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I strongly believe that knowing your learning style and how it may impact your work with students or clients is important. In regard to learning styles altogether, it is important to note that learning styles do not take into account brain plasticity. The brain can change and adapt due to our experiences therefore it is important to foster growth. Consequently, learning styles can be restricting due to the factors that affect learning in individuals. That being said, implications of my own learning style are trying to learn to present information in as many different ways as possible to keep individuals engaged and challenged. Since I learn best through participating and being hands-on, I need to connect with individuals by strengthening areas such as strengthening my communication skills. Additionally, another effect of learning style is having a growth mindset and how I would cultivate this mindset for my students or clients. In general, it is important to maximize my students or clients learning by incorporating various learning tasks.

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Language has always been an important part of communication. For instance, body language, tone of voice, and the words that are used. That being said, verbal and nonverbal messages are used interchangeably to communicate. However, I believe that non-verbal signals such as facial expressions and body movements reveal other cues such as context. Facial expressions for example may convey one’s true feelings about a particular subject. Often times there may be a lack of congruence between what one is trying to communicate and what one’s body language is presenting When testing my own face perception, my results indicated that for the most part, I am fairly skilled at reading non-verbal signals. Personally and professionally, I try to be attentive to both verbal and nonverbal body language due to understanding that actions can speak louder than words. As a helper, this skill is important in my interactions with my students/clients to allow me to better understand and empathize.

Moreover, language is very complex and is how individuals produce and understand spoken and written language. Language is made up of words and systemic rules to organize the words created for individuals to speak to one another. This process is important for communication whether it be through verbal or non-verbal codes such as sign language. When completing the survey about linguistic knowledge, I found that I did not understand every component in written language structure. For example, I was unfamiliar with schwa vowels, consonant digraphs, and thorough explanations of rules. Moats (1994) found that experienced teachers even have a lack of understanding about language structure. Because of this there has been changes in education policy to improve teacher knowledge and skill (Moats 2009). I believe this to be beneficial as an educator since reading essentially becomes automatic. An automatic reader will initiate a task without actively attending to it. For example, when reading directions, I am not consciously thinking about how to decode every word. Therefore, this allows me to pay attention to the content. I believe this may contribute to why individuals may understand too little about language structure. Although this is not a strong suit of mine, as Moats (1994) found, there are tools to become competent in linguistics.

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Ashcraft, M. H. (2002). Math anxiety: Personal, educational, and cognitive consequences. Current Directions in Psychological Science,11(5), 181-185. doi:10.1111/1467-8721.00196

Barrett, L. F. (2017). How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Boterberg S. & Warreyn P. Making sense of it all: The impact of sensory processing sensitivity

on daily functioning of children. Pers Individ Differ. 2016;92(2):80-86. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2015.12.022

Cortés Pascual, A., Moyano Muñoz, N., & Quílez Robres, A. (2019). The relationship between executive functions and academic performance in primary education: Review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology,10. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01582

Diamond, A., & Ling, D. S. (2016). Conclusions about interventions, programs,
and approaches for improving executive functions that appear justified and those that, despite much hype, do not. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience,18, 34-48. doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2015.11.005

Interact with PANAMATH. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2021, from https://panamath.org/

Moats, L. (1994). The missing foundation in teacher education: Knowledge of the structure of spoken and written language, Annals of Dyslexia: Orton Dyslexia Society, 44.

Moats, L. (2009). Knowledge foundations for teaching reading and spelling. Reading and Writing, 22, 379-399.

Rogowsky, B. A., Calhoun, B. M., & Tallal, P. (2020). Providing instruction based on students’ learning style preferences does not improve learning. Frontiers in Psychology,11. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00164

Simons, D. J., & Chabris, C. F. (1999). Gorillas in our midst: Sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events. Perception,28(9), 1059-1074. doi:10.1068/p281059

Weissberg, R. P., & Cascarino, J. (2013). Academic learning + social-emotional learning = national priority. Phi Delta Kappan,95(2), 8-13. doi:10.1177/003172171309500203

Wolfe, J. M. (2015). Visual search. In J. M. Fawcett, E. F. Risko, & A. Kingstone (Eds.), The handbook of attention (p. 27–56). Boston Review.

