Understanding Education and Schooling (Exam Overview)

Ok so here's exam overview part 2, and in this post I am going to describe as best as I can the main things you should know about my second exam which is from the topic Understanding Education and Schooling. This topic covers a wide variety about education as a whole.. and the best thing about this exam is that we have been given the questions already!


So, what happens is a few months before our exams we are given five questions to choose from and you only choose two to answer...sounds easy right?! Each question relates to something we have covered in this particular unit and basically you just pick the ones you think you can answer the best.
I have picked a question about learning styles and behaviourism for mine and all I have to revise are the lecture notes and slides to do with these two topics.


This is by far the easier exam to revise for out of the two because its obvious what exactly I need to revise, however, I have to say I'm not doing too bad at Social Constructions either.. touch wood!
There's not a whole lot I can say about this exam because I'm only revising two particular topics within the unit as there is no need for me to learn anything else, as long as I know everything I need to know about learning styles and behaviourism I think I have a good chance of doing well.


So, for the learning style question, they want to know that you understand what a learning style is and the different concepts of using them within educational settings, and this question also wants you to focus particularly on the disadvantages that using learning styles could give to a young child and schools.


The behaviourism question wants you to give a clear explanation of what behaviourism is and then is focused on how behaviourism techniques are used within the classroom.
So, they are quite different questions, but I like this because I have not yet mixed any of the theorists up in the wrong question and I think that this is purely because the questions I have picked are so different.


I hope these last two posts have given you a good insight into what you should expect for your end of first year exams!

Check list!

So, seeing as I have just started my second semester at university and I know a thing or two about being a fresher I thought I would give you all a post about things freshers should and should not take to university with them... I thought this would be an interesting post for anyone starting university next year to take on board!

I basically took the entire contents of my house, I may as well of took the kitchen sink I took that much!
So, here is a list of things I took that were not needed:

1. Hundreds of different types of kitchen knives..I only used one sometimes two at most!
2. A shower rack, there's nowhere to fit one of those in student accommodation! 
3. A bedside lamp...I didn't even have a beside table so don't take one of those unless you have one.
4. A clothing rail..it did not fit in my room.
5. Too many clothes..There was absolutely no room in my wardrobe and my clothing storage became a huge mess! 
6. Kitchen utensils I didn't even know how to use.
7. Too much food, you need to know how much storage you've got before you go ahead and buy all this freezer stuff that then can't be stored.
8. Random stationary bits that you're never going to use..E.g glue, or sellotape(I never used these).
9. Too many cushions, I took far too many and they didn't all fit on my bed which was annoying! 
10. Cash, you'll just spend it all during freshers and be skint for the rest of the year haha! 

Now I'm going to give you a more realistic list containing things that I could not have lived without during my time at university:

1. A washing basket...invest if you don't have one!
2. Coat hangers.... do not bring all of your clothes and forget hangers that would be so annoying especially because no one at university has the time to iron! 
3. An iron is sometimes needed though so don't forget that one.
4. Cleaning products, kitchen, bathroom, clothes all of it! Trust me you'll need it. 
5. Photos the put up in your room or memorabilia to make it feel more like your own.
6. Extra storage if it will fit, uni rooms are generally tiny!
7. Suitable clothes, don't take summer clothes because you're usually at home for the whole of summer and it's not usually warm in winter let's face it.

You would think all of these things in both of my lists are common sense, but I just decided I needed everything and made moving in and out ten times harder and more stressful for myself, so if I were doing it all over again I would definitely give a lo more thought to what I would be taking with my to university and now ending up like this picture.....

That is what you call serious hoarding!!! Don't end up like this haha!

Okay, perhaps that's a bit extreme but you get the drift!