Blog Prompt #5

I strongly agree with many of the opinions discussed in the Changing Education Paradigms video. One thing I have both witnessed and experienced is the belief that school is unimportant. Being someone who likes to ask questions and think about why things are the way they are I have always found it challenging to just accept the structure of our education system. Another reason I may have found this so challenging is because like everyone else I have a unique learning style. If we are all unique learners, then why do I struggle more than most students in the conventional class room? Well I guess (and pardon my serious grammatical error here) my learning style is very unique.  I have never being able to really accept the conventional way of teaching as the most effective way to learn because …. Well… it doesn’t work for me. When I sit down and listen to scripted information being read off an overhead, while failing to get the notes down, I lose interest. I lose interest because if the information seems like it is coming from the text book and not the teacher, it loses its meaning. I think I actually learn best when I am doing work in a group interacting with people and learning from each other or from well put together interesting videos like ones shown my economics is class. ;)

I also think that the idea of chunking is something that has always worked well for me. Chunking is what has lead me to being somewhat successful in math. I was always a good math student in elementary school because math way something that came naturally to me. Unfortunately as soon as letters became involved, everything fell apart. My math marks stayed frightening low until grade 11 when I got my first 90 in course that was P.E.  What really allowed me to make the change was just doing to homework in class and at lunch, instead of going home first. This was effective because I was able to practice what I learned in class instead of re-teaching it to myself. This allowed to understand what I was had learned instead of remembering it. Another example in my life where chunking was effective is grade 8 French. Everyday after school my teacher would make me stay after class to practice what we had learned that day. Not only was the practice work “chunked” but my testing was as well. Instead of writing a test every month or so like the rest of my class, my teacher would test me every three days on what we had gone over. This system took extreme dedication on both our parts (mainly hers) and made French one of my most successful courses that year. I really think that school needs to feel possible and that is one of the reason why chunking is so effective, because it allows you understand materials in pieces and get small rewards as you learn.