Reflection 3

In class, we have been reading Learning & Teaching Exponential Growth by Susan Gong. This little book is full of intriguing thoughts about teaching and learning. In the book, it discusses 4 different experiences, capture, expand, teach, and evaluate. Each of these are very important to the Learner/Teacher (L/T) and are ways that an L/T gains experience.

While reading about this, there was one quote that stuck out to me. "When you expect to teach, your mind is prepared to learn." This is so true! This made me really reflect on my own life and how I learn. When I am learning something, I may understand it mostly, but if I don't, I don't stress it and move on. When I am learning something though and know that I must teach it, I have such a different attitude! It makes me question things of the material more and makes me think about the material more because I subconsciously have the mindset that I must teach it to others. I MUST grasp the material because I will have to share it with others.

With the help of this quote making me aware of this learning differences in me based on the purpose, I want to try and go into learning things with the one mindset of being expected to teach it. By doing this, I will feel more pressed to gain as much knowledge about what I am learning rather than being the occasional floater (as shum would say) and not always focusing. As I learn, I want to try and incorporate Gong's principles of capture, expand, teach, and evaluate and to do so with the new mindset of teaching others.