The Learning Styles Questionnaire

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

I do believe that every people's character is composed of certain personal strengths and weaknesses. This helps us define who we are and what qualities that we possess on each personality. Our strengths are the things that we are known for the best. On the other hand, our weaknesses, which also being a part of who we are, they are the things that we believe we can improve on. Both our strengths and weaknesses have a direct impact on our working environment, daily life, family life and learning process. Therefore, it is our duty to utilize them and improve them to ensure that the end result is a positive one.

I must say that I am also very determined person, which means, once I decided I will put in all my efforts to get it to my goal. When I was young, my father wanted to see me working in the accounting and finance sector. On those younger days, I skipped those classes and failed the exam for many times. Therefore, all efforts of my Dad was wasted. I thought I did not have any abilities to be a good accounts personnel. However, I have tried my best to get back onto the track after my father passed away to pay back the gratitude to fulfil my father's wish. This can be proved by the achievement of getting certified accounting technician status from ACCA UK and ICPAS in Singapore. Moreover, currently I am studying the undergraduate program in Accounting and Finance Degree program.

I think personal strengths and weaknesses are skills and abilities that are strengths in the workplace and would be the core of my work ethic. I believe that I am an exceptionally dedicated person. Being loyal or dedication is also one of my personal strengths. I have always displayed my dedication at work. I have always been the dedicated employee by being punctual, having an organized workplace, helping fellow employees regardless of their position, trying my best and being the most flexible when someone needs me and I could prove it through the recommendation letter from my former employer, Appendix ( ). I also take my job very seriously. When performing the specific task, it is not only my aim to complete it but also to complete it to perfection. Moreover, I am the one who always willing to learn new things and in my life and I could never get enough of education. This can prove my certificate of achievements in the appendix ( ).

To succeed in life, my qualities are the driving force whether I gain the necessary skills and abilities. These qualities that I have relate back to the traits that I possess. In order to achieve a goal, a driving force gives me strength to excel to achieve this certain goal. A goal could be set when a need or desire for that "item" or "status" is recognized. This would mean that when I have the dream to succeed, I would have more of a desire than a person who does not have the yearning to succeed.

Apart from this, I believe the weaknesses probably are equal in between both types of personalities. The difference is that the person who wishes to succeed, be aware of his weaknesses and prepare a plan to overcome them or diverts his path from faltering on them. . I can always spot my biggest strength because it has been with me as long as I can remember and that strength is my reliability. My friends from High School always been telling me that I am there for their support or comfort regardless of the situation. I take pride on myself for my ability to be a non-judgmental, open-minded person who will always have an extra pair of hands, a shoulder to lean on or a tissue for my friends to wipe their tears. However, at some point, this strength can be a bothersome thing. I say this only because I think I am always someone's back-up just in case they need it. As a result, it seems like I may be too nosey and invading one's privacy. Moreover, I have the ability to comprehend things pretty well and I have a great deal of positive energy.

On the other hand, I found it difficult to write about my weaknesses. The biggest problem that I faced while trying to do so is getting an objective viewpoint. If someone were to ask me, I think I am either the best person or the worst person in the world, depending on the time and the day they asked me. Therefore, I realized that I needed to get some more objective viewpoints. The first technique which I used was to ask people who knew me well and how they thought about me. My family thought my major strengths were reliable and they said my main weakness was that lacking of self-confidence. They also said that my incapability to find my own personal belongings without their help could also be considered a weakness but didn't want to explain it more to get me upset since another weakness of mine is having greater sensitivity. When I asked my close friends and co-workers, they also stated that I was reliable, a hard worker that could be counted on at all times, however, they also expressed the same views as my family, that I have lacked self-confidence in my own abilities. This feedback gave me a rough picture of how others thought about me.

The results of the Learning Styles Questionnaire in our study book show that I am a Reflector. Reflectors tend to adopt a low profile and take time to assimilate their thoughts and sometimes loose great opportunity because of that.

