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Learning to learn: You and your learning

About this free course

This free course provides a sample of level 1 study in Education, Childhood & Youth http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/find/education-childhood-and-youth

This version of the content may include video, images and interactive content that may not be optimised for your device.

You can experience this free course as it was originally designed on OpenLearn, the home of free learning from The Open University:
http://www.open.edu/openlearn/education/learning-learn-you-and-your-learning/content-section-0.

There you’ll also be able to track your progress via your activity record, which you can use to demonstrate your learning.

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Contents

- Introduction

- Learning outcomes

- How to study this course

- Enrolling onto this course

- How to complete the quizzes

- course forum and Facebook group

- 1 Everyday learning – What’s going on?

- 1.1 Another case study

- 2 We are all learners

- 3 Gathering evidence – Your qualities, knowledge and skills

- 3.1 Qualities

- 3.2 Knowledge

- 3.3 Personal skills

- 3.4 Communication skills

- 3.5 Problem-solving and decision-making skills

- 3.6 Being organised

- 4 Mind mapping

- 5 Academic skills

- 5.1 Referencing

- 6 Conclusion

- Keep on learning

- References

- Acknowledgements

Introduction

This course aims to help you achieve your goals for change and development, focusing on different ways in which you can build
up useful information about yourself.

To do this, you are asked to gather evidence in order to complete an ‘audit’ of the qualities, knowledge and skills that you
already have. Don’t be put off by the word 'audit'. We’ve used it to emphasise that the information you collect is useful
and valuable.

This OpenLearn course provides a sample of level 1 study in Education, Childhood & Youth

Learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

- understand that valuable and important learning goes on all the time

- appreciate that learning can involve thinking, doing and feeling

- demonstrate a clearer idea of what has been learned and what qualities, knowledge and skills are already there

- understand better the importance of everyday skills of communication, problem solving and organisation.

How to study this course

This course is slightly different to other OpenLearn Study Units. Although you could study this course on its own, it is also
the second course of the free Learning to learn course. This course pilots an exciting new approach that aims to give you more flexibility and a pathway to expand your learning,
so please bear with us if things are not quite right.

Learning to learn is for people who are thinking about making changes in their lives, such as returning to study or taking a different direction
at work. It will help you to build on what you already know; to consider the choices open to you; to use your skills and qualities
to achieve change; and to make plans for the future. To find out more go to the Learning to Learn course page.

The course is designed to be studied in one week, although you can take as long as you like. If you are studying the course
as part of the Learning to learn course you may like to aim to complete each course in a week.

Working through this course

As you work through the course, breaks will be important. You will have to determine how long you can study this material
before you need to stop and relax. Be sure to take advantage of all of your resources – friends, family, the internet.

Learning Journals

As you work through the course it is a good idea to keep a Learning Journal, where you can make notes on activities, key
words and concepts or elements that are particularly relevant for you. Your Learning Journal can either be a notebook or you
may wish to create an electronic journal either by creating a document on your computer or mobile device, or create a personal
blog.

Thinking about how you are getting on with your learning is also very helpful when it comes to improving how you are learning
or simply looking back on your progress so far. You can use your Learning Journal to do this. Think about whether you have
found the best time to study, whether you are taking enough or too many notes, and whether you have understood all the concepts
covered in a course.

How you use your Learning Journal is personal to you. Writing things down in your own words will help your understanding.
It will give you a handy review of the main ideas that you can refer to later. People learn in different ways, and it is important
for you to experiment to find out which methods work best for you.

Support

While there is no officially support on this course, we hope that you, as a community of learners, will support each other
and share ideas. As this is the first time the course has been run, the OpenLearn team will be monitoring the comments and
forums to assist with common issues.

Comments, forums and Facebook group

You can share your ideas and ask questions via the comments function or in the course forum or on the Learning to learn Facebook group. You do not have to use any, or all, of these platforms to share your thoughts and meet other learners. Use the online environment
you feel most comfortable with.

Why do we provide a choice? Everyone has a preference for how they engage on online. Some will want to be actively involved
throughout the course whereas others may just dip in and out without participating. As this is a pilot, we are interested
in finding out if our learners would like the option of using social networking sites like Facebook as a community area.

If you have questions or suggestions on how we could improve the course or course please address them to the OpenLearn team
and post them in the forum discussion - Questions for OpenLearn.

Enrolment

This course is for people who are thinking about making changes in their lives, such as returning to study or taking a different
direction at work. It will help you build on what you already know; consider the choices open to you; use your skills and
qualities to achieve change; and make plans for the future. Although you can view this course without enrolling, in order
to participate in its activities and quizzes, you need to enrol.

Enrolling onto this course

If you already have an OpenLearn account, just sign in and click on the enrol button.

Figure 1 OpenLearn enrol button

If you are new to OpenLearn, you will need to register for a free Open University account. To do this, click on the sign in
button at the top of the screen, which will take you to The Open University sign-in page. Click on the ‘Create a free Open
University account here’ link and fill in the form that will appear. Then return to the OpenLearn website and sign in. The
enrol button will be visible for you to click on to register your interest in this course with us. If the enrol button does
not appear, try signing out and back in again – the button should then be visible.

If you are an existing OU student, you do not need to register with OpenLearn – you can sign in and enrol using your OU computer
user name. Unless you wish to use a separate account we would recommend using your OU student account. It is not necessary
to enrol to view the course materials, only if you wish to participate in the forums.

Once you are enrolled you unfortunately the system currently does not notify you or make it obvious you have successfully
enrolled, however the enrol button will change to ‘Unenrol’.

Figure 2 OpenLearn unenrol button

Please note

By enrolling on the You and your learning course you are giving us permission to contact you by email with information about this course and the OpenLearn Learning to learn course for research purposes in relation to this course.

By registering with OpenLearn you are giving us permission to contact you for research purposes in relation to OpenLearn.
If you do not wish to receive emails in relation to this OpenLearn research, please go to your profile page, click on edit
and opt out.

How to complete the quizzes

Before starting the quiz we recommend you read the following hints and tips about how the quiz system works.

How to use the quiz system:

- Quiz questions are presented in sequence. It is possible to skip questions and come back to them later. To move to a different
question, click on the question number on the left-hand side of the screen.

- You are advised not to use the ‘Back’ function on your web browser.

- Quizzes have no time limit. You may take as long as you wish to answer each question.

- If you have problems viewing any part of a quiz, it is likely that an out-of-date web browser is the cause. Make sure that
you are using the most up-to-date version of your web browser when accessing quizzes.

While working through the questions, you will need to do the following:

- The Check button must be pressed after entering or selecting your answer – otherwise your answer is not registered by the system.

- The Try Again button will appear if your answer is partially correct or incorrect. You may press this button to reattempt answering the
question. In most activities you are permitted two attempts per question.

- Once you have finished working on each question, click the Next button, which displays below the feedback to move on to the next question.

When you have completed the quiz, you will be shown a review of your answers. You may go back to any questions you have skipped
and reattempt them. Once you are satisfied with your answers, or once you run out of attempts, remember to return to the review
screen and press the ‘Submit all and finish’ button located at the bottom to register your answers.

If you have worked through the quiz in order, the summary screen will appear automatically upon completion. If you have answered
the questions out of order, you may access the summary screen at any time by selecting ‘End test...’ (on the left of the screen).

Do not get discouraged if your answers are not correct. You may reattempt all of the quizzes as many times as you wish. Take your time, read the questions and refer back to what you have studied if you are not sure.

course forum and Facebook group

Within this course you have the opportunity to contribute to and participate in the course forum and in the Learning to learn Facebook group which are entirely optional to engage with.

Within both you can share your ideas and thoughts about the course and potentially build a support network with other learners
who are studying at the same time as you. In addition, within the course some activities will ask you to post to the forum
and Facebook group.

course forum

Facebook group

Please note you will need a Facebook account to participate in the Facebook group.

Posting online guidance

In a forum there are a number of limitations that you do not always encounter when talking to someone face-to-face because
other people will not be able to see your facial expression or hear the tone of your voice, so what and how you write become
important. Some useful tips are:

- Keep to the subject, and pick the right discussion thread for your contribution.

- Before you write a message, take time to see what is being discussed and think about your reply.

- Try to keep messages short.

- Write a good subject line (title) for your message – people often haven’t time to read messages unless the subject line looks
relevant.

- Keep to one subject (one topic of discussion) per message.

- When replying to a message, only quote part of the earlier message if you need to. Don’t include everything, or messages get
longer and longer.

- Don’t be discourage if you receive no acknowledgement of your message. We would encourage you to thank and acknowledge those
who have commented, in order to encourage them and other to participate.

- If you disagree with a point that has been made, acknowledge the point before stating why you disagree.

- Make your perspective clear, but try to avoid speaking impersonally, to encourage debate.

- Clearly show your emotions, people can’t see faces and body language, so the use of smileys or emoticons such as :- ) or :-
( can be a useful way to get your emotion across.

- If you read something that offends or upsets you, while it might be tempting to fire back a hurried response, don’t, take
time to think about your response before replying, or if you feel it is appropriate report the comment to the OpenLearn team.

- AND FINALLY, DON’T WRITE IN CAPITAL LETTERS – IT WILL LOOK LIKE YOU’RE SHOUTING!

1 Everyday learning – What’s going on?

This course starts with two examples of ‘everyday’ learning. By doing this we are trying to show that learning goes on all
the time. This is the line of thinking that we really want you to agree with.

First up is Jim’s story. As you read this, see if any aspects of Jim’s story might also be a part of your story. (In this
context, we are using the word 'story' to mean what has happened in your life so far. We are not using it to mean something
that is ‘made up’.)

