A "glib" student is one who can recite the materials but who can't apply them. This is the student who can get high grades at exams, who apparently duplicates the materials very well, but who don't translate them into application in the physical universe.
This student might do very well in academic studies. The teachers might regard him as an "A" student. His actual learning might not be tested before he ventures out into society and tries to do something with the data. At that point it is too late.
The glib student has developed ways of loading study materials into his mind and of giving them back on demand. He is unable to get conceptual understanding and application of what he studied.
Glibness is discovered by asking for demonstration or application. When asked to demonstrate a principle or by doing something with it the glib student's study circuits break down. He will hesitate, make mistakes, complain, or refuse.
Glib students can be caught early and reformed by consistently asking for demonstration and application of what is being studied.
Glibness means significance without mass.
Unfortunately traditional study tends to reward glibness and not catch it. It is the norm rather than the exception.
There is a communication lag (comm lag for short) when somebody is asked a question. That is the time it takes to produce the answer. A glib student might have a very short communication lag when asked a theoretical question. However, he will have a long communication lag when asked to do something.
An actual good student will have very short comm lags both in theory and practical areas.
Lack of application or long comm lags indicate faulty studying.
A check-out is a way of verifying the quality of study. Somebody else than the student will test him in the materials at hand.
A theory check-out is typically done like this:
1. The instructor asks the student to define a few words in the text. Not just the obvious "difficult" words, but also simple common words. If the student has more than a short comm lag or he has to think about it, he fails the check-out.
2. The student is asked one or more questions about the text, and he is asked to give examples.
3. Finally the instructor asks the student to demonstrate with demo kit something from the text.
Any hesitation, errors, or lack of application results in a failed check-out. The instructor tells the student what he did wrong and asks him to clear it up and to re-study the text. Another check-out will be done after that.
The student passes the check-out if he can define words without hesitation, can answer questions about the text and give examples, and he can demonstrate the principles taught.
A properly done check-out might seem tough and unreasonable. That is because it is tough and unreasonable.
Bad study habits are not something to take lightly. They can destroy a person's future professional career, so
they better be caught early.
Coaching is the act of training a student intensively in theory or practice.
A coach is working individually with the student to get him through a certain part. Students might take turns coaching each other through materials.
Coaching can be the action of helping a student understand a piece of theory, demonstrating the principles, or doing a drill or exercise. In drills the coach will often simulate real life situations that the student needs to handle.
There are several ground rules of coaching:
• Coach with the purpose and intention that the student can do the drill or understand the theory.
• Coach with reality. Use real life examples, and make the materials real for the student.
• Coach on a gradient. Give the student a challenge he can overcome. Don't make it too easy or too hard. Allow the student to get wins.
The coach should let the student know clearly if he doesn't pass the drill. He must tell him exactly what needs
to be improved and then help him improve it. When the student passes the drill he should be commended for that.
There are no "buts" if the drill is passed, either he passes or he doesn't pass.
Study using audio or video tapes necessarily has a different feel to it based on the medium. However, the same principles apply as for any other type of study. You need to watch out for mis-understood words, lack of mass, and skipped gradients.
When studying a tape you don't have the same overview of a whole page or section as you do with written materials. You are only presented with one part at a time and you can't directly see the whole context. That, unfortunately, makes it easier to miss a word or a concept.
It is a very good idea to take notes while studying a tape. Stop the tape once in a while and write down the important parts. That checks your duplication, forces you to think, and enters a bit of application.
Also, you can and should demonstrate important principles using a demo kit, or by drawings, or whatever. This ensures that you keep a balance of mass and significance.
While studying a tape you need to be on the lookout for the symptoms of the three study barriers, particularly for mis-understood word phenomena. When you find yourself yawning, getting bored, feeling blank, not knowing what the tape is talking about, stop the tape immediately.
Don't decide that "it probably wasn't important", "it will get more interesting later", or anything like that. You have passed a mis-understood word, and you need to find it.
Rewind the tape to a point BEFORE you started feeling blank. Listen to it from there and find the word(s) you didn't quite understand. Continue listening again to the part you didn't get before. You might have to go over the same section several times before you find all the MUs and it becomes clear to you. Maybe you didn't go far enough back the first time and you need to rewind the tape further.
Get into the habit of stopping the tape immediately and rewinding it as soon as you notice the symptoms.
