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High performing teams diversity
High performing teams diversity
• Explain Honey and Mumford learning and or VAK learning styles
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The purpose of this reflective essay on the debate is to analyse my team and my own personal learning style and experience of participating in the debate and in the preparation period - that started in week 7 with the mock debate - by structured and based on Honey and Mumford’s Learning Styles theory, and examine some ideas for my future practice.
Reflection is a key part of our personal development plan that is significant from both academic and employment perspectives. It investigates and someway measures our present level of skills and knowledge by looking back to reflect our latest performance and monitoring future improvements (Gallagher K., 2013, p. 23-24).
As it mentioned above this reflective essay is based on the main theory on Reflection, which is the Honey and Mumford’s learning styles that was developed from Kolb’s work. This is based on four stages of specific styles of learning:
Having an experience /activists/ – they are the go-getters rather than intellectuals and they prefer the actual experience itself.
Reviewing the experience /reflectors/ – they desire to stand back and watch and review.
Concluding from the experience /theorists/ – they like to get the overall picture and to feel intellectually stretched, and they are logical and rational thinkers.
Planning next step /pragmatists/ – they prefer real-world actions and they like to try new concepts to see how they work (King D., Lawley S., 2013, p.313-314).
Honey and Mumford say (Gallagher K., 2013, p. 23-24) that idyllically someone has a composed learning style, though some individuals have a robust preference for a particular style.
Hence one of the practices of the Learning Styles Inventory is to let the learner to build developmental purposes for increasing their competence in the under-represented styles: for example, somebody who is a poor activist may deliberately plan to carry out further activities to absorb from. Styles Inventory is to form teams of people who as a group exhibit all of the four styles in a composed way (Gallagher K., 2013 p. 23-24).
In week 7 our seminar leader allocated us into smaller groups of six to work together, get together and to start preparing for the mock debate in week 9 and the debate in week 10. When we started to get alone with each other, it was seen that it is not going to be easy to achieve our goals, not just because in our group had a strong activist, reflector, theorist and pragmatist, but we also needed to face some solvable difficulties as our first meeting of the week was cancelled by problem like the lack of communication, miscommunication and the ability to listen to another.
As part of my HNC study, I will look to define and discuss the importance of reflection. I will be using a variety of sources such as books, web pages, articles and journals in order to gather information. Which in return will allow me to explain why reflection is of such importance.
Reflection is the process of reviewing an experience in order to describe analyse, evaluate and so inform learning about practice (Reid 1993). There are many reflective models that I could have used, including Johns (2004), Driscoll (2000), Atkins and Murphy (1994), Kolb’s (1984), and Gibbs (1988).
This essay will explore the authors meaning of reflection, how various reflective styles can benefit the practitioners within their settings, and how important reflection is within Early Years Practice. According to Appleby (2010, p.10), reflection is a generic term which describes various behaviours involving feelings, and thinking about thoughts and experiences, in order to examine issues and develop, new understandings and insights. Reflection within practice allows the practitioner to develop a sense of awareness around their daily activities, and helps them to evaluate how they could evolve these activities further, if the given opportunity was to arise again. Similarly, keeping a reflective journal
Honey, P. & Mumford, A. (2006). The Learning Style Questionnaire 80-item Version. London: Pearson Assessment.
Reflection is a key element of the human learning process. It can be used to justify aspects of practice and legitimise the knowledge gained from it, as opposed to traditional forms of learning.
student. In the following journal, we see the benefit of reflective practice and what it achieves
Reflection is a significant component of pre-registration education (Davis et al.2000). Hillard (2006) claims that for practitioners to learn from an experience they need to go beyond description and should reflect on their experiences in practice as this could potentially uncover any underlying influences, motivations and knowledge. Reflecting on an experience could then be identified as a process to bridging the gap between theory and practice (Bulman & Schutz, 2004).
