How do we stay motivated to learn? It can be challenging to learn—especially when there is a bevy of information being thrown your way. It soon becomes normal to become a bit numb and find yourself in memorizing mode. This is likely why students are so excited to start a new quarter or subject matter because at the beginning we tend to have high-reaching goals of becoming an expert or “learning everything I need to know.” Inevitably, the quarter starts and we fail to keep up at that expert level and we again find ourselves numb and memorizing. How do we break this cycle? I read an interesting article years ago about “going deep.” The article spoke of how ALL subject matter is extremely interesting once you get inside. The idea is to start there and become an expert on one subject or one group of subjects. For instance, for the FHS students, it might be your turn to become an expert in Type II Diabetes. Why is this helpful? Once you learn about this specific metabolic disorder it helps you to understand the importance of nutrition, hormone regulation and the game of inches which is our blood mixture. In other words, it helps to tie the learning together—it provides the all important meaning and purpose in the learning process. For the sonography students, maybe learn more about non-ionizing radiation and the electromagnetic spectrum—especially during the physics quarter. The goal is that you become well rounded and can speak of your education from a high-level. To understand how sound waves and radiofrequency pulses work will only help your understanding of how this science works within your specific field of study. Get inside, set-up camp and look around. It may take a bit more time on the front end, but I promise this technique will help to synthesize the massive amounts of information that you folks are expected to understand. Remember, it is always preferable to understand the macro view of a field rather than the micro view as critical thinking ability relies upon the macro understanding. Keep going… Rob Cloutier
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 23:58:22 +0000
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