Expert answer:Learning Styles and Motivation Reflection
Solved by verified expert:Learning Styles and Motivation Reflection Complete the following worksheet by answering all the questions in the boxes below. 1. After reading the section, “Discovering Your Learning Styles” in Ch. 1 of P.O.W.E.R. Learning(attached) and taking the Connect quiz, answer the following in 50 to 100 words: What is your preferred receptive learning style? Do you agree or disagree with the results? What tips does the textbook offer to help you study better or learn new skills at work? 2. After reading Ch. 8 of P.O.W.E.R. Learning(attached), answer the following in 50 to 100 words: What strategies can you use to make good decisions and problem solve in your personal life, at school, at work, finding a job, buying a car, etc.? 3. Based on information in Carol Dweck’s video( ), how can understanding growth and fixed mindsets impact your learning? Respond in 50 to 100 words by providing details and examples of what you can do in your daily studies.
chapter_1.docx
chapter_8.docx
Unformatted Attachment Preview
CHAPTER 1
P.O.W.E.R. Learning: Becoming an Expert
Student
Learning Outcomes
By the time you finish this chapter, you will be able to
LO 1.1
LO 1.2
LO 1.3
LO 1.4
Discuss the benefits of a college education.
Identify the basic principles of P. O. W. E. R. Learning.
Explain how expert students use P. O. W. E. R. Learning.
Compare and contrast learning styles and identify your own.
The day has started off with a bang. Literally. As Abbie Suarez struggles sleepily to turn off her
clock radio’s continual buzzing at 6:35 a.m., she knocks it off the table next to her bed. The loud
bang it makes as it hits the floor not only wakes her fully but also rouses her daughters, sleeping
in the next room, who grumble resentfully.
Struggling out of bed, Abbie reflects on the day ahead. It’s one of her most intense days—two
shifts at two different part-time jobs on different sides of town. She also must get her children
ready for school and then take them to swimming lessons in the afternoon. And on top of all that,
she has an exam that morning at the college she attends.
After a quick shower, Abbie manages to get her daughters off to school, and then joins her
fellow paralegal students on campus. She glances at her paralegal textbook and feels a wave of
anxiety flood over her: Will I do well enough on my exam? How will I manage to hold down
two jobs, take care of my family, and have enough time to study? Will I find a job as a paralegal
after graduation? Will I make my children proud? … And underlying all these questions is a
single challenge: Will I be successful in college and in my career?
Looking
Ahead
Whether academic pursuits are a struggle or come easily to you … whether you are returning to
college or attending for the first time … whether you are gaining new skills for your current job
or are starting on a whole new career path, college is a challenge. Every one of us has concerns
about our capabilities and motivation, and new situations— like starting college—make us
wonder how well we’ll succeed.
That’s where this book comes in. It is designed to help you learn the most effective ways to
approach the challenges you encounter, not just in college but in your career, too. It will teach
you practical strategies, hints, and tips that can lead you to success, all centered around an
approach to achieving classroom and career success: P.O.W.E.R. Learning.
This book is designed to be useful in a way that is different from other college texts. It presents
information in a hands-on format. It’s meant to be used—not just read. Write on it, underline
words and sentences, use a highlighter, circle key points, and complete the questionnaires right
in the book. The more exercises you do, the more you’ll get from the book. Remember, this is a
book to help you throughout college and throughout your career, so it’s a good idea to invest
your time here and now. If the learning techniques you master here become second nature, the
payoff will be enormous.
This first chapter lays out the basics of P.O.W.E.R. Learning. It will also help you determine the
way in which you learn best and how you can use your personal learning style to study more
effectively.
LO 1.1 Why Go to College?
Congratulations. You’re in college.
But why? Although it seems as if it should be easy to answer why you’re continuing your
education, for most people it’s not so simple. The reasons that people go to college vary from the
practical (“I need new skills for my job”), to the lofty (“I want to build a better life for my
family”), to the vague (“Why not?—I don’t have anything better to do”). Consider your own
reasons for attending college, as you complete Try It 1.
