by: Dev Sri
http://www.articlecity.com/
Long ago, there was a time, when parents told children to read slowly and loudly to understand everything they read.
A lot of things have changed. Today's children have bigger syllabi to learn. Now, learning experts and teachers ask students to read faster and grasp important points.
Here are a few tips for students who have a lot to learn, but very little time.
Make a Timetable
Your timetable should have separate time for eating, playing games, exercise, reading newspaper and study materials. You should not only make a timetable, but also should stick to it.
Give priority to leisure and games in the afternoon, but separate early morning time for studies. Make sure you read all the class notes before you go to bed.
While allotting time to different subjects, allot more time to difficult subjects. You need only less time for the subjects that are easier for you to learn.
Taking Notes
Taking notes is an important part of learning. You need to take lecture notes (classroom notes) and notes from your textbook.
- Go through the lessons on the day before your teacher would teach it in the class. This gives you an idea of what to expect.
- Write down important ideas as bullet points. One word or a phrase is enough to include an idea.
- Give prominence to important ideas by underlining them in your notes.
- Leave lot of space in each face of paper. This will help you add new points later.
- Organize your notes into separate files. Each subject should have a different file. Label the outer page of the file with name of the subject and your teacher. You should also neatly organize each file according to chapters and topics.
- Read the notes (important points) in the night, before going to bed. Read only once. This helps you memorize the lessons clearly.
- While taking notes from a book, label the name of the book and author. Also, note the page number next to your notes. It makes it easy for you to refer to the book three or six months later.
Reading Techniques
You need to read fast and grasp more things. Here are some pointers to fast reading.
- Note the name of the book and its author in the reading log.
- Take a quick look from cover to cover to identify the important chapters.
- Take a quick look over the chapter, identify the important points, and note them down.
- Read the lesson fast. To increase the speed of learning, pass your eyes through the top of the letters and not through the centre. For example, while reading, pass your eyes through the area where the dot above the letter i appears and not through the loop of the letter o.
- Don't take notes while reading.
- Don't go back to read a word or a sentence. If you don't get the idea of the subject, you can come back to the sentence after you finish reading the chapter. Never look up a dictionary while in the middle of reading a chapter. Refer dictionary only if you don't automatically understand the meaning of a word after finishing the paragraph and the chapter.
- Note down the points you remember. Now check if you have taken all the important points, with another fast reading.
How to increase memory
Try to understand completely what you read or hear.
Repeat what you hear or read in your mind.
Make notes of what you learn at school or read from books. A single word can help you remember a whole idea.
Give number to the points.
Don't try to bring to memory all the things you have learned. Learn the technique of bringing to memory one thing at a time.
How to increase concentration
Mental concentration is important to memory and better learning.
Stick to your reading timetable. You should separate a specific place and specific time of the day for reading.
Sit erect. It increases your concentration.
Don't allow disturbances like phone calls, music etc while reading.
Concentrate on the lessons you read. Don't think about the next book you have to read while you are reading a book. A better way is to make an order of the books and lessons to read and arrange them in order before you start reading.
Immediately after reading a paragraph, try to recall the idea from that paragraph. This helps you concentrate more on your reading.
Ideal conditions for reading/learning
A silent location that you don't use for sleeping, eating or leisure purposes is the most ideal condition for reading.
Install a fluorescent tube light in the reading room. This helps mild light to fall evenly all over the room. Don't sit in the darkness while reading. If you use table lamp, arrange it towards your left if you are a right-hander.
Arrange the papers, pencils, boards and books on the table before you start reading.
Never try to read while you are tired or ill.
Eat healthy food rich in carbohydrates, proteins and fibres. Replace fast food, pizza, burger, chocolates, ice creams, etc with fresh fruits, whole grain food items (like chapatti), milk, fruit juices, etc.
Exercise daily. Swimming, cycling and jogging are good for students. Practise yoga. It increases concentration and willpower.
Don't watch TV. Instead, play some games in the outdoors. While TV makes you dumb, the games make you smarter.
Read lot of books. Read classic stories, fables (like Aesop fables, Panchatantra stories, etc), etc. Don't spend too much time on comic cartoons.
Learning Tips for Students
Summary of Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
http://www.quickmba.com/
In his #1 bestseller, Stephen R. Covey presented a framework for personal effectiveness. The following is a summary of the first part of his book, concluding with a list of the seven habits.
Inside-Out: The Change Starts from Within
While working on his doctorate in the 1970's, Stephen R. Covey reviewed 200 years of literature on success. He noticed that since the 1920's, success writings have focused on solutions to specific problems. In some cases such tactical advice may have been effective, but only for immediate issues and not for the long-term, underlying ones. The success literature of the last half of the 20th century largely attributed success to personality traits, skills, techniques, maintaining a positive attitude, etc. This philosophy can be referred to as the Personality Ethic.