Before you start studying with a tape player, be sure you know how to operate the device. Study the controls and be sure you know how to load tapes, start, stop, pause, adjust volume, and whatever else you need.
If written transsripts of the tapes being studied are available, use them. For one thing they might clarify
words that it is hard to hear on the tape. But also, the combination of the two will bring you the material both
visually and auditorily. More different types of presentation tends to produce better learning.
Live lectures are of course also a form of study. A live lecture might make the material more alive for you. The lecturer can make his presentation more personal, he can make diagrams, he can gesticulate with his hands, etc.
But, a live lecture imposes several other problems, studywise.
The lecturer is probably addressing more people than just you. You might have no say over his speed of delivery. And worse than that, you might not be able to stop him if you don't get something. He is going to keep talking even if you passed by a mis-understood word.
Lectures in academic settings are probably one of the key contributing factors to the proliferation of bad study practices. You are being trained to sit through monotonous presentations about things you might not understand, and there is nothing you can do about it. Do that for a few years, without having any knowledge of study technique, and you will be used to going through life without noticing that you don't know what is going on.
Since you can't stop the lecturer you must be more inventive to avoid the study barriers. You can prepare for the lecture by orienting yourself in terms of the material that probably will be presented, and the key phrases that you might expect. Bring a note pad for any lecture. As much as possible, evaluate the presented data in terms of category and importance. You can make notes and diagrams in different colored pens, or whatever, depending on what you evaluate. You should note down any words and concepts that you don't immediately get so that you can look them up later.
When given the choice, it is often preferable to study a tape of a lecture compared to attending the lecture
itself. It is much easier to apply correct study technique to a tape. There are of course other non-study related
factors that might make a live lecture more desirable.
The success of study has nothing to do with how many pages one has read or how much one has worked on learning something. All that counts is how well you can apply what you retained.
There are factors that will increase the degree of learning without increasing the amount of hard work.
As a matter of fact, learning is better the less hard it is.
A student will learn better if he is attentive, but relaxed. The more stressed he is, the less effective his learning will be.
The best student is the one who is well fed and rested, who currently is physically relaxed, who is in a pleasant environment, and who is presented with material in a non-stressful way.
To learn quickly one doesn't have to have one's mind working at very high speed, thinking and figuring things out. One would learn better by relaxing with the material.
Experiments have shown that genius level thinkers or exceptionally fast learners don't increase their mind activity when they learn or when they solve problems. They actually relax more both mentally and physically when they are presented with a problem to solve.
When you really need to learn something, don't pressure yourself through it in a stressful way. Make sure that you are relaxed and comfortable, and that your daily worries are out of the way. Relax physically and mentally, remember your study technique, and work with the material.
Relaxing doesn't mean being sleepy or absent minded here. The state of attentative relaxation is what we are
after. Aware, but not under pressure.
The retention and application of material can be improved by combinations of presentation methods.
If several senses can be combined the retention is usually much higher. If visual, auditory, and maybe kinesthetic presentations can be combined the learning is vastly improved.
Text itself might tell you what you are supposed to learn, but it only engages certain parts of your mind. If we can engage more parts we can embed the data much more thoroughly.
Text can be enhanced with underlining, boxing, colors, and more. If important parts of the text are being emphasized, they will be noticed better. If different segments are in different color they will be remembered better. There is sort of more to remember them by.
Pictures will greatly enhance and illustrate text. As it is said, a picture is worth a thousand words. But also it is a different method. A picture is processed differently by the mind than written words are.
Sound will enhance learning. If the materials are spoken as well as written they will be received better. Also, music can enhance learning. Certain types of music will promote an attentive relaxed state useful for learning.
Application and movement will of course also improve the learning. If the student is required to physically do some actions, they are going to stick much better with him than if he just read about them.
Different people might be oriented predominantly visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. That is they respond best to what they see, hear, or feel. If nothing else for that reason, it is necessary to present material in different ways to ensure maximum benefit for any recipient.
Repetition of material will improve retention. The more times one has received a datum, the better one will notice it. Repeating the data in different ways will accomplish the purpose without wearyness.
Switching the flow and requiring students to explain the materials or to question other students about them, is another effective way of improving learning. The students will take more responsibility for the materials and will look at it in ways that might otherwise have been missed.
Existing presentations rarely have an ideal combination of the factors that will allow you to learn best. But, knowing about these elements, you can maximize your benefit from the study materials at hand.