Case study: Jim’s story

Figure 3 Jim

Jim is finding that his work as a carpenter is affecting his health. He is beginning to think that he should find a different
line of work, so he has decided to build on what he already knows about computers. He has enrolled in a class, Introduction to Computers, at his local college.

Let Jim take up the story.

The class I had signed up for, Introduction to Computers, took place at my local college. It was years since I had been there, and it had changed a lot.

Even though I went online and found a map of the campus, I still could not find the building and the room. I asked a man for
directions. He said he was the instructor for the Introduction to Computers course, and that he would take me to the classroom. He gave me his name, which I forgot. He also asked me if I had received
his introductory email. I had not looked at my email for several days. I think I must have been nervous about starting the
course. (Although I thought that I had been fairly relaxed about it all.) I’m always forgetting names – especially of people
who are new to me.

When I got to the classroom, I found that it was called something like the ‘Learning Resources Centre’ and that it was filled
with dozens of brightly lit computers. My instructor (I still could not remember his name) led me over to one corner. ‘Here’s
your group,’ he said. And he started to introduce me to a dozen people. ‘This is Avril, this is Jade, this is Zoë, this is
Steve …’ I was feeling worse and worse. I had forgotten the teacher’s name and now I had even more names to remember.

‘You can use this computer, Jim,’ said the teacher. I was really pleased to be able to sit down in front of it so I did not
have to talk to any of the people whose names I had forgotten. The teacher gave me a sheet with a word-processing exercise
that looked like something I could manage. What a relief this was. It was so much easier than having to talk to these people
I had never met before.

However, after a few minutes, I realised that most of the other students in what was supposed to be my group were all talking
to each other. Some had met in another course last year and had decided to take this course together. And they all knew each
others’ names!

I slid slightly farther down in my chair and concentrated on the screen in front of me.

Activity 1: In what ways is Jim already a learner?

Allow about 15 minutes for this activity.

The story you have just read focuses on what happened when Jim went back to college.

However, his story reveals things about his past learning. It also shows that he is learning as things happen to him when
the class gets started. Jim’s story can be seen as a snapshot that tells us about why he wants to learn and what he thinks
he may not be very good at.

Later in this section, we ask you to think about the qualities, knowledge and skills that you bring to your learning. However,
for the time being, see if you can answer these questions:

1. What clues are there about what Jim learned in the past? For example, you might think about what courses (or other education)
Jim has completed.

2. What aspects do you think might be useful to him? For example, do you think that Jim has learned how to ask people for information?

3. Are there any unhelpful aspects? You might want to think about how Jim feels about having to talk to people who are new to
him.

4. Is personal change part of the reason why Jim wants to take the course? Here you could consider why Jim decided to make the
effort to go back to college to learn about something that is unfamiliar to him.

5. What has Jim learned about himself from past experience? Here you might like to think about whether some aspects of Jim’s
learning make him feel more confident about himself. Are there other aspects that make him feel less self-assured?

6. What do you think Jim will learn from this experience? You could decide whether this experience will help Jim achieve change
or whether it might reinforce any unhelpful learning.

View comment - Activity 1: In what ways is Jim already a learner?

Learning to learn takes a very straightforward view about learning:

Learning is involved in everything that happens to people and in everything they do.

If you do not believe this, can you come up with an example of a situation where learning is not involved?

We have tried to do this – but could not think of any examples.

Most of us will have had considerable experience of classrooms, even if you have not been near one since you left school.
This means that you will have learned a great deal about what happens in places called classrooms and how they are different
from, for example, a group of people at a bus stop. Experience in a classroom also teaches us about the different people who
are involved; so we learn what is expected of teachers and students.

Sometimes this learning can be helpful. Your previous experience in a particular class might give you a better idea of what
goes on in other classes.

At other times, this learning can be unhelpful or have quite negative results. Experience in classrooms has taught many people
that they are no good at learning or that college can be an unpleasant or scary place.

So:

- learning is always shaped by our experiences

- learning is also shaped by how we think about our experiences.

Our experiences and how we think about them are are unique to each of us. This means that what we learn will be unique –
even if some of our experiences can be compared with those of other people.

Jim’s story focused on a college course so was an example of formal learning. However, less formal learning was also going
on.

In the next story, Angela shows how informal learning is going on when courses or college are not part of the story.

1.1 Another case study

Read through Angela’s story. As you read, reflect on whether you can see features that you can identify with from your experience.

Case study: Angela’s story

Figure 4 Angela

What time is it? Three o’clock? No way! Where has the day gone? I did promise Grace her favourite meal today to cheer her
up after her least favourite day at school. I don’t think she will ever be an Olympic athlete, even if she does get used to
sports afternoon at her new school.

I’m really not too fussy about what she eats. I think if you are, then children can get really picky about their food. What
is her favourite at the moment? I suppose it’s pizza. I’m not totally happy about this. It doesn’t seem much like a balanced
meal to me – there’s no fruit or vegetables for one thing, and it’s high in fat. Maybe I could add a salad to it – that would
add some vegetables to her diet.

(Some time later)

‘Mom, did you make a pizza today? I’ve been looking forward to it all day. They made us run around the track in this weather!
I’ve been freezing ever since.’

‘Yes, Grace, I’ve made your favourite – pizza. I’ve added a salad – it’s good for you.’

‘Oh, Mom, I told you that was my old favourite. My friend Shona says it’s much healthier to be a vegetarian, so the salad
is OK but I can’t have pizza – it’s got meat on it, doesn’t it? I told you last week I wanted to try those veggie sausages.
Shona says they’re really good.’

‘Well, I don’t have any of those, but you’re in luck! The pizza is tomato and cheese.’

‘I guess that will have to do.’

‘Is that all the thanks I get?’

Activity 2: Thinking about Angela’s story

Allow about 10 minutes for this activity.

Before going on to the next part of this course, note the different types of learning that Angela’s story suggests. For example,
you might think about what Angela has learned about feeding her teenage daughter.

Angela’s story is about an everyday encounter. But it involves all kinds of learning – except formal learning. Note down the
different types of learning that Angela’s story suggests. For example, you might think about what Angela has learned about
feeding her teenage daughter.

View comment - Activity 2: Thinking about Angela’s story

2 We are all learners

Figure 5 Peter Jarvis

We hope that you agree that we are always learning. The next quote is from Peter Jarvis, an academic who has spent many years
writing about why learning is so important. In the opening to one book, he suggests:

Learning is like food, ingest it and it will enrich the whole human being: unlike food, it is difficult to have too much.
It is possible to eat the wrong things … the processes of learning are a fundamental stimulus to life itself and without it
the human body could never transcend its biological state, nor could the individual function effectively in the wider society.
It is essential to our humanity … .

(Jarvis, 2006, p. 3)

Jarvis makes a very strong claim about the importance of learning.

It is worth analysing this statement in order to see what it really means and to see whether you agree with it.

Jarvis compares learning with food. Do you think that this is a fair comparison? Do you think that if people do not learn,
they will die?

At first, this seems a rather unbelievable thing to say. However, when you consider that if people fail to learn about things
that are dangerous, like hot objects or speeding cars, they may put themselves at considerable risk.

Jarvis also suggests that while it is difficult to have too much learning, it is possible to learn ‘wrong things’. These wrong
things can include negative beliefs about ourselves as well as facts that are inaccurate.

This short but important quote finishes with three more very big claims about learning:

1. Learning is a fundamental stimulus to life

2. Without learning, human beings can never rise above their biology

3. Learning enables people to function effectively in society.

Activity 3: Reading Jarvis

Allow about 20 minutes for this activity.

Take each of the three statements below and note what you think Jarvis might mean. Also say what you think about his comment.

- Learning is a fundamental stimulus to life.

- Without learning, human beings can never transcend their biology.

- Learning enables people to function effectively in society.

View comment - Activity 3: Reading Jarvis

Jarvis argues that learning occurs as a result of each experience we have. Being aware of this can put people in a stronger
position to change – since it can increase our control over our experiences and give us a greater ability to deal with what
life throws at us. This puts people in a position to achieve personal change.

According to Jarvis (2006, p. 13), learning is the basis of personal change because it enables us to use our experiences in
ways that can transform us.

3 Gathering evidence – Your qualities, knowledge and skills

We hope that by now you agree with the idea that learning is vitally important to how we live our lives and that any change we make is going to involve some learning change. To borrow a phrase from Jarvis, learning often acts as
a stimulus to change. In other words, learning may make it possible for us to change, it may make us want to change, it might
even mean that we have to change – even if we don’t want to. Equally, any change we experience is likely to lead to learning
something new.

This part of this course encourages you to see how you can, to quote Jarvis (2006, p. 16), transform and integrate the experiences
that you have in order to bring about change. We are going to suggest that your unique combination of personal qualities,
knowledge and skills is the key. Let’s take each of these in turn.

A personal quality is difficult to explain. One way is to think about the words that you might use to describe someone. These
could be words like ‘kind’ or ‘generous’ (which are examples of positive qualities), or ‘deceitful’ or ‘untrustworthy’ (which
are negative qualities).

Knowledge is what you know. At a basic level, this can be information about a particular topic. For example, a plumber would
know a lot about taps and bathroom fixtures. The same plumber might also be self-employed and know a great deal about tax
forms. That plumber might have worked in a particular geographical area and may know it very well. The mix of what anyone
knows is highly individual and depends on the experiences that a person has had.

Skills are the things that you can do. These might include things like being able to ride a bike or cook a meal. It is often
possible to know when a skill is being used; for example, when we see a skilled cook at work (or taste the food they have
prepared).