It’s likely that one of your primary motivations for attending college is to further your career. In
fact, surveys of first-year college students at all types of institutions show that the vast majority
say they want to learn about things that interest them, get training for a specific career, land a
better job, and make more money (see Figure 1.1). Statistics clearly demonstrate that a college
education helps people find better jobs. On average, college graduates earn about 75 percent
more than high school graduates over their working lifetime. That difference adds up: Over the
course of their working lifetimes, college graduates earn close to a million dollars more than
those with only a high school degree. Furthermore, as jobs become increasingly complex and
technologically sophisticated, college will become more and more of a necessity.
Why Am I Going to College?
Place a 1, 2, and 3 by the three most important reasons that you have for attending college:
____ I want to get a good job when I graduate.
____ I want to make my family proud.
____ I couldn’t find a job.
____ I want to try something different.
____ I want to get ahead at my current job.
____ I want to pursue my dream job.
____ I want to become a more cultured person.
____ I want to make more money.
____ I want to learn more about things that interest me.
____ A mentor or role model encouraged me to go.
____ I want to prove to others that I can succeed.
Now consider the following:
•
•
•
What do your answers tell you about yourself?
What reasons besides these did you think about when you were applying to college?
How do you think your reasons compare with those of other students who are starting
college with you?
To Try It online, go to www.mhhe.com/power.
figure 1.1 Choosing College These are the most frequently cited reasons that first-year college
students gave for why they enrolled in college when asked in a national survey.2
Journal Reflections
My School Experiences
Throughout this book, you will be given opportunities to write out your thoughts. These
opportunities—called Journal Reflections—offer a chance to think critically about the chapter
topics and record your personal reactions to them. As you create your reflections, be honest—to
yourself and to your instructor.
Completing these Journal Reflections provides a variety of benefits. Not only will you be able to
mull over your past and present academic experiences, you’ll begin to see patterns in the kind of
difficulties—and successes!—you encounter. You’ll be able to apply solutions that worked in
one situation to others. And one added benefit: You’ll get practice in writing.
If you save these entries and return to them later, you may be surprised at the changes they
record over the course of the term. You can either write them out and keep an actual journal, or
create your journal electronically at the P.O.W.E.R. Learning website at
www.mhhe.com/power.
1. Think of one of the successful experiences you’ve had during your previous years in
school or on the job. What was it?
2. What made the experience successful? What did you learn from your success?
3. Think of an experience you had in school that did not go as you had hoped, and briefly
describe it. Why did it occur?
4. What could you have done differently to make it successful? What did you learn from it?
5. Based on these experiences of success and failure, what general lessons did you learn that
could help you be more successful in the future, in the classroom and in your career?
But even if you feel the only reason you’re in college is to help your career prospects, remember
that the value of college extends far beyond dollars and cents. Consider these added reasons for
pursuing a college education:
•
You’ll learn to think critically and communicate better. Here’s what one student said
about his college experience after he graduated: “It’s not about what you major in or
which classes you take…. It’s really about learning to think and to communicate.
Wherever you end up, you’ll need to be able to analyze and solve problems—to figure out
what needs to be done and do it.”1
Education improves your ability to understand the world—to understand it as it is now,
and to prepare to understand it as it will be.
•
•
•
You’ll be able to better deal with advances in knowledge and technology that are
changing the world. Genetic engineering … drugs to reduce forgetfulness … computers
that respond to our voices. No one knows what the future will hold, but you can prepare
for it through a college education. Education can provide you with the intellectual tools
that you can apply regardless of the specific situation in which you find yourself.
You’ll acquire skills and perspectives that will shape how you deal with new
situations and challenges. The only certainty about how your life will unfold is that you
will be surprised at what is in store for you. College prepares you to deal with the
unexpected that characterizes all our lives.
You’ll be better prepared to live in a world of diversity. The racial and ethnic
composition of the United States is changing rapidly. Whatever your ethnicity, chances
are you’ll be working and living with people whose backgrounds, lifestyles, and ways of
thinking may be entirely different from your own.
You won’t be prepared for the future unless you understand others and their cultural
backgrounds—as well as how your own cultural background affects you.
•
You’ll make learning a lifelong habit. College isn’t the end of your education. There’s
no job you’ll have that won’t change over time, and you’ll be required to learn new skills.
