I practised Taichi Baduan Qigong, a foundational form of Taichi that underscores

physical postures, breathing techniques, and mental focus. Baduan Qigong

encompasses eight unique movements. The exercise aims to boost overall well-
being by promoting the smooth flow of energy throughout the body, enhancing
flexibility, balance, and strength, and reducing stress.

The primary motivation for selecting this practice is its potential to improve my
mental health. During my second placement, I frequently felt nervous and doubted
my ability to manage tasks effectively. I am also very anxious about negative
feedback from my educator and always overinterpret her facial expressions. Since
then, I have become grumpier, easily agitated, and experienced bouts of sadness.
Additionally, a tragic event involving a close friend left me with deep regret and a
tendency to overthink my lack of support. These experiences deteriorated my
mental health. Thus, I decided to practice Taichi to manage my emotions.

To learn Baduan Qigong, I began following YouTube videos every two days. At first, I
struggled to complete the full movements, particularly the second form, which is
more complicated than the rest. Nevertheless, I solved the issue by watching the
video a few times. This developed my understanding of the motions and allowed
me to practice the form successfully. Also, I encountered specific challenges, such
as having tight muscles. Thus, I did not perform well in the sixth form, where I was
required to bend my torso and stretch my tight leg muscles. I started performing
simple leg stretches before my Taichi sessions to address this. Breathing properly
was another challenge, as Taichi requires specific breathing patterns. I reviewed
breathing exercises from YouTube that I had practiced before, which gradually
improved my breath control.

Practising Taichi revealed several weaknesses in me. My muscles were tighter than I
expected, causing pain during certain forms. Also, I found it challenging to follow
motions, often needing to watch demonstrations multiple times. Moreover,
negative emotions significantly impacted my productivity, making me reluctant to
engage in Taichi, even though it only took 12 minutes. At the same time, I
discovered numerous strengths in myself, such as having adequate stamina; for
example, I did not feel fatigued after holding a half-squat position for two minutes
because of my regular exercise habits. Additionally, after practising, I quickly
adapted to the breathing rhythms, demonstrating my competence in diaphragm
breathing.

My motivation and orientation align with adult learning theory, which encompasses
five principles: self-directed learning, experience as a resource, readiness to learn,
problem-centered approach, and internal motivation. To sum up, adult learners are
self-directed and independent, utilize old learning experiences in present learning,
are responsible for their educational needs, and are problem-focused (Jordan,
2008, p.128-141). I decided to learn Taichi to manage my negative emotions rather
than being forced by someone else. Moreover, I utilized many strategies I used in
the past. For instance, I used to do HIIT exercises and trained in diaphragm
breathing by following YouTube tutorials.

My learning practice is aligned with the stage of absolute knowing in Baxter

Magolda's theory of epistemological development, which is based on the learning
theory of life course development. In this stage, teachers are responsible for
imparting knowledge, and students should absorb and reproduce it (Magolda,
2001). For my learning, the Taichi demonstrator in the video acts as the teacher,
demonstrating my movements to copy and reproduce clearly and precisely.

My learning process is based on the Kolb Experiential Learning Cycle. (Kolb and
Kolb, 2009) reported that learners first gain experience, then reflect on the learning
progress, followed by developing concepts based on the reflection. I was lastly
implementing the concepts into practice. In my learning, I practised Taichi by
following video demonstrations. In reflection, I discovered my weaknesses in
following the movements, breath control, and muscle flexibility. Thus, I understood
the importance of interpreting movements, having flexible muscles, and having
competent breath control. The issues were resolved by repeating the video,
increased stretching, and breathing exercises.

An online questionnaire gave me an outcome showing I am a reflective learner.

According to Honey and Mumford (1992), reflective learners take time to look and
think before they leap; they learn best in a structured environment and spend good
portions of their time thinking about previous and future activities concerning their
learning. This genuinely captures my learning activity in Taichi; I learn when I watch
a demonstration and invest a colossal amount of time reflecting on what I have
viewed and tried out.

Reflecting on my learning process with the Gibbs reflective cycle, I practised Taichi
to raise my mood, which was successful. It feels relaxing after exercise, though the
initial failure was frustrating. Reflecting on my learning, I realized my previous
experience with diaphragm breathing and HIIT training assisted with success, and
stamina built from regular exercises prevented fatigue while performing the
exercise. Nonetheless, I realized how grasping Taichi's movements and muscle
flexibility accounts for delivering a clean Taichi performance. The Taichi movements
were not translatable to my understanding, plus my muscles were very tight
because of a lack of stretching. Furthermore, I discovered that my failure in the
occupation and my negativity caused my motivation to be dampened. What I
should have done first was to do an activity analysis to know the demands and
prepare for them, like watching videos and stretching well. Such practices could
have minimized failure and increased my confidence. Nevertheless, I got better with
time through trial and error, addressing weaknesses as they came up.

Learning Taichi Baduan has been significantly valuable for my future educational
endeavors. I identified my learning style, approach to acquiring new knowledge,
and strengths and weaknesses. I experimented with a trial-and-error strategy and
reflected on the entire learning process. In the future, I will design my learning
plans by considering my strengths and needs and aligning them with my reflective
learner characteristics; moreover, completing an activity analysis to take demands
and risks into account. Additionally, I will regularly reflect on my progress to ensure
I stay on the right track.

Reference

Jordan, A. (2008) ‘Adult Learning Theory’, in Approaches to learning: a guide to teachers.

Maidenhead, England: Open University Press, pp. 128–141.
Kolb, A.Y. and Kolb, D.A. (2009) ‘Experiential learning theory: A dynamic, holistic approach to
management learning, education and development’, The SAGE Handbook of Management
Learning, Education and Development, pp. 42–68. doi:10.4135/9780857021038.n3.
Magolda, M.B. (2001) ‘Epistemological reflection: The evolution of epistemological assump-
tions from age 18 to 30’, Personal Epistemology, pp. 101–116.
doi:10.4324/9781410604316-12.
Mumford, A. and Honey, P. (1992) ‘Questions and answers on learning styles questionnaire’, In-
dustrial and Commercial Training, 24(7). doi:10.1108/00197859210015426.