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Dr.
Richard Palmer is Director of General Education at Bedford School,
where for twenty years he was Head of English. He is the author
of over two dozen books, including Write In Style (1993; Revised Edition 2002), Studying For Success (2003) and Getting Straight 'A's (2005). With Dr. John White he edited Jazz Writings by Philip Larkin (1998; Revised Edition 2004) and worked as Editor & Consultant on Oscar Peterson's A Jazz Odyssey, the pianist's 2002 autobiography.
It is a pleasure
to make a contribution to this valuable and invigorating initiative.
But I should say at the outset that my publications in the field
have largely catered for academics, as have the various seminars,
lectures and workshops I have given for students and teachers.
With the exception of a five-year consultancy with NatWest Bank,
therefore, the clientele I have attempted to serve has been different
from the likely visitors to this source.
Not that different, however.
All those seeking to learn, be they academic students,
non-vocational students or ambitious, committed professionals, have
certain fundamental needs which apply regardless. They require
'Techniques For Learning', (or Learning Tools, as I call then), and the first thing to say is that these can be taught, they can
be learnt. If that were not so, this web-site would be a waste of
time, and so would these words of mine. There are just two things
that no student can be taught:
Flair and to care
You cannot instil brilliance or instinctive aptitude in anyone; equally, you cannot make anyone mind
about being successful or any good if s/he isn't interested. But if you
determine to improve yourself, there's a great deal you can achieve -
not least because in my experience the vast majority of students, of
all kinds and aims, are better than they think.
Learning Tools
is a much better term than 'Study Skills', whose initial trendiness has
become pretty rancid. More important, it was always vague anyway, and
over the years it became increasingly regarded as an end in itself rather than as an enabling means.
I have come across too often for comfort books and courses which
suggest that the ability to design a good 'Spidergram' or Mind-Map'
guarantees the delivery of a good essay or report; that learning
this or that mnemonic will ensure a decisive improvement in memory;
that anything is possible if you work hard enough; or that this
research or that website will allow you to spot likely questions in a
forthcoming exam. None of those is true (the last two are
especially dubious) and unless the student stays in charge at all times, such 'skills' become mere 'tricks' which will blunt rather than sharpen performance.
I favour the term Learning Tools because it is attractively concrete and, implicitly, highly specific.
In practical things we make use of all kinds of different
implements; however, it doesn't matter how well-made such
precision-tools are if we employ them incorrectly or inappropriately.
A state-of-the-art chisel will lose all its expensive
effectiveness if you use it as a hammer, and the same applies to any
attempt to play tennis with an Andrew-Flintoff-endorsed cricket bat.
But using the right tools in the right way immediately
establishes you as in charge; it also identifies you as someone who knows how to think. Crucial in any field, that is fundamental to student-success.
On one level, knowing how to think
involves an awareness of your own mind and how best to apply it.
That includes knowing when, in what circumstances and in what
areas you perform best (and, similarly, perform worst, or at least well
below you best). To take a simple example: many people
continue to work when they're significantly tired, which is never a
good idea. Sometimes it is unavoidable, as all professionals will
testify; however, if something really matters, it is vital to tackle it when fresh or in truly good shape.
On a more sophisticated level, knowing how to think
indicates the ability to identify wrong thinking, cosy thinking, lazy
thinking or stuff that is just rubbish. Intelligent people
confidently assume they can do that and do it always, but all of us can
get it wrong - no more so than when glued to the net. The best
thing about the internet is that it is utterly democratic: anyone
can publish on it. That is a wonderful advance in human freedom
and potency, and it should be celebrated. On the other hand, that
greatest virtue is also its greatest vice: the worst
thing about the internet is that anyone can publish on it! You
don't have to be an elitist to realise that this means a fair amount of
junk is charging around the ether, and the need for discernment is
greater than it was before the net's inception.
Perhaps most decisively of all, knowing how to think should, if you're tough enough about it, prompt the realisation that
- The boundaries between subjects are far less rigid than many (some teachers as well as most students!) assume.
- The whole business of learning has a huge common base.
It is not true, for example, that Chemistry is 'harder' than (say)
History. You may enjoy it a lot less, find it annoying or dull;
that is your privilege, naturally, but it's also your problem
if you let it rule you. whatever you may be studying, the subject
in question has a data base, a foundation of factual knowledge.
All such can be mastered provided you have the right Learning Tools
and apply them sensibly. This website is dedicated to supplying
you with those, and I'm sure you will prosper armed with such
'Augmented Self-Help' specifications.
Two final thoughts.
First: organisation is paramount. Organisation and intelligence are not 'officially' synonyms, but they can and should be made so in any serious student's case.
Second: when earlier I poured a modicum of scorn on mnemonics, I had in mind ready-made ones which are given to students to learn - a strategy that is fitfully successful at best. However, making up your own memory aids is a potentially invaluable tool, all the more effective for being fun to do. Here's one I came up with quite some time ago.
For
years I was unable to remember, when changing a plug, which one of the
blue or brown wires was 'live', and I had to look it up or ask someone
every time. One day it occurred to me that brown was the colour
my hand would end up if I grasped a live wire; I've never again had to
think twice about which is which.
Maybe that somewhat hideous visual aid does not qualify under the
heading 'fun', but it was nonetheless satisfying to have devised an
image which was directly relevant to what I needed to learn. The
principle is the same whatever the source of the image: provided
you can find a way to link it to the material you need to learn, it
will strengthen and clarify your memory. Particularly effective
images are those which are dramatic; colourful; funny; and above all filthy! |