There are many different types of skill. One important set of skills is called interpersonal skills, such as being a good listener. Skilled use of body language can show a genuine concern for another person. It may even be
possible to hear someone talking and realise that they are skilled in using voice tone. Other skills that are important for
successful academic study are more difficult to observe in action.

The big advantage about seeing things in terms of skills is that it means that human potential is not seemed as being fixed.
If we see something as a skill, it means we can get better at it. This fits in well with the approach of this course, which
highlights how, as we go through life, our qualities, knowledge and skills all change. They can all expand; they continue
to change over the course of our lives.

We want you to complete the activities because we believe that they will help you to extend your qualities, knowledge and
skills. This course suggest that a good starting point to get a clear idea of what your qualities are, what you know and what
skills you can use.

It is important to develop your self-awareness about your qualities, knowledge and skills for the simple reason that it means
that you are starting with an important positive assumption – that your current qualities, knowledge and skills are already
valuable.

We want you to use as many positive assumptions about yourself as possible.

This positive assumption is important for these reasons:

- If you believe this, you are more likely to feel confident and positive about yourself than if you think your qualities, knowledge
and skills are of limited value

- If you value them in a positive manner, you will probably see them as something worth nurturing and developing

- There is the added bonus that the more you believe in your unique combination of qualities, knowledge and skills, the more
likely it is that other people will believe in them, too.

3.1 Qualities

Some qualities are easier to recognise than others. We might be proud of our qualities; but there may be others that we are
not proud of or are not really aware of. Many people are just too hard on themselves. But, however we look at it, our qualities
are important.

Our qualities are important because they influence how we come across to other people.

Our qualities are shaped by our values: for example, being generous can be linked to an underlying value of the importance
of sharing. In contrast, if someone appears to be miserly, they might place a higher value on saving money.

Our qualities are important to other people; they will play a part in shaping how others respond to us. And how other people
respond has a big effect on how we all see ourselves. A good example of this can be seen when it comes to getting a job. At
a job interview, the interviewer is interested in what the applicant has to offer and whether it fits the job on offer. The
interviewer will want to find out what the applicant knows (their knowledge) and what they can do (their skills).

The personal qualities that the applicant shows are vital too. In most everyday situations, not just job interviews, we are
trying to weigh up other people. And in just the same way, other people will probably be trying to do the same.

Although this course encourages you to think positively, it’s important to identify if anything might hold you back or get
in the way of personal change. It’s tempting to ignore these negative qualities, or to hope that we have not got any major
ones. However, if we do that, they can trip us up when we least expect it.

But be careful. There is a real danger of focusing too much on these. Many of us do just that and so do not let our positive
qualities shine through. This can result in seeing yourself only in terms of your less-than-positive qualities. It is probably
best to recognise that everyone has some of these qualities, but they are not the ones we are going to focus on in this course.

Activity 4: You’re the interviewer

Allow about 20 minutes for this activity.

Watch the videos below, in which you hear of Levene’s, Shehnaz’ and Karen’s experiences. Imagine that each one has come for
a job interview – what qualities do you think they might display?

You might like to record your thoughts about your learning, the course and activities in a Learning Journal. A Learning Journal
can either be an electronic journal such as a blog or paper based note book. You could share your conclusions in the course forum or in the Learning to learn Facebook group.

Video content is not available in this format.

Video 1

View transcript - Video 1

Video content is not available in this format.

Video 2

View transcript - Video 2

Video content is not available in this format.

Video 3

View transcript - Video 3

View comment - Activity 4: You’re the interviewer

You may well have spotted different qualities. This does not mean that your answer is wrong – you may be more skilled at noticing
people’s qualities. Also, this is very subjective. Just because someone thinks that another person has a particular quality
does not necessarily mean that the person really does have that quality. However, it does mean that they are doing something
that conveys a particular message. This is further complicated by the fact that such messages can be intentional or unintentional.
They are intentional if someone is trying to deliberately create a particular impression. They may be unintentional if someone
reveals something about themselves that they had not meant to.

3.1.1 Identifying qualities

Activity 5: What qualities are there?

Allow about 20 minutes for this activity.

Since you have been thinking about qualities, now would be a good time to create a list to act as a reminder about the qualities
it is possible for a person to have.

Take a sheet of paper and quickly note all the positive personal qualities you can think of. Many of these are descriptive
words (adjectives) such as ‘kind’, ‘honest’ and ‘tolerant’.

If you can, work on this activity with someone else. Ideas are more likely to flow if you have someone else’s ideas to react
to (and that person has yours).

Once you have finished, go back over your list and underline the qualities you think you have. (If you are not sure, use a
question mark.)

You can use this list to give you ideas for the next activity.

Activity 6: Imagine you’re the job applicant

Allow about 20 minutes for this activity.

This activity takes the job interview as an example of when we need to be especially aware of our personal qualities. We hope
that using this example will help you think about other contexts. These might include caring for children, or how we think
we should respond to an awkward customer.

Imagine yourself in a job interview. The interview is going really well. You are being asked questions for which you have
good answers. The interview concludes and you are asked to wait outside while a decision is made. Everything looks promising.

If this happened to you, what qualities do you think you would show? Write these down as a list – with each quality on a separate
line. Then, for each quality, try and think of an actual instance where this was involved. This does not need to relate to
an interview. It might start like this.

The qualities I would show in an interview

Quality

When it was involved

Patience (when asked similar questions)

Yesterday, someone phoned me about a family get-together. They tried to alter plans we had agreed on – but I (patiently) explained
why this was not possible and the person eventually accepted this.

Sense of humour

Another example …

There may be some of your positive qualities that you think you would be unlikely to use in an interview. Start another list
for these. It might begin like this.

Quality I might not make apparent in an interview

Quality

When it was involved

Generosity

I am generous with my time – I help to run a volunteer play group and often take on extra days when other parents can’t help.

(Keep in mind that it can often be useful to make such qualities more obvious, especially if you really want that job!)

View comment - Activity 6: Imagine you’re the job applicant

It is also useful to think about your qualities because doing this can help to highlight if you have traits that may hold
you back or get in the way of achieving personal change. As we have already said, sometimes these are ignored, but then they
can trip us up when we least expect it. At other times, there is a danger of focusing too much on these, with the result that
we can see ourselves just in terms of our less-than-positive qualities.

It is probably best to recognise that we all have some of these qualities, but (to repeat) these are not the ones we are going to focus on – if only because we often tend to focus on these too much.

A really useful way to deal with something you see as a negative quality is to try to turn it into a positive one. Many qualities
that seem negative when you first look at them can suggest other, more positive, ones. So, for example, someone might see
a lack of confidence as a negative. But part of this may be that this person is more concerned with listening to what other
people say, so this can be re-framed as a quality of attentiveness and concern for others.

3.2 Knowledge

Traditionally, learning is about knowing facts and having to absorb and remember information that someone else says is important.
You may associate this type of learning with what you did at school where you might have been told that you had to learn many
facts associated with a subject in order to pass an exam. Evidence of learning is sometimes linked to building an increasingly
impressive store of such facts. Television quiz shows tend to make us think that learning is simply about knowing more facts
than other people.

The problem with taking this view of learning is the people who seem to know the most facts are seen as being the ‘best’ learners.
We hope that taking this course will be where you start to challenge this view of learning. The first part of this is what
you are doing in this course, finding out about your qualities and your skills. Doing this means that facts are shown for
what they are – the icing on the learning cake.

Figure 6 The audience waits to be impressed by how many facts the contestants know

Charles Dickens portrayed the facts-obsessed schoolmaster Thomas Gradgrind with little sympathy in his novel Hard Times.

Watch the short animation that uses Dicken’s words.

If you are reading this course as an ebook, you can access this video here: Thomas Gradgrind

Now what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else.
You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them … Stick to Facts
…

(Dickens, [1854] 1989, p. 1)

Figure 7 Thomas Gradgrind

Remember, we learn things – we acquire knowledge – as a result of our experiences. Facts themselves are of little value unless
they help make sense of some aspect of the world that is either important or interesting to you.

Usually this interest would be reflected in the content of an educational course. So if you had an interest in an area of
history, you might take a course that presents you with more information about this topic.

As you will have realised by now, this course is different. It does not give you additional facts about history, economics,
or maths. Instead, the focus is on developing an understanding of yourself and, in particular, how you can use this learning
to plan for personal change.

3.2.1 Learner qualities

The next two activities ask you to focus on your qualities as a learner. By looking at these qualities, you are really looking
at how you approach knowledge. They are also important because they relate to skills, the focus of the section that follows
these activities.

Activity 7: Qualities of a learner

Allow about 25 minutes for this activity.

This activity is in two parts. You asked to think about Shehnaz's qualitites first then about your own. Watch the case study
videos below and think about the following questions as you watch them.

1. What aspects of being a learner does Shehnaz mention?

2. What qualities do you think she displays as a learner?

3. Does Shehnaz mention anything that might have stood in the way of her learning?

4. Does this help you to identify any more qualities to add to your notes?

5. Does Shehnaz seem to have any qualities that you would see as less than positive? If so, write these down, too.

Video content is not available in this format.

Video 4

View transcript - Video 4

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Video 5

View transcript - Video 5

Part A: Note down your answers to the questions about Shehnaz in Qualities of a learner.

Part B: Next, think about your qualities as a learner and fill in Your qualities. We suggest you complete Activities 2–4, before attempting this activity.