I do not usually express leadership skill, therefore, my manager commented me that i need an improvement in my decision making skill. In both performance appraisal as appended in Appendix pg _ and _, I am only able to get a rating 3 out of 5. And there is no much improvement shown over the two years. Being the stand alone person for handling full set of accounts for one subsidiary of the company, I do not manage any staff. Of course there are people who support me but there is no one under me. Within my department, my role required me to manage expectation than lead direction. I have no chance and capability to demonstrate leadership skill. Despite that, my manager gave me opportunities to represent the department for meeting. Many at times I am more of an accommodating role rather than to a leading role. I am hesitant to make a decision, but agreed with supporting facts. As a Reflector, I tend to have a slightly distant, tolerant, unruffled air which leads me to be totally have little confidence on my own.

Q2. How do you learn best? Which resources are most beneficial to your learning and why? - Parti:PMS

There are various kinds of resources utilized throughout the whole PMS module. Some of the resources are, group discussion, videos, listening to other people and learning log. Above all the resources that this module used, I found that group discussions are the most beneficial to my learning style. While engaging in a group discussion, it becomes an open session where Group members are allowed to speak freely, to ask questions and share ideas. From a group discussion, we learn to help and support each other thoughts. Most of my group members are all working adults and we were able to speak about the topics of daily work life. Our different working experiences and interests enable us to share what we had come across. It makes me to see clearer picture of how the same subject can result in different situations and point of views. Moreover, I gradually realize that there are always new situations which I would never come across or thought of to the same problem. This allows me to broaden my knowledge when my group members shared how they apply the different methods to the same problem.

On the other hand, group discussion had helped me to improve my communication skills in various ways. It improves the way of my body language and personal appearance when representing the group. I learn to know that I have to maintain an open gesture to show others that I am paying attention. Another fruitful thing that I learn is to have an open mindset which means it is not good to judge others beforehand and willing to accept other people point of views. I come to realize that it is good to be an active and dynamic listener. This will helps me to build up my listening skills and not repeating the point over and over again. I will carry out small engagements thoughtfully in my mind while other people speaking, by clarifying or summarizing what the speaker had said. This will prove my interest to fully understand the speaker's speech. As a result, I will gain appreciation from the speaker when my turn to speak up.

During all these discussions, I am able to pick up and know where my strength and weakness lies. Therefore, it is easier for me to be able to clarify my doubts in areas where I do not understand. By doing so, I am able to practice leadership skill when I voice out my opinions or thoughts. Those discussions help me to speak with confidence and being able to show them examples to justify my ideas. It will put me to be more analytical and fact-oriented, and encourage group members to contribute. If there was an individual who would not be able to participate, I would propose some ideas or facts to stimulate his thinking. It also improves my people's handling skills which I wasn't good at it, to ensure all of us work well in a team. When there are things seems like which I cannot agree between the group, I will take time to consider and analyze before disagreeing and I would have to handle with respect to their decisions. I would ask my group member to list down what they actually want so that the other party can be easily understood. Being a Reflector type, I will collect data from others, and prefer to understand it thoroughly before coming to any conclusion. With better understanding between group member, a team can work together towards the same objective.

Video or the visual aids are another resource which benefits my learning style most. The role play from video, allow me to understand and pictured it in my head to recognize the subject or matter faster. It enables me to show how the topic should be applied to a real situation. I believe audio and visual effect simulates my thinking process and can leave a long impression. It is more interesting to watch videos, due to the picture and sound effect, which cannot be attained elsewhere. This can prove from the quiz that I have taken from the internet (Appendix). In order to determine what information is more important, visual aid or video can help by using the correct color and animation. People will certainly pay more attention when there is a video presentation together in the various presentations. Video is the most powerful tool that will enhance learning and understanding my learning process.

Q2ii. How do you learn best? Which resources are most beneficial to your learning and why? - Partii: External Oppourtunities

Another learning tool that supports my learning style is e-learning which had been known as one the most essential tool nowadays. It is the learning process from computers and network-enable tools. One of the e-learning applications which I benefits most from is search engines from the web. Using the search engines like Yahoo or Google, I can obtain much information such as reading books or browsing videos. It makes me easier to choose from text, image, audio or video type whichever I wish to learn. My favorite video channel is YouTube, which everyone can find many tremendous information with all the video clips. This can be called self-paced learning or instructor learning which can be easily done at the convenience of anytime, anywhere. This will prove to be beneficial to me apart from my school and work since it can bring much information with one click.