Yana Suchy, Ph.D., Executive Functioning: Overview, Assessment, and Research Issues for Non-Neuropsychologists, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Volume 37, Issue 2, April 2009, Pages 106–116, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-009-9097-4

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During my early school years, I always found that math was one of my favorite subjects in school. I enjoyed problem-solving and being intellectually challenged. However, when it came time to take a quiz or test, I had some testing anxiety due to the fear of forgetting a formula. When taking the math anxiety test by Maloney et al., I scored a 15. My result indicates that I am “a little bit” math anxious, which I do agree with. I believe my anxiety stems from testing anxiety and not so much in regard to math itself. However, Ashcraft (2002) found that math anxious people will consume their working memory with anxiety. Therefore, when I work myself up with completing a math assignment, I don’t have enough memory left to do the math. Moreover, when completing the Panamath test by Halberda et al., I was hesitant on what my results would be. When I would get a trial incorrect, I did feel a bit anxious. I found that I answered correctly to all of the easier trials where there was a noticeable difference in dots (i.e. 12 yellow vs 6 blue). Overall, compared to other individuals my age, I was within the typical range for performance and accuracy. Therefore, my results show that I have good intuitive recognition of numbers and their relationships, which coincides with my strength of math.

Moreover, contrary to math, I was always undecided about reading. I noticed that when I had to read a book and it wasn’t of interest to me, I found it challenging to remember the content. I noticed myself skimming through the book and not remembering what I had just learned/read. Therefore, I was shocked when reviewing my results from the reading speed test. I read about 352 words per minute and answered 17 out of the 18 questions correctly. However, I would be curious to see if my results would differ if the articles presented were longer in length. Regardless, reading relies on language competence. Therefore, my results show that I am proficient in decoding thus being able to read fluently.

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Perception is how one may process information that our senses receive. Perceptual experiences help individuals make sense of different stimuli from the environment. I find that being a sensitive person, which the sensitivity lab affirmed, I have a tendency to process information from the environment before acting. Boterberg and Warreyn (2016) found that a highly sensitive person has an increased sensitivity to emotional and social stimuli. I believe this may be beneficial in many situations such as being aware of a person’s body language or the environment at work. I tend to evaluate the situation and then respond accordingly. Although being sensitive has its strengths and weaknesses, I find that being able to perceive situations/motives more easily is a good strength to have.

Moreover, attention plays a significant part in what is perceived. Although I believe I am able to attend to objects and/or events, sometimes one will not notice something unexpected. During the Simons and Chabris (1999) test, I did not notice the gorilla that walked in the middle of the video. This phenomenon is known as inattentional blindness, which is the failure to notice an unexpected object of event when attention is focused on something else (Simons & Chabris, 1999). This is an interesting demonstration of how important attention is in regard to perception. In the study, individuals were so focused on the individuals passing the balls that the gorilla wasn’t visible. This may also occur in real world and objects not being in one’s focus.

Another similar experiment that focused on distractors is visual search. During the experiment, one is instructed to locate the target item amongst distractor items. Visual search involves attention and scanning the environment. My results found that I was able to find the correct letter when there were few items presented (in 726ms with five items). This can be explained as detecting the target. However, taking a longer time in detecting the target may be due to difficulty directing attention (Wolfe, 2015). This experiment, in addition to the perceptual process, are important for survival and everyday tasks. Therefore, considering my results from the labs, I believe I have an increase sense of the environment to make appropriate responses due to being sensitive. That being said, I may interpret stimuli differently and may look too much into things due to this heightened sense.  However, I find that it is important to note that our brains do interpret stimuli differently due to our experiences.

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Understanding learning preferences is a beneficial approach to creating a rich learning environment. Rogowsky, Calhoun, and Tallal (2020) stated that the premise of learning style is that individuals learn best when their preferred learning style is used. Therefore, I believe that incorporating a multimodal and interactive approach will aid in keeping my clients engaged. In regard to my personal learning style, I find that I have strong executive functioning profile, such as being able to concentrate and tune out any stimuli. I am also a highly sensitive person, which I believe may be beneficial due to being more aware and able to process information. I consider myself to be highly organized, which will aid in my ability to plan and stay motivated. I am also a great multi-tasker so I will be able to effectively manage multiple responsibilities by switching back and forth between tasks. Furthermore, there is a lack of evidence on relying on personal learning styles. As a result, I believe that one should not rely heavily on preferred learning styles, but should still incorporate the style(s) most effective for a certain lesson.In regard to my personal learning style and my brain map, I learn best by carrying out an activity rather than listening to a lecture or watching demonstrations. Therefore, I am a kinesthetic learner. Being a kinesthetic learner, I prefer being part of a team, demonstrations followed by applying what I have learned, and completing tasks. In doing so, I like using all of my senses and learn by trial and error. Moreover, I find that being a kinesthetic learner, I have a tendency to use many examples when I present information to other people as well as utilize my previous experience to make decisions. Overall, I thrive on experiences so I can have a better understanding of things.

