Saturday, February 7, 2009

Can We Develop Learning Skills?

I'd always wanted to speak to students at the college level so when ever an opportunity came along I jumped at it. And then I got little nervous. I have addressed several other audience, but students are different. I questioned myself. "Would I be a good Speaker at College?" "Did I know enough to teach them?" "Would I be able to connect with the students?" "Could I encourage them to learn?" It was a little overwhelming but I was up for a challenge.


Last week I had spend more than an hour with the M.B.A students of ICFAI National College. Now that I had finished talking to them - I'm no longer nervous. In fact I loved it. I love to be with the students. More than that, I love the learning environment. And I'm excited about learning again.

Off late, I've been trying to be a good reader and learner. But this class has reignited my desire to learn in a new way. I realized one thing while preparing to speak to them, the challenge is not teaching the concepts but the real life application of it. I don't want them to be just book worms - I want them to leave my class knowing how marketing works in the real world. I want them to learn and develop excellent learning skills. I realized, in order to teach them any of these things, I must be willing to learn along with them.

One thing I realize is that there is so much I do not know and I need to develop my learning skills which is a life long process. This made me to think, how can I develop Excellent Learning Skills and let me share those thoughts with you.

Tips for Developing Learning Skills:

1)Be willing to admit we don't know the answer

2)Ask questions, be curious

3)Stop trying to act as if we know it all - we don't

4)Make it a point to learn something new every day

5)Attend events, meet people and read things we would not ordinarily participate in

6)Keep an open mind

7)Keep it simple - academia and the use of jargon does not impress people

8)Teach others - we learn the most when we have to teach

9)Take a class

10)And most importantly - have fun with learning

"Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence." - Abigail Adams

Let's make a commitment to learn something new today.
Learning along with you, Shamim

11 comments:

Unknown said...

My experience is that "If you are ready to teach,then you are ready to learn"

Shamim Rafeek said...

Thanks a lot for your comment

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