Fishel Straight A's Are Not Enough

Breakthroughs in Learning for College Students
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9906112-1-9
Verlag: Flying Heron Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 316 Seiten

Making good grades - even straight A's - is a fine goal if that's what you need or want, but far too many straight A students memorize facts, do well on exams, and then soon forget everything. What a terrible waste of time, effort and money! In this book, you will discover strategies for Flexible Time Management, Research-based learning strategies, Test preparation without cramming, Mental Processing - a new more effective definition of study, and Strategies to develop thinking skills, long-lasting memory, and deeper concentration. In addition, the book includes a section on what employers want most with chapters on critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and complex problem solving. This book is radically different from other books on study skills. It can empower students to choose what they want or need to learn and take to charge of their own education. They might even re-discover the excitement of learning.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fishel, Judy

Leseproben

PART 1 NEW RESEARCH ABOUT HOW WE LEARN CHAPTER 1 Eight Giant Steps: A Brief Introduction to Part 1 Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow. — Ralph Waldo Emerson You probably don’t remember this game but, when I was young, we often played a simple game called “Mother, May I?” The child playing the mother stood alone. The children stood about 20 feet away and took turns asking Mother if they could take a number and kind of steps. “Mother, may I take 7 baby steps?” “Mother, may I take 3 giant steps?” “Mother, may I take 4 jumping steps?” The goal was to be first to reach the mother. The mother could say yes, say no, or give you permission to take a different number or different kind of steps. From this game, the terms “giant steps” and “baby steps” have become part of our language. A giant step is defined as the longest step you can possibly reach. This book is not about taking baby steps. You’ll be challenged to stretch as far as you can, to take giant steps forward in your learning skills and in making decisions to prepare for greater success in life and in your career. In each chapter, you’ll be asked to begin with a simple exercise, reflecting on a topic to be discussed in the chapter. Each exercise should take only a few minutes. If you want to get the most from this book, use a notebook or reflective journal for your answers. You will learn even more if you add further reflections after you finish each chapter. For each question you can always choose one or more suggested answers, or (better yet) write your own. Exercise:
What Are Your Main Reasons for Getting an Education? What is the real reason why you came to college (or plan to go)? My parents expected me to go All my friends were going To have a good time To get a great education To earn a diploma so I can get the kind of job I want Because students with a college education earn more money Because I really enjoy learning and want to learn as much as I can Because, even if learning isn’t fun, it’s important for my future How important to you is it to make good grades? Extremely important Very important Somewhat important Not very important Why do you care about making good grades? Choose as many answers as you’d like, and feel free to add others. I’m not really concerned about grades. I think learning is more important than grades. I don’t care about my grades as long as I pass all my classes. I’m here to have fun. I want to make good grades to please my parents—and gain the respect of my teachers. I need top grades to get into graduate school, medical school, or law school. I need good grades to get the kind of job I want. I want to make good grades because I take pride in being the best student in the class. I want to graduate with honors—perhaps summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. I just enjoy making good grades. I do it for myself. It’s challenging. It’s fun. Why did you choose this book to read? What do you hope to learn from this book? What are three giant steps you could take immediately that would help you learn far more effectively than most college students? A true story: students often don’t learn It is always nice to start with a story. This is a story about a story. I was teaching a seventh grade science class about gravity. Because I believe we often learn more through stories than through lectures, I began by telling the story of Galileo dropping heavy and light objects from the leaning tower of Pisa. I explained that most people agreed with Aristotle that heavy objects fall faster, but that Galileo was an independent thinker. He wanted to test this idea for himself. I’m sure you know the story. The objects landed at the same time. The next day I checked to see what my students had learned. I held a good-sized rock in one hand and a sheet of paper in the other and—to my students’ horror—I climbed up and stood on top of my desk. The students warned me nervously that the principal might catch me! Personally, I thought he’d be impressed, seeing that every student was paying close attention. I held up the rock and the sheet of paper and asked, “If I drop them at the same time, which will hit the floor first?” “The rock,” they agreed. Why? “Because it’s heavier,” they said in unison. I dropped them and the rock hit the floor first. The students weren’t surprised. They knew they were right. I then suggested we do a little experiment. “Would it make any difference,” I asked, “if I folded the paper?” The students shook their heads. “No, why should it?” I folded the paper repeatedly until I couldn’t fold it any further. “Now,” I asked, “I have the same rock and the same paper. Which will hit the ground first?” “The rock!” Not one student questioned this apparently obvious conclusion. They all gasped when the rock and the paper hit the floor at the same time. “Can anyone explain why this happened?” I asked, hoping someone remembered Galileo. After a long pause, one boy raised his hand. “When you fold paper,” he explained solemnly, “it gets heavier.” It was hard not to laugh. I looked around the room, hoping another student would suggest a better answer. “How many of you believe this?” I asked. Every hand was raised. Not one student could think of an alternative. “Does it make sense that folding paper would make it heavier?” I asked. “No,” said the boy. “I never would have believed it, Ms. Fishel, but you just proved it.” I seriously hope you aren’t agreeing with my students—either about rocks falling faster because they are heavier or about paper getting heavier when it’s folded. There are, sad to say, many college students who memorize what seem to be important facts, make straight A’s on tests, but never understand the basic concepts. There are students taking college physics who still don’t understood the laws of motion, often taught in middle school. Some of these physics students even believe rocks fall faster than paper because they’re heavier. Learning involves far more than memorizing facts. Genuine learning requires reflecting on what you believe, considering the evidence, and being willing to change your ideas. While my seventh graders enjoyed the Galileo story, they didn’t change their beliefs. As you read this book, I hope you will be prepared to examine and perhaps rethink and revise some of your opinions, beliefs, and even behaviors. Beginning a journal—or maybe several You might want to stock up on simple notebooks. In this book, you’ll find many suggestions that you begin a new kind of journal. The first suggestion, earlier, was that you use a reflective journal for writing answers to the exercises and add further reflections at the end of each chapter. As a college student, I kept four journals. The first was a daily diary, with occasional reflections on what I’d learned from my experiences. The second was my financial record; my family didn’t have a lot of money so I recorded every penny I spent and planned ways to spend even less. The third journal, my “Boyfriend Journal,” may sound silly, but it was the most helpful; as each relationship ended, I took time to reflect on the happiest times, on mistakes I made, and on what I learned from the experience. The fourth journal, my “Thinking Journal,” included reflections on my Big Questions. I spent nearly two years trying to answer a single question: “What is the purpose of life?” (To read my answer to this question, check the website.) Here I am already suggesting that you start a second journal, a “Learning Journal.” You may be surprised to find how this will affect how much and how well you learn. STRATEGY 1.1 KEEP A LEARNING JOURNAL Step 1: Each night before you go to sleep, write about the most important things you learned that day in your classes. Step 2: Add something you learned outside your classes. Often, what we learn outside of class is even more important than what we learn in class. Step 3: Write one or more things you’d like to learn or to understand more completely. Sounds easy? It is easy but it really will help you learn. The Eight Giant Steps The first three giant steps are described in the next three sections of this chapter. The other five are dealt with in the next five chapters. They include examining your approach to learning, your goals, your time, your mindset, and your willpower. These chapters are far more than an introduction to the book. Each chapter includes research-based information and suggestions that can help you take a giant step toward earning better grades, learning more, and getting the kind of education you want. Take each chapter seriously. But be warned: taking “Giant Steps” is never easy. Each step takes determination and courage. These chapters ask...