Welcome to Spanish Town Learning Institute

Congratulations on your decision to continue your education at SLI.  This might be for some your first course since leaving high school or your first post-graduate course; hence, you might be a little apprehensive.  This is understandable.  You are an adult in an adult educational experience.  We will try to make your experience exciting and challenging,  Your responsibility will be to learn—to acquire knowledge and skills.

All adult learners are geared for success.  Adults have something going for them that allows them to succeed in school: they are mature, motivated, and self-directed, and have set a goal for themselves.  Nevertheless, there are liabilities that are shared by all adult learners: one of the greatest is, the fear of failure.  You might have had past negative experiences with learning situations.  Perhaps you did not do well in some primary, high school, or other classes.  Maybe you did not study, studied in the wrong way, or allowed yourself to be put down by teachers or tutors in the past.  Maybe you allowed yourself to underachieve because of peer pressure.  Regardless of the cause, you may look at school in a negative, threatening way.

A surprise is in store for you.  Your past is history.  You have a clean slate ahead of you!

Let’s focus now.  Learning is inherent in the acquisition of knowledge.  The process of learning information requires attention, perception, memory, integration, and rehearsal.  Functional integrity of the brain as evidenced by the ability to transfer knowledge from past experiences, problem solve, and recall recent and past events, is necessary for learning to take place. An individual’s readiness to learn can greatly influence the extent to which knowledge is acquired.  The emotional and motivational status of the individual in learning plays a significant role in readiness.

Although the cognitive ability to learn and motivation may be present, additional factors can act as barriers to learning: lack of comfortable surroundings, fatigue, environmental disturbances, inadequate resources, and lack of time.  These are major hindrances to learning.

In addition to the foregoing, to help you succeed we will now look at learning styles.  Most individuals have wondered why one classmate takes voluminous notes while another just listens, and another equally successful student says, “I’ll understand this better when I practise it.”  Everyone learns differently.  Some of you may have attempted to emulate a classmate’s learning style because of his or her success.  Perhaps you continue to practice a learning method that has never been as successful for you as you would like.  Major learning styles are identified as visual, auditory, and tactual.  Other specific categories of learning include the logical learner, the musical learner, the linguistic learner, and the spatial learner.  Once you have identified your learning style (usually at orientation), you must make that learning style work for you.

So, stay motivated, stay focused, be present at classes, be on time, and as our motto states: “By determination, persistence, and hard work, you will reach your goal.”

We wish you every success.