However, during the 150 years or so that preceded that period, the literature on success was more character oriented. It emphasized the deeper principles and foundations of success. This philosophy is known as the Character Ethic, under which success is attributed more to underlying characteristics such as integrity, courage, justice, patience, etc.
The elements of the Character Ethic are primary traits while those of the Personality Ethic are secondary. While secondary traits may help one to play the game to succeed in some specific circumstances, for long-term success both are necessary. One's character is what is most visible in long-term relationships. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say."
To illustrate the difference between primary and secondary traits, Covey offers the following example. Suppose you are in Chicago and are using a map to find a particular destination in the city. You may have excellent secondary skills in map reading and navigation, but will never find your destination if you are using a map of Detroit. In this example, getting the right map is a necessary primary element before your secondary skills can be used effectively.
The problem with relying on the Personality Ethic is that unless the basic underlying paradigms are right, simply changing outward behavior is not effective. We see the world based on our perspective, which can have a dramatic impact on the way we perceive things. For example, many experiments have been conducted in which two groups of people are shown two different drawings. One group is shown, for instance, a drawing of a young, beautiful woman and the other group is shown a drawing of an old, frail woman. After the initial exposure to the pictures, both groups are shown one picture of a more abstract drawing. This drawing actually contains the elements of both the young and the old woman. Almost invariably, everybody in the group that was first shown the young woman sees a young woman in the abstract drawing, and those who were shown the old woman see an old woman. Each group was convinced that it had objectively evaluated the drawing. The point is that we see things not as they are, but as we are conditioned to see them. Once we understand the importance of our past conditioning, we can experience a paradigm shift in the way we see things. To make large changes in our lives, we must work on the basic paradigms through which we see the world.
The Character Ethic assumes that there are some absolute principles that exist in all human beings. Some examples of such principles are fairness, honesty, integrity, human dignity, quality, potential, and growth. Principles contrast with practices in that practices are for specific situations whereas principles have universal application.
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People presents an "inside-out" approach to effectiveness that is centered on principles and character. Inside-out means that the change starts within oneself. For many people, this approach represents a paradigm shift away from the Personality Ethic and toward the Character Ethic.
The Seven Habits - An Overview
Our character is a collection of our habits, and habits have a powerful role in our lives. Habits consist of knowledge, skill, and desire. Knowledge allows us to know what to do, skill gives us the ability to know how to do it, and desire is the motivation to do it.
The Seven Habits move us through the following stages:
1. Dependence: the paradigm under which we are born, relying upon others to take care of us.
2. Independence: the paradigm under which we can make our own decisions and take care of ourselves.
3. Interdependence: the paradigm under which we cooperate to achieve something that cannot be achieved independently.
Much of the success literature today tends to value independence, encouraging people to become liberated and do their own thing. The reality is that we are interdependent, and the independent model is not optimal for use in an interdependent environment that requires leaders and team players.
To make the choice to become interdependent, one first must be independent, since dependent people have not yet developed the character for interdependence. Therefore, the first three habits focus on self-mastery, that is, achieving the private victories required to move from dependence to independence. The first three habits are:
• Habit 1: Be Proactive
• Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
• Habit 3: Put First Things First
Habits 4, 5, and 6 then address interdependence:
• Habit 4: Think Win/Win
• Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
• Habit 6: Synergize
Finally, the seventh habit is one of renewal and continual improvement, that is, of building one's personal production capability. To be effective, one must find the proper balance between actually producing and improving one's capability to produce. Covey illustrates this point with the fable of the goose and the golden egg.
In the fable, a poor farmer's goose began laying a solid gold egg every day, and the farmer soon became rich. He also became greedy and figured that the goose must have many golden eggs within her. In order to obtain all of the eggs immediately, he killed the goose. Upon cutting it open he discovered that it was not full of golden eggs. The lesson is that if one attempts to maximize immediate production with no regard to the production capability, the capability will be lost. Effectiveness is a function of both production and the capacity to produce.
The need for balance between production and production capability applies to physical, financial, and human assets. For example, in an organization the person in charge of a particular machine may increase the machine's immediate production by postponing scheduled maintenance. As a result of the increased output, this person may be rewarded with a promotion. However, the increased immediate output comes at the expense of future production since more maintenance will have to be performed on the machine later. The person who inherits the mess may even be blamed for the inevitable downtime and high maintenance expense.
Customer loyalty also is an asset to which the production and production capability balance applies. A restaurant may have a reputation for serving great food, but the owner may decide to cut costs and lower the quality of the food. Immediately, profits will soar, but soon the restaurant's reputation will be tarnished, the customer's trust will be lost, and profits will decline.
