Professional Practice
Skills
PPS-26 Self-Directed Learning
Gaining knowledge and
skills through reading
Pre-class assignment
What is It?
Learning knowledge through reading
is a method to help improve the comprehension and retention of knowledge.
New Concepts
Survey,
Question, Read, Apply, Teach, Review
Why Do It?
One of the
primary ways to learn new material is by reading. Many students complain that they “studied
really hard and still flunked the test.”
A more organized approach to reading may help.
How to Do It
Once you
have found and evaluated your sources, you need to find a way to shove that
information in your head in such a way that it doesn’t all leak out or get
distorted. Much of the time you will be
dealing with written information, so this section focuses on reading.
We’ll sue
the Acronym SQuRAT for
We assume
you have established a specific learning goal.
Survey
The first task is to read any abstract/summary or scan the
headings to see if this article is worth your time. If it is useful, the survey gives you an
overview of what you will be seeing. If
the article is not useful, move on.
Question
Write these questions on a piece of paper with space for the
answers.
Your initial survey of the article should also have raised
some questions specific to the article.
Add these questions to your list and have the list in front of you as
you read.
A generic question sheet that you can use when reading a
resource is shown on page __. The
primary questions are
Read
When you read a novel, you are letting the author take you
for a ride. When you read technical
information, you need to ride and drive.
Technical information should be read actively
and critically.
In active reading,
you are a partner with the author. You
are
·
making
notes in the margins, underlining, and/or highlighting
·
looking
for answers to meet your learning goals
·
writing
down questions regarding things you don’t understand
In critical
reading, you are the adversary of the author.
You are asking
·
is
the logic ( or mathematical modeling) correct?
·
are
the conclusions justified by the evidence?
·
if
I said this to someone else, would they believe me?
·
what
is the other side of the position?
·
what
are they not telling me?
Critical reading is particularly important for vendor’s
materials and persuasive articles, but should be used in all reading.
Apply
Since you are learning this stuff for some reason, try it as
you go. If you are reading about how to
hit a golf ball, go out on the range and hit some. If you are learning software, apply it to a
practical problem. If you are bicycle
designer looking at making the switch from aluminum to titanium, start running
the numbers for sizes or costs as you learn.
People learn what they practice better than they learn what
they see. This is why professors are so
hot for you to do homework and why, despite watching Emeril religiously, you
still can’t cook.
Teach
Once you have read some sources, it is time to organize the
information. A good technique is to
prepare teaching notes for a person just like yourself. These teaching notes will serve as review
notes for you or an introduction to the topic for someone else.
The teaching notes should
·
Clearly
identify the key points
·
Provide
solid justifications for conclusions or positions
·
Identify
sources so you can go back
·
Provide
instructions and/or examples for skills or calculations
Since these are areas covered on your question sheets,
developing teach notes is primarily a matter of collating, evaluating, and
summarizing.
The act of preparing the notes helps organize and solidify
the information in your mind so that it is more retrievable. The knowledge can still leak out, so you will
need to review.
Review
While you may never forget how to ride a bicycle, most
people remember little of their high school Spanish. The ones who retain their skills are the ones
who periodically use them.
If you want better retention, experts who study learning say
that reviewing should be done on a schedule.
They recommend reviewing be done immediately after learning, after one
day, one week, one month and four months.
Developing the teaching notes serves as the initial review. In the later reviews, you try to replicate
the key points from your teaching notes and then compare your current efforts
with the original notes. The parts you
missed deserve a little extra practice.
In-Class Exercise
Exercise 1
As an individual
As part of a group
Reading Question Form
Date of
Review:_____________
Article Reference:
Title:
_____________________ Author:____________________
Bibliographic
info _____________________________________________________
Questions:
Goal/Purpose/Topic?
Key
Points/Results/Conclusions? Support for Key Points?
Reading Feedback Form
Name _______________________
1.
At
the outset of this unit, place a “B” in each category to indicate your self
assessment of your initial, or baseline skill level.
2.
At
the end of the unit place an “A” in each category to indicate your self
assessment of your skill level after practicing the skill. Be prepared to provide documentation for your
assessment.
|
Novice (less successful) |
Beginner (shows few expert behaviors) (1-2) |
Good Start (some expert behavior) (3-4) |
Getting There (many expert behaviors) (5-6) |
Almost There (mostly expert behavior) (7-8) |
Expert (shows all expert behavior) (9-10) |
Expert (more successful) |
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Start
reading without a plan |
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Have
questions related to goal ready before reading |
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Let the
author lead |
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Read
actively and critically with author as partner and rival |
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Disconnect
reading and doing |
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Apply
knowledge as it comes in |
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Assume
that if I read it, the information is in my head and usable |
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Collect,
evaluate, and organize material so you could teach it |
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Skip the
review, or do it just before test |
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Review
information on a schedule to assure retention |
Reflection of the Listener
What did I
learn from this?
Which of
the skills do I do pretty well? (List
Evidence)
Which skills could use some work?
(List Evidence)