Chapter 4 Flashcards
(33 cards)
How is a chunk related to a memory trace?
Think about a topic you are passionate about. Describe a chunk involving that topic that was at first difficult for you to grasp but now seems easy.
What is the difference between top-down and bottom-up approaches to learning? Is one approach preferable to the other?
Is understanding enough to create a chunk? Explain why or why not.
What is your own most common illusion of competence in learning? What strategies can you use to help you avoid falling for this illusion again for the future?
AVOID MIMICKING SOLUTIONS—PRACTICE CHANGING MENTAL GEARS
When students do homework assignments, they often have ten identical problems in arow. After the second or third problem, they are no longer thinking; they are mimicking whatthey did on the previous problem. I tell them that, when doing the homework from section 9.4, after doing a few problems, go back and do a problem from section 9.3. Do a couplemore 9.4 problems, and then do one from section 9.1. This will give them practice inmentally shifting gears in the same way they’ll need to switch gears on the test.
EMPHASIZE INTERLEAVING INSTEAD OF OVERLEARNING
Rather than devote a long session to the study or practice of the same skill or concept so thatoverlearning occurs, students should divide their effort across several shorter sessions.This doesn’t mean that long study sessions are necessarily a bad idea. Long sessions arefine as long as students don’t devote too much time to any one skill or concept. Once theyunderstand ‘X,’ they should move on to something else and return to ‘X’ on another day
ORGANIZE, CHUNK—AND SUCCEED
The first thing I always do with students who are struggling is ask to see how they areorganizing their notes from class and reading. We often spend most of the first meetinggoing over ways they can organize or chunk their information rather than with my explainingconcepts. I have them come back the next week with their material already organized, andthey are amazed at how much more they retain
KEEP YOUR LEARNING AT THE TIP OF YOUR TONGUE
I gotinto a habit of doing every problem in the book. As a result, I hard-wired my brain to solveproblems. By the end of the semester I could look at a problem and know almostimmediately how to solve it. I suggest this strategy to my science majors in particular, butalso to the nonscientists. I also talk about the need to study every day, not necessarily forlong periods of time but just enough to keep what you are learning at the tip of your tongue.I use the example of being bilingual. When I go to France to work, my French takes a fewdays to kick in, but then it is fine. When I return to the States and a student or colleagueasks me something on my first or second day back, I have to search for the Englishwords! When you practice every day the information is just there—you do not have tosearch for it.”
ORGANIZE, CHUNK—AND SUCCEED
The first thing I always do with students who are struggling is ask to see how they areorganizing their notes from class and reading. We often spend most of the first meetinggoing over ways they can organize or chunk their information rather than with my explainingconcepts. I have them come back the next week with their material already organized, and they are amazed at how much more they retain
THE IMPORTANCE OF CHUNKING
Mathematics is amazingly compressible: you may struggle a long time, step by step, to work through the same process or idea from several approaches. But once you really understand it and have the mental perspective to see it as a whole, there is often atremendous mental compression. You can file it away, recall it quickly and completely when you need it, and use it as just one step in some other mental process.
What to Do If You Can’t Grasp It
If you don’t understand a method presented in a course you are taking, stop and work backward.
Go to the Internet and discover who first figured out the method or some of the earliest people to use it.
Try to understand how the creative inventor arrived at the idea and why the idea is used—you can often find a simple explanation that gives a basic sense ofwhy a method is being taught and why you would want to use it.
Understanding Illusions of Competence
Anagrams are rearrangements of letters so that one word or phrase can spell something different.
Let’s say you have the phrase “Me, radium ace.” Can you rearrange it to spell the last name of an honorific famous physicist?
It may take you a bit of thought to do it. But if you saw the solution here on the page, your subsequent “aha!” Feeling would make you think that your anagram-solving skills are better than they actually are.
Similarly, students often erroneously believe that they are learning by simply rereading material that is on the page in front of them.
They have an illusion of competence becausethe solution is already there.
Pick a mathematical or scientific concept from your notes or from a page in the book.
Read it over, then look away and see what you can recall—working toward understanding what you are recalling at the same time.
Then glance back, reread the concept, and try it again.
At the end of this exercise, you will probably be surprised to see how much this simple recall exercise helped improve your understanding of the concept.
NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP
I tell my students that internalizing the accounting fundamentals is like internalizing how to type on a keyboard.
In fact, as I write this myself, I’m not thinking of the act of typing, but offormulating my thoughts—the typing comes naturally.
My mantra at the end of each classis to tell students to look at the debit and Credit Rules as well as the accounting equation just before they tuck themselves in at night.
Let those be the last things they repeat tothemselves before falling asleep. Well, except meditation or prayers, of course!
MAKE YOUR KNOWLEDGE SECOND NATURE
Getting a concept in class versus being able to apply it to a genuine physical problem is the difference between a simple student and / or engineer.
The only way I know of to make that jump is to work with the concept until it becomes second nature, so you can begin to use it like a tool.
What is the first step in chunking?
The first step in chunking is to simply focus your attention on the information you want to chunk.
If you have the television going in the background, or you’re looking up every few minutes tocheck or answer your phone or computer messages, it means that you’re going to have difficulty making a chunk, because your brain is not really focusing on the chunking.
What is the second step to chunking?
The second step in chunking is to understand the basic idea you are trying to chunk, whether it is understanding a concept such as continental drift, the idea that force is proportional to mass, the economic principle of supply and demand, or a particular type of math problem.
What is the third step in chunking?
The third step to chunking is gaining context, so you see not just how but also when to use this chunk. Context means going beyond the initial problem and seeing more broadly, repeating, and practicing with both related and unrelated problems so you see not only when to use the chunk but when not to use it.
What is bottom-up chunking? Can you demonstrate an example of bottom-up chunking?
bottom-up chunking process where practice and repetition can help you both build and strengthen each chunk so you can easily gain access to it when needed.
What is top-down chunking? Can you demonstrate top-down chunking?
Top-down is the “big picture” process that allows you to see where what you are learning fits in.
What is simple recall? Can you use simple recall right now to show you understand it?
Simple recall—trying to remember the key points without looking atthe page—is one of the best ways to help the chunking process along.
What are the 3 things used best to build chunks with? Can you give an example of each?
Chunks are best built with:
Focused attention.
Understanding of the basic idea.
Practice to help you gain big-picture context.
Why would you right out the concept by hand? How does that help you understand the idea?
t’s best to write the initial solution, or diagram, or concept, out by hand.There’s evidence that writing by hand helps get the ideas into mind more easily than if you type the answer
What is interleaving? Can you use it right now for a concept you’re learning?
Interleaving means practice by doing a mixture of different kinds of problems requiring different strategies.