View comment - Activity 7: Qualities of a learner

If you are finding that you can identify, at least to an extent, with the case study you have just been discussing, then you
might find the next activity slightly easier. If you feel that you have not very much in common with Shehnaz, do not worry
– remember that we are all unique as a result of our particular combination of qualities, knowledge and skills.

Activity 8: How do you learn?

Allow about 25 minutes for this activity.

Think of something you know about. This can be anything at all. It might be how to cook a particular type of food or it might
be how to repair a bicycle tyre. What is important is that you feel reasonably comfortable or confident about it.

Write down your example and explain how you learned to do this. This might include whether you were taught by someone else,
whether you found out by reading about it, or whether you picked it up as a result of trial and error.

This first part might look something like this:

My example is learning to drive a car. When I think about it, I learned to do this in many ways. I had a driving instructor
who told me what to do. I also had written information about things like where the pedals (the accelerator, brake and clutch)
were placed. My father also took me out in the family car. He told me things about driving – these were not always the same
as the instructor, so I had to decide which was more helpful. Practice during lessons and with Dad was important.

Now try to answer these questions:

1. In this example, what did you find was easy to learn and what did you find was difficult?

2. Why did you want to learn in this situation?

3. Is this a typical example of how you approach learning something new?

4. In what ways is it typical?

5. Are there any ways in which aspects of your learning in this example are unusual for you?

6. What does this example say about your qualities as a learner?

View comment - Activity 8: How do you learn?

You will now think about which of your skills are most important.

Once you have finished Activity 8 you might like to think about these sentences and record your thoughts in your Learning
Journal.

- I learn best when...

- What I am most proud to have learned is...

- The most useful thing I have ever learned is...

- The most amazing thing I have ever learned is...

3.3 Personal skills

Thinking about using learning to achieve personal change is often linked to acquiring skills that are useful for paid work.
This idea can lead to a definition of change that just means ‘getting a better job’. We agree that having secure and satisfying
work is very important, but there are many other aspects to life that do not involve paid work. These include relationships
with family and friends, volunteer activities and caring for children or people who are older or have a disability.

It might even involve changes that move us away from paid work. If skills are linked only to work, this can mean that the
sometimes impressive skills that can be built up from doing leisure activities are ignored. For example, the skills of a swimming
coach who is an unpaid volunteer may be very similar to those of someone who is paid.

So talking about skills comes with a ‘health warning’ to the effect that this word is often used just to refer to what is
required to get or stay in employment. In contrast, this course sees skills as being a part of all aspects of life.

Perhaps talk about skills is so widespread for two reasons:

- We know through our senses when some skills are used. For example, you can see (and taste) when a skilled cook has prepared
a meal.

- If something can be observed, it may be possible to measure it and to teach it. It is possible to see where the inexperienced
cook goes wrong and what they can do about it.

This means that it seems much more possible to improve the skills that people use, rather than to get them to adjust some
of their personal qualities. To an extent, the same applies to knowledge. It is possible to test some knowledge, especially
the facts that someone is supposed to have learned. But it can be very difficult to know what knowledge (or understanding)
people acquire. Anything we are taught undergoes complex changes as we try and fit it in with what we already know: so if
you ask ten people what they made of the same lesson, you will probably get at least ten different answers, suggesting that
there are often as many ways of understanding something as there are people.

To summarise, a focus on skills is in many ways reasonable and understandable, but it is not without its problems. Developing
skills is an important aspect of learning; but learning (and personal change) is about a lot more, as we hope the different
units in this Learning to learn course will show you.

3.4 Communication skills

You may be interested to know that the word ‘communicate’ comes from the Latin word communicare, meaning ‘to give’ or ‘to share’. So it is clear that the idea of communication has always involved more than one person.
This is a useful reminder that interacting with other people means communicating with them.

Communication takes many forms:

- when one person talks to another

- anyone who is listening will also be communicating

- body language

- tone of voice

- other aspects of non-verbal communication.

The verbal or spoken aspects of communication form only a part of what is going on.

Whenever someone communicates with another person, they are engaged in a constant process of interpretation to try and make
sense of what is going on.

This picture is made even more complicated if we bring to bear our own personal theories about communication. For example,
we might think that someone’s non-verbal behaviour is a better guide to their ‘real’ thoughts and feelings; on the other hand,
we might think that people are good at changing their non-verbal behaviour in order to hide what they really think or feel.
So we may believe, for example, that politicians can modify their body language so that they do not give away too many clues
about themselves.

Most of us have some awareness of the impact of body language. We probably try to make sure that it suits the particular situation
we are in. Most of us act differently when we are in the middle of an excited crowd compared with when we are in a public
library. We might also think that it is relatively easy to manipulate the messages given by verbal communication – most of
us watch what we say so as not to offend or upset someone.

All these ideas are called implicit theories. We make sense of the world with lots of these personal implicit theories, but we don’t always know that we are using them.

Figure 8 Communication

Communication skills are complex and varied.

Imagine that two people, Bill and Sadiq, are talking to each other. Sadiq begins. He has to work out what to say and how to
say it in a way that Bill is likely to understand.

As he speaks, he has to check that Bill does indeed understand. This will involve observing Bill’s gestures, the expression
on his face and many other signs. If Sadiq thinks that Bill does not understand, he may attempt to modify what he is saying.

While this is going on, Bill is, as we have seen, communicating what he takes away from Sadiq’s conversation. He may not understand,
or he may agree or disagree. He might, or he might not, communicate this back to Sadiq. This might or might not be intentional.
When Bill begins to speak in response, these aspects come into play with Sadiq as the listener.

Given this complexity, it is not surprising that communication can get misunderstood or misinterpreted. It is perhaps surprising
that so much of our communication does appear to achieve at least some success.

Communication continues most of the time while we are awake. It even seems to go on while we are asleep. When we dream, it
appears that parts of our brain are communicating with other parts of our brain.

The ever-present nature of communication is reinforced by the fact that communication does not just involve person-to-person
events. Human societies have developed many other ways of communicating. Often, these make it possible for one person, or
groups of people, to communicate with many others. These people may or may not be present when the process of communication
is started. These types of communication include the media (television, radio, newspapers and the internet).

We hope that you will explore some of these different forms of communication by taking the challenges offered in this course.

To summarise:

- Communication takes many different forms

- Communication uses different channels

- Communication affects all aspects of life.

But communication is important not simply because it is going on all the time. The noise from the road outside or the clock
ticking on the wall goes on all the time – that does not make either especially important. In complete contrast, communication
is vitally important to how we live our lives.

3.4.1 The importance of communication

The next activity tests the claim that communication is vitally important to how we live our lives.

Activity 9: The importance of communication skills

Allow about 20 minutes for this activity.

Think about what you have done so far today. If you are working on this early in the morning, think about what you did yesterday.

Write down what you have done using the Communication log template.

Use a separate line for each activity. For each item, say how communication was involved. Finally, how important is being
able to communicate in this way?

Below are two examples to get you started.

Activity

Example of my communication

Importance

Made breakfast

Asked my wife if she would like a cup of coffee

By itself, not very important, but helps to maintain relationship

Drove to work

Gesture to thank another driver who let me into traffic

Similar – by itself not very important, but might encourage the driver to do it again for me (or someone else)

View comment - Activity 9: The importance of communication skills

The importance of communication on a minute-to-minute and day-to-day basis could make it appear to be almost impossible to
exert any influence over it.

However, by seeing communication in terms of a set of skills, it becomes far more possible to review and to change how we
communicate. It is possible to break these skills down into three groups:

1. the words, or the language, that we use to communicate

2. the range of body language and other non-verbal communication

3. the impact of our communication on other people. If we are able to ‘get on the same wavelength’ and gain a rapport with people,
it also makes it more likely that we can adapt our communication skills so that we actually communicate what we mean to communicate.

You may have noticed that the focus here is on one person communicating on a face-to-face basis. This means that we are not
paying much attention to situations when one person communicates with many using broadcast media. We are also not focusing
on written communication, although this is another important aspect of everyday communication.

For one-to-many communications, many of the same components of words and body language are just as relevant. Written communication
is an important part of the course – you are asked to write in the activities. So it is considered a part of academic skills.

Here is a useful point to remember about how communication skills are used:

The meaning of communication is the response you get.

(O’Connor and Seymour, 1995, p. 18)

It is worth thinking about this and imagining the effects of acting as if this were true. The words in this course and the
Learning to learn course are intended to help you think about personal change. However, if you do not find them useful, if they annoy you so
much that you may want to drop the course, then the intention does not matter. The meaning of this particular written communication
would be annoyed frustration on your part. O’Connor and Seymour’s suggestion makes it difficult to hide behind good intentions.
We have to face up to the likely consequences of our communication and take responsibility for the outcomes.

3.4.2 Reflecting on communication skills

One way to think about communication is to see it in terms of the skills needed to get a hoped-for response. By seeing communication
in terms of skills, it is easier to focus on what skills you already have and use.

Once you have a reasonably clear picture about this, it is much easier to see where you might want to increase your communication
strengths and decrease any weaknesses.

It can be useful to try assessing what you see as someone else’s communication skills before you think about your own.

Author Neil Thompson (1996) has pointed out that these verbal aspects of communication can all give important clues about
how people are feeling. So it is not just what people say that counts, it is how people say it, too. So, if someone seems to talk rather quickly, this may be because they are angry or worried.

If someone speaks slowly, this may be because they are tired. Or it may indicate a lack of confidence in what they have to
say.

It is also possible to interpret why people may use a particular tone of voice. As Thompson (1996, p. 83) points out, tone
of voice is ‘an important indicator of emotional state. It gives important messages about how the person is feeling. It indicates
a whole range of feelings: anger, sadness, joy …’

Similar comments may be made about pitch. Thompson suggests that:

flat, unmodulated pitch can reflect a depressed mood, while high or fluctuating pitch can signal … anger, fear or excitement.