“A learning style is a way of learning and refers to the way that you learn new information” (2). Most people have one preferred learning style and perform to a lesser standard when learning in a different style than what they’re used to. Nowadays, children are told to take a quiz in school to determine what their preferred learning style is, but after a few years, not many of these children remember what their preferred learning style is, or even if they do, they don’t apply it to their learning.
The learning styles of Honey and Mumford was based on the model of Kolb which identifies four distinct learning styles:
Reflection within early year’s settings and schools allows for the practitioner to think about the work that is being completed either whilst doing it or after it has occurred, the reflection allows for seeing how the work has gone or whether it needs to be changed for future practice. Schön is a key writer about reflection and illustrates the differences between reflection in action, reflection on action and reflection whilst completing the task. The above critical skills help all practitioners to develop understanding as they hugely impact on others lives, if this skill is not engaged in then practice could be effected (Leeson, 2004).
Everyone is made uniquely, each with their own intelligence, gifts and personalities so it is not inconceivable that everyone would also possess their own style of learning. Students learning styles are the “characteristic ways of taking in and processing information” (Felder & Brent, 1). “The most popular learning styles are visual learners, auditory learners and kinesthetic learners” (Gilakjani 1) A visual learning student would learn through seeing with various types of visuals such as pictures, tables, graphs and charts. A powerpoint or drawing on a chalk board may work best for a visual learner. An auditory learning student may be a student who learns best through listening and prefers verbal or written materials. A classroom setting based on lecture would be ideal for an auditory or verbal learner. The third basic learning style, kinesthetic learning, would be for the student who learns by doing or as they perform. Through role play and hands on activities such as doing a science experiment or baking a cake, a kinesthetic student would learn best. It is apparent that the three learning styles are very different from one another. It is important to note that it does not matter how one learns but that one is aware of, and understands how they learn in order to be successful.
The reflective dimension is the journey of self-development through a critical analysis of one’s thoughts, behaviours and values. Reflection allows you to relate your inner self to the environment around you. It encourages social responsibility and constant improvement as you learn from experience and acknowledge success. (Olckers, Gibbs & Duncan 2007: 3-4) Reflection can boost learning by stimulating awareness of our feelings and practices. This allows health professionals to cope with unfamiliar circumstances and conflicts.
A reflection log is, in essence, a personalised learning resource. This reflection log will showcase the thinking and learning skills I have developed from module (IS6136 - Professional Practice Skills), which is underpinned by a peer learning system. As part of this peer system, I was encouraged to discuss and share my thoughts, as well as to develop my reflection log in a collaborative way. The reflection log helped me to extend and further my understanding of the material presented. Section 2.0 of this log will discuss five major takeaways from this module, in light of the learning expectation set by the lecturer. Section 3.0 will conclude the reflection log.
Thought out our lives, we are faced with many different learning experiences. Some of these experiences have made a better impact than others. This can be attributed to everyone’s different multiple intelligences or learning styles. A persons learning style is the method though which they gain information about their environment. As a teacher, it is our responsibility to know these styles, so we can reach each of our students and use all of the necessary methods.
This week had the biggest impact on my professional growth. During this week, I learned that meaningful reflection is " the practice or act of analyzing our actions, decisions, or products by focusing on our process of achieving them (York-Barr, Sommers, Ghere & Montie, 2006). There are many benefits of reflecting in the field of education. The most influential is the effect that reflection has on the learning that your students gain. If a teacher meaningfully reflects on their practices they will create lessons to better impact students. According to Carol Ann Tomlinson (2003), “Teacher reflection inevitably attends directly to students ' need for affirmation, contribution, power, purpose, and challenge.” Each time a teacher reflects on their work, they empower their students to learn more. Students recognize their teacher’s reflection and mimic their behavior. I feel like learning about reflection impacted me most because it showed me that I should reflect on the good and the bad. Everything that I teach should be reflected on. The more that I reflect on my work, I will be closer to becoming an expert teacher. Reflection has the biggest impact on professionalism as a teacher. If I am willing to learn from my strengths and mistakes I will impact my students to strive to the best they