Learning to Learn to drill, to practise or to repeat something over and over again, in order to be able to think constructively and creatively about that subject. You will never become a concert pianist simply by practising musical scales hundreds of times a day, but you also won't become a concert pianist unless you practise those scales so often that they become "second nature", freeing you to be able to concentrate upon interpreting complex musical passages. Similarly, you won't become good at mathematics if you only memorise theorems and rules, but you also probably won't become good at mathematics unless you practise over and over using those theorems and rules until they too become “second nature". Then you will find it much easier to think creatively and critically in mathematical terms. I said earlier that coming to a tertiary institution for the first time can be like visiting a foreign country made up of many different tribes which have different customs and even different value systems. Well, these tribes will emphasise to differing extents the importance of learning as against memorisation. The successful student will need to check carefully what expectations staff have of them in this regard. In particular, you should ask about the forms Of assessment which will be used in any area in which you are studying and make sure that you understand the extent to which you will be expected to, or will need to, memorise material in your course. Once you have done that, you will be able to develop a study strategy which will enable you to memorise necessary details and to integrate these details into coherent networks of understanding. 36 Learning to Learn SUMMARY A successful student needs to learn how to be an effective learner. i. Learning is the process by which we construct personal knowledge. (a) Tt is an active, creative and exciting process. (b) Tt involves (i) making connections between new information or ideas and what you already know. (ii) seeing what you already know in different ways. (c)_ It usually results from a conscious reflection upon information and ideas and the connections between them; sonctimes, however, we appear to work on problems at an unconscious level. 2. Effective, learners should value what they already know since that will be the basis of further learning. 3. Learning, which is active and critical, is quite different from mere memorisation, which is passive and uncritical. 4. Good learning strategies will probably include ‘the following elements: (a) Establishing a purpose. 37Learning to Learn and 6. (b) Surveying. (c) Questioning. (a) Collecting. (e) Integratin: (£) Communicating. There is a close relationship between language learning. (a) A language is a way of representing and consequently of manipulating ideas. (b) Using language (talking and writing) in active and critical ways promotes our learning. (c) There are many "languages" including the symbolic representations used in mathematics and the specialist languages adopted in most areas of study. (a) Learning is difficult or impossible when information or ideas are presented in a "goreign” language until we are able to accommodate that language and make it our own. Learning is aided by an ability to remember essential details. 38 (a) Ways of ensuring good recall of work studied include making summaries or notes of important material regularly, identifying the central issues in the material being studied and separating them from the mass of detail, writing down useful ideas Whenever they occur and, above all, integrating the information and ideas you are grappling with into networks of meaning. Learning to Learn nh successful student will need to be clear DM eceeee of study in to be assessed in ne SMES ge, what emphasis 35 placed BY Oreos A? tase upon wenorisation of detail, Reaching statin appropriate study stzatesies- 39Collecting the Building Materials Known about the topic and they just had to go on collecting a bit longer. There will always be more to know about the topic and the essay (or whatever) will never be, and is not expected to be, the ultimate, final, definitive statement about that subject. So you will need to call a halt to material collection in time to integrate what you have got into a coherent meaning structure. it is the building of the meaning structure which at once the most exciting and the most frightening part of this whole process. That will be discussed in the next chapter. SUMMARY A successful student needs to be able to collect materials with which to build broader and deeper understandings. There are numerous sources of these materials. 1 82 Lectures (a) A. lecture offers ‘raw material’ which must be processed. (>) A student can make the most of this raw material by anticipating its relevance, taking notes in a critical, discriminating fashion, and critically reviewing these notes periodically. ‘Tutorials (a) Tutorial members can help each other by way of critical discussion to integrate ideas Collecting the Building Materials and information collected. 