College starts you down the path to lifelong learning.
To help you attain these benefits, it’s time to introduce you to a process that will help you
achieve success, both in college and in life beyond: P.O.W.E.R. Learning.
LO 1.2 P.O.W.E.R. Learning: The Five Key Steps to
Achieving Success
P.O.W.E.R. Learning
A system designed to help people achieve their goals, based on five steps: Prepare, Organize,
Work, Evaluate, and Rethink.
P.O.W.E.R. Learning itself is merely an acronym—a word formed from the first letters of a
series of steps—that will help you take in, process, and make use of the information you’ll
acquire in college. It will help you achieve your goals, both while you are in college and after
you graduate.
Prepare, Organize, Work, Evaluate, and Rethink. That’s it. It’s a simple framework, but an
effective one. Using the systematic framework that P.O.W.E.R. Learning provides (and which is
illustrated in the P.O.W.E.R. Plan diagram on page 6) will increase your chances of success at
any task, from writing a college paper to buying your weekly groceries to filling out a purchase
order.
Keep this in mind: P.O.W.E.R. Learning isn’t a product that you can simply pull down off the
bookshelf and use without thinking. P.O.W.E.R. Learning is a process, and you are the only one
who can make it succeed. Without your personal investment in the process, P.O.W.E.R. Learning
consists of just words on paper.
Relax, though. You already know each of the elements of P.O.W.E.R. Learning, and you may
discover that you are already putting this process, or parts of it, to work for you. You’ve applied
and been accepted into college. You may have also held down a job, started a family, and paid
your monthly bills. Each of these accomplishments required that you use P.O.W.E.R. Learning.
What you’ll be doing throughout this book is becoming more aware of these methods and how
they can be used to help you in situations you will encounter in college and your career.
Everyone goes to school for their own reasons. Gwen recently visited a friend in the hospital and
was struck by how much she wanted to be a part of the health-care community. John has
survived several rounds of layoffs at his job and wants to make himself more marketable.
Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said that travelers taking a long journey must begin with a single
step.
But before they even take that first step, travelers need to know several things: what their
destination is, how they’re going to get there, how they’ll know when they reach the destination,
and what they’ll do if they have trouble along the way. In the same way, you need to know where
you’re headed as you embark on the academic journeys involved in college. Whether it be a
major, long-term task, such as landing a new and better job, or a more limited activity, such as
getting ready to complete a paper due in the near future, you’ll need to prepare for the journey.
Setting Goals
Before we seek to accomplish any task, all of us do some form of planning. The trouble is that
most of the time such planning is done without conscious thinking, as if we are on autopilot.
However, the key to success is to make sure that planning is systematic.
The best way to plan systematically is to use goal-setting strategies. In many cases, goals are
clear and direct. It’s obvious that our goal in washing dishes is to have the dishes end up clean.
We know that our goal at the gas station is to fill the car’s tank with gas. We go to the post office
to buy stamps and mail letters.
Other goals are not so clear-cut. In fact, the more important the task—such as going to college—
the more complicated our goals may be.
From the perspective of…
A STUDENT What goals did you set when you decided to go school? What can you do to ensure
that you meet these goals?
What’s the best way to set appropriate goals? Here are some guidelines:
Long-term goals
Aims relating to major accomplishments that take some time to achieve.
Short-term goals
Relatively limited steps toward the accomplishment of long-term goals.
•
Set both long-term and short-term goals. Long-term goals are aims relating to major
accomplishments that take some time to achieve. Short-term goals are relatively limited
steps you would take on the road to accomplishing your long-term goals. For example,
one of the primary reasons you’re in college is to achieve the long-term goal of helping
your career. But to reach that goal, you have to accomplish a series of short-term goals,
such as completing a set of required courses and earning your degree. Even these shortterm goals can be broken down into shorter-term goals. In order to complete a required
course, for instance, you have to accomplish short-term goals, such as completing a
paper, taking several tests, and so on. For practice in setting long- and short-term goals,
complete Try It 2 on page 8, “What Are Your Goals?”
“Goal setting, as far as I can see it, is simply a state of mind, a way of thinking about
things. A goal setter makes sure he accomplishes what he needs to accomplish.”
