Semester reflection

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Semester reflection

            Education is important as it equips one with the information, skills and knowledge needed to not only secure a good career but also learn the basic workings of things that occur in society as well as the interactions between people. Due to its importance, people have a tendency to focus time, money and energy into their education but this is often made difficult by other factors that are just as important such as family, work or a personal life. Other factors in a person’s life could be a hindrance or a motivator to how much people commit to learning as well as their performance in school and is something I got to better understand this semester. According to the Smarter Measure Learning Readiness Indicator, I scored 75% (Smarter measure 3) on the life factors scale with my greatest strength being reason and time was identified as my greatest constraint.

            Life factors greatly contributed to the performance I had in all my classes this semester. Having to divide my learning with my personal life, I had to sacrifice some time meant for studying to do personal things but had to ensure that my personal life did not affect my grades. I decided to make time to do things like staying with family, hanging out with friends and pursuing my hobbies because they are essential parts of living. I also decided to make sure that I commit to learning and get my assignments done and study whenever possible to keep my grades up. My greatest motivator was my learning environment as well as my reason for studying. Both at home and in school, the environment was conducive enough to encourage studying. My parents are aware of how important education is to me and they always ensure that the house is quiet and I am rarely disturbed when I’m studying. Having my own room helps a lot because I get to focus on my studies without being bothered by family and friends. The school also has a fully stocked library that is quiet and an ideal place for studying. The good learning environment and my desire for success greatly contribute to my reasons for going to school. I am determined to achieve academic excellence, get a promising career be able to provide for my family as well as give back to the community.

            Although resources are a bit tight, my parents went out of their way to ensure that I do not miss out on school for financial reasons. All my fees were paid in time and I was provided with all the learning equipment needed to pursue my studies. The school is also well equipped with books and other learning material and this ensured that I had access to all I needed to improve my performance this semester. In relation to skills, I believe that I am competent enough and have the skills and knowledge to go on with my pursuit for education. This semester helped me to achieve a lot as I was able to improve my academic performance and learn more skills. I was able to improve my grades and learn better ways of studying and solving academic problems. I believe that the life factors greatly helped me to manage myself and I will strive to keep improving my skills and becoming a better student.

            While life factors are often beyond someone’s control, there are those that can be altered to prevent them from affecting academic performance. Factors such as place, resources and time are difficult to change because they are mostly out of my control (Bransford 165). To prevent them from affecting my semesters in future, I plan on creating a timetable so as to better manage my personal and school life. The place is conducive enough so I will not focus so much on changing it. As for resources, I will try and do part time jobs and use the money to fund my educational needs. There are however factors that can be easily altered such as reason and skills. I plan on improving my skills to become a better student and this will give me even more reasons to aspire to be the best, for the next semesters, I plan on using life factors as a boost rather than a challenge and this will greatly improve my academic performance.

            The study also identified my learning style as Solitary which means that I prefer to study on my own in silence. I also learnt that, in order to cater to my learning style, I need to show people how to respect my study time and maintain the silence I crave when I’m studying. While it is difficult to achieve this in some environments, I learnt that libraries, parks and my room are ideal places to study in solitude. This course has made me a better critical thinker as it has taught me how to manage my time, control my learning environment and also what I can do to improve my performance. It has taught me how to plan my academics and personal life and how to ensure that one aspect of my life does not affect the others. From this course, I learnt that there is always room for improvement. Even when life factors prove to be a challenge,, there are things I can do to ensure that I create ample space and room for education while still living a fulfilling life and this will greatly improve my academic journey.

 

 

Work cited

Bransford J, “How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school” Princeton, 2006, print.

Smarter Measure, “Learning readiness indicator” 2018