3. The library (a) ‘The library gives access to the knowledge of thousands of men and women over centuries. (b) To use the library effectively it is necessary to be familiar with (1) the Author/title Catalogue (ii) the Subject Catalogue. (c) Since each book or periodical in the library has a unigue call number, the catalogue system allows us to (4) locate any book or periodical using the Author/Title catalogue; (44) identify any book in the library which discusss a given topic by using the Subject Catalogue. Searching for raw materials (a) Lecturers suggest sources of ideas or information in book lists in calendars or handbooks and in additional reading lists. (>) Successful students need to be able to discover their own sources of ideas and information by using the Subject Catalogue and the specialised indexes in the reference section of the library. 5. While there is no one correct way to read, effective reading will largely depend upon: 83Collecting the Building Materials 84 (a) establishing a well-defined purpose and being willing to use critical judgement; (b) being able to survey any text and then skim read in order to identify quickly sections which deserve close reading; (c) initially reading basic or introductory texts and then moving into more complex readings; (a) developing an effective combination of note-taking, underlining and summarising techniques. Building the Structures CHAPTER BUILDING THE STRUCTURES INTRODUCTION This chapter discusses ways in which a student can integrate the diverse materials collected from various sources into .a coherent personal. understanding. Detailed suggesticns are made covering the construction of acceptable tertiary essays. There is a briefer discussion of laboratory reports, oral presentatiors and written examinations. The discussion of essay writing inclvdes technical information on methods of showing the sources of your information or ideas (pages 113 - 123). You might prefer on your first reading either to. omit this section or to skim read it. BUILDING KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURES I suggested in Chapter I a number of activities which comld contribute to the process of constructing personal knowledge; developing a clear purpose, surveying potentially relevant material, questioning how one's previous knowledge as well as new material being surveyed could contribute to an understanding of the area, and collecting relevant materials froma variety of sources in a critical and discriminating way. 1 further suggested that these materials then had to asBuilding the Structures be integrated (this was the building of knowledge and involved seeing how various elements could be fitted together into patterns of understanding) and that this could be assisted by regularly reviewing the materials collected. I made the point in Chapter 2 that these various activities do not occur in a lock-step sequence. For example, we can begin integrating ideas from ‘the moment we begin thinking about an area of concern. Nevertheless, there are likely to be particular times when our major focus is upon “puilding the structures" and this is usually after we have collected sufficient building materials. I say "sufficient" building materials because, as pointed out at the end of the last chapter, there comes a point when you must be satisfied, at least for the time being, with the material to hand and you will set out to build the best knowledge structure you can with the materials you have collected, limited though they may be. There are several educational objectives which most tertiary teachers share. They want to create the conditions under which their students are able ts * come to appreciate the —best understandings which experts in their field have been able to produce to this point in time; * develop the ability to analyse critically those understandings, recognising both their positive value and their Limitations; 86 Building the structures * construct a personal understanding of the area, recognising its unique quality, its positive value and its limitations. ‘These are the outcomes which I have in mind when 1 talk about building knowledge structures. Building a personal understanding of an area of study, however, is not quite like building say a garage or putting together a jigsaw puzzle. You could get up one morning and work solidly on your garage or jigsaw puzzle until it was completed. And you could gaze in admiration upon the finished product. But your knowledge structures will never be completed. You will go on modifying them until you die. You may admire the degree of understanding which you have achieved, but you will always know that it is capable of further vefinement. Furthermore, your building of understanding will occur in stops and starts. Sometimes you will feel that everything is falling into place very nicely and you may even get a bit smug. Then you'll come across an area which seems confusing, puzzling or even incomprehensi>le. You may find ‘that to make sense of it takes a very long time. Perhaps you are able every now and again to fit one or two new pieces into the jignaw, but the larger picture remains a mystery. At Such times your smugness will disappear. You are more likely now to feel that you are a very stupid person and doubt whether you are cut out to be a tertiary student at all. No book such as this can save you from the pain involved in trying to understand things better and the fear that you may have "go: it wron But, 87Building the Structures the following suggestions may help. our intellectual building materials are thoughts and ideas. in all of their various forms. In practice we almost always represent our thoughts and ideas in some way