Personal Learning Styles

My path of self-discovery seems to never end and has begun providing additional learning opportunities about myself and the world ever since I decided to return to school and complete my undergraduate education. That decision, I believe, will facilitate a set of new learning experiences and force me to create new expectations for myself. This will include redefining what my vision of success looks like for this endeavor. To reach that success, I must grow more aware of the ways my mind takes in and manages information. With my current and new knowledge of my personality, learning style, and time commitments, I can create a plan to support my success in returning to school and the rigorous course of study I am undertaking. This plan will give me confidence when approaching the tasks and commitments that will be revealed to me during this adventure.

After completing the two personality assessments found in Keys to College Studying: Becoming a Lifelong Learner, I am reminded of what traits my personality demonstrates and how these traits can assist me in reaching my educational goals. I learned that I am an organizer. This was not a new discovery as I have employed organizer techniques in my work life for many years. Organizers enjoy work and activities that entail scheduling. This work often appears steady, orderly and includes prescribed tasks (Lawrence, 1993). People with this strength may prefer o start organizing their time as soon as they receive an assignment. They need to feel they are making steady progress toward the closure of an assignment (DiTiberio & Hammer, 1993). For me, I enjoy the action of crossing of an item off of my to-do list. According to Demarest (1993), organizers make active use of planners and calendars, using them to review the big picture and make long-term considerations as well as for planning and guiding daily activities (p.38).

According to the Pathways to Learning assessment, using a calendar and having an inclination to planning visually is aligned to my most developed intelligence. Jacobsen stated (2002) "spatial intelligence is the ability to perceive the visual world accurately, and to re-create, transform, or modify aspects of the world based on one's perceptions" (p.198) This is but one of eight ways offered by Gardner to describe differences in students in terms of multiple intelligences (Jacobsen, 2002). The concept of multiple intelligences says different people are intelligent in different ways. "An intelligence, according to Gardner, is an ability to solve problems or fashion products that are useful in a particular cultural setting or community" (as cited in Carter, Bishop, and Lyman, 2002, p.30).

Knowing and furthering my understanding of these strengths has encouraged me to chosen the following techniques to support my educational goals. At the beginning of each class, I will review the syllabus and the assignments. These will be entered as milestones into a Microsoft Outlook calendar. I use one calendar for personal, school, and work appointments to reduce confusion. Additionally, I will color-code my school deadlines denote their importance. After the initial review of assignments and deadlines, I will review each task and create a plan to complete each in an appropriate amount of time considering the final product, be it a paper or presentation. This plan will include the supporting tasks needed to complete the assignment. These could be reading, writing, editing, and attending a meeting with my learning team. Once these tasks are defined, they will be entered in the calendar as well with priorities and deadlines to give me a comprehensive