When I first ran across the Study Guides and Strategies site, my first thought was, “What a wonderful resource! I wish something like this had been available during my undergrad/grad years.”
And then I paused a moment to consider: with such resources as this, and with the vast research and general information resource that is the Internet, why are so very many college students nowadays (and Academia Nut Fruitcakes, for that matter) so very ignorant, poorly-read (which results in formal illiteracy) and flat-out stupid? Hmm.
I know there are many, many reasons for the ignorance, subliteracy, and stupidity, but perhaps one reason could be that such sites as the Study Guides and Strategies site seem to obviate the need to discover ways to comprehend–preferably master–subject matter. Just plug things into a formulaic study system and bang! It’s done!
Of course it is not that easy to do, but without at least some hard work discovering or creating one’s own study style, I suspect the hard work of conquering new subject matter is harder still.
I suspect that attempts to make learning easy could make it seem too easy. [Not gonna deal with all the aspects of this right now. Just suffice it to say this seems to be both a problem preparing students for college and an ongoing issue in college. . . and beyond; if it’s easy, it ain’t worth much, but if it ain’t easy, it’s avoided, etc.]
Still, since I’m already familiar and competent in my curent reading and study styles, I think I can find some good things to apply to my current learning efforts at Study Guides and Strategies.
Note: I was very briefly introduced to the SQ(W)3R study system in the Summer of ’68 during a freshman level p-sych course (the only useful thing I gained from the course), but I modified it greatly to fit my own reading/study styles, instead of following the brief (15 minute?) outline the prof suggested we use for the course readings.
But yes, given my (apparently increasing) absentmindedness recently, a slightly more detailed application of the SQ(W)3R system has already been implemented. *heh*
Very good points. I usually learned more trying to study what wasn’t covered in my notes. Back in the day I learned teachers are sneaky people!
They were testing us as if we actually read the material. *heh*