Step 1 - How do I learn best?

Step One: Introduction and Chapter One Reflection

For a moment, I find myself staring at a blank document not knowing where to begin, or whether my thoughts with be right or wrong. With ideas and thoughts running through my mind at a thousand miles per hour after reading through the study guides and relevant resources, my mind is puzzled with where to begin. After a quick walk along the beach to calm my mind, I begin to gather my thoughts and head back to the computer to conquer this reflection.

To be honest, the thought of studying accounting did make me feel quite anxious when I enrolled; however, I was put at ease whilst reading through the introductory and the first topic addressed was in relation to how do I learn? It really got me thinking as I found in my last subjects my goal was to achieve higher grades rather than focus on learning and taking the time to understand concepts that make sense in my own words and to connect those to personal experiences and to a wider world. It made me reflect on previous school assignments, many years ago now and how we more so learnt to rote learn. Looking back on this, it really didn’t give much benefit in the greater scheme expect passing that one particular exam and the memory of the content would disappear after some time.

Since graduating school many years ago, I left school not exactly knowing which direction I wanted to take and what interested me the most. I have now found myself working in the corporate world as a Human Resources Advisor for a large company. With a little push and encouragement from my Manager’s, I put my hand up to further my studies and in return to enrich my career. My first thought was, am I going to pass? What a ridiculous thought! I feel we put too much pressure on ourselves to achieve higher grades and not enough emphasis on enjoying the journey of learning and the result of gaining knowledge that we will retain.

As quoted by Bruce Lee “Learning is a constant process of discovery, a process without end”.

During this subject, I am eager to put more emphasis on actively learning at a deeper level to understand and develop my own meaning of what is accounting? I have experienced some interactions during my career with Accountants and have always been interested to learn more about this field. Particularly interested to learn how the numbers seek to represent what is truly going on inside a business ‘reality’.

And I have to agree with Martin that many CEO’S come from an accounting background. With the business that I’m involved in, accounting experience for the higher-level management team and also board members are essential in interpreting reports, financial statements and most importantly budgets. Not to mention the amount of money that is able to be spent on maintenance improvements to meet production targets, reports, reports, reports! I’m excited to learn how this all unfolds in my chosen company “Wise Tech Global”.

I’m the type of person that prefers to arrange a face to face meeting or pick up the phone to discuss a challenging topic rather than send an email. I find that a face to face meeting is more beneficial because I’m able to pick up on non-verbal cues. I’m looking forward to the idea that I will also be learning by interacting with other classmates and teachers by expressing my ideas and thoughts. In return, I hope to be able to offer suggestions to those that may be experiencing similar struggles or achievements. I’m interested to improve my online communication skills by interacting with other classmates and teachers online and realise that I will need to be very precise to avoid being misunderstood.

I have found so far that Peerwise is a great tool to actively test your learnings from reading the study guide materials. Creating and answering questions is also giving me a greater confidence that I’m not alone on this journey.

Reading the six ways we can think about what learning is, really got me thinking as to how I learn best. Do I learn to focus on the short-term goal of rote learning for that exam to only forget the information a few weeks later? Do I understand the concept in my own words? Can I relate the concept back to personal experiences or life in general? I’m going to admit that I do have room to grow in this area in being able to learn at a deeper level and to gain the true meaning that I can then relate back in my own words.

I’m eager to learn how accounting can determine the value of a business? I understand business’ create value and can make a difference in serving people’s needs and desires, but I’m interested to see how this is calculated? And, how far the accounting world has come in terms of online software programs, as I know many companies would have a software program tailored to the business’ needs and company size.

I’m grateful that the structure of this subject is very easy to follow, and the study guides have been very useful. The five elements of accounting section explaining, Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Revenue and Expenses is explained very well and easy to follow. I find that if something is harder to follow it creates a lack of understanding and therefore meaning. If I’m unable to put it in my own words, I do not understand the content.

I look forward to fastening my seatbelt and to be taken away on this journey of actively learning about Accounting. To be honest, I never thought I would be approaching the subject in this manner and questioning my leaning process but none the less I have gained an insight into my learning style.

#business #blog #accounting