BPY 3093– PSYCHOLOGICAL LEARNING AND EDUCATION A CRITICAL REFLECTION OF PERSONAL SCHOOLING EXPERIENCES AND RELATE TO EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY Prepared by LUE XUE ER 1805-9075 BACHELOR OF PSYCHOLOGY Submitted to MISS NUR INDAH Lecturer for Psychological Learning and Education UNIVERSITY OF CYBERJAYA Introduction The various experiences in my life have given impacts to my personality, life goals and identity, especially the schooling experiences. Along the years, these experiences help me to enhance my cognition, have a more rational moral judgements and refine the communication skills in daily life. I have studied at four different schools during my elementary and secondary schooling years. These different environmental factors in term of classroom size and teaching approaches give different impacts to my schooling experiences too. It is important to adaptively adjust to the different crises that emerge during my schooling years, thus the self-concepts and identities are attained. Content I like reading since I was young. I have benefited from reading such as broadens my horizons, entertains and expands my vocabulary. At the age of seven, comics were the books I read the most. Later, at the age of ten, I started borrowing novels from the school library and bought few novels when I was in the bookstore of the shopping centers. To encourage my siblings and I to read, my parents provided us a reading corner, which the books were arranged on the wooden three-tier shelf. The enjoyment I get and the encouragement from the parents had driven me to read more as these acts as positive reinforcers that reinforce the behavior to be more likely occurred (Leong, Yazdanifard, 2014; Hancock, 2012). Besides, our parents also influenced us in reading as they practice the habit of reading newspapers every day. They have become our role models and we would read the news whenever we had free time. Hence, the social learning theory is applicable in the reading practice. Through modelling, the observation of a particular behavior can be imitated (Jago et. al, 2013). Starting my first year of elementary schooling, I liked to escape from finishing my homework given by the teachers. I could not discipline myself to finish my homework on time and procrastinated till the late night. I only complete the work within my mother’s supervision and guidance. Consequently, my mother always scolded at me because of the procrastination on homework. At one point, my mother could not endure to me and caned me so I became aware of my responsibility of completing the homework as a student. After caning, I felt pain, upset and even had the feelings of fear towards the given homework. Although it was an unpleasant experience, I have learned lessons which accomplishing homework is my obligation as a student, also the consequences of unable finishing the homework on time. It is efficient to apply the punishment because I chose to finish the homework as soon as possible to avoid the aversive event to be happened (Gershoff, 2010). However, in the early period, I was driven to finish the work to avoid the punishment. Along the time, the practice became a habit and I started internalize the need of finishing the given homework, thus I became more discipline. During Form Four of my secondary schooling, the government had introduced the 21st century learning approach in the schools, which aimed to encourage students to think critically and apply their learned knowledge in their daily life. The teachers used advanced technologies and integrated teaching approaches when addressing their teaching in classes such as the FROG system and interactive group discussion. Thus, the students were equipped with various competence in term of academic knowledge and soft skills. For example, mind-mapping is one of the skills I utilized the most. At first, I was confused using the mind-map to categorize the information, then I mastered using it by trial-and-errors. It is useful for me to study the subjects such as History, Biology and Bahasa Melayu as I could link the segregated information to form a big picture, a more simplified and summarized information was written in my notebook. Results, I am able to memorize the facts that I have learnt and easier to retrieve when answering in exams. It can be related to the information-processing theory which proposed that the information is easier to be processed if the it is organized and sequenced logically (Safdar et. al, 2012). Furthermore, it is chaotic time during the secondary school as adolescents continuously search for their identities to be an ideal person as they wish. I was doubtful and ambiguous too during my secondary schooling years. There were many concerns about who I would like to be and what kind of impression I would like to present in front of my peers. When I failed my interview to be a prefect, I was sad and disappointed. This experience led me to evaluate my abilities and capabilities negatively, directly constituted to one of the factors to my low confidence level. However, the failure also became a drive to motivate me to be stronger person. I had become an assistant class representative during Form Four and actively participated in the co-curriculum and activities. The activities included holding a position as a secretary in a club and taking part in a national level of drawing competition. I have viewed more positively on my self-esteem through the process of participating the activities (Blomfield and Barber, 2009). After these few years, I have acknowledged my strengths and weaknesses. In addition, I found out that I am an attentive listener who was able to reflect back and empathy when my friends express their problems to me. I felt that small deeds would help the others and one of my held principles is altruism. Reflecting from past experiences, I believe that the self-acknowledged identity is important as it enhances the self-concepts and the engaged identity will contribute something beneficial to the community. Conclusion In conclusion, I have reflected on some significant life events in my personal schooling experiences. After doing this assignment, I have looked through the education given by different micro level of society. They have utilized different approaches to guide and teach us such as operant learning, information-processing model and psychosocial theory and different approaches will bring different impacts to the children. Learning from the education shapes us to be a better person and closer to our ideal self. References Blomfield, C. J. and Barber, B. L. (2009). Developmental Experiences During Extracurricular Activities and Australian Adolescents’ Self-Concept: Particularly Important for Youth from Disadvantaged Schools. J Youth Adolescences (40), 582-594. Retrieved from https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-010-9563-0 Gershoff, E. T. (2010). More Harm Than Good: A Summary of Scientific Research on The Intended and Unintended Effects of Corporal Punishment on Children. Retrieved from https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1565&context=lcp Hancock, D. R. (2002). Influencing Graduate Students’ Classroom Achievement, Homework Habits and Motivation to Learn with Verbal Praise. Educational Research 44(1), 83-95. Retrieved from https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1080/00131880110107379 Jago, R., Sebire, S. J., Lucas, P. J., Turner, K. M., Bentley, G. F., Goodred, J. K. and Brown, S. S. (2015). Parental Modelling, Media Equipment and Screen-viewing Among Young Children: Cross-sectional Study. Retrieved from https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/3/4/e002593.full.pdf Leong, T. W. and Yazdanifard, R. (2014). The Impact of Positive Reinforcement on Employees’ Performance in Organizations. Retrieved from https://www.scirp.org/html/22120298_41885.htm Safdar, M., Azhar, H., Shah, I. and Rifat, Q. (2012). Concept Maps: An Instructional Tool to Facilitate Meaningful Learning. European Journal of Educational Research 1(1), 55-64. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1086311.pdf
