Taking Responsibility for Your Own Learning

In college, learning is mainly up to you. Instructors function as guides. They define and explain what is to be learned, but you do the learning. Class time is far shorter than in high school. Often there isn’t enough time to provide drills, practices, and reviews of factual course content. Instead, college class time is used primarily to introduce content that is to be learned and to discuss ideas. Instructors expect you to learn the material and to be prepared to discuss it in class. When, where, and how you learn are your decisions. The following suggestions are given to help you in making these decisions.

Focus on concepts

Facing and endless amount of facts, rules, definitions, and principles, many students “can’t see the forest for the tress”, and become robot learners- memorizing facts from texts and lectures, then recalling them on exams and quizzes. In fact, you are expected to go beyond facts to analysis: to see the larger, more important concepts. Keep these question in mind as your read and study:

Ø       Why do need to know this information?

Ø       Why is it quite helpful?

Ø       What principle does it illustrate?

Ø       How can’t I use this information?

Focus on ideas, not right answers

Do not always expect your answers to be either right or wrong. For many question, there is no one right answer. You are expected to think and to provide a reasoned, logical, consistent response using information acquired through you reading.

Evaluate new ideas

Throughout college you will continually meet with new ideas. Try to avoid accepting or refusing a new idea until you have really considered it.

资料来源：NCEIC