learning diary
Learning Diary
Adapted from Peter Honey’s Learning Log
A way to enhance learning from experience
Introduction
We all learn from experience. Without it we would be condemned to repeating our mistakes over and over again and be incapable of adapting to change. Most of us take our learning from experience for granted, however.
This Learning Diary has been created to help you become more conscious of your experiential learning during one working week so that you can manage it more effectively.
If you are conscious of what you are learning from experience you:
• are clear what you have learned
• can communicate your learning to other people
• know how you learn and therefore improve the way you do it
• have a recipe for continuous improvement and for helping others to improve
• keep ahead of and are ‘comfortable’ with change
• learn from success, not just from mistakes
• are better able to transfer learning from one specific situation to a broader range of other situations • are more purposeful, determined to extract learning even from unremarkable routine experiences Learning from experience is a process that can be broken down into 4 stages, as shown below.
Stage 1Having an experience
Stage 2Reviewing the experience
Stage 3Concluding from the experience
Stage 4Planning the next step
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The four stages are mutually dependent on one another. No stage makes sense, or is particularly useful, in isolation from the others.
Completing the Learning Diary
The Learning Diary assumes that you have had an experience from which you wish to learn. It is designed to help you:
- review the experience (stage two of the learning cycle)
- reach conclusions (stage three of the learning cycle)
- plan what to do better/differently (stage four of the learning cycle)
Use the following procedure each time you make an entry:
1. Start by thinking back over an experience and selecting a part of it to focus on in your log.
2. Write a detailed account
Adapted from Peter Honey’s Learning Log
A way to enhance learning from experience
Introduction
We all learn from experience. Without it we would be condemned to repeating our mistakes over and over again and be incapable of adapting to change. Most of us take our learning from experience for granted, however.
This Learning Diary has been created to help you become more conscious of your experiential learning during one working week so that you can manage it more effectively.
If you are conscious of what you are learning from experience you:
• are clear what you have learned
• can communicate your learning to other people
• know how you learn and therefore improve the way you do it
• have a recipe for continuous improvement and for helping others to improve
• keep ahead of and are ‘comfortable’ with change
• learn from success, not just from mistakes
• are better able to transfer learning from one specific situation to a broader range of other situations • are more purposeful, determined to extract learning even from unremarkable routine experiences Learning from experience is a process that can be broken down into 4 stages, as shown below.
Stage 1Having an experience
Stage 2Reviewing the experience
Stage 3Concluding from the experience
Stage 4Planning the next step
Page 3 of 10
The four stages are mutually dependent on one another. No stage makes sense, or is particularly useful, in isolation from the others.
Completing the Learning Diary
The Learning Diary assumes that you have had an experience from which you wish to learn. It is designed to help you:
- review the experience (stage two of the learning cycle)
- reach conclusions (stage three of the learning cycle)
- plan what to do better/differently (stage four of the learning cycle)
Use the following procedure each time you make an entry:
1. Start by thinking back over an experience and selecting a part of it to focus on in your log.
2. Write a detailed account