Personal Narrative: My Future Learning Experiences

As an Honors student, I have a long history of not only going to school to get good grades, but also to learn and excel in doing so. In this essay I will discuss my past learning experiences, my present learning experiences, and what my future learning experiences might look like. I will incorporate a couple of Angela Maier’s “Habitudes”, Carol Dweck’s “Mindsets”, and Ken Bain’s “How the Best College Students Learn” into this essay explaining my learning journey. Moving on from the preview of the essay, my past learning experiences weren’t always the greatest in terms of my personal growth. One positive I had going for me was that I had a great sense of self-awareness. Self-awareness is knowing your own strengths and weaknesses and knowing …show more content…
The first step for me to develop this mindset is being able to adapt to my new world that is college. Adaptability is being able to adjust to new conditions, and using these new conditions for positive growth. Coming to college signifies the start of real freedom for me. Now, I don’t have my parents to make sure I get out of bed in the morning, to make sure I get my homework done, and to make sure I am going to school. All of those responsibilities now fall on me. Along with being able to adapt, I am trying to become an adaptive expert. An adaptive expert not only knows the procedures, but also relishes the opportunities available for invention. Becoming an adaptive expert is a big next step for me to take to be able to develop a growth mindset. A growth mindset is believing there is always room for growth, and that your intelligence is similar to just a hand you’re dealt; meaning it can improve. Sometimes even now I display the fixed mindset through my grades. I am trying to get out of the habit of always having to prove myself through these. Also, when I don’t do well on an assignment or a test, I am trying to move away from getting really down on myself about it. Instead of tearing myself down, I am trying to use that poor grade as motivation to “fuel the fire” and to attempt to do better next time. Ken Bain’s second learning profile goes hand-in-hand with the growth mindset. This type of learner gets good grades, but is also a deep learner who strives to grow personally and professionally. My ultimate academic goal is to become completely like this learning profile. I often still find myself being a strategic learner at times. I try to figure out what I need to do to get an “A” in the class, instead of really digging into the material and learning. This is also something I am trying to change. As you