My Learning Philosophy

Introduction
Learning takes place daily and can be interpreted as the perception of ones environment. Because human beings have developed elements of cognition beyond whats seen elsewhere in the animal kingdom, they are able to associate the past with the present and then make predictions for the future. The ability to use past experiences to put together an educated guess about what will happen in the future is a powerful tool for humanity. For example, a positive experience during an activity such as driving to work on icy roads and not slipping will lead the individual to believe that its safe to drive at that speed and they will most likely not change driving habits. On the other hand, if the driver crashes due to poor road conditions then when they see a similar situation, they will slow down and be more careful because of what happened last time. The principal of learning, while simplified in the above example, applies to much more complex situations that are found in school and at the workplace. Learning takes place from differences in exposure that result in an extent of failure, it is a process that needs to be recognized and evaluated as defined by the learner themselves, and can be more profound if assisted by a mentor. The rest of this document will discuss the definition of learning, the role of the learner, learning strategies, and the mentor/learner relationship.

Definition of Learning
Learning is defined as a process of change in awareness through external environmental influences resulting in a consistent relatively permanent change in behavior based on knowledge gained from the process. Learning is not restricted to perception of the external environment and can come from internal realizations. However no learning would take place if there wasnt a difference in exposure in the first place. Learning would occur through instruction, personal experiences, and observation. For example, much of the learning done in school is through instruction and observation while learning in the field is primarily done from experience: Is this working? Why? If not, what can be done to improve upon it? Of course in order for learning to take place there must be opportunities for growth. If in fact there is a situation where every day at work the same task is assigned it will not take long before that task is mastered making it very hard to gain any insight. An ideal learning environment is challenging in the sense that there are a variety of

different things going on day to day that force learning to take place or else there will be failures or inefficiencies. When faced with a problem there is a greater incentive to learn to deal with it leading to personal growth and in fact this is amplified further when the problem at hand is directly related to the learners weaknesses. For example in managing people theres always something new to learn about the individuals to gain insight into why they are behaving the way they do. What they could bring to work from home that is making a difference positive or negative at work and then assess the best way to approach possible solutions to any deficiencies or reward quality work appropriately to set an example for the rest of the workplace.

Role of the Learner

The learner has a responsibility for their own personal growth meaning that nobody is expected to hold their hand or carry out problem solving for them; this would not have a positive effect on learning. Characteristics that would be beneficial are the ability to stay motivated to work alone, persevere, take a breather if becoming frustrated, and understand how the situation is affecting emotions to avoid poor decisions in the face of adversity. The ability to focus on a single task or problem will facilitate learning as opposed to attempting to complete everything at once resulting in lots being done with lower standards. Putting oneself down because of failure or having a very negative perception of oneself due to imperfections is unhealthy, takes away from personal confidence because failure is anticipated, predicted, and then self-fulfilled. Instead of trying to be perfect or make things perfect its important to understand how unrealistic these views actually are, and then more energy can be focused on improvement. The desire to gain knowledge will lead to an increase in meaning for a career by providing greater depth of understanding of what is being done at work, how decisions affect everything, and what knowledge could be used to make things better. The more knowledge gained, the more likely that career advancements will take place leading to increasing pay, higher standard of living, and more freedom to work at more than one place because of the mastery of a specific set of skills. Working at more than one place is critical to personal development likened to having only one opinion of the best way to do things. When there are opportunities to travel to work the learner is able to see how things are done in different cultures, different management philosophies, more or less money to work with, varying environmental conditions, leading to an array of new ideas and experiences. A learner becomes bored which could lead to contempt is they are stuck working in the same place for too long, there

is a reduction in desire to excel, opportunities are more likely to diminish, and the workplace becomes more of a job purely for survival than a career.

Learning Assessment Strategies

Because the definition of learning would be that there is a marked change in behavior based on previous experiences, there needs to be a way of evaluating whether or not learning took place. This could be done by determining if a task becomes easier to complete, was a more effective mindset gained? Did the desired outcome ensue from actions taken? What was done differently in this case? Pure academic learning assessment is based on grades. Clear cut, simple, grades are applied to show whether or not the student understands the material. Is it right? Did they pass or fail? At work, its much more ambiguous to understand whether or not the learner has passed or failed. A possible way to determine pass or fail is if the intended desired outcome occurred after actions were taken. Was there improvement shown by reactions in other people, less time to complete, becoming more comfortable with a subject, developing a more positive attitude towards something etc... Clearly a self-directed learning process must have guidelines as defined by the learner as to what constitutes a pass or fail/complete, incomplete. It is much more difficult to define success if there is no benchmark.

Learner/Mentor Relationship
The mentor would be someone who will help guide learning as opposed to directing it. This means that they will act as a resource to provide an environment that will facilitate learning objectives. It would be expected that a mentor would want their protg to succeed and would be supportive in answering questions or discussing their own personal experiences with the learner to help them gain insight. A mentor should expect the learner to be engaged in their work and to carry out daily tasks that may not be directly related to learning objective because they are still an employee of a business so the interests of the business come before personal interests of the learner. They should also expect a learner to provide direction to them as to what desired objectives are and in what manner they will be obtained. Discussing industry related items is a good way to develop a relationship with a mentor and then show them that as a sincere learner who is willing to work with them towards the company goals using experience and education gained in school to benefit the company as a whole while the mentor will use their expertise to

assist the learner in objectives. Consistent effective communication between a learner and mentor will ensure that the relationship continues to develop positively with minimal misunderstandings.

Conclusion
It must be recognized that failing to achieve an objective is often the most effective way to begin to learn about how to succeed. Learning desired outcomes is a process that takes place when the learner is immersed in an environment most conducive to their development as they define it. An upcoming Assistant Superintendent will not develop into their role if they are spending their time doing all the things that a lower level employee does such as operate machinery and dig holes every day. In order to obtain the desired position there needs to be facilitation by a mentor to allow for opportunities to practice the skill set required by an Assistant Superintendent, and it through this process that career advancement occurs.