If you can get the material in several different ways, visual as well as auditory, do it those ways. If you can get different versions of the materials you can get repetition. If you can get hold of pictures, diagrams or movies, you get another angle. If you can highlight your materials in different colors, all the better. If you can find somebody to lecture about the materials you are learning, do it.
Presentation methods that can improve learning:
• Pictures
• Different colors of text
• Movies
• Speech
• Music
• Exercises, where one has to do something
• Teaching the subject to somebody else
• Relaxation
• Repetition in different ways
• Emphasizing importances in any way
A common mistake in communication and in study is to confuse the words and the meaning or the concepts.
The word ISN'T the thing or concept. It is just a way of discussing the thing or concept.
Concepts are what they are. They are by their very nature beyond language. If you understand something you understand it. It doesn't have anything to do with the words attached to it.
Language is an integral part of human life. Communication would be very difficult without it at this point. However, language will never be more than symbols and representations of the real thing. Don't confuse them with what they represent.
Language often introduces similarities and differences that aren't necessarily there.
It is practical to take a large class of objects and call them "cars". That makes it much easier to talk about them. You don't have to say "that silvery metal thing there with the glass windows and the rubber things it is standing on". You just say "car" and everybody knows what you mean. But what when one day you see a thing like that that has only 3 wheels, or one that flies. Is it still a "car"? You might get into a big discussion with somebody about if it is a car or not. Go ahead and discuss it, but be aware that the thing is what it is. Whatever term we apply to it is never more than a term.
In order to talk about the workings of a human being we might postulate that he has a "mind" that he uses to think with. And we might divide that "mind" into "conscious mind" and "sub-conscious mind", or into "analytical" and "reactive mind", or into "intuitive", "logical", "emotional" parts of the mind. Through such divisions we can explain a lot of things about a human and we can discuss matters at great length. That is all quite useful.
But, don't forget that we introduced these divisions in language in order to talk about what is there. Going in the other direction is not necessarily fruitful. Don't think that you can necessarily isolate and study a "sub-conscious mind" in real life. Just because the word exists doesn't mean that reality is going to accommodate it.
Discussing subjects based exclusively on the words they contain borders on insanity. Academia contains a lot of this particular type of insanity. You might get so involved in academic discussions about an abstract subject that you completely lose sight of reality.
The word isn't the thing.
When you look up a word in a dictionary it is defined with other words.
A very poor dictionary will just substitute another word. Such as "street" meaning "road". That teaches very bad habits of studying and thinking. Just identifying one word with another is sabotaging the language.
A better dictionary might define "street" as "a public, paved road in a town or city, with buildings and sidewalks on one or both sides." That is much better, the student is more likely to form the concept of what we are talking about.
However, even the better definition contained only other words. If you systematically examined the whole dictionary you would realize that all the words are defined by each other.
A dictionary is one big circular reference. Everything in it is being defined by something else in the book that is defined by something else in the book. Ultimately we are going in ring, or we end up in the same place.
A dictionary in itself doesn't really give you the concepts of what it is really talking about. YOU form the concepts when you study the dictionary. It is the concepts that you form that are important, not the words that express them.
The words in themselves are a dead end. You have to make the mental leap to comprehending a thing as it is, NOT as it is described.
As an exercise, you can ask another person to define some element of life for you, for example "happiness" or "the mind". Insist that he defines all his terms as he goes along. When he starts going in rings, insist that that is not ok, he can't define terms by themselves. Eventually you will have cornered him. He hasn't fully defined everything and he can't get any further. He will probably claim that "that's just the way it is" or some such defense.
If you try to define with words exactly what you are talking about you will end up either going in ring, or you will end up with some un-definable terms. You will have to make a conceptual jump and assimilate something without use of words.
There is nothing particularly wrong with ending up with some un-definable terms. It teaches you a lesson. It just shows that the finite language can't in itself encompass the infiniteness of things and concepts. The word isn't the thing.
Language is created when somebody puts a word on something that previously wasn't named. A Neanderthal picks up something from the ground and calls it "stone". He doesn't need to supply a lengthy definition referring to many other words. It is a "stone" because he says so.
By all means, look up the definitions of all the words you run into. But don't think that they can be finitely and conclusively defined.
It is the conceptual understanding we are after.
• Words are not things.
• Language is only an incomplete representation of reality.
