When learning something new, do you look for overall concepts and big ideas first? If you were learning a new style of cooking, for example, would you visit restaurants, talk to cooks, taste lots of new dishes, and then start experimenting?
Or do you prefer to start at the beginning and learn in a systematic way, taking courses in a logical sequence, according to a very specific plan?
Understanding how you learn best helps you choose the right learning methods and takes the frustration out of studying. From Peak Learning: How to Create Your Own Lifelong Education Program for Personal Enlightenment and Professional Success by Ron Gross, a favorite About Continuing Education contributor, we bring you an exercise developed by David Lewis and James Greene of the Mind Potential Study Group in London, printed with permission.
Are You a Grouper or a Stringer?
Check the phrase in each pair that corresponds more closely to your preferred approach to learning. There are no right or wrong ways to complete the statements; they're designed simply to distinguish your preferences.
When studying one unfamiliar subject, you:
a. prefer to gather information from diverse topic areas.
b. prefer to focus on one topic.
You would rather:
a. know a little about a great many subjects
b. become an expert on just one subject
When studying from a textbook, you:
a. skip ahead and read chapters of special interest out of sequence
b. work systematically from one chapter to the next, not moving on until you have understood earlier material
When asking people for information about some subject of interest, you:
a. tend to ask broad questions that call for rather general answers
b. tend to ask narrow questions that demand specific answers
When browsing in a library or bookstore, you:
a. roam around looking at books on many different subjects
b. stay more or less in one place, looking at books on just a couple of subjects
You are best at remembering:
a. general principles
b. specific facts
When performing some tasks, you:
a. like to have background information not strictly related to the work
b. prefer to concentrate only on strictly relevant information
You think that educators should:
a. give students exposure to a wide range of subjects in college
b. ensure that students mainly acquire in-depth knowledge related to their specialties
When on vacation, you would rather:
a. spend a short amount of time in several places
b. stay in one place the whole time and get to know it well
When learning something, you would rather:
a. follow general guidelines
b. work with a detailed plan of action
Do you agree that, in addition to specialized knowledge, a person should know some math, art, physics, literature, psychology, politics, languages, biology, history, and medicine? If you think people should study four or more of these subjects, score an "a" on this question.
Now total all of your a and b answers.
If you scored six or more a's on the test, you are a grouper. If you scored six or more b's, you're a stringer. If your a's and b's were close to equal, you find both approaches congenial and can choose the one that best fits the subject at hand.
The higher your total of either a's or b's, the more specialized your learning style is.
I am definitely a stringer, I really need to focus on one thing at a time or I get them mixed up. For instance, I like to cook so I will use that as an example, if I learned how to prepare several dishes at the same time whether it be in one hour or one day, I would have to refer back many times to my notes/recipes because I wouldn't be able to remember which ingredient went in which dish unless of course it was obvious.
ReplyDeleteTo my surprise I have learned that I am a stringer! I've never really taken any learning tests before, but I relate to what this test told me about myself. It make sense now. It's why I feel I am so good at math. I can never go on without learning one type of problem, and then on to the next one. I feel like I get so lost if i dont understand in full what I am trying to learn. It reflects in my daily life as well. As a stringer I have to finish one task, or one project before moving on to the next or I get overwhelmed and flustered with myself.
ReplyDeletemy result is that I am a stringer. I like to start books from beginning chapter to the end chapter. Focusing on one subject at a time is easier to understand. While performing certain tasks I like to know relevant information rather than background information. When I go on a vacation I like to explore different locations for a short time rather than being in a location too long.
ReplyDelete