Learning |
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By the end of this lesson, you should be able to do each of the following without consulting notes or other resources:
Before
coming to class on Monday, you should complete the following assignments: Read “Study Hints and Shortcuts” in Making Your Mark. Write another paragraph of the strategies section of your life plan. Our class activities this week include the following: Think Fast: Pick a
section of your notes from another class and, using a strategy covered in
this lesson, learn them. Presentations:
Learning (Professor Canada), tutors (Allison Bounds, William Carter, Wendy
Darwin) Discussion: During
this time, we will discuss the insights and questions that have emerged
during the “Think Fast” exercise and presentations. Think Again: Have a
partner quiz you on the section of your notes you learned at the beginning of
class. Discuss what went right
and perhaps what went wrong in your system for learning this material. What might you do differently next
time you try to learn this kind of material? Conferences: While
the rest of you are working on the “Think Again” exercise, I will meet with
two of you in one-on-one conferences.
During this time, I will review some of your writing, orally quiz you
on lesson objectives, and field your questions. Announcements: We
will wrap up this lesson with announcements regarding upcoming lessons, as well
as other relevant subjects. Make sure you know the meaning and significance of each of the following:
You can pursue
the objectives in this lesson further by consulting the resources listed
below: Study Skills for Learning Power discusses, among other things, techniques for improving your memory. Power
Learning, a
book by psychologist Robert S.
Feldman, features chapters entitled “Building Your Reading and
Listening Skills” and “Improving Your Memory.” Updated September 3, 2002
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IntroductionIn one of our previous lessons, we looked at the purpose of a college education. In this lesson, we will take a closer look at the kinds of learning you will do in college, as well as the rest of your life, and you will learn effective strategies for learning material effectively. We also will hear about tutors on campus when Allison, William, and Wendy present our first commercial. Please bring notes from one of your other courses to class so that you can practice using learning strategies to study them. DiscussionStudying to LearnYou may have heard that college students should plan to spend 2-3 hours studying outside class for every hour they spend in class. Such information is useful, but you might rightfully ask: “How should I spend that time?” You will want to read the assigned sections in your text book, of course, and you obviously will have essays and other assignments to complete. You might complete all of this work, however, and still earn a poor grade in a course. Even worse, you may end the semester feeling as if you didn’t really learn very much. You stand to get a lot more out of your college experience if you think consciously about exactly what you are supposed to learning and employ effective strategies for making this material your own. If your professor has given you some learning objectives or learning outcomes, perhaps on the course syllabus or in individual lessons, read this information carefully and use it to guide your reading, listening, writing, and studying. Many text books also include objectives in their individual chapters. Finally, if you have checked these resources and are still unsure what you are supposed to learn, ask the professor. Learning Various Kinds of MaterialThe kinds of material that students learn in college fall into three categories: facts, concepts, and skills. Each category requires different strategies. Learn the strategies, and you stand a good chance of learning the material. The most obvious kind of course material is a fact—that is, a verifiable piece of specific information. Facts take a variety of forms, including definitions, names, dates, and formulae. In a psychology course, for example, you might be expected to know who Sigmund Freud was and what the term “id” means. History classes are known for calling on students to learn a lot of dates, and math and physics classes involve a lot of formulae. Over the centuries, people have developed a number of techniques for learning facts. Some of these techniques are known as mnemonic devices. Designed to help you encode or retrieve information in your memory, mnemonic devices include acronyms, poems, and other “tricks.” A famous example is “HOMES,” an acronym for the names of the Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior. Some of these devices are particularly useful when you have to remember lists of items, but you also can use mnemonic devices—perhaps even some you invented yourself—to learn other kinds of information. A more powerful technique for remembering information is association, which involves linking new information with information you already know. This technique is especially useful for learning dates. Once you have a mental timeline featuring several important dates throughout history—1066: Norman Conquest, 1492: Columbus’s landing in the Americas, 1789: French Revolution, and so on—you can learn new dates by placing them on this timeline. Yet another effective strategy for learning factual material is categorization. Research shows that people can retrieve material from their memories more efficiently if they have learned to sort things that similar. When studying American writers, for instance, you can group the Transcendentalists, the realists, the naturalists, and so on. Finally, even if you use all of these techniques effectively, you probably still will have to learn some information by rote—that is, you will need to study or even repeat it out loud again and again until you have successfully stored it in your memory banks. A second kind of information is a concept, which involves relationships or processes. Photosynthesis, natural selection, and classical conditioning are all examples of concepts. Learning concepts can be more difficult than learning facts. After all, even if you memorize the definition of “classical conditioning” from your text book, you don’t really understand it unless you can explain it in your own words and apply your understanding of it to predict phenomena. One expert on learning has suggested that an effective means for absorbing material is to turn it around in your mind, in effect playing with it. When faced with learning a concept, try to think about it in a variety of ways. For example, envision a diagram of the concept, think of different examples of it, imagine any feelings associated with it, and predict the results of particular sets of circumstances involving the concept. It also helps to discuss concepts with others and even try to teach it to someone else. Research has shown that people who teach someone material retain about 95 percent of that material. Finally, many courses also require you to learn skills—that is, abilities to perform various functions. Literature courses often call on students to scan poetry, for example, and many classes in the arts involve learning skills such as singing, acting, drawing, and sculpting. Many courses in different disciplines, furthermore, require skills in writing and critical thinking. To develop competence in a skill, you must practice it. Professors often design assignments to help you practice skills, but you should also be prepared to practice skills on your own. If you have to give a presentation for your speech or political science class, for instance, rehearse that speech several times before the actual time you are scheduled to present it to the class. As you practice, you will become aware of areas where you need to improve, as well as strategies that can help you be effective. At the same time, you may also working out wrinkles unconsciously as your brain and body become familiar with the demands involved. When possible, have someone else evaluate your work to help you see where your strengths and weaknesses lie. ConclusionIn this lesson, we have discussed various kinds of material you need to learn in college and looked at effective strategies for learning this material. We turn in our next lesson to the skill of note-taking, which can help you to learn and retain facts, concepts, and skills. |