Thompson (1996, pp. 83–84)

Thompson (1996, p. 84) suggests that quiet speech can indicate a lack of confidence, fear or anxiety, whereas loud speech
can suggest aggression or a lack of sensitivity. Loud speech may also be used by someone who is fearful or anxious.

Facial expressions, according to Thompson (1996, p. 95), ‘are very powerful in conveying information’.

As far as eye contact is concerned, it is important not to have too much eye contact as this can be seen as challenging or
threatening. On the other hand, too little eye contact can be interpreted as indicating that someone is not trustworthy.

It is important to note that these interpretations can vary from one culture to another. Some cultures see it as polite to
avoid eye contact as much as possible.

Assessing someone’s communication skills will always be difficult as different interpretations are possible. This makes it
difficult to decide which interpretation is ‘true’.

The best we can hope for is to become as aware as possible about the messages that other people are sending out so that we
can improve the chances of successful communication.

Let’s see what Karen has to say about her communication skills.

I think I have learned how to read body language when I am speaking to people – I’m more observant. People don’t always say
how they are feeling, so if you can read their body language, it’s easier to pick up on things. I am probably more confident
with my questioning. I am listening and taking in the messages I am receiving from people and also giving them a lot more
opportunity to make their own choices.

3.4.3 Your communication skills

The next activity is an opportunity to reflect on your communication skills.

Recognising which skills you already have and use is an important first step toward being able to value and develop them.

If you are considering significant change, then you will need to communicate with other people. You may need to explain to
people who are close to you what changes you are thinking about. Or you may need to use communication skills to enlist the
help of others.

Activity 10: Reflecting on your communication skills

Allow about 30 minutes for this activity.

Think of a recent interaction you have had with someone.

Write an account, giving as much detail as you can. At this stage of the activity, do not worry too much about the communication
aspects of your story.

Once you have finished writing, put it down for a few moments before you come back to it. This means that you will create
a gap after your first attempt, which will give you time to think about what you have written. Doing this increases the chance
of being more critical about what you write and to be able to add to or improve it – a useful tactic when it comes to any
sort of written work.

Now return to the story you have written.

Add any communication skills that you can see in your interaction with the other person.

For each listed communication skill, decide whether it is a skill in which you are confident. Then say how often you notice
yourself doing this. Your notes could be organised like this.

My communication skill

Confident/unconfident?

Happens often/rarely

Speed of talking

I tend to speak too quickly – so not very confident

Usually when I think people do not agree with or like what I am saying

The final stage of this activity (again, you might want to allow time between this stage and the previous one) is to go back
over the comments you have put into your table.

Does your personal pattern of frequency and confidence help you communicate with other people? In what ways does it do this?

We will be returning to the importance of involving other people in your learning to achieve change later in this course.

The next section focuses on another useful skill – problem solving.

3.5 Problem-solving and decision-making skills

Although they are closely related, problem-solving and decision-making skills are different.

Problem-solving skills help you to solve problems by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable chunks.

Decision-making skills, on the other hand:

… help you to make the best decisions possible with the information you have available. They help you map out the likely consequences
of decisions, work out the importance of individual factors and choose the best courses of action.

(www.mindtools.com, 2008a)

As you consider your options for change, they are bound to highlight problems that might seem to be very daunting. Applying
problem-solving skills to them will make it far more likely that you will be able to accomplish your plans for change. As
you break down your plans into smaller chunks, you will need to decide between possible options. This is where decision-making
skills are useful.

In some ways, problem-solving skills are very similar to decision-making skills. For both, you have to weigh possible choices
and decide on the best course of action.

Ideally, to solve problems and to make decisions, you need to gather as much relevant information as possible. However, sometimes
there is very little time to gather the evidence needed for a decision that is completely thought through and rational. In
any case, it is usually impossible to gather every last scrap of evidence before making the decisions required to address
any problem.

This means that problem solving has to be based on decision making that is never fully supported by having all the possible
evidence or information.

So our decisions generally contain at least one element of decision making that is based on our feelings and emotions about
a problem – our ‘gut feelings’. These feelings come into play even if we use them only to decide that we have enough information
to make a decision.

It is worth noting that these limits on the value of evidence also apply to the evidence gathering you are doing in this course.

It will be useful to have evidence about your qualities, knowledge and skills, but this evidence can never be absolutely complete.
And it is important not to let a need to gather more evidence get in the way of making a decision and taking action.

The same process applies to aspects of your studies, too. When you are interested in a topic, there is a real temptation to
go on reading about the subject in the hope that you can turn up more information. This may not cause any problems if you
are just gathering this information for your own enjoyment. However, if you are taking a course such as Learning to learn, there is always a point where you have to decide that you have enough information to be able to write an answer to an activity.
Completing an activity can be seen as one form of decision making, although you will still need to gather enough information.

Some ‘problems’ need an instant decision – these are at the other end of the decision-making and problem-solving spectrum.

If you are having a meal with someone and they suddenly start choking and turning blue, it’s probably not sensible to attempt
to solve this by gathering as much information about choking as possible – the person is going to be much more appreciative
if you get the food out by slapping their back.

We develop different personal approaches to problem solving and decision making. Some people love the challenge posed by any
type of problem. Others feel that they cope best when they have to use their intuition or when they have a chance to think
about any necessary decisions. There are also many people who find it difficult to make decisions, no matter whether these
are required to solve immediate problems or those that are still some way off.

The widespread interest in both problem solving and decision making has led to a variety of ideas being developed.

Let’s move on by looking at one such tool for problem solving: drill down.

Drill down

Drill down is a simple technique for breaking down complex problems into progressively smaller parts.

To use the technique, start by writing the problem on the left side of a large sheet of paper.

Next to this, on the right side, write down the points that make up the next level of detail on the problem. These may be
factors contributing to the problem, information relating to it or questions raised by it. This process of breaking the problem
down into its component part is called ‘drilling down’.

For each of these points, repeat the process. Keep on drilling down into points until you fully understand the factors contributing
to the problem. If you cannot break them down using the knowledge you have, then carry out whatever research is necessary
to understand the point.

Drilling into a question helps you to get a much deeper understanding of it. The process helps you to recognise and understand
the factors that contribute to it. Drill down prompts you to link in information that you had not initially associated with
a problem (and) ... shows exactly where you need further information.

(www.mindtools.com, 2008b)

3.5.1 Problem solving

Activity 11: Using a case study – Problem solving

Allow about 20 minutes for this activity.

Choose from one of the case studies as your focus for this activity and watch the relevant videos below.

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Video 6

View transcript - Video 6

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Video 7

View transcript - Video 7

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Video 8

View transcript - Video 8

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Video 9

View transcript - Video 9

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Video 10

View transcript - Video 10

Each of these highlights a problem that one of the case-study subjects has had to resolve.

Write this problem on the left side of a piece of paper and see if you can ‘drill down’ into it. Don’t worry if you don’t
have all the detail you would like. Base your ideas on what you think Karen, Levene or Shehnaz might have done.

What decisions did your chosen person make to try and deal with these problems?

View comment - Activity 11: Using a case study – Problem solving

Activity 12: Using drill down to solve a problem

Allow about 30 minutes for this activity.

For this activity you will need to think of a recent problem that you have faced. This can be anything, as long as you feel
comfortable thinking about it.

You may wish to discuss this with someone who is interested in your learning – you should also feel comfortable about discussing
this example with that person.

Apply the drill-down technique to your chosen problem. Check the earlier material if you are still unsure about how to use
this technique.

View comment - Activity 12: Using drill down to solve a problem

3.5.2 Decision making

Let’s move on to think about decision making. Remember that when we talk about decision making, we are focusing on the smaller
chunks that become clear when you use problem-solving skills. Decisions will have to be made about each of these chunks. One
useful technique is called PMI, which stands for plus, minus and interesting.

To use PMI, create a table with three columns, similar to the one below. We have given the example of Jim going back to college.

In the ‘plus’ column, write down all the advantages that you think would result from a particular decision; in the ‘minus’
column, all the disadvantages. The ‘interesting’ column is for possible results of making the decision.

Give each point a score. For the ‘plus’ column, these scores should be positive (+) scores; for the ‘minus’ column, they will
be negative (–) scores. The ‘interesting’ column can include both positive and negative scores. You choose which values and
numbers to give to each entry.

Add up your scores. A positive score should encourage you to take action; a negative score might make you want to think again.

Figure 9 PMI for Jim going back to college

Activity 13: Decision making using PMI

Allow about 20 minutes for this activity.

Think of a decision that is facing you at the moment. Draw up a PMI chart and put as many comments in each column as you can.
Add up your scores. Did this exercise help you to reach your decision? Write a comment about this.

Finally, write down a what you feel drill down and PMI have added (if anything) to your problem-solving and decision-making
skills.

View comment - Activity 13: Decision making using PMI

However it is still useful to think about what you might do differently in the future. So the next activity is a chance to
note what you learned from using drill down and PMI, and how you might use these techniques in the future. You can be sure
of one thing – if you do things differently, you are bound to get different results from the ones you may be accustomed to.

Activity 14: Future problem solving or decision making

Allow about 25 minutes for this activity.

This activity asks you to choose either problem solving or decision making and to select a problem or decision that relates
to changes you might want to make.

If you choose to focus on problem solving, use drill down for this activity.

If you select decision making, use PMI.

View comment - Activity 14: Future problem solving or decision making

Using problem-solving and decision-making skills to good effect can play a big part in transforming our lives.

