EDUC 245, Human Growth and Development, was a required course for my major. The most challenging part about this course was the time that it was held. The course was held once a week from 6pm to 8:45pm. Having a long night class like this was a major adjustment for me. However, making this adjustment helped me develop new techniques to refine and keep my focus inside and outside of class. It also helped me better my time management skills while I scheduled my work and assignments around the class time.

My favorite aspect of this course was how it integrated several different learning methods into its curriculum. I had to do weekly readings, listen to lectures, take notes from PowerPoints, perform research, write essays and papers, and orally interact with others. Having a mixture of learning methods and techniques woven into the class layout helped me better understand the course content and helped shape some of my learning abilities. Not everyone learns in the same way and I think that it was important that this course utilized these different methods to reach the needs of the different students.

Not only were these learning methods used at separate times, but many of them were also integrated together to complete a project at the end of the semester. This project was called the “Three Ages Project.” To complete this project I had to utilize readings from the textbook, refer back to lectures and notes, research different theories, find reliable sources and conduct an oral interview with three different individuals. After I completed all of these necessary steps I wrote a ten page paper and made an online PowerPoint presentation that laid out all of my findings. This project made me realize the importance and necessity of integrating different learning methods and techniques when trying to reach an end goal. It is not always easy finding out what styles, methods, or techniques are best for you, but thanks to this course I now have a better idea of what works for me.

I have included the PowerPoint presentation to my “Three Ages Project” with this reflection. This presentation further explains the project and shows how I utilized all of the previously mentioned resources into my final work.