Greg Gottesman, Stanford University3
•
Make goals realistic and attainable. Someone once said, “A goal without a plan is but a
dream.” We’d all like to win gold medals at the Olympics or be the CEO of Nike or write
best-selling novels. Few of us are likely to achieve such goals.
Be honest with yourself. There is nothing wrong with having big dreams. But it is
important to be realistically aware of all that it takes to achieve them. If our long-term
goals are unrealistic and we don’t achieve them, the big danger is that we may wrongly
reason that we are inept and lack ability, then use this as an excuse for giving up. If goals
are realistic, we can develop a plan to attain them, spurring us on to attain more.
•
•
State goals in terms of behavior that can be measured against current
accomplishments. Goals should represent some measurable change from a current set of
circumstances. We want our behavior to change in some way that can usually be
expressed in terms of numbers—to show an increase (“raise my grade point average 10
percent”) or a decrease (“reduce wasted time by two hours each week”); or to be
maintained (“keep in touch with my out-of-town friends by sending four e-mail messages
each month”), developed (“participate in one workshop on job interview skills”), or
restricted (“reduce my cellphone expenses 10 percent by texting less”).
Goals should involve behavior over which you have control. We all want world peace
and an end to poverty. Few of us have the resources or capabilities to bring either about.
In contrast, it is realistic to want to work in small ways to help others, such as by
volunteering at a local food bank.
What Are Your Goals?
Before you begin any journey, you need to know where you are going. To plan your academic
journey—and your later career—you first need to set goals. Short-term goals are relatively
limited objectives that bring you closer to your ultimate goal. Long-term goals are aims relating
to major accomplishments that take more time to achieve.
In this Try It, think about your short- and long-term academic and career goals for a few
minutes, and then list them. Because short-term goals are based on what you want to accomplish
in the long term, first identify your long-term goals. Then list the short-term goals that will help
you reach your long-term goals. An example is provided for the first goal:
Long-Term Goal #1 Get a college degree
Related Short-Term Goals:
•
•
•
•
•
Complete four courses with a grade of B or above each term
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Long-Term Goal #2:
Related Short-Term Goals:
•
•
•
•
•
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Long-Term Goal #3:
Related Short-Term Goals:
•
•
•
•
•
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Long-Term Goal #4:
Related Short-Term Goals:
•
•
•
•
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
•
_____________________________________________
Long-Term Goal #5:
Related Short-Term Goals:
•
•
•
•
•
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
After you complete the chart, consider how easy or difficult it was to identify your long-term
goals. How many of your long-term goals relate to college, and how many to your future career?
Do any of your short-term goals relate to more than one long-term goal?
To Try It online, go to www.mhhe.com/power.
•
Identify how your short-term goals fit with your long-term goals. Your goals should
not be independent of one another. Instead, they should fit together into a larger dream of
who you want to be. Every once in a while, step back and consider how what you’re
doing today relates to the kind of career that you would ultimately want to have.
By determining where you want to go and expressing your goals in terms that can be measured,
you have already made a lot of progress. But there’s another step you must take on the road to
success.
The second step in P.O.W.E.R. Learning is to organize the tools you’ll need to accomplish your
goals. Building on the goal-setting work you’ve undertaken in the preparation stage, it’s time to
determine the best way to accomplish the goals you’ve identified.
How do you do this? Suppose you’ve decided to paint a room in your house. Let’s say that you’ve
already determined the color you want and the kind of paint you need (the preparation step in
P.O.W.E.R. Learning). The next stage involves buying the paint and brushes and preparing the
room for being painted—all aspects of organizing for the task.
Similarly, your academic success will hinge to a large degree on the thoroughness of your
organization for e …
Purchase answer to see full
attachment
How it works
- Paste your instructions in the instructions box. You can also attach an instructions file
- Select the writer category, deadline, education level and review the instructions
- Make a payment for the order to be assignment to a writer
- Download the paper after the writer uploads it
Will the writer plagiarize my essay?
You will get a plagiarism-free paper and you can get an originality report upon request.
Is this service safe?
All the personal information is confidential and we have 100% safe payment methods. We also guarantee good grades