3.6 Being organised

Did you think that the way Shehnaz can think about 10 years of her life suggests that she is very organised? Being organised
is the third skills area in You and your learning.

It has been chosen for a number of reasons:

- it is relatively easy to improve the way we organise our lives

- being organised means that we waste less time

- wasting less time means we have more time for the things we want to do.

Although this skill is often referred to as ‘time management’, it might be better to call it ‘self-management’, as it deals
with how we manage ourselves to do what we want with our lives.

In 1910, Arnold Bennett wrote a book called How to Live on 24 Hours a Day.

Bennett’s comments are still relevant today. He describes time as the ‘raw material of everything. With it, all is possible;
without it, nothing. … It is the most precious of possessions.’

Bennett captures the central problem of time management when he points out: ‘But if one cannot arrange that an income of twenty-four
hours a day shall exactly cover all proper items of expenditure, one does muddle one’s life definitely’ (Bennett, 1910).

This emphasises that if time is not managed, there are consequences in the real world that make our lives harder. Bennett
urges the need for a ‘minute practical examination of daily time expenditure’.

More recently, John Adair (1999, p. 12) has pointed out: ‘There is often a gap between what we think we are doing and what
we are actually doing.’ Adair suggests that we should act like scientists to research where personal time goes.

Figure 10 Arnold Bennett

Activity 15: Your daily time expenditure

Allow about 20 minutes for this activity.

This activity is taken from Adair and Allen (1999).

By keeping a record of how you use your time, you can develop what Adair and Allen (1999, p. 9) call a ‘personal sense of
time’.

Keep a record over the next three days. For each day you plan to record, use the daily time record log. At the end of every hour, record how the previous hour was spent, in 20-minute intervals.

It might look something like Figure 11.

When you have done about three days of recording, set time aside to go over your record sheets. You can see these sheets as
evidence for how you spend time. As with other activities in this section, see if you can think about them initially as though
they were evidence about someone else.

Now answer the following questions:

1. What surprised or delighted you about your use of time?

2. What puzzled or worried you?

3. Were the three days typical or not? Why?

4. What does this evidence say about how you use time?

Keep these record sheets in a safe place – you will be using them for the next two activities as well. (Doing this will help
you save time!)

Figure 11 January 24

View comment - Activity 15: Your daily time expenditure

Activity 16: What qualities are revealed in my use of time?

Allow about 20 minutes for this activity.

Look again at the sheets you completed for Activity 15: Your daily time expenditure.

Do they provide evidence about what kind of person you are and what is important to you? For example, your time log might
show that you spend a lot of your time caring for other people.

Ask yourself whether this use of time reflects your qualities. Alternatively, it might reveal that you are not giving enough
time to what you think is important. If this is the case, you could begin to ask yourself what you might do so that your use
of time better reflects what you see as being important.

View comment - Activity 16: What qualities are revealed in my use of time?

The benefits of good time management can be felt in many other areas of life. It may make it possible to give time to a favourite
pastime or to a volunteer activity.

Using your time well is also an important skill when it comes to successful study.

Learning to learn is an opportunity to develop skills that you will find useful when you go on to other studies. For example, in producing
a written answer to activities, there are a number of stages, including:

- reading course materials

- watching the course video material

- reading the activity or challenge questions (and trying to understand what they are asking you)

- taking notes on course materials

- you might even write a first version (‘draft’) for some of the activities

- whether or not you write a draft version, it is a good idea to read through what you have written

- if you write a draft version you can then make any changes and write a final version.

This list shows that there can be a number of stages in providing written answers. These stages become even more significant
if you go on to formal learning and have to produce written assignments.

These stages have one thing in common – like all aspects of study, they all take time. If you do not allow enough time, then
it is likely that your study will not be as thorough as it could be.

In other words, effective use of your time underpins all your work in this course. Your note taking may be fantastic, but
you have to have the time to do it.

This discussion has focused on the idea of time management as a skill. As with the other two skills (communication and problem
solving), it can be built on and developed.

But these three skills can also draw on our qualities and what we know.

3.6.1 Using your time

The next activity asks you to think about what you may already know about time management.

Activity 17: What do you already know about managing time?

Allow about 20 minutes for this activity.

A good place to start is with the records you have already made. Look through these to see what you already know about methods
of time management. These may be quite simple – you may, for example, use a journal to keep track of meetings or appointments,
or you may have a ‘to do’ list attached to your fridge.

Make a list of all the methods of time management that you already use and add a short (single-sentence) comment about how
effective they are in helping you to manage time. It might start as shown in the following figure.

Figure 12 Managing time

View comment - Activity 17: What do you already know about managing time?

Authors like David Allen (2001, p. 24) have suggested that it is vital to manage ‘work flow’. Although Allen tends to focus
on work, many of his suggestions are relevant to other aspects of life.

He suggests five stages to ‘getting things done’ (also the title of his book). These stages are:

1. Collect information that is important to us

2. Process what this information means and what to do about it

3. Organise the results

4. Review what options are available

5. Do something.

You can see from this list that being organised is an important aspect of achieving personal change. You might also see connections
with what you have been doing in this section. For example, we can see aspects of Allen’s first two stages:

- You have been collecting information (Stage 1)

- You might feel that you have begun to think about what it might mean for you (Stage 2).

The next section of this course returns to mind mapping as a way to process the evidence you have collected as well as a way
to organise it. Other units of Learning to learn are intended to take these processes forward and help you organise your information, review your options and do something.

This section has focused on three skills:

- communication

- problem solving

- being organised.

Remember that there are many other skills that are useful in work and in life. However, these three are a good starting point
as they all connect with each other. In addition, they have important links with qualities and knowledge. So, gathering evidence
about these skills will provide you with information about your qualities and knowledge. These skills also play an important
part in everyday life as well as being useful for academic study. You can probably think of examples of the ways in which
all three of our case study subjects have benefited from organising their time. For example, Shehnaz’s organisational skills
are important for both work and study

Shehnaz

Well, when I was a child-minder, I used to have to work with the children – I had to plan my own activities with them. Now
that’s come into my work as well and, because I had to plan activities for the children with a time limit, that’s helped me
in my courses, setting aside time to actually complete my assignments.

3.6.2 Proving your skills

Once you have done this the following activity gives you a chance to practise what you have learned. Activities 9–17 in this
course have focused on communication skills, problem solving skills and time management skills. You should choose at least
one of these skills and produce two STAR sheets for your chosen skill in the space below. (A full explanation of STAR can
be found on the Interview Skills Consulting website.)

Briefly, a STAR sheet uses this framework:

- S – Situation: Explain the situation.

- T – Task: Explain the task where you used your skill. Give as full a description as you can.

- A – Action: Explain what action you did using your selected skill. This is the most important section of the STAR approach.

- R – Result: Here you explain what happened (the result) and what you learned from the experience.

It's well worth creating a 'library' of STAR sheets to add to the two you have just done. They can give your confidence a
real boost and they’re really useful when if comes to 'selling yourself' in either a CV/resume or at an interview—especially
when you have to answer awkward questions like 'Give me an example of when you ...'

Activity 18: Evidencing skills

Consider a short example that uses evidencing skills to prove skills and experience and then answer questions about them in
Evidencing skills.

View comment - Activity 18: Evidencing skills

4 Mind mapping

The focus of this section has been on encouraging you to gather evidence about what qualities, knowledge and skills you have
already. This is an important first step, especially if it helps you to understand that you have more of them than perhaps
you realise. It is also an important step as it starts to make the case that it is important to value your qualities, knowledge
and skills. If you value them, it is far more likely that other people will value them too.

It is also important to maintain and develop what you have already. This section suggests that involving other people is
useful to make learning for personal change even more powerful. Another way in which other people help us to learn and to
achieve change is by writing down their ideas so that we can read about them.

The big advantage of using mind maps is that they highlight if we have habitual ways of thinking. Often thoughts can follow
well-trodden lines. Buzan’s (2006) technique can help us to think more creatively and to come up with new and fresh ways of
looking at things.

Activity 19: Mind mapping

Allow about 30 minutes for this activity.

For this activity we would like you to create a mind map called ‘Skills and Attributes’. You have done a wide range of activities
in this course, so you should be able to identify a variety of skills and attributes. If you are uncertain about how to produce
a mind map, look at Learning to learn, Learning can mean change explains what a mind map is.

Let your mind flow freely around this focus.

Then review all the evidence-collecting activities that you have been asked to do in this course. It is important to do this
with as little editing or pausing as possible. Try and develop your mind map as colourfully and imaginatively as possible
as you add new ‘lines’ to it.

When you have finished, you will have the first version of your mind map.

Go over it again to see if you want to change it. Finally, make three brief comments about your map (this could be on the
other side of the piece of paper).

View comment - Activity 19: Mind mapping

5 Academic skills

This course has encouraged you to gather evidence about yourself. In doing this you have been involved in a process of learning
about yourself; itself a useful first step in achieving personal change. This process has also highlighted academic skills
that help ensure success as a student.

The mind-mapping activity above asked you to produce a mind map using your reflection on what you have done in this course.
The next activity asks you to use this mind map.

Activity 20: The academic skills used in You and your learning

Allow about 20 minutes for this activity.

Look closely at the ‘Skills and Attributes’ mind map from the Activity 19. Does it already contain skills that are academic
skills? Highlight these in your mind map, either by underlining them or using a highlighter pen.

Now go back over any notes you have made in your Learning Journal and see if you can add any other academic skills to the
mind map.

