What is your preferred method of learning?

[Guest watto]

Hi guys, having been a work and community trainer for a number of years and work dealing with people from many walks of life I have needed to cater training for people specific needs and you get a fairly even balance of learning styles depending on what the subject is.

 

What type of learner are you?

 

a) Are you the guy who reads and reads some more and then goes out and tackles the practicle.

 

b) Are you the type of guy who can read a lot but does not really get a feel for anything until you actually go out and do it.

 

c) Or are you the type of person who really benefits from actually being hands on from the beginning to the end with theory being introduced after practicle examples.

 

I would imagine we have a balance here but you do not really know, it often depends on the generation as many of us did not get the benefit of staying at school as long as possible for various reasons where now young people stay and theorise a lot more it seems (maybe I am wrong so lets get a feel for how we all fit into the learning styles)

 

I personally am a hands on learner ©:thumb_up:

 

 

[Guest watto]

One great example I have is I had a young prisoner whom had been in juvinile and adult detention for over ten years and had basically been involved in trouble every day of the week and being issued with breach after breach(an internal charge) to the point where he had lost all chance of any type of remission and would be serving many more years of prison time purely because of bad behaviour.

 

One day I was filling in as a relief Supervisor on that block when an Officer handed me yet another breach for this young man! I called him up and asked him for his story and the gut feeling I got was that he had all the excuses under the sun an all of them made his behaviour someone elses fault and two much time on his hands to think them up.

 

I spoke to a mate who was a TAFE tutor for wood work at the prison and asked him if he had any spaces in his class and he said officially no but what is the story so I told him that I wanted to take away the excuses from this young man by putting responsability on him and have him learn some skills as well and my mate agreed to take him on as a special project.

 

I also tore the breach up and told the young man that he was on a five day a week course from now and then after the course he could work in our joinery shop making furniture for retail outlets in QLD and he said that sounds good but I cannot be seen to be getting off my breach you have to punish me! I responded by telling him that any punishment I would give him would be a maximum slap on the wrist and only for maximum 7 days and that my idea had him committed every day all day for the balance of his sentence ( he had a doohhhhhh) look on his face and off he went.

 

Some weeks later I spoke to the tutor and asked his progress and was amazed, he told me that the young man was quick to pick things up once shown and had not missed a single day, he had also been reduced to tears when it was pointed out to him that he had this opportunity because one of the people he hated the most (a screw) took the time to recognise the need and that the time was right for him to change and gave him that chance. he later passed the course and worked in the joinery shop and and never got in trouble again in the prison and got back his remissions and was sent home to NZ and has not been heard of since.

 

Payment for me was to pass him on the walkway and previously he would not have even looked at you as he was to tough (haha) but for him to look you in the eye and nod gidday boss was enough to know I made a difference to someones life by tailoring learning and providing an opportunity to learn.

 

 

[Thx1137]

I need practical experience. I needed to study my flight training material literally 4 or 5 times for it to sink in. Unfortunately I have always been like that and is one of the reasons I left school at 15.

 

A practical lesson and I usually don't need a second exposure to remember (I may not be able to "do" but I know what I am supposed to do!)

 

Steven.

 

 

[Guest watto]

Yes I am axactly the same and also left school around the same age as I was not able to get anyone to recognise that conventional teaching was not doing the job, I have always exelled at work though because it is hands on.

 

It is not a fault, it is simply the way different people a wired up and you need to learn the way that best suits you, and not have people try to make you conform to what they think learning needs to be for everyone.

 

Different strokes for different folks!

 

 

[GraemeK]

For me it depends I guess.

 

For lots of things (flying included) I am a voracious reader, I've read dozens of books on the theory and practice of flight - several before I even sat in a plane. Now I've got a few hours up, I'm going through re-reading them - getting a different perspective after a bit of stick and rudder experience.

 

My bedtime reading is currently the AIP, much to the dismay of my wife. :hittinghead:

 

I think it has helped me, although turning theory into practice has been very slow for me ...

 

On other things, I've never looked at a book, just jumped in. Maybe it's a familiarity thing, I don't know.

 

 

[Guest watto]

Funny you should be reading such bed time stories, I have never read as much in my life as I have about flying! but I really only started absorbing it properly after actually learning to fly.

 

 

[Yenn]

I like to study the theory first and then jump in. Having to do a job with no background reading gets me off on the wrong foot completely.

 

Just started learning to do some cooking and I find the cookbooks so frustrating, they don't give any theory, so I wonder what is important. One problem with the theory side is the use of jargon, which turns a lot of people off. Flying is full of it and one of my old loves was photography, which is all jargon.

 

 

[Tomo]

I'm a hands on lad also... I can read a book till the cows come home, but I always work better actually doing it. Mainly it's my sitting still doing "nothing" that I can't stand! I'd rather be out there doing it, than in here sitting down reading about it!

 

But I can do both quite Ok I suppose, but I certainly prefer doing it, I learn very quickly from watching others... As a kid (and still do) I can watch someone do something and analyze there every move for this and that... that when I come to do it myself, I surprise even myself how quickly I can pick it up.

 

 

[Tomo]

Just started learning to do some cooking and I find the cookbooks so frustrating,

Aren't they! I hate cook books too, because when you use them, you find out you don't have half the ingredients needed anyway!! Just a bit of this, a bit of that, some more of that one, and shake it all about...

 

 

[Guest Gomer]

For me, it's Read First, then Do, then mull over it for a while, have a little "Oh!" moment and we're away... :)

 

When I started to learn to fly, I had ideas of doing some of it condensed into a few days, but I've worked out now that I need a week between lessons to reflect on what's just happened and how to do it better next time. I dread to think of how I would have progressed if I didn't have that reflection time.

 

 

[Guest watto]

Gomer, I was the opposite and needed to condense it to consolidate what I was learning and get a rythum going.

 

I started out a lesson a week but it was not working for me.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Cookbooks are for girls aren't they ????.............................................

 

 

[Tomo]

Cookbooks are for girls aren't they ????.............................................

That's probably what the problem is then... All we need is a BBQ and some steak!!:thumb_up:

 

 

[skybum]

Bit of both for me...hands on or reading theory...Best lesson learnt? having the guts to stand up and tell the teacher "I do not understand this", regardless of the stigma that brings upon you.

 

Soloed in GA in under 7hrs, soloed in gliders in under 5,finished rppl and ppl in minimum time...this isn't because of just me... I had bloody good instructors who pushed me at just the right time.

 

 

[Guest watto]

Good on you sky bum for standing up!

 

It is also true that it is about having the right people around you at the right time to give that little push and recognise when to push and when to wait, unfortunately some young people never get that and fall between the cracks and when you think about it, part of it is how we have evolved from tribal people into family units, when the family breaks down or is not functioning as it should there would have been other role models for youg people within the tribe but in many cases today there either is nobody or even predatory figures that step in and lead them off the track.

 

 

[Guest watto]

Cookbooks are for girls aren't they ????.............................................

I initially thought the MAJ was for Marjory and it was a few weeks here before I worked out it was Major!!!!!!!!!! ;)