This does not mean that only production capacity is important. If one builds capacity but never uses it, there will be no production. There is a balance between building production capacity and actually producing. Finding the right tradeoff is central to one's effectiveness.
The above has been an introduction and overview of the 7 Habits. The following introduces the first habit in Covey's framework.
FROM DEPENDENCE TO INDEPENDENCE
Habit 1: Be Proactive
A unique ability that sets humans apart from animals is self-awareness and the ability to choose how we respond to any stimulus. While conditioning can have a strong impact on our lives, we are not determined by it. There are three widely accepted theories of determinism: genetic, psychic, and environmental. Genetic determinism says that our nature is coded into our DNA, and that our personality traits are inherited from our grandparents. Psychic determinism says that our upbringing determines our personal tendencies, and that emotional pain that we felt at a young age is remembered and affects the way we behave today. Environmental determinism states that factors in our present environment are responsible for our situation, such as relatives, the national economy, etc. These theories of determinism each assume a model in which the stimulus determines the response.
Viktor Frankl was a Jewish psychiatrist who survived the death camps of Nazi Germany. While in the death camps, Frankl realized that he alone had the power to determine his response to the horror of the situation. He exercised the only freedom he had in that environment by envisioning himself teaching students after his release. He became an inspiration for others around him. He realized that in the middle of the stimulus-response model, humans have the freedom to choose.
Animals do not have this independent will. They respond to a stimulus like a computer responds to its program. They are not aware of their programming and do not have the ability to change it. The model of determinism was developed based on experiments with animals and neurotic people. Such a model neglects our ability to choose how we will respond to stimuli.
We can choose to be reactive to our environment. For example, if the weather is good, we will be happy. If the weather is bad, we will be unhappy. If people treat us well, we will feel well; if they don't, we will feel bad and become defensive. We also can choose to be proactive and not let our situation determine how we will feel. Reactive behavior can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. By accepting that there is nothing we can do about our situation, we in fact become passive and do nothing.
The first habit of highly effective people is proactivity. Proactive people are driven by values that are independent of the weather or how people treat them. Gandhi said, "They cannot take away our self respect if we do not give it to them." Our response to what happened to us affects us more than what actually happened. We can choose to use difficult situations to build our character and develop the ability to better handle such situations in the future.
Proactive people use their resourcefulness and initiative to find solutions rather than just reporting problems and waiting for other people to solve them.
Being proactive means assessing the situation and developing a positive response for it. Organizations can be proactive rather than be at the mercy of their environment. For example, a company operating in an industry that is experiencing a downturn can develop a plan to cut costs and actually use the downturn to increase market share.
Once we decide to be proactive, exactly where we focus our efforts becomes important. There are many concerns in our lives, but we do not always have control over them. One can draw a circle that represents areas of concern, and a smaller circle within the first that represents areas of control. Proactive people focus their efforts on the things over which they have influence, and in the process often expand their area of influence. Reactive people often focus their efforts on areas of concern over which they have no control. Their complaining and negative energy tend to shrink their circle of influence.
In our area of concern, we may have direct control, indirect control, or no control at all. We have direct control over problems caused by our own behavior. We can solve these problems by changing our habits. We have indirect control over problems related to other people's behavior. We can solve these problems by using various methods of human influence, such as empathy, confrontation, example, and persuasion. Many people have only a few basic methods such as fight or flight. For problems over which we have no control, first we must recognize that we have no control, and then gracefully accept that fact and make the best of the situation.
SUMMARY OF THE SEVEN HABITS
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Change starts from within, and highly effective people make the decision to improve their lives through the things that they can influence rather than by simply reacting to external forces.
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Develop a principle-centered personal mission statement. Extend the mission statement into long-term goals based on personal principles.
Habit 3: Put First Things First
Spend time doing what fits into your personal mission, observing the proper balance between production and building production capacity. Identify the key roles that you take on in life, and make time for each of them.
Habit 4: Think Win/Win
Seek agreements and relationships that are mutually beneficial. In cases where a "win/win" deal cannot be achieved, accept the fact that agreeing to make "no deal" may be the best alternative. In developing an organizational culture, be sure to reward win/win behavior among employees and avoid inadvertantly rewarding win/lose behavior.
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
First seek to understand the other person, and only then try to be understood. Stephen Covey presents this habit as the most important principle of interpersonal relations. Effective listening is not simply echoing what the other person has said through the lens of one's own experience. Rather, it is putting oneself in the perspective of the other person, listening empathically for both feeling and meaning.
Habit 6: Synergize
Through trustful communication, find ways to leverage individual differences to create a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. Through mutual trust and understanding, one often can solve conflicts and find a better solution than would have been obtained through either person's own solution.
