Personal Learning Experience of a Student at the University of Law

Personal Learning Experience

At the beginning of the course, I did not expect to achieve significant results within these thirteen weeks of study. However, I attained main goals and consider that the information I intend to share in the given report is useful and important. The current paper outlines my experience with various guidelines, learning strategies, personality, and self-efficacy as well as my plans for the first year and for the future respectively.

Diary Keeping

I am a student at the university of law, and there are many activities that occur during the learning process. I attended different events, develop new concepts and skills, acquired new experiences, inspirations, and motivations. I have learned that the diary is the most important attribute of any law student that he should never ignore within his entire learning period. My diary contained recorded thoughts, observations, challenges, and emotions during class in-sessions, and discussions in all academic, social and personal events within the first thirteen weeks of my studies at the university. My diary reflected my learning life during the first year of university and it helped to prepare my learning report. By keeping a diary, I developed positive thoughts about myself, self-awareness, and reflective practice throughout my campus life. I think that the diaries are personal documents and one should not assess them because as a student, I may concentrate on pleasing the lecturer and score good marks instead of writing my real emotions, thoughts, and observations. I consider I will preserve my diary since it will support me in developing my career. Writing and keeping a diary helped in improving my grades, accept my self-worth and relieve stress. In addition, it was useful in tracking my thoughts, attitudes, and emotions. When people write, they reflect positive ideas, values, and goals, record them and act in order to realize them.

Personality and Self-efficacy

Personality is developed through acquiring experience over a long period. Self-efficacy constituted my personal judgment on how I executed my actions to deal with different situations that I encountered. For example, I believed in my ability to succeed in accomplishing tasks assigned. I approached goals, tasks, and challenges with confidence to control my behavior, have self-motivation as well as adapt to the new learning strategies and environment. I coped with challenges by believing in my strengths and motivating myself to work hard. While thinking, feeling, and behaving appropriately, I was able to accomplish my goals within the set timeframes. I organized my resources, such as time, finances, and energy by planning activities that would lead to positive outcomes. My self-esteem enabled me to believe in my abilities and have confidence in the actions I took towards achieving my goals. Due to the development of my personality and self-efficacy, I was able to improve my performance and achieve a healthier lifestyle.

Learning Strategies

Within the first eleven weeks of the first year, I used numerous ways of studying the learning strategies. It was important for me to analyze them and identify those that would help me in achieving my goals. For example, I prefer attending tutorials; thus, I visited the lectures and they were useful for me in improving my learning experience at the university. Moreover, the university arranged diferent events, such as seminars, which I attended in order to improve my understanding. The participants could share their experience, impart their skills to the new learners; hence, it was easy to cope with the new learning environment and its learning strategies. As I prefer reading about different cases and law analysis, itinfluenced my decision to buy most of the recommended books for reference. I consider that reading books and other online published resources will help meto understand better most concepts. Since I acquainted virtual learning environments, I developed interest and acquired it as one of my studying strategies. During the first semester of the first year, I have supplemented other learning materials with the use of a blackboard to share questions, give opinions, and obtain comments.

The university was able to provide adequate guidance on how to study law effectively and obtain desired professionalism that is required in the globalized and modernized world with new demands related to career issues. Different learning environments offer various learning. Thus, the students should develop new approaches to achieve the desired outcomes. For example, the university learning style was different from that of my previous college in relation to lectures, group discussions, learning programs, such as workshops, seminars, among others. However, due to adequate transition plans, I was able to adapt faster and define useful as well as unnecessary issues. I learned and discovered facts that were not obligatory for passing exams. However, I was curious about learning new concepts and how to apply them in my future profession. Finally, I have to make some adjustments to my learning strategies by embracing corresponding technology. For example, I am encouraged by tutors to use podcasts to supplement my learning resources.

Me as a Learner

I understood that as I plan to be a professional lawyer, it is a must for me to be ethically aware. I need to prepare not only academically but also morally and ethically in order to succeed in my future profession. As a learner, I have realized that developing competency is essential; however, there is a need to conduct myself correspondingly and have a sense of purpose for public obligation. Community is a place of practice, thus following ethical and moral standards is necessary for the given profession. As a learner, I need to understand the concepts, such as globalization, diversification of roles played by lawyers, and technological change. It is worth noting that my goal is to be a mastery-oriented student and not a performance-oriented learner. A mastery-oriented student identifies challenges, takes appropriate actions, and faces obstacles in order to achieve the set goals. A performance-oriented person focuses on just excelling and not facing a difficult situation or gaining experience. In addition, if I am a mastery-oriented learner, my self-efficacy level will increase and I will competently practice law. Moreover, I consider that by developing both professional conduct and responsibility, I will attain positive outcomes and have the confidence to tackle the increasing demands of the legal profession.

