SELF AWARENESS OF LEARNING STYLES AND PREFERENCES OF HIGHLY DIVERSE INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS AT COMMUNITY COLLEGES Jim McDougall

Learning environment Motivation Self awareness Improvement  Students know what they want or need… not just subject matter  Alliances with instructor and other students, desire for benefits of modern pedagogy  Discerning audience for useful methods and efficiencies in work effort  Reinforcement of good learning practices  Ability to work successfully with people who would otherwise not be working colleagues  Providing a window into other relationships with work and academic subjects

Awareness of learning styles Learning preferences, quadrants of the brain, etc. Comparison with members of the class, instructor(s)  Simple, affirmative, non judgemental  Hand out cards, discovery method, discussion of all preferences as strengths  Appreciation of diversity of members of group/class  Science teachers may favor analytical and quantative  Majority of responses for community college students favor communication and sensory learning (probably also true for K- 12 and general population)

Metacognitive activities in physical science Routine oral reports Poster presentations Reflective papers  Clearing up misconceptions, following process and difficulties for teams especially, like the lecture “wrappers”  Self improvement  Same guide used by instructor and other students  Short progression of separate essay questions  Use “warmer uppers” to key questions  Example: Identify steps in process and what steps are most significant and cannot be eliminated  Consider the order of steps  What steps of more general use in solving problems of this sort  Would this process be easier a second time, how?

Camera dissection: identifying systems of the camera Awareness of science as being systematic  Geometric optics, refraction, and lenses  Electrical circuits and electromagnetic principles  Energy  Other

Questioning strategy Idea of persistence  Metacognitive element for college readiness in science  Are you persistent?  Breaking this down into more directed or specific questions or prompts, e.g., where did you get stuck…. How did you work through it…..what tools allowed you to do this?

Geology courses Experiments, exploration, imagination What are metacognitive elements here for community college audience?... Note: 1 in 100 may be potential geology major Crucial lab experiences: outside applications…