This course has already noted that the skills of communication, problem solving and self-organisation are important for successful
study. You can think about these as possible starting points, but you will get a more detailed picture of academic skills
if you can break these down into things that you have actually done as you have studied this section. For example, if you
use time management as a starting point, you might say that you allowed time to read this course or make notes. Reading and
making notes are academic skills that you might add to your mind map if they are not already there.

View comment - Activity 20: The academic skills used in You and your learning

Activity 21: What are academic skills?

In this activity we ask you consider what are academic skills in the What are academic skills? activity.

It is important to note that many of these so-called academic skills are similar to what we do in everyday life.

5.1 Referencing

Referencing is a good way to show the overlap between everyday and academic skills. You will probably have noticed that when
the course refers to someone, the name and some other details (often a year and a page number) are given. An example in this
section is Allen (2001, p. 24). Here, the year (2001) and a page number are provided because reference was being made to a
particular aspect of this book.

If the discussion had been about the book in general, it would have been fine just to give the year. If you look at the list
of references at the end of this free course, you will find Allen given in a list in alphabetical surname order. In this list,
the name appears with more details (his initial, the title of his book, where it was published and the publisher).

This is a formal academic reference, so it is another academic skill and an important one. This sort of referencing means
that the authors show where the information and ideas come from. It also shows that, as the authors of this course, we are
not trying to pass off any ideas as our own.

We can connect this academic approach to what is done on an everyday basis if we think about why referencing is used. If
we are using evidence, we want to show people that it is from a trustworthy or respected source. From a very early age, we
judge how much weight to put on evidence, depending on the source it has come from. For example, if a child comes home and
tells a parent that her school is shortly to be merged with another, the parent would probably want to know where the information
came from. If the child says that another child said it in the playground, the information would be taken less seriously than
if the child had been told by the teacher and had a letter from the school. In the same way, you might be inclined to believe
information from certain sources. Suppose your neighbour told you that he knew it was going to rain because a joint in his
little toe ached. However, the weather forecast is for glorious sunshine. Which source would you believe?

All academic referencing does is to use a slightly formal way of showing that the evidence can be relied on. When you use
it in your written work, it not only shows that you know how to use academic references, it also suggests that your written
work has the quality of honesty.

6 Conclusion

If planned your study of this course, take a moment to look at this plan. Note down in your Learning Journal (under the heading
you used for before) how the plan worked out and if there were any changes. If you are studying all of the Learning to learn units you could still prepare a plan for the other units if you found it helpful.

You and your learning asks you to do a great deal of work gathering evidence about what qualities, knowledge and skills you already have. There
are two main reasons why this is important if you are going to use learning in order to achieve change:

1. It is important for you to have the self-confidence to know that you can achieve change

2. It is also important to appreciate the value of qualities and skills that seem unimportant, insignificant or commonplace.

The activities in this course are opportunities for you to build a clearer picture of your qualities and skills in order to
add to your self-belief in your capacity for change.

Activity 22: Completing the challenge

Allow about 20 minutes for this activity.

We have suggested that this might take 20 minutes – but reflecting is a very personal activity, so you might do this activity
more quickly or you may find that you spend longer over it.

In reflecting on your learning so far consider the following:

1. What two things have you learned about yourself from doing this course?

2. I have learned…

3. Using this learning, I am going to make these two changes...

4. I am going to …

5. How has this course helped you to meet your personal goals or learning outcomes.

You might like to share your thoughts in the course forum or Learning to learn Facebook group.

It is also important to ‘know’ yourself better because this is the basis for communicating to others what changes you want
to make in your life. The course has already used the example of a job interview.

In this situation, it is important to show that what you can do already is the basis for the change involved in taking on
a new job. This is just one example; any projected change will involve other people in some way or another.

Congratulations you have completed this course!

Keep on learning

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References

Adair, J. and Allen, M. (1999) Time Management and Personal Development, London, Hawksmere.

Allen, D. (2001) Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, London, Penguin Books.

Bennett, A. (1910) How to Live on 24 Hours a Day [online], http://www.web-books.com/Classics/AuthorsAD/Bennett/How/Home.htm (Accessed 18 October 2006).

Buzan, T. (2006) The Mind Map Book, Harlow, BBC Active.

Dickens, C. ([1854] 1989) Hard Times, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Jarvis, P. (2006) Towards a Comprehensive Theory of Human Learning?, Lifelong Learning and the Learning Society, Volume 1, London, Routledge.

MindTools (2008a) Decision Making Techniques [online], http://www.mindtools.com/pages/main/newMN_TEI).htm (Accessed 25 March 2008).

MindTools (2008b) Drill Down [online], http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_02.htm (Accessed 25 March 2008).

O’Connor, J. and Seymour, J. (1995) Introducing NLP, London, Thorsons.

Thompson, N. (1996) People Skills: A Guide to Effective Practice in the Human Services, Basingstoke, Macmillan.

Acknowledgements

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.

Course image: John Liu in Flickr made available under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence.

The material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under licence (not subject to Creative Commons Licence).  Grateful
acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this course

Figures

Figure 5: Reproduced with the kind permission of the University of Surrey

Video featuring Karen, Levene and Shehnaz © The Open University (2008)

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be
pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

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Activity 1: In what ways is Jim already a learner?

Comment

It is likely that Jim has already learned a number of things. Some of these seem to affect the way he acts when he tries to
bring about change in his life. He has taken a carpentry course at the same college where the computer course is being offered.
Perhaps while he was at the college, he learned where certain rooms were.

In the past, Jim has also learned how to ask people for information (in this case, directions to a particular classroom).
This might sound like something anyone can do. However, asking for information draws on a complex set of skills. You have
to be able to speak the same language, and it might help to use a tone of voice that is more likely to make people want to
help you. You also have to have good listening skills to follow any directions given.

It looks as though Jim did want to achieve personal change. He wants to change his job. He also wants to know if knowing more
about computers can be part of this change. Jim seems to think that to achieve change, he needs to develop new skills – in
this case, computer skills.

It is clear that Jim has learned many things about himself. He is very aware of some of these, including the health problems
he has as a result of working with wood. He is probably less aware of other aspects of what he has learned. For example, he
may not fully realise that he has ‘learned’ that he finds it difficult to remember people’s names when he is in a new situation.
He has, though, learned that this can make him feel uncomfortable or anxious. Do you think that he has learned that he feels
far happier once he gets started on something he knows about?

If the situation stays the same, Jim is likely to have reinforced his feeling that he is not very good at learning names.
This might result in him ‘learning’ that he is not very good at communicating with other people. If his course goes well,
this contrast might encourage Jim to label himself as someone who is good at word processing but not with people.

Back

Activity 2: Thinking about Angela’s story

Comment

Angela’s story is about preparing a meal for her daughter. Yet for this one task, she draws on a wide range of knowledge.
Angela knows what constitutes a healthy diet. She understands the importance of fruit and vegetables, and that eating too
much fat can be bad for us. But it goes further. Angela knows what Grace likes to eat and what she dislikes at school (sports).
She also has wider knowledge about things like the Olympics.

Angela’s story also shows that she has learned how to do certain things. The clearest example in the story is that she has
developed cooking skills. But did you notice that when Grace returned home, Angela also used other skills to communicate with
her daughter? Angela also showed some of her personal qualities as a concerned parent. She obviously cares for Grace, so it
was important for her to make Grace happy. She showed a concern for her daughter by trying to keep up with her likes and dislikes.
So, over time, Angela has learned things that enable her to manage daily life.

Back

Activity 3: Reading Jarvis

Comment

Learning is a fundamental stimulus to life

Here, Jarvis seems to repeat his claim that learning is as important to life as food. He is also implying that learning can
make life more satisfying and interesting. It is what keeps us going forward in our lives, perhaps encouraging us to seek
new experiences.

Without learning, human beings can never transcend their biology

Here, learning seems very different from food. Our bodies need food to keep them going – so we can never transcend our body’s
need for food. However, learning is very different. If we learn about geography, we can, for example, find out about places
that we might never physically visit. If we learn about history, we can gather information about events that happened long
before we were born. Similar points can be made about learning about religion or nuclear physics.

Learning enables people to function effectively in society

This suggests that, through learning, we find how to get along with other people and how to make sense of all the social situations
that we come across daily.

Back

Activity 4: You’re the interviewer

Comment

Rather than commenting on all three, this comment focuses on Karen. In general terms, she seemed to be a caring person. She
feels strongly about trying to do a good job as a social worker. She wants to ensure that people are helped to make choices
that are appropriate for them.

Back

Activity 6: Imagine you’re the job applicant

Comment

Did you think that this exercise was either very difficult or very easy? If you found it easy to write down many qualities,
is this a result of thinking or learning you have already done?

If you found it difficult, then perhaps you have been too self-critical. This can make it hard to believe that you have many
qualities. If you think this is the case, you could go back to the activity and see if you can add something.

Take another look at the list you created earlier – there may be some qualities there that really apply to you. If you have
gone back to the activity but still couldn’t think of a quality, to get you going, you could always add persistence – because it’s clear that you don’t give up easily!

Back

Activity 7: Qualities of a learner

Comment

It may be that you have found points of similarity between Shehnaz’s story about being a learner and some of your own. We
also hope that you can see how Shehnaz has been able to use learning as the basis of personal change – and that you noted
that this has happened despite some of the barriers and negative thoughts with which she had to cope.

Back

Activity 8: How do you learn?

Comment

This activity should help reinforce the ideas introduced earlier in this section.

We have already suggested that learning is a fundamental aspect of being a human being. To function as a human requires almost
constant learning. This make us all skilled learners because of the amount of practice we get! Thinking about the way you
have successfully learned in the past should help you remind yourself that you are not just a good learner, but someone with
valuable personal qualities and knowledge.

