shaken, not stirred

After reading Stipek’s Profiles of Motivational Problems, I would have to believe that my experiences as a learner are more accurately described as a blend of these examples. As a general rule I have had difficulty with memorization over my education. It’s no surprise then that a subject area I struggled in was social studies. I had difficulty memorizing names, then matching them with dates and places, ultimately placing them in some sort of relevant time line.
I would suggest that I began more like Anxious Amy, lacking self-confidence and fearful of giving a wrong answer. Because of my difficulty memorizing the data I had experiences of being prepared for a test, and then panicking upon receiving the test. It seemed I too could not remember the simplest facts I had known well the night before. Homework assignments were completed and turned in on time, just like Amy.
It is from this position I learned that rather than feel dumb because I could not remember and regurgitate facts I would employ some of the tactics used by Defensive Dick. Like Dick I did ask the teacher several questions, unlike Dick I didn’t get my answers from other kids. I would go home at night and scour the pages of the text for the correct names and dates. Unfortunately, like Dick again, I would make no attempts to conceal my lack of attention in class preparing for the test. For I, believed my failure was inevitable. Evidence of this is an award I won while I was in elementary school at the end of the year, it was an award for the “best doodler”. In other words all of my papers, all through school, were covered in drawings.
Something that might be done in this regard to help me learn would be to include things that interest me as a learner. As someone who obviously enjoys drawing, the doodles as evidence, art related to the time period might help. Or relating history to something more personal. Like family or again to a time line of genre appropriate art work.