Which new learning strategies do you think you are most likely to adopt this term at Western?
What does this choice of strategies reveal about how your approach to learning in university is likely to change relative to high school?
This term at Western, I am most likely to adopt the notetaking and verbalization strategies. Notetaking has always been a slight weakness of mine throughout high school as I have never truly been aware of what content to create notes for, however, this year I am hoping to adjust and improve by making notes solely on the important content after lectures and readings. As referred to in the Leamson essay, doing this is one of the most important activities for success. Having selected notetaking as one that I am most likely to adopt, this demonstrates that my approach to learning in university is similar, yet slightly different to my learning approaches in high school. I will continuously try the notetaking strategy with a different method of utilizing said strategy. Verbalization is another learning strategy I am likely to adopt this term. One of my
grade 12 professors heavily influenced utilizing this method to assist with understanding and memorizing the material provided. I did attempt to verbalize throughout last year, but often fell
into the trap of simply re-writing notes as a method of ‘understanding’. I am ardently looking to
further explore this strategy by creating a small study group and asking well-prepared questions
for classes and labs this term. This approach will be slightly different relative to any high school approaches with verbalization, as I will be exploring if this method truly works for me and if I am able to actively remember and understand key concepts from this term.
