This week we learned some learning tips and knowledge. This makes me reminds my experience of math class. I am not confident when I study math, because I’m not good at math. This lack of confidence makes me wants to double-check my answers during exams. It wasted a lot of my time, which makes me can not being able to finish the exam within the allotted time. I think I can understand the formula of the book, but I don’t know how to use it to solve problem. This is what was mentioned in the video, “Knowledge not equals to understand”. Poor grades reduced my confidence again, which was trapped in a cycle. As it mentioned in the video, this is a learning bias. It’s also a psychological suggestion. It reduces my motivation on study.
I retook math in the second term.Due to the content of the math course have no change. I have a kind of strangely confident that I had a better grasp of the knowledge than any of my classmates because I had already taken it all. And during the class, I pay more attention to whether the knowledge taught by the teacher is what I already know. For the same problem, my math teacher used a new method to calculate but I seem to be more accustomed to using the method I learned last semester to solve the problem. I don’t even think I need to learn the new ways. That’s what mentioned in the first video. I rely too much on what I already know and I can’t change my mind.
Thus, for the first midterm. I didn’t get good grade. This made me feel nervous. I started to make a study plan. I made a weekly goal. And I monitor my study by quiz every week. I did a lot of math questions every day. As behaviourism mentioned it, people should develop learners’ habits through reinforcement and feedback. By doing a lot of exercises, I strengthened my knowledge. I use weekly quiz to provide feedback and monitor my learning status. A lot of practice enables me to skillfully use knowledge and formulas. I try to create mind maps to make connections between what I’ve learned in last term and what I just learned. This is also the cognitivist approach to learning that we’ve been talking about this week, using appropriate learning strategies and making connections with previous understandings. At the same time, I tried to tell my classmates what I had learned at the end of each chapter. I summarized the content of each chapter in my own words and gave examples form practical life. This is also constructivism.
When I recalled this experience, I found that the math class had been two years ago. Now, when I open those math questions again, I find that I can not do that. Because it’s been so long, I haven’t practiced for so long, I’ve lost the mindset of the time. Just like the cyclist in the second video, he practiced another way for a long time but forgot the original way to ride a bicycle. Because habits of mind and body change.
