MABALACAT CITY COLLEGE SOCSCI 101 | UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

Week No. _6_

Lesson 6: Becoming a Better Student

Sustainable Development Goals: Learning Materials:

SDG 3- Good Health & Well-Being Objects, devices, tech gadgets, or real
objects for content presentation or
SDG 4- Quality Education student activity.

SDG 11- Sustainable Cities and Communities

SDG 17- Partnerships for the Goal

Learning Objectives:

1. Define learning and explain the characteristics of learning;

Lesson Preview/Review

Political and Digital Self.

Overview

Learning involves acquiring changes in the present knowledge, skills, habits, behaviours, or other tendencies
through experience, practice, or formal education. Through this topic, students will be able to regulate or
control one’s own learning and behaviour towards being a self-regulated learner.

Concept Notes/Teacher-Led Discussion

What Happens during Learning?

Brain Changes

When a person takes in food, he or she acquires the nutrition necessary for his or her growth, particularly of the
body. As for the brain, it takes a set of knowledge and skills for its development.

When a person learns something new, the brain undergoes changes. The changes in the brain during learning
are (1) new nerve cells may grow and new neutral networks will then be formed; (2) the strength of existing synaptic
connections changes, thus functionally changing the connectivity within the existing neural networks in response to a
sensory stimuli; and (3) new synapses are formed between neurons that were not connected before, thus effectively
creating new networks of neurons that, when active, represent a new memory.

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With the advent of modern technology, almost everything is possible for human to decode and unlock, even
the most complicated hardware-like brain which is composed of more than 85 billion neurons and 10 trillion dendrites
and synapses.

Behavioral Changes

A toddler who was scalded when touching a hot pan will definitely not repeat the same act. A child will not
attempt to put his finger in the chicken cage again if he was pecked before. A driver will not drive too fast on a slippery
highway if he had an accident before. Similarly, a student who ignored his or her minor subjects and got a failing grade
will take the minor subjects seriously the next time he or she enrolls in these subjects. One professor tells his student’s,
“At the time you begin to dislike me and even hate me, that is the time you start to learn. It is because you are forced to
go out of your comfort zones. You are doing something that is not convenient for you, something that was not done to
you by your previous teachers.”

Certainly, a student who was required to memorize and recite a poem in front of the class will have a negative
reactions at first. But by doing this frequently, the student will be able to find ease and master the art of spoken poetry.
What behavior was changed? It is stage fright. At the start, a student of an argumentation and debate class will have so
many flaws in his or her reasoning and might commit some fallacies in his or her first participation in a debate activity,
but he or she will eventually master the art of debate. What behavior was changed? It is false reasoning. A student who
received zero grade and counseling from his or her Technical Writing teacher after submitting a plagiarized paper will
more likely not plagiarize again. What behavior was changed? It is dishonesty.

Learning has been defined as permanent change in behavior as a result of experience. Thus, if a student still
applies some fallacies on argumentation or plagiarizes an article taken from the internet again, then, based on the
definition, there is no learning because the change is not permanent. Learning requires continuity of behavioral change.

Becoming a Self-regulated Learner

Self-regulated learning refers to the learner’s ability to regulate or control one’s own learning and behavior.
This entails that one’s acquisition of knowledge and skills does not require external intervention. Barry Zimmerman,
one of the researchers on the topic, emphasized that self-regulation is not a mental ability or skill but a self-detective
process whereby learners transform their mental abilities into skills.

An effective learner regulates one’s own learning by (1) planning and setting goals, (2) using strategies and
monitoring performance, and (3) reflecting on one’s own performance and adapting strategies to achieve the goals
(Sage 2YC, 2018). Students must first analyze the learning task so they can strategize or develop the best approach.
Then, students apply chosen strategy and monitor their own performance as they carry out the task. Finally, students
must reflect on the effectiveness of their strategies and use these reflections to plan on the next learning task.

Learning Defined

Learning involves change. Changes in one’s behavior mostly occur through experience. Once you learned to
sing nursery rhymes as a kid, singing becomes a natural activity. Once you learned how to play guitar, you do not have
to go through the same process of fretting and strumming at later time. When learning martial arts, you may be injured
along the process, but at some point, you will learn the ways to avoid injury. Generally, learning involves acquiring
changes in the present knowledge, skills, habits, behaviors, or tendencies through experiences, practice, or formal
education.

