Study Tips for Active Learning

Education is acquisition of the ability to utilize knowledge. Therefore, active learning involves both memorizing and understanding the subject matter, especially at a conceptual level. Effective learning is active learning and requires that one employ critical thinking.

Critical thinking is active sustained cognitive effort directed at solving a complex problem, which requires integrating different sources of information, considering alternate perspectives, making critical judgments, and developing and testing hypotheses.

The following study tips will help you develop your capacity for critical thinking and therefore for active learning.

• Familiarize yourself with the material to be covered during lecture. Look at the Course Outline, then skim the pertinent portions of the Study Guide. As you skim, make a "map" showing the major concepts that are covered and a vocabulary list of terms likely to be important in understanding these concepts (especially terms new to you). Skim the Informative Articles, again mapping out the concepts covered and defining new terms. These activities will make you think about the topic and help prepare you for constructive listening and participation during class.
• Take class notes, being sure you write in enough detail to follow the logic and capture the concepts that form the basis of the lecture or discussion. Don't try to write down everything; this will just get in the way of your listening and understanding concepts.
• Read the information in the Study Guide and the Informative Articles that were assigned for the topic. This time, you are going for content, so it will help to focus on the facts and concepts presented in the Study Guide, being sure to consult and rethink the concept maps you made when you skimmed the material before class.
• Write new notes based on your concept maps, vocabulary lists, class notes and reading outlines, especially those found in the study guide. The object is not neatness, nor is it just reorganizing or categorizing the material (although these are important parts of the process); rather, it is the integration of this material and synthesis of concepts and models that allow you to truly understand the material. Write these new notes in your own words, because that makes you assimilate the material as you reflect on it, thus fostering understanding by building neural pathways with links between things you knew before and things you are just now learning.
• Analyze your notes rather than trying to just memorize them. It will, of course, be very important for you to remember the content, but that is not sufficient. Critical thinking about the subject material is needed to allow you to truly understand it. To do this in a more effective manner, try these processes:
  • Be curious ... Seek to know as much as possible about the topics at hand.
  • Look for connections among facts, ideas and concepts.
  • Visualize the concepts, linking them to images will help you remember concepts and grasp both individual concepts and connections among them more easily.
  • Generate analogies to couple new material to things you knew previously.
• Form a study group of five or six people to use as a source of alternative perspectives, "sounding boards" and study partners. Remember, there is great strength in diversity, and be sure to include people from diverse backgrounds as well as both genders in your study group. that Keep "on task" when studying and remember to apply the principles of critical thinking throughout.