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
Take time out from production to build production capacity through personal renewal of the physical, mental, social/emotional, and spiritual dimensions. Maintain a balance among these dimensions.
How Mind Mapping Comes About ?
by Rowan Theodore
Goarticles.com
Centrally located key word or idea is surrounded or encircled with links to depict some kind of thoughts or words or assignments or concepts in diagrammatic representation is called mind mapping. Usage of mind mapping utilized in learning, problem solving, decision making , organization and also writing to create, imagine, construct and classifying concepts.
Mind Mapping has parts that are formed instinctively with respect to the significance of the ideas and classifications are made as groups, branching or areas with an aim to depict semantics or other connecting elements between information portions. Mind mapping also helps for the recollection of memories existing.
Exhibiting concepts in a non dimensional way with radial and graphical manner, mind mapping derive solutions to problems of programming and tasks for organizations. Although the areas of a mind map exhibit tree like hierarchical structures but their arrangement shown in a radial manner changing hierarchical arrangements typically associated with straight visual signals. This depiction in solving problems inspires users to relate and connect ideas without inclination to start within a specific ideological frame works. Mind Mapping differs from Concept mapping. Mind Mapping involves hierarchies based radially and tree formations relates to connections with centrally located nucleus idea. Concept mapping is more of connecting ideas in more different ways.
Educationists, psychologists, engineers and doctors used mind mapping for centuries in understanding, problem solving, and imagination and so on. Earliest forms of mind maps was created by a notable thinker of third century named Porphyry of Tyros with graphical representation he had depicted Aristotle. Ramon Llull a famous philosopher used mind mapping (1235-1315). In the late 1950s semantics study was developed to study human understanding with developers Allan Collins and M. Ross Qullian found mind mapping during 1960's. With dedication and commitment to work along with studying, developing also graphical manner Allan Collins is recognized as father of the modern mind mapping.
Renowned British author of psychology Tony Buzan asserts that he found modern mind mapping. He drew the inspiration from Alfred Korzybski's very popular in general semantics with science fiction stories. Tony Buzan claims while readers reading in traditional form see left to right and top to bottom but in mind mapping readers really tends to study the entire page in single dimension. British popular psychology author Tony Buzan claims to have invented modern mind mapping. He claimed the idea was inspired by Alfred Korzybski's general semantics as popularized in science fiction novels, such as those of Robert A. Heinlein and A. E. van Vogt. Buzan argues that while 'traditional' outlines force readers to scan left to right and top to bottom, readers actually tend to scan the entire page in a non-linear fashion. Buzan makes with assumptions on cerebral hemisphere to promote the exclusive mind mapping over the other note making forms.
Mind mapping is still in use for various applications include studying and education involving Mind webs, Webs or Webbing, programming and in engineering diagramming. Mind mapping has one central word located at the centre with links formed radially with tree structures and differs from Concept Map developed in 1970s
Tony Buzan
From Wikipedia
Tony Buzan
Tony Buzan (1942—) is an author and educational consultant.[1] He is a proponent of the techniques of Mind Mapping and mental literacy.
Buzan was born in London, is an alumnus of Kitsilano Secondary School, and received double Honours in psychology, English, mathematics and the General Sciences from the University of British Columbia in 1964. He is probably best known for his book, Use Your Head, his promotion of mnemonic systems and his Mind Mapping techniques. He launched his own software program to support mind mapping called iMindMap in December 2006. His website, Buzan World, cites trademarks on the phrase 'Mind Maps' which he has registered in many countries.
Following his 1970s series for the BBC, many of his ideas have been set into his series of five books: Use Your Memory, Master Your Memory, Use Your Head, The Speed Reading Book and The Mind Map Book. He has since authored or co-authored over 100 books.
Most of his teaching generally divides up into: general awareness of the extensive capabilities and capacities of the brain and its functions, memory skills, reading skills, Mind Map note-taking and note-making, creativity, and how brain function can be improved over time into old age.
Buzan developed Mind Mapping whilst at university, out of the frustration that traditional notes took up so much time to create and review. He has argued that Mind Maps are an efficient way to take notes from lectures or books. His brother Barry Buzan, who co-wrote The Mind Map Book, suggested the technique could also be used to capture notes from one's own creative ideas and is useful in business.
As a popular psychology author, Tony Buzan has written on subjects relating to the brain, genius quotient (GQ), spiritual intelligence, memory, creativity and speed reading. He is the founder and President of the Brain Foundation (not to be confused with various medical-related bodies with the same name) and also the Brain Trust Charity, the World Memory Championships and the World Championships of the Brain. He was a co-founder of London's Mind Body Spirit festival as well as the Mind Sports Olympiad.
Tony's brother Barry is currently Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and uses Mind Maps to prepare both his lectures and his many books on the subject.[citation needed]
