Successful Students
7-8
7… Understand
that actions affect learning. Successful students know their personal behavior
affect their feelings and emotions which in turn can affect learning.
If you act in a
certain way that normally produces particular feelings, you will begin to
experience those feelings. Act like you’re bored, and you’ll become bored. Act
like you’re disinterested, and you’ll become disinterested. So the next time
you have trouble concentrating in the classroom, “act” like an interested
person: learn forward, place your flat on the floor, maintain eye contact with
the professor, nod occasionally from your actions, your classmates and
professor may also get more excited and enthusiastic.
8… Talk about
what they’re learning. Successful students get to know something well enough
that they can put it into words.
Talking about
something, with friends or classmates, is not only good for checking whether or
not you know something, it’s a proven learning tool. Transferring ideas into
words provides the most direct path for moving knowledge from short-term to
long-term memory. You really don’t “know” material until you can put into
words. So, next time you study, don’t do it silently. Talk about notes
problems, reading, etc. with friends, recite to a chair, organize an oral study
group, pretend you’re teaching your peers. “Talk-learning” produces a whole
host of memory traces that result in more learning
CHOOSE
THE RIGHT!