The other learning tool is from my working experience with the current company. Since I am working as a Finance and Accounts Executive for one of the subsidiary companies based in Sydney, I need to fly over quite often to meet with the external auditors and the governmental offices. This kind of experiences gives me more opportunity to become independent and dealing with the various situations alone increase in building my self confidence. Over time, there are some point, that I have to make a choice, helping me to have better decision making scales based on the situations.

Q3i. Taking the answer to question 1b (personal weakness), how will you work on one of your weaknesses? Part i - Goal Setting

(i) I like to improve my decision making skills but do not know how to manage it. My manager also felt that the decision making skill is one of the most wanted skill for me to become a supervisor. I found that under the PMS module, there are many skills that connected each other such as Leadership, for example, includes a number of other skills such as planning & organizing, making decisions and verbal communication.

Having effective decision making skill will help to enhance the quality of work that I produce. I have noted that my decision making skill seems to be poor when there is opportunity of choosing between two or more alternative activities.?? Nevertheless, I have also known that there may not always be a 'correct' decision among the available choices.?? There should have been a better choice that had not been considered, or the right information may not have been available at the time.?? Because of this, I do think that it is important to keep a record of all decisions and the reasons why decisions were made, so that improvements can be made in the future.?? This also provides me with a justification for any decision that I have taken when something goes wrong.?? I might not be able to correct past mistakes, but it will aid improved decision making in the future.

Q3ii. Taking the answer to question 1b (personal weakness) how will you work on one of your weaknesses? Part ii-Action Planning.

Napoleon said??? He who doesn't want to be a general isn't a good soldier.??? For the working adult, who do not want to success in the future career prospect? I think I am one of these to grasp a better opportunity and want a success in the future. In order to improve one of my leadership skills to become a successful leader, I need a clear goal first, just like SMART goals. The SMART goals include:

Specific

A specific goal has a greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal, in which my case, I would like to achieve my specific skill of decision making. By understanding this specific goal, I need to know who involved and what I want to accomplish. In this case, within five months until the next appraisal, June 2013, I would like to improve my over all decision making skill from rating of 3 to 5 with the help of evalution carried out by my department manager.

Measurable

It started with a concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal that I set. When I want to measure my progress, I will ask myself the question whenever I have to make a decision

Have I listed all possible solutions/options?

Have I set a time scale and deciding who is responsible for the decision?

Have I collected all the Information?

Have I??weighed up the risks involved?

Have I decided on values, or in other words what is important?

Have I weighed up the pros and cons of each course of action?

Have I made the decision?

After that, I will check with my Manager for any comments on the opinion of my own ideas to get to this decision. I hope it will improve every time when I am making decision as there is a person to evaluate me and guide me. I will try to take the responsibility and will try to overcome as many decisions as I could make. As a result, this will pick up my decision making skill rating from 3 to 5. Giving myself a targeted time, and getting the help of the experienced superior will bring me to reach the achievement of my goal.

Attainable

When I could identify the goal that is most important in my future career prospect, I try to figure out a way to make it come true. I try to develop my skills, abilities and attitudes to get it during the five months time.

Realistic

My goal of improving the decision making skill represents an objective toward which I could work and willing to work. This helps me to keep myself get a better rating in this skill. I may have faced difficulty at some stage however, I would be able to reach my target within five months as I love what I am trying to achieve and my goals are realistic.

Timely

I think my goal will be accomplished since it is grounded within a time frame for five months during this year. If without time schedule, I think there is no sense of urgency or eagerness to achieve this goal. A good timely goal will help me to set my unconscious mind into motion to begin working on the goal towards achieving it.

In summary, I have acknowledged the importance of learning from PMS module and these learnings are very important and strong influence for my daily and work life. In addition, I get to know how to develop my skills and how to carry out my action planning to reach towards our goals to become a successful leader. And I think because of the preparation of this assignment, my personal development will is significantly improved.