• Any thorough definition will end up with a concept that has to be understood as a concept and not just
as words.
Be aware that all data aren't true. Data have varying degrees of truth for you, and some data are completely false.
Previously false data that have been accepted can block the study of new data in the area. The new data might conflict with the old false data and might therefore be rejected or misplaced.
Part of the evaluation process during study is to rearrange old data as necessary. One might realize that one built one's understanding of a subject on erroneous ideas and one might adopt new ones.
Past false data that have been accepted might be difficult to discover and the student might be very reluctant to let go of them.
There is a procedure that the word clearer can use on students to find and re-evaluate false data. However,
the student can do a lot himself by being aware of the phenomenon.
Knowledge in any subject can be described as a pyramid of hierarchically related data
The top of the pyramid contains the simplest, most general, most wide ranging, most abstract data in the subject.
The further down we go in the pyramid the more specific, complex, limited, and practical the data gets.
The practical data at the bottom of the pyramid build on the abstract principles found further up in the pyramid. The general principles at the top can be explored and illustrated by the manifestations and examples found further down.
Any conflict between specifics low in the pyramid are resolved by moving one or more steps up and inspecting the general principle the specifics are based on.
The process of developing lower parts of the pyramid is called deduction. It is the construction of specifics by the application of general rules. General laws can be combined logically to establish and predict practical data. Engineering is an example of this. The matematical formulas for bridge building are known, they just have to be applied to the conditions at hand.
The process of working out the top parts when only the bottom parts are known is called induction. One can guess at theories that will explain the maximum number of observed specifics. The theory or fact that explains the most is the best candidate for a high position. Science usually uses this approach. The theory of evolution was developed like that. A theory is thought up and then one checks if reality fits the theory.
Any subject has a structure like this, no matter if it is being presented like this or not. It is the duty of the student in the field to structure his own understanding and to get the relative importances and seniorities right.
The higher the datum is placed in the pyramid of knowledge the more important it is to know it 100%. Lower data can always be developed if the higher are known. However, it might not be possible to have conceptual understanding of wide spanning, abstract data unless a sufficient number of specifics and examples have been understood and evaluated.
In the subject of physics you can predict a lot of things if you know the laws of gravity. They are placed very high in the hierarchy. If you know that things in general fall down according to certain principles you don't have to walk around remembering that apples fall down, stones fall down, coffee cups fall down, etc. You might develop your conceptual understanding of the subject by observing a lot of things falling down, but once you understand the rule the specifics have much less importance. But they have their place. It is useful to remember directly that stones usually fall down, but balloons usually fall up, without resorting to mathematical calculations. Any confusion or question about the specifics can be sorted out by referring to the general rule.
Here is another example. If we are studying the categorization of birds we might at a high level have the simple datum:
• Birds are feathered and winged animals that lay eggs.
Further down we add more detail:
• Birds are feathered warmblooded vertebraes with beaks
• There are birds that fly and birds that don't fly
• Birds seem to have developed evolutionary from the reptiles
And further down more specifics and more exact detail, e.g.:
• A gull is a web-footed, long-winged sea fowl of the genus Larus. It has feathers of gray, white, and black. In the larger species, the upper part of the beak is bent downward at the point.
There are many ways of sorting and evaluating what you are studying. One was given in the section about relative importance. Here is another one.
While you are studying you can divide the data into three different categories:
• Purpose
• Method
• Result
Purpose is the whys of the material. Why are you studying it, what is the reason for the subject, what are you trying to accomplish.
Method is the hows. What are we actually doing, and how do we do it.
Result is the phenomena that happen. What comes out of it, what do we look for.
One can make a diagram and fill data into it as one goes along in the study.
One writes the name of the subject or text in the middle
When one reads a datum one evaluates which category it falls into and writes it into that section. One can use a different color pen for each section.
This sort of technique enforces one's evaluation of the data and makes it more clear what one is studying.
As mentioned, any method of organizing the data is good. You can make your own system. The main thing here is
that if you evaluate and categorize the data you will make it more your own and more applicable.
In evaluating the truth and usefulness of studied data it can be practical to notice out-points and plus-points in it.
An out-point is something that is wrong with a datum. Something doesn't add up right. An out-point doesn't mean that the data presented are false, but the outnesses have to be taken into consideration.