Much of our learning is informal or ‘everyday’ learning. In some ways, it is precisely this kind of learning that is the most
important as we use it to negotiate our way through all the real-life situations that we encounter on a day-to-day basis.

Yet strangely, other kinds of learning often have higher status. In particular, the formal learning associated with places
like schools, colleges and universities is often rated more highly than everyday learning.

Partly this may be the result of this sort of learning being delivered as a course taught by professionally qualified people
with the aim of ensuring that students pass exams or gain qualifications. But this sort of formal learning only ever forms
a small part of learning – even for people who go on to college to do a degree. We hope that Learning to learn will help you to challenge the idea that only formal learning is important.

Back

Activity 9: The importance of communication skills

Comment

Often individual examples of communication have only limited importance or effects by themselves. However, they may be important
as part of a relationship or process that continues over time. Communication has the power to bring relationships to an end.
The phrase ‘a breakdown in communication’ is linked to problems in a variety of situations.

Back

Activity 11: Using a case study – Problem solving

Comment

We hope that you found the drill-down technique an interesting way of thinking about the problems that your chosen person
had faced.

Remember that the main point of applying this technique is to get a feel of what it is like to break problems down into smaller
chunks so that you feel confident in applying the technique. For this activity, it was more important to imagine that you
were ‘in the shoes’ of your chosen person.

This use of your imagination can help you think about possibilities that may not occur otherwise.

Back

Activity 12: Using drill down to solve a problem

Comment

The key to problem solving is that you need to be in control of the problem as much as possible. This can be difficult when
the problem is a large one. You are much more likely to feel in control (and be able to take action) if you can break the
problem down into small chunks.

To begin with, none of the three case-study subjects felt in control of their lives. They all had to break things down into
smaller chunks, such as finding out about training opportunities. By doing this, it becomes much more possible to solve a
problem.

Back

Activity 13: Decision making using PMI

Comment

Thinking about what you have done or past events is clearly a part of ‘reflection’.

Reflection is now viewed as important in many different contexts, and is seen as an important academic skill in this course.
It is also an important aspect of professional practice in careers such as social work and medicine.

However, backward-looking reflection by itself might make you less likely to embark on change; for example, if it reminds
you of a time in the past when something did not work out for you. The key to really useful reflection is to use it as the
basis for trying something new.

Trying something new and seeing how it works out is the focus of other units in Learning to Learn.

Back

Activity 14: Future problem solving or decision making

Comment

Problem solving and decision making are important aspects of using learning to achieve personal change. In this section, you
are gathering evidence about what you have already learned. You will probably have developed preferred ways of dealing with
problems as well as skills that underpin these preferences.

It is useful to take stock of these and extend them. This serves to remind you what you are good at. It also reminds you of
examples of when you have used the skills you already have. There is value in having examples of what you have already done
‘at your fingertips’ so that you can draw on in the future. For example, in situations like a job interview, where you will
need to demonstrate the skills and attributes relevant to the job. They also have a broader usefulness. If you are as clear
as possible about what you have done and what you can do, then you are in a far better position to begin thinking and planning
for a whole range of personal change.

Back

Activity 15: Your daily time expenditure

Comment

Usually, doing this activity makes you stop and think. It may highlight how many competing demands you have on your time.
Studying Learning to learn is likely to be only one of many demands for some students on this course.

You might be surprised at what you achieve in a short time. If this applies to you, then you can be pleased with how you already
manage your time and yourself. This is a valuable skill.

Its value is clear if you think about time management in a work context. At work we are paid in order to use substantial chunks
of time for our employer’s benefit. So it is important to be able to show that we use work time well.

Back

Activity 16: What qualities are revealed in my use of time?

Comment

This activity suggests that important aspects of your qualities are likely to be bound up in how you use time or how you would
like to use time.

Together, our qualities, knowledge and skills form part of who we are – our identity. Qualities influence the knowledge we
seek and the skills we acquire. For example, placing a great value on caring for family members (a quality) is likely to lead
to finding out about what meals are enjoyed (knowledge) and how to cook them (skills).

Back

Activity 17: What do you already know about managing time?

Comment

It is possible to use the information from this activity in two ways.

- First, it shows you what you know about ways of trying to exert some control over how you organise yourself and your time

- Second, it might help to show you which of these methods you are using successfully and which do not seem to suit you (at
least for the time being).

Back

Activity 18: Evidencing skills

Comment

Well done! This example might have felt familiar to situations you have experienced, where you have drawn on skills to complete
a task.

Back

Activity 19: Mind mapping

Comment

This is almost the last activity in this section and is intended to enable you to capture your qualities, knowledge and skills
as well as introducing an idea (and a skill) that will be of value to you. The result of this activity should help you as
you think about what you have covered in this course. It should mean that you have been able to show on a single piece of
paper what you have brought to the course and how the course might have helped you change.

Back

Activity 20: The academic skills used in You and your learning

Comment

You have used many skills that count as academic skills to study this course. You could include any of these:

- Gathering evidence from a range of sources (your ideas, what other people say and course materials – including the course
video material)

- Reflecting on (thinking about) this evidence to try and make sense of it

- Grouping evidence in different categories (qualities, knowledge and skills)

- Using reading to gather evidence

- Using note taking and mind maps to summarise evidence

- Using diagrams to make sense of evidence.

One way to view Learning to learn is as a small-scale research project that focuses on possible personal change. Every academic research project goes through
a similar early stage of collecting evidence. Your ‘personal change’ project has also involved gathering evidence from a
variety of sources. You have used your own thoughts, feelings and experiences as sources of evidence. You have also used the
written and video materials in the course. In addition, you have been encouraged to gather evidence by seeking feedback from
another person.

Back

Video 1

Transcript

Shehnaz

Well, five years ago I didn’t have any qualifications, which is why I started taking courses toward a teaching certificate
to enable me to get a job. Now I have managed to get that job, and I am working in a school. I am still working toward completing
my degree and, hopefully in five years time, I will have that, or be a qualified teacher.

Back

Video 2

Transcript

Karen

So I was actually on the front line and I learnt a lot about people skills whilst I was working with people then. Then I actually
came into the office in the role of a Senior, so I learnt people skills working with other home helps and their needs, as
well as the people that they were caring for on the patch.

Back

Video 3

Transcript

Levene

In my previous life as a project manager in the electrical industry, my work involved communicating with a range of individuals
– contractors, main contractors, subcontractors and so forth. An example of a difficult situation would be a supplier failing
to deliver on time. Now my work would involve me arranging and negotiating with various bodies to start work on a particular
site. So, a supplier failing to deliver on time creates a lot of problems for me, embarrassment for my organisation, as well
as difficulty with the main contractor on site. It would involve me perhaps renegotiating a new start date with the main contractor
or possibly a new delivery date with the supplier, but, in any event, it created an environment where I had to use a certain
amount of skills to get the organisation out of a difficult situation, because, quite often in circumstances like that, we
would be hit with liquidated damages – paying for doing the job. So, my task would be to minimise those eventualities.

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Video 4

Transcript

Shehnaz part 1

When my daughter and son started school I went back to do further studies, it kind of turned me around and made me realise
that this was what I wanted to do. I wanted to further my education in order to improve my goals in life, my prospects for
getting a job.

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Video 5

Transcript

Shehnaz

Well, when I was a child-minder, I used to have to work with the children – I had to plan my own activities with them. Now
that’s come into my work as well and, because I had to plan activities for the children with a time limit, that’s helped me
towards doing my courses, setting aside time to actually complete my assignments and things like that.

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Video 6

Transcript

Levene

I was made redundant in 2002, I was part of the management of a community organisation, and I was asked to manage or care-take
this particular project for a number of months, which meant I had to come off the management board to do that because of conflict
of interest. So after a period of months the management decided that, since they said I had been doing a good job, why not
take it and run with it. So I did that for 12 months, in that period of time I was interfacing with Social Services and people
from that particular discipline, and I found that there was some difficulty in terms of me understanding certain things that
they were talking about. I didn’t understand because I had come from the private sector, an Engineering and Contracting background.
So it was important for me to grasp and talk the talk if you will, and walk the walk in terms of social work. So I made the
decision to embark on a course of study.

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Video 7

Transcript

Shehnaz

When my daughter and son started school I went back to do further studies, it kind of turned me around and made me realise
that this was what I wanted to do. I wanted to further my education in order to improve my goals in life, my prospects for
getting a job.

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Video 8

Transcript

Shehnaz

Obviously, as my family grew, I had to start to think about how many people were involved in our house and how many people
I was cooking for, things like that. And still having money left over to go and enjoy ourselves as well at the end of the
month. I had to get into a routine to make sure the food was ready on time.

That routine is the same kind of thing that you need to have when you are studying, because you need to set a timetable in
order to finish the assignments and get them in on time.

Before I went back to school, I thought that my life skills and academic skills were completely different, but when I did
go to learning, I found that what I had learned through life I could apply to my academic learning to help me succeed in what
I was doing.

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Video 9

Transcript

Shehnaz

When I was studying, I did it with a group of friends in my first Openings, so we were able to help each other through the
course. I think it was very important in the beginning because we were all in the same boat … we were all taking our first
course, and having each other helped us a lot.

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Video 10

Transcript

Karen

Because I understood a lot of the needs of my own family, I could automatically use those ideas to help the people I was looking
after as a social worker. Going from home help to being an assistant care coordinator helped me to understand Social Services,
and what I could actually ask for and generally expect for the public.

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