Negative & Positive learning experiences

Negative
I had a maths teacher at secondary school who made everyone answer a mental arithmetic question before they were able to leave the class for break. I personally found this learning experience quite negative as I was not particularly good at mental arithmetic and would spend the last half of the lesson worrying about not being able to answer the question correctly in front of the other students. I feel that this sort of learning picks up on people’s weaknesses and can be more of a hindrance than help.

Positive
I have been finding it difficult to fine one particular positive learning experience to use as an example. I think the reason for this is that I try to find the positive side to my learning experiences as a whole even if they have initially felt negative. I also think it is easier to draw on and remember negative experiences than positive ones. I find I am always learning new things although sometimes I learn them in a negative way which eventually turns out positive. For example, I once made a big error with the payroll one month which resulted in someone not receiving a substantial amount of money which they had been banking on getting. They were not too pleased with me but we were fortunately able to rectify this mistake through an advance. Although this was a negative experience, I tried to use it as a valuable learning experience that I should not only double-check but triple-check the payroll each month. As yet, no large errors like that have occurred since!

Lucy