and then we work with those representations. Usually our ideas are represented in words, but they could be represented in other ways, such as by mathematical symbols, by dramatic action in a play, by painting, by music, and soon. I will focus on words as a form of representation. Words are, after all, the staple dict of tertiary students. There is a very close relationship between language and learning. When ideas are represented in words they become somewhat like clay in the hands of a sculptor (if I may change my building metaphor slightly). As you talk or write, it is possible to play with ideas, to push them into various patterns or shapes, to judge whether any particular pattern of ideas pleases you (i.e. makes sense to you). In the end you will settle upon a particular arrangement of ideas which is your best understanding of the problem at that {ime, just as the sculptor will finally decide that a given form is the best artistic. expression hhe or she is capable of achieving at that time. The intellectual building process always occurs over a longish period of time. Even “eureka!” experiences, when you have a sudden flash of insight, usually occur after reflecting upon a problen for quite a long time. I therefore recommend that from the moment you begin collecting material for an area of study, whether it be your first lecture or your first piece of xeading, you critically and analytically begin to 38 Building the Structures look for patterns of meaning and begin to structure your own patterns of meaning. I have earlier suggested ways of doing this, including summarising material as you collect it, marking on the material you collect which sections you do not understand fully, adding additional comments to show connections which you cen see between this and other material or between the material and your own knowledge, and reviewing and updating your material regularly. All of the above will help you to reflect constructively upon the material over time. You will find, for example, that when you are looking back over your lecture notes, you will often see how you can expand them, or your understanding of them, by integrating material from certain books or journals. Devices such as keeping a list of “clever ideas" may help you. There will be times when you find it particularly Gifficult to understand some section of your courses. When struggling to understand a difficult or complex problem, most people find it easiest at first to talk through that problem. Talking helps you to experiment with ideas. As you speak new ideas, you may realise that you are on the wrong track or that what you are saying is inconsistent or illogical or untrue; and such realisations are very valuable. But you may also see connections between ideas which you have not seen before; you may come to 2 new understanding, a new insight. Writing tends to impose more strict demands upon us than does talking. If you are struggling to understand a difficult problem, first try talking through it and then writing cown what you have 89Building the Structures said. Tho writing will help you to be more precise and to see more clearly exactly where you are having difficulty. Your tertiary teachers will expect you to demonstrate what yuu have learned in the form of essays, laboratory reports, tutorial presentations or examinations of one kind or another. The staff will then assess each presentation and will give you some kind of grade indicating their judgement of the quality of your work. In the case of your essays, reports and tutorial presentations, you can expect to receive some commentary from staff indicating what they like about your work and how 90 Building the structures ‘they think you could improve it. This isa very important part of the learning process. one senior lecturer put it thie way: Submitting an essay changes the relationship between etudent and teacher and you are now in a position, having given eo much in the writing of this essay, to demand something in return, A grade, marked and alone, seravled at the bottom of a paper, is not acceptable and you should make that very elear. You have imested a good deal in this eseays if you do not get guidance as to what you did well or poorly, and what you might do next time to obtain an improved grade, then the lecturer has not lived up to his or her side of the bargain, If you don't receive adequate feedback, ask for it, and if you etill don't get 4t, “complain, Complain to the staff menber, complain to the consultative committee, complain to the professor in charge of the discipline and if all else fails, complain to the Vice-Chancellor. Feedback is an essential part of the learning procese and you have a right to ite Some students prepare and submit written work as 1. D.A. DeBats, "Writing an Essay", in Vic Beasley (ed.), “Participation an@ Equity: ‘The Flinders Experiment, Health and Counselling Service, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, 1985, p. 156. onBuilding the Structures if the only purpose in communicating to staff in these ways is to get a grade asa step towards getting a degree. However, as the above quotation suggests, the preparation of an essay, a tutorial paper or a laboratory report is not simply a matter of reproducing material which you think your lecturer wants to read; it is an important way of building a coherent understanding of any