[Itech] Fwd: Tomorrow's Professor eNewsletter: 1346. Ten Rules of Good (and Bad) Studying

Teresa Franklin franklit at ohio.edu
Mon Sep 1 21:50:29 EDT 2014


Hello Graduates.

I would highly recommend this reading.



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Tomorrow's Professor eNewsletter, Sponsored by Stanford Center for Teaching
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*Use explanatory questioning and simple analogies. Whenever you are
struggling with a concept, think to yourself, How can I explain this so
that a ten-year-old could understand it? Using an analogy really helps,
like saying that the flow of electricity is like the flow of water. Don't
just think your explanation-say it out loud or put it in writing. The
additional effort of speaking and writing allows you to more deeply encode
(that is, convert into neural memory structures) what you are learning.*

1346. Ten Rules of Good (and Bad) Studying

*Folks:*

[image: Rick Reis]


The posting below gives some excellent tips on good (and bad) studying
approaches. It is by Barbara Oakley, PhD, PE, from her new book, A Mind For
Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra),
Tarcher/Penguin. [http://www.tarcherbooks.net/about-tarcherpenguin/] ©
copyright 2014.  All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

Regards,

Rick Reisreis at stanford.edu
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Tomorrow's Teaching and Learning
---------- 1,250 words ----------
Ten Rules of Good (and Bad) Studying


Ten Rules for Good Studying

1. Use recall. After you read a page, look away and recall the main ideas.
Highlight very little, and never highlight anything you haven't put in your
mind first by recalling. Try recalling main ideas when you are walking to
class or in a different room from where you originally learned it. An
ability to recall-to generate the ideas from inside yourself-is one of the
key indicators of good learning.

2. Test yourself. On everything. All the time. Flash cards are your friend.

3. Chunk your problems. Chunking is understanding and practicing with a
problem solution so that it can all come to mind in a flash. After you
solve a problem, rehearse it. Make sure you can solve it cold-every step.
Pretend it's a song and learn to play it over and over again in your mind,
so the information combines into one smooth chunk you can pull up whenever
you want.

4. Space your repetition. Spread out your learning in any subject a little
every day, just like an athlete. Your brain is like a muscle-it can handle
only a limited amount of exercise on one subject at a time.

5. Alternate different problem-solving techniques during your practice.
Never practice too long at any one session using only one problem-solving
technique-after a while, you are just mimicking what you did on the
previous problem. Mix it up and work on different types of problems. This
teaches you both how and when to use a technique. (Books generally are not
set up this way, so you'll need to do this on your own.) After every
assignment and test, go over your errors, make sure you understand why you
made them, and then rework your solutions. To study most effectively,
handwrite (don't type) a problem on one side of a flash card and the
solution on the other. (Handwriting builds stronger neural structures in
memory than typing.) You might also photograph the card if you want to load
it into a study app on your smartphone. Quiz yourself randomly on different
types of problems. Another way to do this is to randomly flip through your
book, pick out a problem, and see whether you can solve it cold.

6. Take breaks. It is common to be unable to solve problems or figure out
concepts in math or science the first time you encounter them. This is why
a little study every day is much better than a lot of studying all at once.
When you get frustrated with a math or science problem, take a break so
that another part of your mind can take over and work in the background.

7. Use explanatory questioning and simple analogies. Whenever you are
struggling with a concept, think to yourself, How can I explain this so
that a ten-year-old could understand it? Using an analogy really helps,
like saying that the flow of electricity is like the flow of water. Don't
just think your explanation-say it out loud or put it in writing. The
additional effort of speaking and writing allows you to more deeply encode
(that is, convert into neural memory structures) what you are learning.

8. Focus. Turn off all interrupting beeps and alarms on your phone and
computer, and then turn on a timer for twenty-five minutes. Focus intently
for those twenty-five minutes and try to work as diligently as you can.
After the timer goes off, give yourself a small, fun reward. A few of these
sessions in a day can really move your studies forward. Try to set up times
and places where studying-not glancing at your computer or phone-is just
something you naturally do.

9. Eat your frogs first. Do the hardest thing earliest in the day, when you
are fresh.

10. Make a mental contrast. Imagine where you've come from and contrast
that with the dream of where your studies will take you. Post a picture or
words in your workspace to remind you of your dream. Look at that when you
find your motivation lagging. This work will pay off both for you and those
you love!

Ten Rules of Bad Studying

Avoid these techniques-they can waste your time even while they fool you
into thinking you're learning!

1. Passive rereading-sitting passively and running your eyes back over a
page. Unless you can prove that the material is moving into your brain by
recalling the main ideas without looking at the page, rereading is a waste
of time.

2. Letting highlights overwhelm you. Highlighting your text can fool your
mind into thinking you are putting something in your brain, when all you're
really doing is moving your hand. A little highlighting here and there is
okay-sometimes it can be helpful in flagging important points. But if you
are using highlighting as a memory tool, make sure that what you mark is
also going into your brain.

3. Merely glancing at a problem's solution and thinking you know how to do
it. This is one of the worst errors students make while studying. You need
to be able to solve a problem step-by-step, without looking at the solution.

4. Waiting until the last minute to study. Would you cram at the last
minute if you were practicing for a track meet? Your brain is like a
muscle-it can handle only a limited amount of exercise on one subject at a
time.

5. Repeatedly solving problems of the same type that you already know how
to solve. If you just sit around solving similar problems during your
practice, you're not actually preparing for a test-it's like preparing for
a big basketball game by just practicing your dribbling.

6. Letting study sessions with friends turn into chat sessions. Checking
your problem solving with friends, and quizzing one another on what you
know, can make learning more enjoyable, expose flaws in your thinking, and
deepen your learning. But if your joint study sessions turn to fun before
the work is done, you're wasting your time and should find another study
group.

7. Neglecting to read the textbook before you start working problems. Would
you dive into a pool before you knew how to swim? The textbook is your
swimming instructor-it guides you toward the answers. You will flounder and
waste your time if you don't bother to read it. Before you begin to read,
however, take a quick glance over the chapter or section to get a sense of
what it's about.

8. Not checking with your instructors or classmates to clear up points of
confusion. Professors are used to lost students coming in for guidance-it's
our job to help you. The students we worry about are the ones who don't
come in. Don't be one of those students.

9. Thinking you can learn deeply when you are being constantly distracted.
Every tiny pull toward an instant message or conversation means you have
less brain power to devote to learning. Every tug of interrupted attention
pulls out tiny neural roots before they can grow.

10. Not getting enough sleep. Your brain pieces together problem-solving
techniques when you sleep, and it also practices and repeats whatever you
put in mind before you go to sleep. Prolonged fatigue allows toxins to
build up in the brain that disrupt the neural connections you need to think
quickly and well. If you don't get a good sleep before a test, NOTHING ELSE
YOU HAVE DONE WILL MATTER.
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*"A teacher affects eternity; [she]he can never tell where the influence
stops." - Henry Adams *Dr. Teresa Franklin
Professor, Educational Studies/Instructional Technology
Fulbright Research Scholar to Turkey 2013-14
The Gladys W. and David H. Patton College of Education
Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701
740-593-4561 (office)
740-541-8847 (cell)
740-593-0477 (fax)
also: franklinteresa at gmail.com

*~~~~~~Ohio University -- The best student-centered learning *experience in
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