Personal learning experiences

On this section, I will outline three of my learning experiences: one from middle school, one at University, and one from work. In each learning experience, I will address the following five questions:

Question 1: What was the topic I was learning ?

Question 2: Who was teaching ?

Question 3: What specific contents (a theory, skills, or some facts) was I learning ?

Question 4: How did I feel while I was learning ?

Question 5: Why was I learning that topic ?

Part 1. One of my learning experiences in middle school

  • Question 1: The topic I learnt was physics, more specifically optics.
  • Question 2: The teacher was in my opinion, a great physics teacher.
  • Question 3: The specific content I learned was the theory of ligh transmission through different media. We familiarized ourselves with the theory and apply that to explaining real – world phenomena.
  • Question 4: I felt extremely curious and eager to learn. I thought the teacher explained concepts extremely clearly, allowing me to asks deepening questions and then answered in a way that poked even more questions from me. This continous process of actively asking questions based on previous answers is integral to a learner – centered classroom.
  • Question 5: I learned that topic simply because it was part of my curriculum. So at first I kind of had to do it, but as I had a great teacher, he allowed me to develop a passion for the subject.

Part 2. One of my learning experiences in university

  • Question 1: The topic I learnt was again physics, this time the subject of general relativity.
  • Question 2: The person teaching me was a Professor of Physics at the University of Exeter.
  • Question 3: the specific content was black hole calculus. I learnt to use the mathematics of tensor to calculate solutions of Einstein’s field equations. Then, by applying certain conditions, I obtained the matheamtical description of blackholes.
  • Question 4: I felt quite interested, since I grew up already reading many scientific books. I especially enjoyed Stephen Hawking’s books about cosmology and black holes. There fore, the content came naturally to me, I did not have to struggle to stay focused.
  • Question 5: I learned that subject out of pure interest and curiosity. My degree was mathematics, and I had a free option to choose a related subject. I did not hesitate to select general relativity.

Part 3. One of my learning experiences at work

  • Question 1: The topic I learnt this time was educational psychology.
  • Question 2: The person teaching me was a professor of Psychology from the USA.
  • Question 3: The specific topic I learned was Bloom’s taxonomy and its applications to constructing lesson plans.
  • Question 4: I thought that the teacher was aware of and successfully used Andragogy in instruction. More specifically, he drew from experiences of myself as a teacher and other teachers to build the lesson. He allowed for considerable discussion between and control from the learners. As a result, I felt very engaged in his lessons.
  • Question 5: This is part of a series of professional training sessions given at my office.