2012年1月15日星期日 10:11-10:30
How to Win the War of Active Learning Against Passive Learning?
(如何用积极学习战胜消极学习?)
The following is my inquiry into the forced passive learning in response to one of my students.
Your experience in the examination week leads me from one question to another, that is, from “How did I win the war of active learning against passive learning?” to “How can I help you win the war of active learning against passive learning?” A quick reflection on these two questions enables me to discover that they are quite different but anyhow they are closely related to each other.
Before I answer these two questions, I strongly urge myself to encourage you to build up your confidence in yourself. As for your last sentence “And thank you again for reading all my nonsense”, my sympathetic response is that your “feelings about the exams” must be cherished, respected and further explored since your stressful and helpless feelings should never be dismissed as all your nonsense. With this point in mind, you are likely to transform your negative feelings into your positive feelings.
As for the first question “How did I win the war of active learning against passive learning?” I responded to it actively rather than dismissing it with hopelessness when I was a college student in Hangzhou University. My strategy in preparing for exams was to make an insightful analysis of the advantages of active learning and the disadvantages of passive learning. As a result, I reduced my mechanical repetition of what I had learned before examinations and strengthened my critical reading for further understanding of what I had learned.
As for the second question “How can I help you win the war of active learning against passive learning?” I may tell you how I was learning as a college student. The following are the ideas of active learning worth your attention:
(1) Identify the important points from the text by yourself rather than waiting for the teachers’ explicit emphasis on the main points.
(2) Use short phrases to summarize the main points of the text.
(3) Consult other references to clarify the puzzling points rather than waiting for the teachers’ explanations of these puzzling points.
(4) Use a specific example to illustrate an abstract concept.
(5) Try to reflect on what is effective and what is not effective in learning and then replace the ineffective ways of learning with the effective ways of learning.