Comparing Learning Interviews

I interviewed myself, my dad, and my sister Brittney to find out more about how we learn and what experiences with learning, school, and teachers we felt were significant. It was interesting to hear how my fathers learning experiences back in the old days compared to mine and my sisters. He learned from his father that it was better to repair things than buy new, an attitude my grandfather probably acquired from living through the great depression. I always thought that my dad and I were very similar but I didn't realize how alike my sister and I are. I want to compare our interviews about how we learn.

All three of us remember enjoying school musicals or singing programs. My sisters and I participated in our fathers choir and high school programs. My dad learned from his father to have an appreciation for nature and God's creations, which he has passed down to his daughters. Our family enjoys being outside golfing, hiking, camping among several other activities. My sister Brittney and my dad like to grow vegetables or berries in the summer. My sister enjoyed taking a random college class called SOIL 4000 because she learned about soil/plants/etc and was outside for labs.

My dad and I share a similar perspective on teaching and that is that "watching young people utilize and develop talents is a wonderful thing to do with one's life." We both believe that you can learn something from every experience and that we are all students and teachers in some way. I would guess that my sister would agree to having a similar outlook on life because of her psychology/sociology degree and background---she loves to learn and study about people and what influences humans to be who they are biologically and socially.

One crutch that we all seemed to have in common is a struggle with  memorization-- but I am sure everyone would say that. Each of us also shared a disinterest in math and statistics. Crunching numbers and making sense of data must not be our thing. We all agreed that a subject must be interesting in order for us to learn best or as Brittney pointed out, it should be presented in an INTERESTING way.

When it comes to advice for teachers, we all agreed that some consistency and routine is necessary but variety, creativity, and cross curricular learning are essential in the classroom as well. My sister pointed out that a teacher should always be POSITIVE, believe that every child CAN LEARN, and never ever be responsible for putting down or holding back a child from reaching their full potential, especially because of bias or stereotypes.

Some of our learning preferences included having time to study something on our own and then have time to discuss and/or practice within a group, or participate in small activities. When it comes to learning something difficult or challenging we felt that persistence, time, hard work, and realistic attainable goals were helpful.