学会如何学习学习笔记——4. 8复兴式学习与释放你的潜能——​​​​​​​学习新事物、与Richard Felder博士和Rebecca Brent博士的访谈

学习新事物、与Richard Felder博士和Rebecca Brent博士的访谈

Well, let me ask you this now. When you yourself are faced with a new concept or you're trying to figure out something brand new and it's difficult, what advice would you have in general for learners to be able to grapple with and assimilate these new ideas or solve a new area that they're first facing?

Well, just like with the test question that we talked about. I think there are a lot of different ways to approach a difficult task. And in fact, as we were thinking about talking about this issue. Rich and I realize that we approach things differently. I'm a rather big picture person more of a global kind of learner. And so often when I'm looking at some difficult material, I'll take time if I have something chapter or if I have some sort of text, I'll look through it. I'll just skim through. I'll read a little at the end. I'll pick up a piece here and there and then begin to dig in a little bit deeper, but I do better when I sort of have a general sense of what it is I'm supposed to be learning. I might skip to the back and look at what kind of problems am I supposed to be able to solve with this. And so when you're working in discipline is where problem solving is an important part, that can be a way to get into it to begin to make sense of it. And the way that I differ from Rebecca is I'm a strongly sequential learner. And so I take the first step, then the next step, then the next step. But again, I never learned anything passively, anything nontrivial. If it's just a simple fact or definition of the term, I can read it and memorize it. But if it's really conceptually difficult whether it's part of a problem solving procedure or derivation that I'm trying to work through or anything else, the only way I learn anything is by doing it. So read this and then I'll try to explain it to myself. When I've learned things best of anything at all is when I've had to teach and I think practically, every teacher would tell you the same thing. I thought I knew this stuff. I got As in all those courses back in college, but it wasn't until I had to explain to these students that I was teaching that I found out that I really didn't understand it at the level I thought I did. And so I try to find examples. I try to find clear ways of explaining difficult concepts. And in the course of doing that, that's when the real understanding came. And so this is another strong argument, among other things for working in groups. If you're working with other people and together, you're trying to figure something out and you get a certain point and then you try to explain it to the others. You're reinforcing your understanding and they may or may not understand it after you're finished figuring out how to explain it, but boy do you. And so those two pieces of advice. I learn by doing things like trying them. If it's a mathematical method or procedure or something in physics or in engineering, then I try to work out the solution myself without looking back at the book, the text or whatever it is. And when I can do it by myself without referring back, then obviously, I know how to do it. And then to really reinforce that understanding, it's explaining it to someone else. Put those two things together and well, at least how I learn.

I think using your resources too, whatever those resources may be. You've got text, you've got things online. You have people who really understand that difficult thing that you're trying to learn. And so not being afraid to just go out, ask questions. Work with all the resources you have to try to find what's going to work for you to make it clear, to make you more confident in how you're doing.

Absolutely.

Playing off that, one of my biggest problems as a professor is getting students to ask questions. They don't want to do it and it's not that well, sometimes they're so confused that they don't know what to ask. But much more often, it's a matter of fear. If I ask a question in class, it could be seen by my classmates as a dumb question and we as instructors can make all of the pretty speeches we want about how there are no dumb questions. All questions are good, because they teach. Forget that. The students are not buying that and besides, to be perfectly honest, there are dumb questions.

>> [LAUGH]

>> And we've all heard them. And so the student is reasoning, if I open my mouth to ask a question, I could be perceived as dumb by my colleagues, my classmates, my professor. If I keep my mouth shut, I'm risking nothing. And so they don't ask and I also can't persuade most of them to come to my office. I have office hours every week in which I tell the students, I'm there for you. I promise I will be there. I will be welcoming of any questions that you ask. I'll find out where you're getting stuck and you won't leave my office until you have the answer to that question. Maybe for the same fear, they don't want to come. And so they're not taking advantage of the resources that Rebecca was referring to. And if a student can be persuaded to overcome that fear and just ask, either in class or in the office in five minutes, they can get things cleared up that they could spend three hours at home banging their heads against and not getting clear. Let me go back to a couple points I made before. The best way to get the illusion of competence when you don't really understand something is to listen to a lecture or to read a text like a novel or to read over old homework solutions and imagine that you understand them, because you don't. The best way to get over the illusion of competence is to do it. Solve the problem again without looking back at the old solution. Work out the derivation one step at time without looking back at the textbook or your lecture notes, or whatever it is. And when you can do it by yourself without looking, get any reference, when you can reproduce that solution entirely by yourself, then it's not an illusion of competence. Clearly you can do it, because you did it. But it's not until you do it, actually unaided that you can rest that okay, I'm ready for the test or whatever it may be.

This can also be a good time for working with your peers. Taking turns, explaining, perhaps a worked out example in the text explaining it step by step to each other. When you start trying to verbalize it, then you begin to see. Well, wait a minute. I thought I knew how they made that step. But when I try to explain it, I don't. So what's going on? Let's look at it. And so I think that working with other people can really help you in that way too. So one of the things that you can do to make sure you are thinking about all the different aspects of the subject that you're trying to understand and it's to set it up, look at a complex system that might be used in a problem in your text and then just think about. What are the things that a teacher might ask me to do with this system? And in working through that, you begin to think about all of the elements that need to be in place. So that's a great way to study for a test. It's also a great way to sort of get past that illusion of competency. Because as you're looking at it and as you're working through the example and what which you think you might be asked, you'll uncover some things that maybe you don't know as well as you thought you did.

