Personal Learning Experiences

Example #1 - ِ Typical Math Lesson in My Middle School

A typical math lesson in my middle school. First, the teacher would tell us the basic rule. Then, we would solve as many problems to get a good grasp of the concept. If you make a mistake in one problem, you would be hit on your hand. If you get the answers right, then you are praised by the teacher. If you get the answer right, but in different steps than the teacher proposed, you’re being punished by getting losing grades. The entire focus was on the correct steps to solve a problem.

Example #2 - An English Conversation Course in My College

I studied at the faculty of languages and translation at Al-Azhar University. I had to learn how to make conversations in English in order to achieve fluency, which is a vital skill for us as translators. The professor would tell us first about a specific situation. Then, he would ask us about what would we say in that specific situation. After that, he would divide us into couples and ask us to make a conversation in English about the same situation. He would then come and try to facilitate the discussion and give us various ways to express what we want to say. He would also have more fluent students mentor the less ones.

Example #3 - A Social Media Training Session in My Professional Career

Part of my job was to receive a training session on how to use different social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter for marketing purposes. The instructor was an experienced digital marketeer. First, he asked us to introduce ourselves and to state a specific outcome that we want to gain from the session. We discovered later on that the instructor would relate different examples to our needs and desired outcomes. After each step, he always asked us to reflect and make connections with our previous background and experiences. At the session concluded, he sent us study notes for all the concepts via email, and asked us to revise them twice a week and reflect on our current practice.