hi I'm dr. Steven Chu I'm a professor of
psychology here at Stanford University
in Birmingham Alabama this is the fourth
in a series of five videos on studying
effectively in college effective college
study is more than just a matter of a
desire to learn a devoting sufficient
time and effort students have to utilize
effective learning strategies if they
use ineffective learning strategies they
can study long and hard and still fail
in earlier videos I described the levels
of processing framework which says that
shallow processing which focuses on
meaningless superficial aspects does not
lead to effective learning deep
processing which focuses on the meaning
and implications of material does lead
to connected learning then I discussed
basic principles for achieving deep
processing effective study strategies
employs some or all of those principles
you can use these principles to develop
good study strategies that work for you
this video will give you a starting
point I'll describe for you some study
strategies that are based on these
principles think of study strategies as
an orienting task that make you process
information at certain level good study
strategies make you process information
at a deep meaningful level focusing on
comprehension and implications poor
study strategies focus on a shallow
level which focus on superficial
meaningless information here are three
research-based strategies for achieving
deep processing law reading the first is
question generation after you've read a
chapter or viewed a section of notes
generate some questions over the
material try to make the questions as
meaningful as possible questions about
facts are ok but questions that make you
compare and contrast to analyze to make
connections to think about implications
or generate examples or even better
here's a list of questions that you
might generate based on the video so far
the first question is purely factual
about the definition of a term that's ok
as long as you don't just memorize the
definition without understanding it the
second and third and fourth questions
that are also about content but they're
asking about key arguments in the videos
which go to a deeper level than the
definition question five asks you to
compare and contrast leading to both the
lab
operation and distinctiveness finally
question 6 asks you to relate the
information to your personal experience
just generating the questions will help
your depth of processing your viewing
the material to answer them is even
better and you can always ask your
questions to teachers at first
generating questions will be a bit
awkward but like anything with practice
will become easier and more automatic
the second strategy is to create a
concept map of the ideas you're studying
the concept map is a diagram of nodes
and links the nodes or concepts or facts
that are linked together here's a
concept map I constructed four levels of
processing concept Maps take time and
effort to do they don't have to be neat
imperfect and the very act of creating
them helps you process information
deeply the third method is to practice
retrieving and using the information in
ways that your teacher expects you to be
able to do there are really two parts to
the study strategy the first part is to
practice retrieving the information
without referring to your notes and book
so close your notes in book and just
practice retrieving the information
explain it to someone else write it down
the second part is to use the
information in the way that your teacher
expects some teachers test for facts
some teachers test for concepts is your
teacher using multiple choice is your
teacher using short answer or essay
practice using the information in the
way the teacher is going to test you but
just practicing recalling information
and thinking about how it might be used
will be useful to you you can take
advantage of review questions in the
textbook oftentimes companion websites
for the textbook will have review tests
that you can use after you've practiced
recalling the test or calling the
information you can check yourself
against your textbook in your notes this
will help you to identify weaknesses in
your understanding the material now what
about taking notes during class
note-taking has three functions first it
provides a summary of key points from
the lecture that you will need to
understand and recall later second
you're recreating a set of retrieval
cues or memory cues further information
that you didn't record you're only able
to write down a small percentage of the
information presented in the lecture
your notes help remind you of what you
writing down the third function is that
note-taking is an orienting task taking
notes engages you in the class and how
you take notes determines if you process
the information in deep meaningful way
or in a superficial way note-taking that
makes you process information at a deep
level will help your learning so as the
lecture goes on think about key concepts
key distinctions and key relationships
and be sure to write down examples on
the other hand if you think of
note-taking is writing down as much of
the lecture as possible without thinking
about it then you're processing at a
shallow level and your note-taking will
not help you to learn this is especially
a temptation if you take notes using a
laptop computer
I actually prefer taking notes by hand
because the flexibility in the format of
taking notes but the real danger of
taking notes by laptop is the temptation
to browse the internet or check your
social networks during lecture this kind
of distraction not only reduces your
learning but it distracts those people
around you a few other things if you
miss information during a lecture be
sure to get it right away either from
the teacher or from the classmates
around you
second taking good notes is very
effortful and usually requires your full
concentration if you have trouble
writing fast enough then consider asking
the professor if you can record the
lecture next borrowing notes from
another student is a poor substitute for
missing a class you're a much better off
attending class and taking your own
notes
finally notes are only helpful if you
actively organize them review them and
think about them let's now turn to deep
processing while reading a textbook the
same principles of deep processing apply
here a lot of students like to highlight
while they read a textbook highlighting
can be seen as an oriented task you can
highlight for deep processing which help
you to learn the material or you can
highlight for shallow processing which
will actually hurt your learning
consider the following paragraph which
was modified from an old psychology
textbook it's tempting to go right to
the bolded terms and highlight them it's
fast easy and pretty much useless
you've skimmed over important
information and you've set yourself up
to memorize isolated facts a terrible
study strategy here's how to hide
for deep processing read all the texts
then be selective about what you
highlight based on its importance and
how it relates to the other information
highlight connections key distinctions
and applications don't highlight
complete passages leave out unnecessary
text good highlighting requires multiple
readings the text and meaningful
decisions it's slow and it's effortful
and to be most effective you have to go
back later and review what you
highlighted here's how I would highlight
the Freud passage the first line of
highlighting contains the main theme for
its theory I highlighted the key parts
of the definitions of conscious and
unconscious and the breakdown of the
unconscious into pre conscious and
unconscious I have the definitions and
the distinctions between them students
may highlight a passage differently
because they different perspectives the
important thing is that you highlight
following the principles of deep
processing finally I want to talk to you
a little bit about group study
if the group uses effective study
strategies and the norm is everyone
works hard then you will learn in group
study however if the group norm is that
everyone uses bad study strategies and
there a lot of distractions then you
simply won't learn studying groups is
one of the easiest ways to fool yourself
into believing you have really learned
when you actually have it here are some
principles for effective group study
first remember group study is a business
meeting like all business meetings there
should be a goal for the meeting and an
agenda everyone should come prepared and
ready to contribute so set a goal for
the meeting for example we'll review
chapter a to the textbook set conditions
for participation everyone should have
read the chapter and have three
questions ready to ask about it if you
aren't prepared and can't contribute
then don't come everyone keeps the
ultimate goal of learning in mind
everyone has a chance to ask and answer
questions from other group members the
result should be that any member can
express the understanding of the whole
group in this video we've discussed some
concrete ways of using the principles of
deep learning to guide your study
strategies and common learning
situations developing the effective
study strategies for you
we'll take time and effort but with
practice they'll become automatic and
they'll be effective for you but there
will be setbacks along the way what
happens if you blow an exam that's the
topic of the next video
you