现在让我问你这个问题。当你自己面对一个新概念，或者你正在尝试弄清楚一些全新的、困难的东西时，你会有什么建议给学习者，以便他们能够掌握并吸收这些新想法，或者解决他们首次遇到的新领域的问题？

嗯，就像我们谈论过的考试题目一样。我认为有很多不同的方法来处理一个困难的任务。实际上，当我们考虑讨论这个问题时，Rich和我意识到我们处理事情的方式不同。我是一个更注重全局的学习者。所以通常当我面对一些困难的材料时，如果我有一本书或者某种文本，我会浏览它。我只是快速浏览。我会在最后读一点。我在这里那里挑选一些内容，然后开始更深入地挖掘，但当我对我应该学习的内容有一个大致的了解时，我会做得更好。我可能会跳到后面，看看我应该能够用这个解决什么问题。所以当你在一个解决问题很重要的学科中工作时，这可以是一种进入并开始理解它的方式。我与Rebecca的不同之处在于，我是一个强烈的顺序学习者。所以我会迈出第一步，然后下一步，再下一步。但是，我从未被动地学习过任何东西，任何非琐碎的东西。如果只是一个简单事实或术语的定义，我可以阅读并记住它。但如果它真的是概念上困难的，无论是解决问题的程序还是我正在尝试进行的推导，或者其他任何事情，我学习的唯一方式就是去做。所以读了这个，然后我将尝试向自己解释。当我必须教学时，我学得最好，我认为几乎每个老师都会告诉你同样的事情。我以为我知道这些东西。我在大学里的所有课程都得了A，但直到我不得不向我教的学生解释时，我才发现自己并没有像我想象的那样真正理解它。所以我试图找到例子。我试图找到清晰的方法来解释困难的概念。在做这件事的过程中，那时真正的理解才到来。所以这是另一个强有力的论据，除了其他事情外，还要分组工作。如果你和其他人一起工作，你们一起试图弄清楚某件事，你得到某个点，然后你尝试向其他人解释它。你在加强你的理解，他们可能在你完成弄清楚如何解释之后可能不理解它，但你确实明白了。所以这两点建议。我通过尝试它们来学习。如果是一个数学方法或程序，或者是物理或工程中的某事，那么我会自己尝试解决问题，而不回头看书、文本或其他任何东西。当我能够在不回顾的情况下自己做出来时，显然，我知道怎么做。然后为了真正加强这种理解，就是向别人解释它。把这两件事情结合起来，至少对我来说是这样学习的。

我认为也要利用你的资源，无论那些资源可能是什么。你有文本，你有在线资源。你有真正理解你所学的困难东西的人。所以不要害怕走出去，提问。利用你所拥有的所有资源来尝试找到适合你的东西，让你清楚，让你对自己的所作所为更有信心。

绝对。

接着这个话题说，作为教授，我最大的问题之一是让学生提问。他们不愿意这么做，有时候他们很困惑，不知道该问什么。但更多的时候，这是一个恐惧的问题。如果我在课堂上提问，可能会被同学视为愚蠢的问题，我们作为教师可以说所有漂亮的演讲，说没有愚蠢的问题。所有问题都是好的，因为它们能教会人东西。忘了那个。学生们不相信那一套，而且说实话，确实有愚蠢的问题。

我们都听过它们。所以学生在推理，如果我开口问一个问题，我可能会被同事、同学、教授视为愚蠢。如果我保持沉默，我什么都不冒风险。所以他们不问，我也无法说服他们大多数人来我的办公室。我每周都有办公时间，我告诉学生，我在那里为你服务。我保证我会在那里。我会欢迎你提出的任何问题。我会找出你卡在哪里的地方，你不会离开我的办公室，直到你得到那个问题的答案。也许因为同样的恐惧，他们不想来。所以他们没有利用Rebecca提到的资源。如果一个学生可以被说服克服那种恐惧并且只是提问，无论是在课堂上还是在办公室里五分钟，他们可以澄清在家里花了三个小时也没弄明白的事情。让我回到我之前提到的几点。当你实际上并不真正理解某事时，获得能力错觉的最佳方式是听讲座或者像小说一样阅读文本，或者重读旧的家庭作业解决方案，并想象你理解它们，因为你并不理解。克服能力错觉的最佳方式是去做。再次解决问题，不回头看旧的解决方案。一步一步地推导，不回头去看教科书或你的讲义，或者其他任何东西。当你能够在不看任何东西的情况下自己做到时，当你能够完全靠自己重现那个解决方案时，那就不是能力的错觉了。显然你可以做到这一点，因为你做到了。但直到你真正做到了，没有任何帮助，你才能放心，好吧，我已经准备好考试或无论它可能是什么。

这也可以是与同伴合作的好时机。轮流解释，也许是文本中解决的例子，逐步向彼此解释。当你开始尝试把它说出来时，你就开始看到。等一下。我以为我知道他们是如何进行那一步的。但当我尝试解释它时，我不会。那么发生了什么？让我们看看。所以我认为与他人合作在这方面真的可以帮助你。所以你可以做的一件事是确保你正在考虑你试图理解的主题的所有不同方面，那就是设置它，看看你的文本中可能用于问题的复杂系统，然后只是思考。老师可能会要求我用这个系统做什么？在处理这个问题的过程中，你会开始思考所有需要到位的元素。所以这是备考的一个好方法。它也是一个克服能力错觉的好方法。因为当你在查看它，当你在处理例子以及你认为可能会被问到的东西时，你会发现一些你可能没有像你想象的那样了解的事情。