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Misconceptions of Learning Styles | Anita Acai | TEDxGuelphU

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Individuals with strong social-emotional learning have an increased ability to cope with everyday challenges. They will hold effective problem-solving skills and the ability to manage emotions. Personally, I believe that I possess strong social-emotional skills. For instance, being able to utilize self-regulation skills when needed and maintaining healthy relationships. This is demonstrated by having traits of being an empathetic and optimistic person. However, emotions are not hard-wired and are said to be constructed from our experiences (Barrett, 2017). Given this information, I am not surprised of my results for the Implicit Association Test. The IAT brings about thoughts and feelings outside of our conscious awareness and control. Growing up, I was raised in a predominantly white, middle-class community. My findings from the race IAT showed that I have an automatic preference for European American compared to African American. Although a goal of mine is to be a cultural informed person, this may be a hidden bias due to my lack of cultural experience. This is similar to my results from the Gender Science IAT. My results indicated that I had a moderate automatic association of male with science and female with liberal arts association. This goes back to my experience from my childhood. However, this shows the importance of having self-awareness and social awareness. I find this to play a crucial part in influencing my practice. Not only do I need to implement evidence-based practices to support SEL, but as a helper I need to be cultivate well-being, cultural competency, and social and emotional competencies (Weissberg & Cascarino, 2013). As a result, this will directly impact the positive climate in setting to promote SEL.

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Playlist to help with concentration and creativity

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Playlist to help with concentration and creativity

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I find that creating a personal brain map is beneficial for personal development and to help discover your inner self. Taking a deeper look into the most complex part of the human body will uncover the inner workings of the brain, in addition to how this affects teaching and learning. I believe that individuals can increase their intelligence through effort and challenge. Additionally, having the right mindset to develop your intelligence is important in achieving this. Having a growth mindset will lead to the desire to learn. As a result, examining how the brain works helps to embrace weaknesses and work toward strengthening them. This stands true of my personality due to having some personality weaknesses such as being critical of myself and being an independent thinker. However, remaining persistent and embracing challenges will grow and/or strengthen neural connections.

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Developing a Growth Mindset with Carol Dweck

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Individuals use executive functioning skills every day to pay attention, plan/organize, and switch focus to attend to another task. Therefore, these skills are important in learning and making healthy choices. A crucial factor in these functions are one’s working memory, flexibility, and self-control (Cortés Pascual, Moyano Muñoz, & Quílez Robres, 2019). Consequently, having difficulties in these areas may affect one’s skills to manage life tasks.

In regard to my executive function profile, I tested higher than the average person for continuous concentration. I find that when I am completing a task, I am able to focus my attention on the object. I also have good cognitive inhibition since I was able to stop myself from responding to other objects during the test. As a result, this shows my ability to have my attention engrossed on the task/object at hand. Moreover, when having to attend to more than one task at a time, I made little to no mistakes on the multi-tasking test. When prompted with additional symbols to memorize, I was still able to perform the task with little error. Therefore, I have the ability to focus attention, sustain attention, and shift attention when needed.

Furthermore, I participated in another task that tested memory and recall. I had a greater ability to recognize celebrities and scored above average when recognizing unfamiliar faces. For the most part, I have a fairly good memory, but I do suffer from the occasional memory lapse. This may be caused due to factors such as stress or fatigue. I do believe this to be a factor in my testing scores since I do experience fatigue. However, there are many evidence-based ways to improve memory such as partaking in an activity (for example, piano or martial arts), getting enough sleep, and reducing sugar intake (Diamond & Ling, 2016). Overall, I find that I have strong skills in planning and prioritizing, organizing, impulse control, and self-monitoring. However, I believe that an executive function I need to continuously work on is memory.

I believe possessing these executive functioning skills are important for my counseling practice. It helps the brain complete everyday tasks and are the foundation for success. Therefore, practicing executive function skills such as creating a checklist, giving additional time before transition to a new task, and providing breaks can help improve these skills. Being aware of the importance will inform my practice and also recognize skills that I will need to improve on as a helper.

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Interesting article about activities to improve EFs

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Interesting article about activities to improve EFs

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Diamond and Ling (2016) hypothesized that programs will improve a childs EF. She focused on programs that bring a child joy and a sense of belonging. This figure illustrates her hypothesis. Citation is listed under references for more information.