Academic Strategies for the Information Technology Professional

Unit 3 Reading

There are three items to complete in this reading area:

1. Reading
2. Challenge Activity
3. Powerful Words for a Powerful Vocabulary

I. Reading

Learning Styles

You will identify your personal learning styles and study strategies while also
recognizing the strengths and weaknesses that you bring to your college experience.

Being aware of the way that you learn best will help you succeed in school. Your
ability to achieve your personal, professional, and academic goals is directly related to
knowing how to use your learning styles to your advantage.

Different people have different ways of learning and retaining information. Some
prefer to hear the information, some prefer to see the information, and some prefer to
do it.

For example: If you had to put a bicycle together, what approach might you take?

Read the instructions?

Ask a friend to tell you how it is done (or read the instructions to you)?

Ignore the instructions and start putting it together?

A visual learner would read the instructions.

An auditory learner would want to hear how to put the bike together.

A kinesthetic learner would prefer to do it and learn while feeling or touching.

Knowing your learning style will help you to find strategies to retain and effectively utilize

information. Most people use a combination of all three learning styles yet consider

themselves to prefer visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learning strategies. Think about it,

1
when you learn something new, do you like to see it, hear about it, or move around

when you are taking in information?

The Right Style for the Right Task

Different tasks and circumstances may require you to use one learning style over
another. For example, riding a bike. Would you prefer to read about riding bikes,
listen to someone tell you how to ride a bike, or get on a bike and try it yourself?

For most, riding a bike is the kind of activity that requires "hands-on" training; therefore,
you would need to attempt the task to learn it.

Another example is learning how to play an instrument. In this situation, you would
probably need to use all three learning styles. You would need to see the notes to know
what sounds to make, you would need to hear someone else play the instrument so you
know how it should sound, and you would need to play the instrument to make your own
music.

Three Learning Styles:

● A visual learner needs to see it to believe it.

● An auditory learner needs to hear it to believe it.

● A kinesthetic learner needs to do it to believe it.

Read about learning styles.

Then, take the following learning style quiz that you will reference in your discussion.

Did the results make sense to you? Were they helpful?

Once you identify the ways you learn best (note that it can be plural), you can modify
your study environment and tailor your study experience to meet your learning style
needs.

For example, suppose you are an auditory learner. In that case, you will most likely
learn best by listening, you might find it helpful to record yourself reading your
assignments and then listening to the recording afterward. Suppose you learn best
by actively participating in the task, a tactile/kinesthetic learner. In that case, you
might find it helpful to experiment with new activities to apply the information you
have read. Of course, if you are a strong visual learner you need to see everything
for the greatest clarity in learning.

2
TIPS: Visual Learners
Use organized or typed material such as images, diagrams, flashcards, and mind maps.

TIPS: Auditory Learners

Use memorization strategies, songs, and auditory repetition. Try tape recordings of
notes, readings, and important topics. Use your verbal skills to reinforce information.

TIPS: Kinesthetic Learners

Use a combination of sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing. Try chunking or step-by-
step processes for lengthy tasks. Use direct involvement and hands-on strategies.

Why Study Learning Styles?

Today, understanding personality and learning styles is increasingly important in all

aspects of your life and relationships. Employers consider personality types when
hiring; strong relationships are empowered by understanding personality types; and
students can empower themselves and their learning styles by knowing the many
facets of their styles and personality components.

As part of your reading this unit, you will not only discover some of your traits (for the
Discussion Board content), but will also learn more about the many types of traits you
have and the strategies you might use in realizing your best self. The better you know
yourself the more effective you can be in life and learning.

Learning styles are offshoots of your sensory skills. If you are a visual learner, your
visual sense is strong and transmits neurological messages to the brain. If you are an
auditory learner, your auditory nerves do the work. If you are a tactile/kinesthetic
learner, your sense of touch and spatial awareness help transmit the messages that
allow you to learn. Your goal is life-long learning; the more you understand the
process of learning the stronger it is.

To further expand your understanding of yourself as a learner, you will also determine
your strongest multiple intelligences. There are so many to choose from. In looking at
the top three multiple intelligences, you probably agree that they identify you as a
person. Perhaps one is math/logical. Is that what underlies your entrance into the
School of Business and Information Technology? Perhaps it is your strong interpersonal
skills; information technology includes learning and understanding how it interacts with
people.

