Week 1

 

This is the 2^nd blogging “course” since the start of my studies in the BCA
College of Athens. The first time was certainly quite the experience for myself, since I was unaccustomed to blogging and hopefully this semester (with my experience) I will be able to improve my PDP – Personal Development Planning – skills and of course my blogging capabilities.

I would like to state that before the actual lecture started, I was very interested in this specific module since I consider PDP to be an essential skill in our day and age and every module or lecture that allows me to polish such a skill is more than welcomed, in addition this is the second time I have the chance to study under the tutelage of Mr. Vaios Koumaras. In addition there was an in-class talk about the new policy considering the absences for this semester, something that will probably won’t affect me since I tend to not miss any lectures at all. 

The 1^st part of the lecture, was a short description about what a PDP stands for and what it actually is. After that we were introduced in a in depth lecture about “learning”, what does that word means, what is its importance and how we can effectively become able learners. Learning does not have one definition only, but the most common terms to describe it are the following : 1) a quantitative increase in knowledge, 2) acquiring information or knowing a lot, 3) it can be also called/defined as memorizing, 4) as acquiring skills and methods that can be retained and used as necessary, 5) as making sense, 6) as interpreting and understanding reality in a different way.

The next part of the lecture, was about the fact that learning has many different approaches and we were introduced to the three most known and more famous approaches.

• The 1^st approach was Kolb’s Learning Cycle, which consists of 4 steps. The first step is called “Concrete Experience” and is all about doing and/or having an experience, the second is called “Reflective Observation” which is, as the title suggests, about reviewing and reflecting on the experience, the third  step is “Abstract Conceptualisation” and is about concluding and learning from the experience, and the last step named “Active Experimentation” is all about planning and trying out the things that have been learning throughout this process.

• The 2^nd approach that we talked about was Peddler’s Learning Cycle which was a much simpler procedure than Kolb’s one. The 4 steps included here were: 1) Something happens, 2) What happens? 3) So what ? and 4) Now what ?
  
  
  

• The 3^rd approach was Ramsden’s  “deep approach” to learning versus surface learning. Before the actual explanation/definition of this approach it was made clear that although learners might be categorized as “deep” or “surface”, one person may use both approaches at different times. The main difference between deep and surface learning is the motivation of each learner. To be more specific, a surface learner is a person whose only motivation might be the fear of possible failure, while a deep learner will be motivated to learn more since he finds the whole experience gratifying and challenging.
  
  

Finally, after explaining the three different approaches to learning the lecture ended, and I have to admit that although I considered myself familiar with “learning” I actually now feel that I have a way better understanding of it. Also, I would like to add that from the three different models presented above I can’t pick one for myself as an ideal learning method but if I was asked to choose one I would go for Ramsden’s deep approach since I always try to challenge myself when it comes to the actual learning part. I also have to say that I found the lecture extremely interesting and that it felt good to see that there are still many things, skills and knowledge to gain from this module.

G.