How to Study and Learn (Part One) All thinking occurs within, and across, disciplines and domains of knowledge and experience, yet few students learn how to think well within those domains. Despite having taken many classes, few are able to think biologically, chemically, geographically, sociologically, anthropologically, historically, artistically, ethically, or philosophically. Students study literature, but do not think in a literary way as a result. They study poetry, but do not think poetically. They do not know how to think like a reader when reading, nor how to think like a writer while writing, nor how to think like a listener while listening. To study well and learn any subject is to learn how to think with discipline within that subject. To become a skilled learner is to become a self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinker, who has given assent to rigorous standards of thought and mindful command of their use. Idea # 2: Become an active learner. Idea # 4: Become a questioner.
Nerd Paradise : How to Write a 20 Page Research Paper in Under a Day - StumbleUpon Posted on: 10 Cado 7:0 - 5.27.29 So you've procrastinated again. You told yourself you wouldn't do this 2 months ago when your professor assigned you this. Pick a Topic The more "legally-oriented" your topic is, the better. Make a list ...of every possible outcome that this issue could cause in...the near future...the far future...of every person that this topic affects....of any instances where this topic has come in the news....what you would do about this topic if you had the chance/power/enough-sugar...any little detail you can think ofThe important thing about this is to think of ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING, no matter how silly or far-fetched. Reorder everything Put your most obvious argument first. Then put weird off the wall stuff, regardless of importance. Put the strongest argument for your case next. Now list the incidents that will help argue for your point. Now, list everything that could be construed to be the answer to the question "if elected, what would you do about this issue?"
How to Study and Learn (Part Two) In part one of this article, we introduced some of the intellectual skills, abilities, and dispositions essential to the development of the educated person as articulated in our Miniature Guide for Students on How to Study and Learn. We provided eighteen ideas students need for becoming master students. In this article, we continue to highlight important ideas from the Thinker's Guide for Students on How to Study and Learn. How To Understand Ideas Ideas are to us like the air we breathe. Ideas, then, are our paths to both reality and self-delusion. To the uncritical mind, it is as if people in the world came to us with our labels for them inherent in who they are. If you want to develop as a learner, you must come to recognize the ideas through which you see and experience the world. Essential Idea: To understand our experience and the world itself, we must be able to think within alternative world-views. How To Control (& Not Be Controlled By) Ideas How to Learn Ideas From Textbooks
OWL Contributors:Purdue OWL Staff.Summary: This handout covers major topics relating to writing about fiction. This covers prewriting, close reading, thesis development, drafting, and common pitfalls to avoid. Also see the OWL handout on Writing about Literature and the OWL handout on Literary Terms. Writing about a story or novel can be difficult because fiction is generally very complex and usually includes several points or themes. Close Reading a Text Use these "tracking" methods to yield a richer understanding of the text and lay a solid ground work for your thesis. Use a highlighter, but only after you've read for comprehension. Avoiding Pitfalls These four common assumptions about writing about fiction interfere with rather than help the writer. Plot Summary SyndromeAssumes that the main task is simply recalling what happened in detail. Once you've read the story or novel closely, look back over your notes for patterns of questions or ideas that interest you. Pre-writing Activities 1. 2.
How to Study and Learn (Part Three) In the previous two articles we introduced some of the intellectual skills, abilities, and dispositions essential to the development of the educated person as articulated in our Thinker's Guide for Students on How to Study and Learn. All the ideas in this miniature guide are designed to help students think deeply through content and develop intellectually. In this article we focus on the analysis and evaluation of reasoning. To analyze thinking, we focus on its parts. In other words, we focus on the purpose of thinking, the questions the thinking is pursuing, the information being used, the assumptions and inferences being made, the concepts and point of view guiding the thinking, and its implications. To evaluate or assess thinking, we apply intellectual standards to the parts of thinking, standards such as clarity, accuracy, relevance, logic, precision, justifiability, significance, depth, and breadth. How To Figure Out the Logic of A Textbook The Logic of a Textbook Go to top
MLA Formatting and Style Guide Summary: MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th ed.) and the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3rd ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page. Contributors:Tony Russell, Allen Brizee, Elizabeth Angeli, Russell Keck, Joshua M. Paiz, Purdue OWL StaffLast Edited: 2012-05-09 07:17:57 Please use the example at the bottom of this page to cite the Purdue OWL in MLA. To see a side-by-side comparison of the three most widely used citation styles, including a chart of all MLA citation guidelines, see the Citation Style Chart. You can also watch our MLA vidcast series on the Purdue OWL YouTube Channel. General Format MLA style specifies guidelines for formatting manuscripts and using the English language in writing.