Characteristics of Learning

1. Learning is Purposeful
Every human action is motivated or inspired by one’s aims, goals, or intentions. Goals can be short-
term or long-term. Reviewing lessons in order to receive high grades and avoid reprimand from parents
is an example of a short-term goal. On the other hand, enrolling in graduate studies and spending ten

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more years in formal education in order to receive higher salary and be promoted is an example of long-
term goal. Learning occurs because it is planned, desired, or even forced. But no matter what the case,
there is always a purpose why a person seeks more knowledge. Research shows that students who set
goal tend to be more persistent and are more likely to achieve their goals.
2. Learning is a Result of Experience
Learning is often associated with a change in behavior as a result of experience. This entails that
learning comes with one’s interaction with the environment.
Learners may be able to define particular terms, explain specific concepts, state general principles, or
recite certain provisions of law. However, they can make them meaningful only if they understand
them well enough and be able to use and apply them in real-life situations. Through on-the-job training
(OJT), the learners are exposed to actual application of what they have studied for 16 or more years,
thereby allowing them to experience the task done by professionals in their chosen field. Therefore,
OJT is considered as significant learning experience that learners must undergo.
3. Learning is Multifaceted
The famous quotation “a sound mind in a sound body” exemplifies the connection between the physical
and mental well-being of a person. In order to produce well-rounded graduates, education institutions
must hone not only the intellectual but also the physical, social, emotional, and spiritual potentials of
learners. This is the reason why in every curriculum, the learning outcomes are not purely confined to
the development of the inculcation of nationalism and patriotism. Another example, in physical
education, the objectives are not solely focused on the psychomotor domain; the affective domain is
also developed by instilling teamwork and sportsmanship. The focus of learning is not on the course
alone. Incidental knowledge, skills, and attitudes are also taught and developed.
4. Learning is an Active Process
Learners should not be mere passive receivers of information. Teacher should not assume that learners
can remember all the terms, concepts, theories, laws, principles, etc. that they teach their students.
Learning is not rote memorization. Teachers are also advised to involve the students in the learning
process. The principle of teaching states that the student should be the center of the learning process.
Their active participation in class activities must be solicited in order for them to fully grasp certain
concepts.
Since part of the process is evaluation of learning, teachers should have effective assessment tools or
instruments to measure the learners are meeting the learning objectives. Once a learner becomes a
good self-regulator, he or she develops a set of skills and habits to be an effective learner. Teachers
must train learners to regulate their own learning by self-regulated strategies that will help them for
life-long learning (Shuy,2010).

Learning to be a Better Student

Pat Riley, one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time, once said, “If you are not getting better, you are
getting worse.” This mantra or perspective can be applied to any context, whether in the field of medicine, industry,
sports, or academe. Riley is the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s Showtime era. His team won
championships and dominated half of that decade.

In medicine, what does not cure you actually makes you sicker. More often than not, complications transpire,
sickness and disease mutate, making the patient worse than the initial diagnosis of his or her ailment.

In the competitive world of business, the concept “survival of the fittest” comes into play. If a businessman is
not equipped to compete, his or her business will lose its profit and will be left behind in relation to other similar
industries which take over the market. The business industry has a dog-eat-dog situation. If you are a businessman, it is
either you survive or you perish for the next calendar year. That is the reason why out of 100 new businesses with
granted permits from the business processing and licensing office, only 10 go back the following year to renew their
license. That is a mind blogging 90 percent attrition rate.

In any sports competition, there is only one champion. There is only one person or team that dominates; the
remaining participants are labeled losers and are sometimes relegated. The story is more often focused on the winners,

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seldom on the losing side. Though the stories of losing have their own sets of valuable lessons t be learned, the story of
winning is oftentimes considered as more inspiring than the story of the second or third placer.

The aforementioned situations are related with the topic of becoming a better student. The biggest room in the
world is the room for improvement. There are numerous skills which necessitate improvement or calibration. How does
one improve? How does a student become better?

The Philippine educational system is embracing outcome-based education wherein the premise of instructions
is based on what the students can do, as opposed to what the students know.

James Spady is considered the father of outcome-based education (OBE). In one of his talks, he asserted that,
in OBE, what matter are the skills of the students. It deals with what the students can do after the program or after the
lesson. It assesses the student learning through requiring the learners to perform a set of tasks. In the nutshell, OBE is
performance-based and action-based. It is not only about what the students know, but what the students can perform
or do. This is regarded as revolutionary because the Philippine educational system is seemingly leaning towards the
Jonathan Bloom educational advocacy and his taxonomy which is entirely knowledge-based.

Essentially, the shift from knowledge-based education to skill-based education will take years to be fully
implemented in order to develop a system which is suited to the condition of the country. It is important to ask, who
claims that the Philippine educational system needs transitioning? The best features of knowledge-based and skill-
based education make up the Philippine version od educational system. However, the journey is long and may be filled
with pitfalls. The crucial question is what makes a student a better student?

Traditionally, in order to be a better student, one should read more books. No aspiring achiever can be labeled
as such if one is not a reader. If he or she wants higher education, he or she must read, analyze, and learn ideas relevant
to his or her profession since not all the existing ideas are practical and applicable to his or her chosen field.

Good Study Habits

To be a successful student, you must establish good study habits to learn effectively. Study Habits refer to the
attitudes and behaviors of students when preparing for tests or any learning assessment. Below are some of the ways
to develop good study habits.

