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Alejandra Zaiter Castillo

Ms. Esau

English 12

29 April 2022

Becoming an Understanding Learner

The word self-awareness means the “knowledge and understanding of your own

character.” (Self-awareness, 2022). Throughout my life, I always found myself wanting to

understand the way that I was created. I would take hundreds and thousands of personality tests

to get to know myself better. I would question the reasons behind my actions, and then google it

to find answers to them. Nonetheless, I was never preoccupied with understanding the kind of

learner that I was. I always thought that either you were a fast learner or a slow learner, or that

you were a straight A’s student or an average student. Until I came to Doulos in the seventh

grade, I had no idea that there were three different main types of learners: visual, auditory and

kinesthetic.

When I first came to Doulos in middle school, our math teacher gave us a test to help us

figure out what kind of learner we were. I was so intrigued by this because it meant that I was

going to understand myself a little more. She explained, “There are three main types of learners.

First, the visual ones that learn from looking at visual representations. These people enjoy

diagrams, beautiful notes, charts, and others. Next, we have our auditory learners and these learn

through hearing and speaking. These enjoy repeating things out loud and group discussions. Last,

we have the kinesthetic learners and these learn from doing hands-on activities.” When we took

the test, my mind was blown away from all the different results that each of my classmates had.
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That year, I understood that I was a visual learner, and from then on, I applied different strategies

to better understand my classes and assignments.

Now, I could’ve stuck with the idea that I was a visual learner which meant that I could

only learn that way, yet I did not. I decided to “spread my wings” when it came to learning. I was

open to the different ways my teachers taught; taking notes, class discussions, group

experiments, and other ways. Understanding myself as a learner helped me when I got into high

school because I was more independent when it came to my learning, since I already understood

myself in this area. For example, in Geometry, when I would lose my mind with a triangle

problem, I would use different colors to help me see the different segments, angles, and sides of

the triangle. Another example would be how I would take “doodle” notes in Science class to

better understand the terms and concepts we were learning. However, I also learned to adapt to

my classmates’ ways of learning and my teachers’ ways of teaching. I was able to learn from

class discussions, listening to my classmates speak, and having a teacher give a lecture. For

example, one skill I adapted from auditory learners is repeating things out loud to remember

them. With this said, I know that today I have developed my learning style, yet I have also

learned to develop the other two learning styles.

Furthermore, I have to talk about online learning and how that shaped my growth and

strength in this skill. All my life, I was so used to having a teacher explain concepts,

assignments, and terms to me, yet when COVID hit this changed. I saw myself stuck in a loop. I

was trying to figure out how I was supposed to understand everything I was learning by teaching

myself. Thankfully, I was able to use the internet and other available sources to effectively

understand the situation I was facing. I am thankful that Doulos had already prepared us slightly,

since we were already working and turning our projects and assignments in online. However, I
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faced tons of challenges. For example, I had to accommodate myself to learning math through a

platform. This was one of the hardest things that I have ever gone through in my academic

experience. I had to change my way of thinking to this new advancement and global trend. Even

though I would still rather have a math teacher to learn, I now understand what works best for

me when it comes to learning online. Additionally, this situation helped me become more

independent when it came to obtaining resources for my learning. For example, before if I

needed information about a president of the Dominican Republic, I would easily use one of the

books in school, but this situation pushed me into the use of other resources when I didn’t have

one in hand.

After being comfortable with online learning for a year and a half, I had to go back to

classroom style learning. Though this was the best thing that had happened to me, I still had to

get used to going back to it. I had to get used to having live classes instead of a recorded video or

using one class period for one class instead of using my school time however I wanted. With this

said, I have been able to properly accommodate my learning style and adapt to the different

circumstances I have faced academically. Additionally, I have been capable of using the

resources that I have in hand, such as physical or online books and technological platforms,

effectively.

To wrap everything up, I know that the skill of Understanding Learner is a strength of

mine. I say this because of the circumstances that have pushed me to grow and develop this skill.

As I mentioned before, I know what kind of learner I am, yet I have not limited myself to just

this kind of learning. I have developed some skills of the other kinds of learners that have helped

me in my academic journey. On the other hand, I have learned to successfully use both library

and computer resources depending on the assignment or situation that I am in. Furthermore, I am
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able to adapt my own learning style to the situations that I face, like I did when Covid-19 started.

I firmly believe that this is a skill that I will be taking with me when I leave Doulos, because I

know the importance of understanding the kind of learner that you are, yet not being closed to

growing in other areas. This is why I am an Understanding Learner.

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Works Cited

Self-awareness. (2022). Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Retrieved May 1, 2022, from

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/self-awareness