Page 317 - Learning to Learn

LEARNING TO LEARN: BECOMING A SELF -GROWER 317
“Thinking is what a great many people think they are doing
when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”
—William James
REFLECTION
At the heart of this course is the learning process and learning how to learn (the application of
metacognition). In this experience, you will use a Learning Journal worksheet, Concept Map, and a
Metacognitive Exploration worksheet to help you increase your own metacognition and elevate the
level of your thinking and knowledge through guided reflection on learning, learning skills, and critical
thinking.
P URPOSE
When we engage in metacognition, thinking about our own thinking, and step back from just doing to
determine how and why we actually do what we do, we strengthen all aspects of our own learning and
growth.
In several critical ways, this entire course has been about metacognition and increasing and improving
your awareness of your own thinking.
Experience 1 was about becoming aware of how you perform and how you can improve your performance.
That’s also where you first encountered the idea of Self-Growth — consciously working to improve your
learning, thinking, and performing.
Experience 2 was about the Learning Process Methodology and being aware of how you learn so that you
can improve your ability to learn. That experience also introduced you to the idea that methodologies are
a way to generalize so we can apply a successful strategy to different contexts. The LPM taught you to be
aware of how you learn (serious metacognition there!) so that you can improve your ability to learn.
Experience 3 was about being aware of your emotional reactions (that’s metacognition too) and learning
to control them instead of being controlled by them in order to achieve greater self-determination.
Experience 4 was an eye-opener on self-assessment and shared strategies for using assessment and
reflection to increase your self-awareness and ability to improve your performances.
Experience 5 gave you the opportunity to consider how you use time in your pursuit of learning and self-
growth, learning to prioritize and plan for ever more effective performances.
Experience 6 was another methodology experience, this time with problem solving. In that experience,
you learned to be aware of and even change your thinking in situations where you were confronted with
problems that needed to be solved. You were also challenged to reflect on that metacognition and assess
it in order to improve it.