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Grasping the Concept
By Michael Muehleisen
In college I was a psychology major. The toughest course we had to take was Experimental Psychology. I was intimidated from day one. I went to every class, I took copious notes, I sat in front (the professor was Japanese and hard to understand), I read all of the required chapters, and I high lighted all of the important facts and data. On our first big test I scored a whopping 38! Needless to say I was shocked and full of despair about passing this class. Out of desperation I went to talk with the professor during his office hours that week. Dr Ashida was very nice and personable and tried to put me at ease. When I explained to him that I had worked very hard in his class I scored only a 38 on his first test. He said "Em everybody do bad on that test, do not feel bad." Then he said "How did you prepare for the test?" I then told him all of the things I had done to try to be successful in his class. "Open your book to Chapter 4." I opened my book and Dr. Ashido could see all of the high lighted marks on the pages. "Why do you high light in your book like that?" he asked. "I do it to help me remember the important facts I need to know when I study" I replied. "You are missing the point here about learning. To learn you need to read the whole chapter and understand the concept. Once you understand the concept, all of the facts will come to you naturally as you explain the concept. Do you understand?" I did understand. I tried doing it Dr. Ashido's way and he was right. After Dr Ashida showed me the light I never high-lighted anything ever again. I learned to grasp the main concept and not to worry about the small stuff. Tests got easier because I knew what I was talking about; and I got an A in Experimental Psych. His teaching helped me throughout my college career, and in any learning situation I found myself in.
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Contributor's Note
Welcome to Mike's Common Sense. All of my articles are designed to make you think; what you think is up to you.
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Training in concepts is a very effective way of teaching indefinite subjects. I remember when I used to teach economics, so many of my pupils spent hours trying to learn from books and newspaper reports of current events. I usually allowed this to continue for about three months and then I would have an 'open' class. In this open class I would simply ask my students what they were trying to achieve and received the same answer - a passing grade in the exam. At this point in the course I explained one of the secrets about subjects like economics - unless you were brain dead, you would have to try very hard in order to fail. Economics is a matter of being able to take a set of circumstances, formulate a working model and then postulate the possible results of various actions. As long as you can support your theories with sound, reasoned arguments, you could not fail because of the lack of precision in the 'science'. Don't believe me? Look at the vast range of theories being banded around about the causes of the financial crisis. All of them right and all of them wrong.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Hi Coot! You are so right, thanks for your thoughts.
Excellent conclusion. I took a psych major along with my other major, and well remember that at that time the hardest course we had was statistics. That is the one that kept some people from graduating. Also in one of my classes the highest grade was 50% so the prof graded over again on a curve.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Hi Janet! Statistics is the prerequisite for exper. psych, and quite easy in comparison. In exper. you learn which statistical analysis to usr for each exper. design. Much more in depth than just math. Thanks for your comment.
Hi, Janet,
How ironic that a statistics exam should be marked (presumably) on the infamous but reliable bell curve!
Hi,
I seem to be able to store the main fact/s an have to research the fill in data like dates and names. I do better with physical laws before they get too complex.
Best Wishes
Reg
More about my interests here.
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CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Hi Reg! The whole is always greater than the sum of it's parts. If you can comprehend the concept, you will know its parts. Thanks for your comment.
Mike's common sense comes through again! I'm only a high school graduate, and the rest of my limited knowledge comes from the school of hard knocks, but what you wrote makes sense.
Thanks for sharing.
Best wishes.
Frederick
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