Some student tips on how to get the most out of study material.
Reading 1: read just read, forget the words you don't know; just read to get an overall impression of the document is about.
Reading 2: read to find what you don't know - circle or highlight unknown words; make a list of them on a separate piece of paper. Forget about sense and understanding, just note the words you don't know.
Reading 3: for each paragraph pick one word or very short phrase to sum it up. Some documents, particularly legal documents, will have a short phrase to the side of the paragraph which gives you a hint as to its contents. It's usually so you can skim those side words and find the paragraph of information that you really want. That's the sort of words/phrases you're going to put to the side.
You can go a step further list the chapter / section headings (assuming there are any) and under each one list your paragraph words. This will help you see the flow of the document.
Reading 4: if you have any study questions relating to this reading, keep them right next to you, and then read the document looking specifically for the answers.
By reading 5 - you should almost know this document off by heart :-)
I did professional theatre for 5 years, and I used to recommend a similar process to my actors whenever they were issued a new script. I know it seems like a lengthy process - reading the document four or five times. But believe me - you will have a solid handle on it by the end.
Susan Korrel
Murdoch External Studies Community Site
2 Sept 2006
Susan,
Some great advice there. Thanks for your input.
You actually hit on a key concept from the SSK12 unit. Knowledge is something we create within ourselves. We cannot get knowledge by just listening to someone give it to us. It takes action on our part to understand it. That action is not just a physical action but a cognitive action too. Andresen talks about knowledge on page 16 of the reader - "knowledge is something we each construct for ourselves". Kolb also on page 124 - His theory on Experiential Learning.
Just thought I would practice a bit for the exam guys. Sorry for being so heavy.
Tracy Maurer
Murdoch External Studies Community Site
September 3, 2006
No comments:
Post a Comment