How to Study and Learn (Part Four) In the previous three articles we focused on ideas for helping students improve their studying and learning habits. All of the recommendations come from our Thinker's Guide to How to Study & Learn. This guide is designed to help students think deeply through content and begin to take their learning seriously. In this article, the final in its series, we focus on the importance of questioning in learning, providing suggestions to help students become active questioners. How To Understand The Role of Questions in Thinking & Learning Thinking is not driven by answers but by questions. So, instead of trying to store a lot of disconnected information in your mind, start asking questions about the content. Questions of relevance force you to discriminate what does and does not bear on a question. Continually remind yourself that learning begins only when questions are asked. Every discipline is best known by the questions it generates and the way it goes about settling those questions.
The 7 Dumbest Things Students Do When Cramming for Exams #3. Do Exam Problems There is no way to say this without sounding patronizing: If you're preparing to do an exam, prepare by doing exams. Every year millions of students do their first exam-style problem in the exam hall, and if there's one thing we learned from college it's that the first time you do anything important, you suck at it. Even if you suck at it. Getty"I wish he'd study a little harder. Odds are your course wasn't created this term. #2. Getty "I'm so screwed!" SCENE: Library, two dumbasses. A: Omigod I'm so screwed for this test! B: I didn't go to half the lectures! A: Well I didn't go to any! B: Well I ran over the professor's wife! A: Well I'm brain-damaged because I was having sex with her in front of the professor when you hit her! B: Oh hey, I just realized that there are other college students having sex with each other right now! #1. The most common post-exam complaint is, "Why didn't the lectures just teach us how to do the exam?"
The Student Development Centre at Western Have you ever wondered why you have difficulty learning from a particular instructor, whereas another seems to explain things in just the right way? Did you ever question why the course that your friend said was so easy turned into a struggle for you? Do you notice that you and your roommate have different opinions on whether or not to have the radio on while you're studying? The reason behind some of these discrepancies may be differences in learning styles. What is a "learning style"? To put it simply, your learning style (or learning preference) is the way you tend to learn best. Expanding Your Learning Preferences There are 3 learning style preferences discussed here: The ideas are not meant to be the absolute best strategy for each student in all situations. Also from this web page: Confidentiality Information disclosed by students to SDC's Learning Skills Counsellors is confidential.
Free Online Course Materials | Courses Learning Styles - Learning skills from MindTools Understanding Learning Preferences Identifying your preferred style of learning can make gaining new knowledge and skills easier. Have you ever tried to learn something fairly simple, yet failed to grasp the key ideas? Or tried to teach people and found that some were overwhelmed or confused by something quite basic? If so, you may have experienced a clash of learning styles: your learning preferences and those of your instructor or audience may not have been aligned. When this occurs, not only is it frustrating for everyone, the communication process breaks down and learning fails. Once you know your own natural learning preference, you can work on expanding the way you learn, so that you can learn in other ways, not just in your preferred style. And, by understanding learning styles, you can learn to create an environment in which everyone can learn from you, not just those who use your preferred style. The Index of Learning Styles™ You can see these in figure 1, below. Balance is key. Tip:
in - A visualization of migration flows Programs The Hewlett Foundation helps people build measurably better lives. Our grantees are working to reduce poverty in the developing world, curb carbon emissions that lead to climate change, and improve education for students in California and elsewhere, among many other valuable goals. While the goals of the Foundation are about problems that we're trying to solve, our Foundation is organized in such a way that grants are made from particular programs. We've tried to provide sufficient information about each program's grantmaking to give the visitor a comprehensive understanding of what we fund and why. Here are the Foundation's five programs and their key goals: The Education Program makes grants to: The Environment Program makes grants to: The Global Development and Population Program makes grants to: The Performing Arts Program makes grants to organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area to: The Effective Philanthropy Group makes grants to:
if this is of interest, you should look into mindmapping by michaelcolantoni Nov 9