Personal Learning Experiences
Find out how my own learning experiences have changed since I was a young Kindergarten student right through to adulthood.
My Learning Experience in My First Year of Schooling
I remember in my first year of schooling learning about seeds and plants. My kindergarten teacher was teaching us about the life cycle of a plant. We used pictures, drew our own circular flow charts and planted tulip bulbs in a garden set aside just for us. I remember it being fun with our weekly visits to the garden a highlight as we all discovered what colour our flowers were.
We were learning content and new concepts including understanding what plants need in order to survive. I’m unsure of the motivations for teaching us this however as an adult, I know that it is part of the curriculum in this year level to learn about living things and basic needs.
My Learning Experience at University
I was completing my undergraduate degree in nursing and attending my clinical skills lesson. We were learning about the cardiovascular system and the various assessments that are used to determine the causes of a patient’s symptoms. On this particular day, we were seated at the tables revising the anatomy and physiology we had learned in our science subjects. We participated in small group discussions and then a wider group discussion before we practiced placing ECG leads on one another to generate telemetry printouts.
We had a lab leader leading our discussions and demonstrating lead placement however much of the learning was peer to peer. Our learning was focused on information/content as well as learning a skill.
The purpose of learning this was to learn a skill that we could use to properly assess our patients and accurately identify when it is needed.
My Learning Experience at Work
I participated in a 6 hour face-to-face course in psychological first aid at my workplace. One of the project managers for the ‘Always There’ program hosted the program and invited a guest speaker from the social work unit. I learned basic counseling skills to assist distressed colleagues with linking into the available support services.
We learned through lecture, storytelling, discussion and simulation. I learned new content as well as skills in counseling.
This was a program I volunteered for as I wanted to improve my listening and counseling skills to act as a support within my organisation.