1. Get organized. Plan ahead of time. Allot time to read everyday in order not to cram days before the exam.
Make a study plan. Make an outline to organize thoughts and ideas. Fix your study area and eliminate all
distractions such as cellphones and other gadgets and keep away from the television.
2. Prepare your review materials. Make review notes. Create flashcards. Make mind maps and mnemonic
patterns to easily recall terms and concepts. Read and record important terms and concepts. Play the
recordings before sleeping or while on the road.
3. Ask Help. If you do not understand a particular lesson or topic, seek help from your teacher, your
classmates, your parents, or your older brother or sister.
4. Test yourself or ask someone to test you. This can be done by simply recalling your lesson and writing
them on a piece of paper or by asking someone to throw questions and answering as many questions as
possible.
5. Allot time to take a break and eliminate stress. Allot break time. During breaktime, short physical
activities can be done such as stretching, listening to music, or drinking coffee.
6. Create or join a study group. This enables you to take notes, discuss thoughts, brainstorm ideas, and tutor
concepts. This helps you to calibrate your understanding of certain concepts, rules, principles, and theories.
7. Teach what you have learned. This can be done by sharing what you have learned to your younger brother
or sister, neighbors, or to any other people. As they say, practice makes perfect.
8. Study to understand, not to remember. Memorizing what you read is not a very effective habit because
the brain cannot make sense of information quickly and thus will not form strong connections. Understand
the ideas, concepts or principles; do not just memorize them verbatim.
Meaningful Learning

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In a traditional or teacher-centered approach, the students are passive and are expected to be receptive as the
teacher gives instructions. The teacher is the sole speaker throughout the class period although he or she may solicit
short-answer responses. When the teacher asks questions, he or she not does allot ample time for the students to
express their ideas and opinions. Before the bell rings, he or she will verify learning by asking, “Did you understand the
lesson?” Students are expected to say “Yes, Ma’am or “Yes, Sir.” That basically signals class dismissal. The learning
process should not end with students perceiving that they are prisoners who are serving their sentence for a term on a
certain duration of time in a specific place, and that after listening passively for almost five months, they are free men-
free from confinement in the classroom and to the teachers but not from ignorance. If that is the student’s perception
on the end result of learning, them something has to be done to improve it.

What is then expected after staying inside the classroom for an hour or more? As discussed previously, learning
is a process of acquiring changes in the present knowledge, skills, habits, behaviors, or tendencies through experience,
practice, or formal education. Although there is no one-size-fits-all effective teaching methodology, there are some
ways to ensure meaningful learning after the lesson such as (1) asking the students about the practical application of
their learning, particularly what they can do for their family, school, government, and community; (2) allowing students
to demonstrate a new skill acquired from the lesson; (3) requiring students to write an essay or a reflective journal of
what they have learned; (4) asking students to relate the lesson to other sciences or fields of knowledge; or (5) helping
students find the relevance of the lesson to their lives. Through these ways, the students can reinforce their learning,
empower themselves, express their thoughts, and make sense of those lessons to their lives and to their world-and
these exemplify meaningful learning.

References

Macayan, J.V., Pinugu, J.N., Castillo, J.C. & Ofalia, B. (2019). Understanding the Self (Outcome-Based Module). C & E
Publishing, Inc. 839 EDSA, South Triangle, Quezon City. ISBN: 978-971-98-1071-1CE.

Corpuz, R. M, Estoque, R. S. &Tabotabo, C. V. (2019). Understanding the Self. C & E Publishing, Inc. 839 EDSA, South
Triangle, Quezon City. ISBN: 978-971-98-1184-8.

Corpuz, B. B., Lucas, M. D., Borabo, H. L. &Lucido, P. I. (2015). Child and Adolescent Development: Looking at Learners
at Different Life Stages. Lorimar Publishing Incorporated, Quezon City. ISBN 971-685-721-4.

Estrada, A. T. (2011). Developmental Characteristics Of Young Children. REX Bookstore Inc. (RBSI), First Edition,
Sampaloc, Manila. ISBN 978-971-23-5917-0.

Milagros, F. F. , Mores, E. T. &Mogol, M. A. (2009). General Psychology Simplified. Books Atbp. Publishing Corporation,
Mandaluyong City. ISBN 971-0388-63-9.

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OFFICIAL MCC TEACHER’S GUIDE DISCLAIMER

It is not the intention of the author/s nor the publisher of this module to have monetary gain in using the
textual information, imageries, and other references used in its production. This guide is only for the exclusive use
of a bona fide student of Mabalacat City College.

In addition, this teacher’s guide or no part of it thereof may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, and/or otherwise, without the
prior permission of Mabalacat City College.

Worksheet 6:
A. Enumerate 10 ways to become an effective learner.

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5. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
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8. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
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10. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
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B. How to become a self regulated learner?

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Week No. _6_

____________________________________________________________________________________________________
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C. Explain briefly, “Learning is an Active Process.”

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Compiled by: Prepared by: Recommending Approval: Approvedby:

April Ann L. Galang EDMON Y. SAMPANA, PhD MARILYN S. ARCILLA ,RN, MAN, LPT MICHELLE AGUILAR
- -ONG,DPA
Clerk,IAS Instructor Dean,IAS VPAA