complex issue. It is a creative act, one of the ways in which you can integrate your ideas and so construct personal knowledge. I will look at each of these forms of presentation in turn and suggest ways in which you might approach then. ESSAYS Most often you will be given a list of several essay topics and asked to submit an essay of a certain length by a given date. You will need to decide which topic interests you most. This usually means that you are already able to make some connections between that topic and your lived experience or other things which you have learned in the past. Of course, you might decide out of curiosity to choose a topic about which you currently know little or nothing but would like to learn. The essay itself will be a construction. rt will provide a particular example of how well you have been able to build an understanding of an area of knowledge. Like any other building, the essay will have shape and form the precise structure of the essay will depend to a considerable extent on the essay topic. Essays can be of various levels of complexity. 92 Building the Structures An essay might simply report what information another person has collected or what ideas that person has expressed. This basic essay would seek to show that you have understood what you have read and can report it to another person in a clear, unambiguous way. A more complex task would be to write an essay in which you report the work of a considerable number of researchers or thinkers and in which you are able to structure the material in such a way as to show similarities and differences among these writers. You could then argue for some conclusion on the basis of these similarities and differences. Such an essay would require more creativity, more insight, more judgement on your part than the first one. It would also need to be structured more carefully in order that the reader can understand exactly how you arrived at your conclusions. A still more complex essay is one in Which you report what other writers have said, but you show that you have thought about this, have made connections with your own understandings, and as a result have not only compared and contrasted these various writers but have made your own meaning out of their work. You may have reached an original conclusion, or you may have demonstrated that no valid conclusions can yet be reached until more work has been done in the area and have indicated how tho inadequacies in 93Building the Structures people's current understandings might be overcome. This is the kind of essay your tertiary teachers will usually be trying to encourage among — their students, an essay in which you demonstrate that you have been able to survey what has been written in the area, have been able to assimilate and integrate this work and even beyond that, using your own _—insight, imagination, and logic, have been able to communicate a personal understanding of the subject which in some ways differs from or goes beyond the work of others. Of course, the kind of essay you write will depend very much upon the essay topic. While you should use the essay topic as a means of learning about things which are important to you, you would be foolish not to take great care to understand what the lecturer wants from you. A well written essay which does not, for example, answer the question in the topic will be given a fail grade. When analysing an essay question, it is necessary to. identify (and I suggest, underline) two kinds of words. The first are the content words. What exactly is lhe Lople content which Uke lecturer wants you to examine? The second are the process words. What precisely does the lecturer want you to do with the content. You will find words such as "discuss", "evaluate", "compare", "contrast", "analyse" and “summarise. You will need to be sure that you know what they mean and that you structure the final draft of your essay accordingly. 94 Building the Structures Writing a University Essay There is no neat formula for writing good essays. In fact, the best way to become a good writer of essays is to write lots of essays, each time reviewing them critically in order to work out how they could be improved. The person assessing your essay will write comments which will help you to do this. If these comments are unclear or inadequate, speak to your tutor about the essay. However, I am going to make some suggestions which will help you to get started. Let me supppose that you have collected sufficient building materials in ways like those suggested in Chapter 2. You have sets of notes of books or articles, including carefully selected quotations, and/or photocopied material which you have underlined. You may have made brief summaries of the relevant passages of each book or article to help you focus upon the essential points being made. You are ready to begin building your structure. Getting Ready for the First Draft It is now necessary to find a way of combining the materials which you have so painstakingly collected (your notes, quotetions, underlined material, summaries and list of clever ideas) into a coherent presentation which explores and illuminates the essay topic. Read your chosen essay topic through carefully once again. This represents the specifications for the structure. Now, like a good azchitect, you will need to draw up a plan which represents 95