As you continue your discovery, be sure to research the styles and traits behind the
words. Knowing the types is only half the information. As you continue your growth in

3
understanding critical thinking levels, analysis is accompanied by research to move to
level five and make an evaluation based on knowledge. You may find you have
overlapping qualities as well (for example, your learning styles are split across the
board — you are multi-modal). Use that as an advantage as you continue your
learning.

Your next task is to use your information creatively!

Multiple Intelligences
According to Howard Gardner (2006), there are eight multiple intelligences. Here is a list
that you can use to comprehend the intelligences and their meaning to you as individual
learners.

● Interpersonal: If you have strong interpersonal skills, you are people-smart.

● Intrapersonal: If you have strong intrapersonal skills, you are self-smart.
● Verbal-linguistic: If you are verbal-linguistic, you are word smart.
● Logical-mathematical: If you are logical-mathematical, you are logic and math
smart.
● Naturalist: If you are a naturalist at heart, you are nature-smart (science and
math).
● Visual-spatial: If you are visual-spatial, you are picture-smart.
● Bodily-kinesthetic: If you are bodily-kinesthetic, you are hands-on or body
and movement smart.
● Musical-rhythmic: If you are musical-rhythmic, you are music smart.

Multiple Intelligence Strategies

Everyone possesses all eight of the multiple intelligences; some are just stronger than
others. Access The Multiple Intelligence Classroom: Matching Your Teaching
Methods With How Students Learn to gather more information.

Here are a few of the intelligences and strategies:

If you are a verbal-linguistic learner:

● Write a story for a book or newsletter.

● Keep a journal.

If you are a mathematical/logical learner:

● Sort, categorize, and characterize word lists.

● While reading a story, stop before you have finished and predict what will happen
next.

4
If you are a body/kinesthetic learner:

● Write on a mirror with lipstick or soap.

● Take a walk and read all the words you find during the walk.
● Handle a stress ball during a study session.

The Keirsey Temperaments

David Keirsey maintains that there are four observable temperaments or personality
traits (Keirsey, n.d.):

● Artisan: Says what is, does what works.

● Rationalist: Says what is possible, does what works.
● Guardian: Says what is, does what is right.
● Idealist: Says what is possible, does what is right.

®
Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator (MBTI)

Try to discern your personality type by reading the description below of the Myers-
Briggs Personality Indicator. Four categories compose the Myers-Briggs Indicator which
are on a scale with zero in the middle, extroversion on the right end, and introversion on
the left side. Where would you score on the extroversion/introversion; sensing/intuition;
feeling/thinking; judging/perceiving scales?

● E stands for extroversion, I stands for introversion: The focus, direction, or

orientation of your behavior — outward or inward. Extroverted types will need
to verbalize ideas to help them decide; introverted types need introspection to
decide.

● S stands for sensing, N stands for intuition: This is how you gather information —
S types tend to be detail-oriented, and N types tend to see the larger picture.

● T stands for thinking, F stands for feeling: This is how you make decisions —
based on facts or logic versus based on people’s feelings.

● J stands for judging, P stands for perceiving: This is how you react to the
world. Do you like to keep your options open? If so, you are probably more on
the P side of the scale. If you are a J, you probably like structure and like to
know and plan out exactly what you will be doing at any one time. A perceptive
type might prefer to schedule certain things, but keep some time open for the

5
 unexpected. For instance, bank tellers would probably score high on the J side
of the scale, whereas a performance artist might score higher on the scale's P
side.

Why Is This Important?

The question now becomes why is this important? As you learn all about the many
facets of personality and learning, you empower yourself to become a stronger, more
unique person and problem-solver.

As you develop a greater understanding of your personality traits and strengths, you
will also begin to understand why you respond to certain situations or people the way
you do. You will very likely develop a much clearer picture of your outstanding
abilities. Businessballs (2021) states that the purpose for studying personality types
“Is also the key to unlocking elusive human qualities, for example leadership,
motivation, and empathy, whether your purpose is self-development, helping others,
or any other field relating to people and how we behave.” (Introduction, para.2)

Most importantly, as you study styles and strategies, it is important to recognize the
value of the individual. Each person brings qualities to the table and it will benefit you
to be open and flexible as you work together.

You have the information; how do you use it? The most important part of learning is
your personal creativity. As you analyze and research information, you begin to
evaluate what you gathered and to turn it into your own product that can help you to
become a stronger creative thinker and problem solver.

