Essay on Devising and implementing Self Regulated Learning plan
Planning for how to study “Educational Psychology Module” for the final exam of CHPE course. I am also required to develop a self-regulated learning Plan to learn the said module for CHPE exam.
If I had been asked a few weeks back that how I am going to study for any exam? My answer would have been like, I will give a read to the subject and try to learn what appears to be important and may be asked during the exams. Looking back on that behavior now after attending CHPE 1st contact session, I realize what I was missing.
Attending CHPE session has opened my eyes to new realities and has cleared many misconceptions for me. I now believe that learning and teaching does not have to be a boring task. In fact, it can be as much enjoyable as any other attractive daily life activity if we know the proper way to learn. In other word if we know how to regulate our learning process.
I would be studying “Educational Psychology Module” for my CHPE final Exam using Self-regulated learning cycle as devised by Casey B. White. This SRL cycle comprises of four steps and their underlying elements as shown in figure.1, below.
Foremost, I am going to set my personal goals. In this case my long-term goal is very specific i.e. to learn Educational Psychology Module by 20th June 2019 allocating 1 hour daily for this purpose and to be able to put it into practice soon after. My goal is also measurable in a sense that I would be studying each topic for four days and would take help of google calendar to monitor my progress.
After going through the CHPE course book provided to us during the session I realized that since it lacks “table of contents and index” it is very difficult to find specific topics readily so this gave rise to one of my short-term goals. I have decided to spend one hour to give the Educational psychology module a quick read and build a table of content mentioning page numbers.
Being an adult learner as I would be studying for the exam along with all my other daily life responsibilities so I need to manage my time very efficiently. For this purpose, I would be utilizing "Stephen Covey’s time management matrix".
Reflecting on my previous routine I realized that I was wasting to much of my precious time by indulging in activities that belonged to 4th Quadrant i.e. not important and not urgent. Therefore, I am now going to limit my watching T.V. Shows and allocate that time to “important but not urgent” tasks that I used to postpone which led to a long list of “important and urgent” tasks. I would now be allocating most of my task to 2nd quadrant including my SRL Plan for CHPE Exam.
My Goal, being easy to achieve would help boost my morale and motivate to move farther. I believe in my ability to do it and I shall do it.
My motivating factors are my Psychological as well as self fulfillment needs. I want to accomplish a good reputation among the Medical teaching fraternity and also achieve my full potential of being a great teacher. Apart from that, passing the CHPE Exam and being able to score good marks is another factor that motivates me. Another motivation factor for me is that the more i understand educational psychology the better I would be at my job. Student would benefit a lot from me and i am also thinking of teaching students of first year how to self-regulate their learning.
During the contact session I took some time and thought about where I fall along the epistemological continuum and realized that I stood in the category of commitment to constructed knowledge. I believe that if self-improvement is the goal then everyone and everything around you whether good or bad, along with your experience can help in evolution. I would therefore be actively experimenting with what I learn.
My choice of learning style tends to be multidimensional. I plan to use the course book as well as the relevant research articles regarding educational psychology. Previously I was a solitary learner. I now understand that social learning would be a better option for me. I would also try to write in my own words what I learn every four days.
Among other things I learned during CHPE contact session, i also learned that in order to move what I learned, from short term memory to long term memory, I need to adapt certain strategies which included.
- Spaced practice, where I would be reviewing the topic of previous day before starting todays lesson.
- Retrieval Practice, where I would try to reproduce every topic after 4 days.
- Elaboration, where as I would try to elaborate and try to explain to myself in detail every topic I learned.
- Concrete Examples, where I would try to come up with concrete example for every theory in practice
- Dual coding, where I would be associating specific theories or lesson with visual or graphs to better retain it using multiple senses.
Once I have completed my learning of the “Educational Psychology Module” by 20th June, I would then move on to the assessment phase. For this purpose, I have developed the following criterion for monitoring and assessing my progress.
I would be taking help of Dr Kalimullah and Dr Amin khan to provide me with targeted and systemic feedback on my progress and understanding directly. I would also be taking help of my peers on the Whatsapp group to identify my weakness related to understanding of educational psychology. I would also be self-assessing my knowledge and would be requesting for external formative feedback from one of my course facilitators.
Adjustment phase which includes reflection and attribution would help me in correcting my mistakes and improving my learning and knowledge. I would be reflecting-in during my learning phase on my learning style and strategy to know whether my methods are progressing me towards my goals or slowing me down. I would therefore take necessary action to change course where required. Later on, when I finish my study I would be reflecting-on over my knowledge and understanding of educational psychology and would be taking help of colleagues in doing so and thus making necessary changes of my learning plan.
During my first contact session I learned a great deal about attribution. Thanks to the facilitators that now I understand the internal, external and controllable and uncontrollable attributions mentioned in wiener’s attribution theory.
I would be using that knowledge to make sure I choose attribute my weaknesses and failures to unstable and controllable factors rather than uncontrollable factors like luck etc. and most importantly Pray to God to help me achieve my Goals.
