By Shamarcus Jackson/reporter
Audio trouble didn’t stop one SE Campus instructor from letting her audience know the importance of discovering their learning styles.
Susan Cruise, adjunct in psychology, presented Discovering Your Learning Style Sept. 18 on SE Campus. Seconds after beginning the presentation, her microphone stopped working, but she continued.
Cruise began by asking her audience to share some of the tools they use for studying. Students responded with answers such as study groups and tape-recorded lectures. Cruise said those were good tools.
“ Interacting with your peers and instructors is a good way to do better in your classes,” she said.
Toward the midpoint of the seminar, Cruise administered a learning survey. After taking the short quiz, the majority of the audience reveal, through a show of hands, they were auditory learners.
According to the survey, student Darryle Brown was one of those auditory learners.
“I didn’t know I had so many different learning styles,” he said. “I always felt like I was more of a kinesthetic learner, you know, more hands on.”
Cruise explained active and strategic learner traits. She said motivation and self-regulation were two ways of becoming a more effective learner. Asking random students their reason for going to school led Cruise to her point of self-efficacy, being in an “I-can-do-it state of mind.” She said setting goals and reaching those goals can contribute to classroom success.
“ Having the will to learn and believing in your own abilities can increase your learning power,” she said.
When one student said “I’m going to school to get a better job,” Cruise talked about extrinsic motivation, a factor in the will to learn.
She also said getting extra help and learning the instructor’s teaching style will help students learn.
Cruise described opportunities the campus offers to students seeking extra help. The campus learning center, the writing lab and the math lab in the modular building are designed to assist students, she said.
” I’m happy I came today,” Brown said. “Now I can focus on what helps me retain more information.”
A number of students said they attended because their professor made it mandatory, but some said they also found the seminar beneficial to them.
