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Students understand that success in college goes beyond just being smart.
At SASS we also recognize that it's not that simple
and have identified 5 factors contributing to academic success.
Knowing these factors will help you to be more efficient and effective in your efforts,
as well as more satisfied with your college experience.
The following highlights one of these factors. We hope that you find this
and videos on the other four factors to be helpful in your efforts on campus.
Academic Success
Factor 1 - Active Learning
What is Active Learning?
Active learning is all about learning through the experience of doing something.
While this may seem like common sense, there are complexities that make it challenging --
as they say, "Easier said than done."
Active learning is when we learn by doing something
(...not just thinking about it).
We see active learning all the time in our lives.
For example, getting behind the wheel of a car (instead of just reading about driving)
and practicing a new piece of music (instead of just studying the composition).
Drivers learn subtleties of acceleration and braking by actually getting behind the wheel,
while musicians gain a better understanding of the complexity of a piece
by actually playing.
When it comes to academics, it's important to understand the shift
from passive to active forms of learning.
This shift is described in a model called "Bloom's Taxonomy."
As you can see here, the first 2 levels of the model
(Knowledge & Comprehension)
are both forms of Passive Learning and common for testing in high school,
whereas the third level (Application)
is a form of Active Learning and more common for testing and evaluation in college.
From this perspective, taking exams in college
without active learning is like a pianist stepping on stage to perform a piece
of music they've studied but not practiced.
Just like the pianist, make your mistakes in practice (when they don't count),
Learn from them and crush similar questions on the exam.
Quick tip:
Applied approaches also improve memory of material, giving students who use them
even greater advantage.
The Bottom Line:
When it comes to college study it's not a question of whether you "need" to use
active learning strategies,
it's about maximizing your efforts. You should want to use these approaches. BE ACTIVE!