Out-points:
1)omitted
2)altered sequence
3)dropped time
4)falsehood
5)altered importance
6)wrong target
7)wrong source
8)contrary facts
9)added time
10)added inapplicable data
11)incorrectly included datum
Example:
The statement "The mayor of San Francisco voiced concern about the water shortage problem in Los Angeles" might contain several outpoints. First there seems to be a wrong source. The mayor in San Francisco is the wrong person to say anything about the situation in Los Angeles. And we might maybe find that the statement was made 10 years ago and therefore has dropped time. We might find other out-points by checking the data further.
Plus-points are indicators that data are in good order, there is something right about them.
Plus-points
1)all relevant facts known
2)events in correct sequence
3)time properly noted
4)data proven factual
5)correct relative importance
6)expected time period
7)adequate data
8)applicable data
9) correct target
10)correct source
11)comparable data
12)identities are identical
13)similarities are similar
14)differences are different
Example:
"I received a phone call from Mr.Smith at January 2nd, 2:15PM while I was home" contains several plus-points, such as correct source, time, place, and event.
The more plus-points you find in your study materials and the less out-points the more potential usefulness will they have for you.
You study to find the truth in the area and to be able to apply what you learn. If you can evaluate the quality
of the data you stand a much better chance.
Double-speak is written or spoken information that means something else than what it pretends to say. It is very common in advertising, in politics, in legal small print, and in academic education. The attempt in double-speak is to make things look better than they are and to hide the truth. The truth can be hidden away in difficult words or elaborate sentence constructions. It can be embellished by empty adjectives or false comparisons.
Language is often used to deceive. The solution is to understand what it really means.
If a company has "redundancies in the human resources area" it means that somebody will get fired. And if it has a "negative cash-flow" it means it is broke.
"Building super intendant" undeniably sounds better than "janitor", and "access controller" sounds better than "door man".
A "natural chocolate flavored" cookie might contain artificial flavors and no chocolate. "Enriched bread" isn't really enriched with anything but chemicals.
You get the idea. Statements don't always say what they seem to say.
Double-speak signifies non-responsibility. It is carefully constructed to appear to communicate.
There are four main categories of double-speak:
1. Euphemism:An inoffensive or positive word or phrase used to avoid an unpleasant reality. Often used for noble reasons, but just as often just to cover things up.
E.g. "passed away" instead of "dead", "rest room" instead of "toilet".
2. Jargon:Specialized language of a trade or profession.
E.g. an "involuntary conversion of property" is when someone steals or destroys something of yours.
3. Bureaucratese: Also known as gobbledygook. This is a piling on of words to overwhelm the audience with words.
E.g. "It is a tricky problem to find the particular calibration in timing that would be appropriate to stem the acceleration in risk premiums created by falling incomes without prematurely aborting the decline in the inflation-generated risk premiums", spoken by Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve Chairman.
4. Inflated language: Designed to have anything ordinary seem impressive.
E.g. calling an auto mechanic an "automotive internist".
A good way of discovering double-speak is to take the statement at hand and ..
1. write down what it implies, which impression it is trying to leave.
2. write down what it actually means. Be sure that you understand all the words.
If you get two different results you are looking at double-speak.
Just remember that even though you understand a text you still need to evaluate it. What is being said might or might not be true, it might try to deceive you, it might or might not have anything to do with you.
Make sure you know both what the text pretends to say and what it actually says. Make your own judgements.
There are many methods in existence that are intended to improve the quality or quantity of learning. Some are useful, some are not. Evaluate any additional study methods carefully before you use them.
Speed-reading is a common technique attempted to improve study. It can quite impressively improve the quantity of material read, and even the apparent retention of the material. Unfortunately it teaches you to be a glib student. You are trained into the habit of reading everything at a uniform speed without stopping to clear things up or evaluate what you read.
The ability to understand and apply what you read is much senior to the speed with which you do it. You will
find that if what you read is clearly understood then your speed will take off. Trying to create the speed
before the understanding is not conducive to actual understanding and application.
• Realize that there is a subject there to learn.
• Intend to learn to understand and apply the subject.
• Study it by gradient steps. Go a step back if you skip a gradient.
• Have the mass available. If you are lacking mass, get some.
• Don't go past any word you don't fully understand.
• If you get the symptoms of mis-understood words, find and clear them.
• Evaluate the relative importance of anything you study.
• Learn the essentials 100%.
• Study for application.
 |
|
|
|