Most situations allow for a great number of possible solutions as you seek answers and
ideas. Remain open to trying new strategies several times before making an evaluation.
Offer your thoughts and ideas to others knowing that there is plenty of room for all kinds
of creativity.

It is in your increased knowledge that you become motivated to learn more. In your
knowledge about yourself, you find the value and worth that makes you stand up
proud as you offer your strengths to the world around you.

Study Strategies
As you focus on becoming a stronger, more empowered learner, it will be important
for you to consider your strengths and weaknesses in terms of your study strategies.
Where do you excel? Where do you need to make some improvements? How can
you make full use of your strengths as you focus on making improvements? Explore
the following areas as you seek to know yourself better as a learner and thinker
(Weinstein, 2016).

6
 ● Anxiety — How well do you deal with your emotions?
● Attitude — How does your attitude affect your daily performance?
● Concentration — Do you find that you are easily distracted or are you good at
staying focused?
● Information processing — Are you good at remembering and retaining
information or is this something you struggle with?
● Motivation — Do you find it easy to stay motivated and engaged or do you tend
to lose interest in things easily?
● Selecting main ideas — Are you confident when it comes to selecting main
ideas?
● Self-testing — How effective are your current self-testing strategies?
● Testing strategies — How effective are your current testing strategies?
● Time management — How well do you manage your time?
● Using academic resources — How efficient are your current study aids?

To determine your study strengths and weaknesses, take time to complete the Lassi
Inventory, and explore the Lassi modules by following instructions included in the
course's Unit 3 Assignment area.

Summary

In completing this reading section, you have now prepared yourself to complete your
discussion topic. Be sure to continue (if you have not already done so) working with
your activities.

Continue to question your strategies and to seek to enhance them. Continue to wonder
and discover, as these are two critical thinking skills that promote learning and
exploration.

II. Challenge Activity

Explore Your Multiple Intelligences

For your challenge in Unit 3 and to further enrich your learning strategies, carefully
consider Howard Gardner’s (2006) eight multiple intelligences summarized above, and
select your top three intelligences based on what you have learned about yourself
throughout your exploration of the learning styles. Challenge yourself to find different
ways to put your strongest intelligences to work for you in school, at home, and in the
workplace as well.

Continue to make connections as you move from unit to unit. Search for the strategies
that you find most helpful to your learning and thinking processes. Begin to use them

7
over and over because, through repetition, you will establish habits of success.

III. Powerful Words for a Powerful Vocabulary — 7 Words in 7 Days

Effective communication is not only an essential academic strategy, it is fast becoming
one of the top skills employers are looking for as they screen potential employees.
However, how do you become an effective communicator? The answer to this question
is quite simple, yet it involves some serious commitment on your part. You have to
practice and make a firm commitment to equipping yourself with the many different tools
that you will need to express your ideas clearly and effectively in both written and
spoken communication. This is where a powerful vocabulary can make a world of
difference for you because words are the building blocks of communication. Therefore,
the more words you can use, the more creative, convincing, and powerful you will be as
a communicator. What if you could add just one new word to your vocabulary each day?
Think about the progress you would make in a week, a month, or even an entire year.

Vocabulary Enrichment Resources

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Vocabulary Words:
Audacious: Extremely bold; overbearing
Auspicious: Prosperous; promising success
Clandestine: Done in secret; shady action
Munificent: Very generous
Pejorative: Belittling; disparaging
Pernicious: Dangerous; deadly; destructive; extremely harmful
Plethora: Excessively large quantity; overabundance

References

Businessballs. (2021). Personality theories and types. Retrieved from

https://www.businessballs.com/self-awareness/personality-theories-and-types/

Center for Applications of Psychological Type, Inc. (n.d.). About the MBTI® assessment:

The four preferences of the MBTI® instrument. Retrieved from

https://www.capt.org/take-mbti-assessment/mbti-overview.htm

EducationPlanner. (n.d.). What’s your learning style? Retrieved from

8
 http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles.shtml

Gardner, H. (2006). Multiple intelligences: New horizons in theory and practice. Basic

Books.

Golubtchik, B. (n.d.). The multiple intelligence classroom: Matching your teaching

methods with how students learn. Retrieved from

http://www.teachersnetwork.org/media/NTHchapterbenna.htm

Keirsey. (n.d.). Learn about the four temperaments. Retrieved from

http://www.keirsey.com/default.aspx

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Word of the day. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-

webster.com/word-of-the-day