Deep, surface, achieving. Extrinsic, intrinsic, vicarious. Learning experiences: motivation and strategy.
Live vicariously! How often have we used that term and not thought about it in terms of learning? But it is. The high school maths teacher who stood on the desk to make a point about quadratic equations. The standing on the desk had no relevance to the subject, but it did link the learning to something that stays with me. His enthusiasm and willingness to be ridiculous (way before Robin William's "Dead Poets' Society" and carpe diem) is still with me when I tell people I love maths and have a coffee mug “I © Spreadsheets”. Vicarious experience. The pivotal and transitional event that bridges the gap between extrinsic and intrinsic learning.
Embarking on yet another formal qualification, the question was to describe a motivation and a strategy experience from Week 1. Ever the over achiever my motivation experience actually occurred prior to the first week, upon receiving the readings and being intrigued as to what, who and when they would be. Did they match with ones I read and provided to my students? Were they new? Had I missed them? Did they offer insights that I had yet to contextualise? So I think my experience was deep but driven by achieving needs; achieving as competing against myself and my high expectations of myself, yet actualised in a deep intrinsic curiosity about the topic and the content on offer and assimilated into my semantic memory. I found my strategy experience aligned with my motivation. I am an achiever and I am organised and efficient to the point of compulsion. Straight from the first lecture, to completing the weekly tasks; the blog, the quizzes, the next readings. My achieving strategy translates into a deep experience as I learn, understand, discuss, reflect and incorporate the material into my teaching.
Message to self: Go for total immersion and dive in the deep end of learning!
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