However, there is a need for me to take the third apprenticeship, which includes acquaintance with purpose and attitude guided by the community values. As a learner, I need to identify my community of practice, whereby, as members, we share common problems, have passion as well as seek the necessary knowledge and expertise to address them. As a learner, I should respect others, be honest, courteous, fair, and ensure integrity. In addition, I must put much effort to meet the deadlines and ensure that the work I submit corresponds to the required quality. Moreover, I need to be goal-oriented; it is not sufficient to finish college and secure a job, but it is necessary to develop desired professionalism in my career. I have to put more emphasis on collaborative learning, and peer-reviewed discussions, thus interacting with all the students and legal professionals. They will help in transitioning to new environments as well as offer mentorship services and career inspirations, especially from alumni and legal practitioners.

The Basics

Face-to-face contact with lectures is a part of my learning process since high school. In order to understand the concepts, I need to learn them first from the lecturers and, then, read to apply them in future. My attendance during these thirteen weeks was significant since I tried to adapt to the new environment faster, gain experience from others before the workload increases. This attendance had a positive impact on my performance, and it was interesting to experience the effective transition from college to university. Moreover, I showed good performance since I spent much time preparing, follow the instructions and guidelines, such as keeping a diary, have continuous reflections and assessments. Self-analysis and developed self-awareness contributed to the way I prepared for my learning at the university. I value time; therefore, it was important to manage it respectively, especially in the new environment. I organized my studies, part-time job, and relationships correspondingly by planning my time appropriately. For example, a personal timetable was the best tool to manage my time, and it was flexible to accommodate the plans of the university, such as orientation, seminar, and other events. It is evident that I effectively organized my schedule, which enabled me to prepare for various learning activities.

Contribution to Tutorials

Although I am not a talkative person as compared to other class members, I managed to participate in the discussion during the tutorials. Some lecturers were student-focused, thus requiring every student to participate in the class-in sessions. Change of attitude in learning influenced my participation in class, especially answering questions posed by the tutors while teaching. At the start of this semester, I realized the importance of self-efficacy. I was gaining my self-esteem through appreciating myself, believing in my abilities, thus building self-confidence. Consequently, I was able to communicate, interact with other peers, share opinions and gain insights from others. In the future, I expect to build more confidence by improving my oral communication skills; this will assist me in preparing project presentations effectively.

University Social Life and Work Commitments

University is a unique learning environment due to its diverse population and commitment to address life challenges. Due to the financial challenge, the students seek full-time or part-time jobs. Being one of these students, I have work commitments that require much time. However, I tried to gain a unique experience in my social life. For example, I engaged in friendships that helped me to share my personal concerns, develop my personality and learn from them. I also had a part-time job that I had to execute to financially support my studies. Though it was difficult to balance between work and studies, I put much effort to ensure that it is successful. I set my timetable to accommodate all the activities as well as adjust them when necessary. I fulfilled my activities depending on the importance and urgency; thus priority analysis helped me balance my university social life and work commitments successfully.

Future Plans in my Learning Strategies

To succeed during my first year and in the future, I plan to create the learning strategies, such as writing and reflecting on my progress by keeping a reflective diary. Moreover, I will develop new personal insights by adequate engagement with classmates and academic staff as well as taking positive steps, such as breaking a task into manageable activities, controlling anxiety, observing, and learning from others. They will help me to complete my program. Adequate evaluation of my relationship with others is a key to effective learning. For example, evaluating my tutorials in relation to other students, such as their intelligence and participation ability will help me to reduce anxiety, increase confidence and work towards attaining my set goals. Another learning strategy is that I plan to read more academic articles and select an appropriate place for my placement programs. I am confident that by using these student-centered approaches, I will develop my personality and self-efficacy.

Conclusion

It is evident that self-reflection and assessment will help me to develop self-awareness and self-efficacy. Thus, I will be able to solve problems that might arise and hinder the achievement of my goals. It is essential for me to attain academic as well as moral and ethical requirements for the future profession. A community of practice will lead to collaborative learning and ensure that I develop both professional conduct and responsibility. I appreciate the guidelines, the achievement, and the transition I have reached in relation to the university learning strategies.