fall apart completely. I enjoyed one of the units I did in the course a lot more than the rest, this was the course I completed to distinction straight away, I learnt that what I did enjoyed I got on with and wanted to learn, what I didn’t enjoy it took me a long time to complete. This helped me a lot with my development because, at the beginning of the course I was mind-set that it is compulsory to have a degree if you want to have a career, however I was never sure to what I would study at University, it made me realise that if I applied to university to study something I am not completely set on and wont enjoy I won’t be able to study that subject and I won’t be able to get a degree. The course taught me that work experience is very important, which is what I am going to focus on when the course is over.

A social worker works with people who are experiencing crisis in their life or have recently experienced something traumatising and people who have been excluded from their family. A social workers role is to provide support. They maintain professional relationships with service users, acting as guides, advocates or critical friends.

Social workers work in a variety of settings within a framework of relevant legislation and procedures, supporting individuals, families and groups within the community. Settings may include the service user's home or schools, hospitals or the premises of other public sector and voluntary organisations.

Qualified social work professionals are often supported by social work assistants. They also work closely with other health and social care staff.

Teacher Reviews

Here's what a teacher thought of this essay

Sam Morran

13th of Aug 2013

This essay contains a lot of information about learning and learning styles. The writer has discussed three theories and evaluated their own development. It is a little descriptive at times though the discussion of theories is quite sound. It could be enhanced by trying to build up explanations and by developing the evaluation. ****

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