Recognizing How You Learn, Who
You Are, and What You Value
Chapter 3
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© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Discovering Your Learning Styles
• Learning styles
– How we acquire and use
knowledge
– Many different methods
– What is your preferred
receptive learning style?
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Read/write style
Visual/graphic style
Auditory verbal style
Tactile/kinesthetic style
© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Discovering your Learning Styles
• Theory of Multiple Intelligences –
How are you smart?
– Logical-mathematical
• Problem solving and scientific thinking
– Linguistic intelligence
• Production and use of language
– Spatial intelligence
• Spatial configurations, such as those
used by artists and architects
– Interpersonal intelligence
• Interacting with others and a sensitivity
to moods, temperaments, motivations
of others
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© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Discovering Your Learning Styles
• Theory of multiple intelligences –
How are you smart?
– Intrapersonal intelligence
• Strong understanding of the internal
aspects of oneself and access to emotions
– Musical intelligence
• Skills related to music
– Bodily kinesthetic intelligence
• Skill in using the body in the solution of
problems – dancers, athletes, actor,
surgeon
– Naturalist intelligence
• Skills in identifying and classifying patterns
in nature
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© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Personality Styles
• Four major personality dimensions
– Most of us fall between the end
points of each dimension
– Introverts vs. extroverts
– Intuitors vs. sensors
– Thinkers vs. feelers
– Perceivers and judgers
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© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
The Origins of our Learning Styles
• Left-brain processing
– Verbal competence (reading,
speaking, thinking, and
reasoning)
– Information is processed
sequentially
• Right-brain processing
– Nonverbal competence (spatial
relationships, recognition of
patterns and drawings, music,
and emotional expression)
– Information processed globally
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© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Brain Dominance Test
http://frank.mtsu.edu/~studskl/hd/learn.html
McGraw-Hill
© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
The Origins of our Learning Styles
• You have a variety of styles
• Your style reflects your
preferences you like to use
• Your style will change throughout
your life
• You should work on using lesspreferred styles
• Work cooperatively with others
who have different styles
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© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Self-Concept: “Who Am I?”
• Self-concept has 3 parts:
– Our physical self – how we look, and
our opinion of our physical self
– Our social self– they roles we play in
our lives. Each are an important part
of who we are
– Our self-concept contains our
personal self, our inner core –
contains our innermost thoughts and
experiences
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© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Self Concept and Self-Fulfilling
Prophecies
• Self-fulfilling prophecy – how our
beliefs and expectations effect our
behavior
• To get a clearer picture of who you
are:
– Examine the roles you play
– Identify your strengths and
weaknesses
– Construct your own definition of who
you are
– Accept your entire self-concept
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© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Self-Esteem: Building a Positive View
of Yourself
• Self-esteem is the overall
evaluation we give ourselves as
individuals
• People with high self-esteem are
generally happier and cope better
• Self-efficacy – the expectation that
you are capable of achieving goals
• Low self-esteem can produce a
cycle of failure
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© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Breaking the Self-Esteem Cycle of
Failure
• Accept who you are
• Accept that everyone has value and
self-worth
• Distinguish the different parts of who
you are
• Don’t be dependent upon others’
praise
• Building self-esteem is a life-long
undertaking
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© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Preparing a Personal Mission
Statement
• Prepare
– Identify your values
• Organize
– Impose order on what
motivates you
– Understand Maslow’s hierarchy
of needs (insert Maslow’s
pyramid here)
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Preparing a Personal Mission
Statement
• Work
– Move from our abstract values
and motivational needs to
concrete and specific goals
– Summarize your most important
values and needs
– Consider what you want your
major outcome to be
– Reflect on the kind of person
you want to be
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Preparing a Personal Mission
Statement
• Evaluate
– Does your personal mission statement
reflect who you are?
– Does it take a long-term view?
– Is it general enough?
• Rethink
– Your personal mission statement is a
living document
– It changes as your goals become
clearer
– Periodically revisit your mission
statement
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© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.