In today’s competitive world, people are always on the run and there is no time to identify and rectify the flaws we have. It is the end of the summer and school is starting up again.
In schools, there is much to study and you might end up getting poor marks if you don’t write verbatim from the textbooks prescribed. You may also be familiar with the idea of rote learning from the college curriculum where right before the exams students will mug up certain standard material from topper’s notes or guidebooks and the focus would be on filling a good number of sheets on the day of the exam for the examiner to mark them well.
Yes, you read that right! There is a major flaw in our education system, which is that it encourages mugging up knowledge over learning. Students are in a zone where they do not study to gain knowledge and increase their skill level. They study just to get marks which won’t even matter after a certain amount of time in their life.
What is the difference between learning and mugging?
Just like computers, rote memorization or mugging up is just copying and pasting the lesson in our brains without knowing what it exactly means. You can use it to remember things only for a very short period of time.
When we mug, we memorize the lesson or by-heart it without really concealing and understanding its true meaning (doesn’t follow any logic the way memorizing a thing does). Just like a printer, after mugging the only thing we do is write down the information word to word on the paper. It will always be stress and we will always feel that there is so much learning work pending!
But learning is just the opposite.
It is irrespective of the number of marks a child is getting or the amount of syllabus that a student has been able to finish within the due time.
By learning, we can understand the topic and can’t forget till the exam but by mugging, we have a chance to forget. Learning something connects it to our day-to-day lives or an event that has happened in our lives. That way the information remains imprinted in our brain for a lifetime. So, if one starts learning, it will bring enthusiasm to explore things and the excitement to live life fully.
Try these strategies to boost your learning and retention – before, during, and after the class.
Tip 1: Use the 3R technique: Read. Recite. Review.
Here the students are asked first to read the chapter, then to take a few minutes to recall aloud everything they can remember, and then to re-skim the chapter to evaluate how well they did.
Read: Read a passage, term, or concept that you need to memorize.
Recite: Recite out loud all of what you can remember.
Review: Read the passage, term, or concept that you need to memorize again.
Start reading -> Describe what you have just read -> Come back to the material again to review.
Tip 2: Dig deep
Deep learning is getting a lot of attention these days. Most teachers want to actively engage their students in learning the content of the subject being taught, but it is much harder than it sounds. Research shows that the more interested a student is in the information being taught, the more likely he is to dig deeper and apply what he has learned.
Tip 3: Use your imagination
Why imagination is important to education?
When teachers are gone from the lives of their students, what remains is imagination. It is defined as “the action of forming new ideas or concepts about external objects not present to the senses.”
It is the foundation of creativity and innovation. Everyone is generally in favor of imagination, considering it important as a quality that any educated person should display.
As our knowledge grows, our imagination grows as well. So it is necessary for students to use imagination and creativity in their lessons for change and growth.
Tip 4: Test, quiz, and ask yourself!
Studies have shown that students who are regularly tested learn more content and retain it longer than students who are not regularly tested. Test your knowledge by answering questions at the end of textbook chapters or taking online review quizzes.
Tip 5: Keep your head up and your pen down
Most students do not feel satisfied until they have a complete page of detailed, multicolored notes at the end of every lesson. You should maintain a perfect balance between listening to the instructor and taking notes. Writing down keywords and phrases, not full sentences and paragraphs is a good way to achieve this.
Tip 6: Process your notes
Here are some general tips to improve the quality of your notes in every class.
- Don’t write down every word
- Decide what is important
- Turn off your cell phone to reduce distractions.
- Be an active listener & focus clearly on the presentation.
- Use symbols and abbreviations to increase the speed of your writing.
- Use colors
- Revise your notes as soon as possible
- Forget spelling and grammar, so long as you’re clear about your point
- Make sure your notes are stored securely
In simple, by learning we can understand concepts…but by mugging, we only learn words…
Students who are successful do not mug up. Instead, they learn the concepts.
So say no to mugging and yes to learning.
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