How Do You Like to Learn? (Part Two of Six)
Myth: All colleges and universities are alike.
Reality: This country boasts a rich array of more than 3,000 colleges and universities dedicated to providing post-secondary educational opportunities. Their personalities, curricula and institutional cultures vary, though, as greatly as 3,000 sets of fingerprints! While they teach essentially the same stuff, they do it very differently.
Think about what this means for you. While your educational needs can be met in many places, you can’t assume they will be met in the same manner—or, more importantly, in a manner that is well suited to your learning style. If you and your family are going to invest in a four-year college education, it only makes sense that you put yourself in situation that is most likely to support a successful learning experience.
Finding a good college fit begins with identifying places that provide not only the program you need, but also a style of instruction that is most comfortable for you. Just as students possess unique learning styles—they each process information differently—colleges offer different styles of instruction. For example, let’s suppose you want to study Biology. Some colleges will teach Biology in seminars that include 25-30 students while others teach it in lecture halls of five hundred! Yet others will attach labs to the instruction or offer research opportunities. In each case, the material is the basically same—bio is bio—but the experience is different. How would you function in these different environments? What sort of interaction do you want to have with the information that is being presented?
The objective, then, is to find a style of instruction that compliments the way you like to learn. As you begin looking for a good college “fit,” take stock of your learning style. How do you like to be engaged with learning? Who or what inspires you? Under what circumstances are you most likely to produce your best work? The more you know about how you like to learn, the easier it will be to make critical distinctions among the learning environments of different colleges.
Consider the following questions as you try to get your arms around your learning style. Be particularly attentive to the “why” part of each question.
- Who is your favorite teacher—and why?
- What is your favorite class right now—and why?
- In which type of classroom setting, i.e., large group lectures, seminars, etc., are you most comfortable—and why?
- With what kinds of people and personalities do you enjoy exchanging ideas—and why?
As you reflect on your answers—especially the “whys”—you come to better understand the characteristics of a learning environment that would be the most appropriate for you in college. The next step is to look for colleges that mirror these characteristics. They will be the best fits for you.
If, for example, your approach to learning is to take good notes, read diligently and prepare carefully—all in the relative anonymity of the large lecture hall, then you are more likely to function comfortably in a larger, more expansive instructional setting. On the other hand, if you like the engagement of a small classroom where you can ask questions—where you can challenge and be challenged—then the seminar format will be more productive for you.
Now, let’s take a quick look at what can happen if you are not attentive to the information you are gleaning about your learning style. If you do prefer the large lecture hall experience—but you’ve chosen a college where most of your classes put you front and center around the seminar table, won’t you fell like the proverbial “fish out of water?” On the other hand, if really like the engagement of the small classroom but find yourself in a setting that features lectures of 300 or more students—all the time—will that learning environment bring out the best in you? In the final analysis, you are more likely to get the most out of your ability when you find yourself in an environment that is well suited to the way you learn.
I asked these questions of my daughter as she was looking at colleges. After some reflection, she concluded that, “choosing a college is one of the most important decisions I will make in my life. In order to make a good choice, I need to know myself a little better.” Take the time to get to know yourself—and how you enjoy learning—in order to make good choices that reflect your interests and needs. Doing so will put you in a better position to find and get into colleges that fit you well.
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