Keys to Effective Learning - Softcover

Carter, Carol

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0136321917 ISBN 13: 9780136321910

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 1997

Synopsis

This book focuses on developing effective learning techniques to help readers excel in school, in their careers and throughout their lives as lifelong learners. Unlike traditional study skills books, this one emphasizes how readers learn effectively by involving them in the active process of mastering their mental abilities and their personal confidence. Success in all areas of life is emphasized. Enables readers to focus on how work in school contributes to employability in the workforce and presents opportunities to compile important work-related information for use in job searches and in the workplace itself. For readers interested in honing their learning and thinking skills and apply these skills to their career search and development.

About this title

About the Author:

Carol Carter is Vice President, Director of Student Services for the College Learning Network. She has also been Director of Faculty Development at Prentice Hall for the last six years. She has written Majoring in the Rest of Your Life: Career Secrets for College Students and Majoring in High School. She has also coauthored Keys to Preparing for College, Keys to College Studying, The Career Tool Kit, Keys to Career Success, Keys to Study Skills, Keys to Thinking and Learning, and Keys to Success. She has taught welfare-to-work classes, team taught in the La Familia Scholars Program at the Community College of Denver, and has conducted numerous workshops for students and faculty around the country. She is the host of the Keys to Lifelong Learning Telecourse, a 26-episode telecourse to help students at a distance prepare for college, career, and life success. In addition to working with students of all ages, Carol thrives on foreign travel and culture; she has been fortunate enough to have been a guest in 40 foreign countries. Please visit her website at www.caroljcarter.com.

Joyce Bishop holds a Ph.D. in psychology and has taught for more than 20 years, receiving a number of honors, including Teacher of the Year for 1995 and 2000. For five years she has been voted "favorite teacher" by the student body and Honor Society at Golden West College, Huntington Beach, CA, where she has taught since 1987 and is a tenured professor. She has worked with a federal grant to establish Learning Communities and Workplace Learning in her district and has developed workshops and trained faculty in cooperative learning, active learning, multiple intelligences, workplace relevancy, learning styles, authentic assessment, team building, and the development of learning communities. She is currently teaching online and multimedia classes, and training other faculty to teach online in her district and region of 21 colleges. She also coauthored Keys to College Studying, Keys to Success, Keys to Thinking and Learning, and Keys to Study Skills. Joyce is the lead academic of the Keys to Lifelong Learning Telecourse, distributed by Dallas Telelearning.

Sarah Lyman Kravits comes from a family of educators and has long cultivated an interest in educational development. She coauthored Keys to College Studying, The Career Tool Kit, Keys to Success, Keys to Thinking and Learning, and Keys to Study Skills and has served as Program Director for LifeSkills, Inc., a nonprofit organization that aims to further the career and personal development of high school students. In that capacity she helped to formulate both curricular and organizational elements of the program, working closely with instructors as well as members of the business community. She has also given faculty workshops in critical thinking, based on the Thinktrix critical-thinking system. Sarah holds a B.A. in English and drama from the University of Virginia, where she was a Jefferson Scholar, and an M.E A. from Catholic University.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

OWNER'S MANUAL

Please Read This First

You are living in a world of enormous change, a world where technology turns imaginative visions into reality, where people from every land and culture are in communication with one another, where new opportunities are created as quickly as old opportunities fade away. Your world may seem bright with promise, or it may seem to be a confusing array of choices—what to study, what career to pursue, vat lifestyle to adopt, what to value, what to believe.

There are two essentials for getting where you want to go. The first is awareness. Only when you are aware of information, possibilities, and choices can you hope to take what you need from them. The second is motivation. Even the most aware person is only halfway there without the determination and drive to achieve goals. Both awareness and motivation are part of you right now—your job is to activate them as you pursue your future.

AWARENESS

Become Aware of the Ways This Text Can Help You Succeed

Keys to Effective Learning will help you maximize the time and effort you put into your education. Becoming aware of the keys of this text before you start reading will help you jump-start your drive toward success.

KEY #1: STUDY SKILLS. This edition contains updated study-skills chapters, with a brand-new chapter on quantitative thinking (math, science, and technology), as well as expanded coverage of reading, studying; and library and Internet research. Now there is even more information to help you take in, remember, and use what you learn in college.

KEY #2: AN EMPHASIS ON LIFELONG LEARNING. If what you study in this course only helped you read textbooks and pass tests, its usefulness would end at graduation, and you would have to start all over to learn how to deal with the real world. The ideas and strategies that help you succeed in school are the same ones that will bring success in your career and personal life. Therefore, this book focuses on success strategies as they apply to school, work, and life, not just the classroom.

KEY #3: SKILLS THAT PREPARE YOU TO LEARN. Success in any course depends upon your building a base of preparation that allows you to be the best student you can be. The following skills will fill the bill.

• Thinking skills. Being able to remember facts and figures won't do you much good at school or beyond unless you can put that information to work through clear and competent thinking. Chapter 4 will introduce you to the mind actions that enable you to use information to solve problems, make decisions, and plan strategically.
• Learning styles. There is no one "right" way or "wrong" way to learn—each person has a unique learning style with its own strengths and challenges. Chapter 3 will help you identify your learning style and formulate strategies to make it work for you.
• Goal setting and time management. Being able to identify priorities and go after your goals through effective time management often means the difference between success and immobility. You'll learn valuable goal setting and time management skills in Chapter 2.

KEY #4: DIVERSITY OF VOICE. The world is becoming increasingly diverse in ethnicity and race, culture, lifestyle, perspective, choices, and more. Because one point of view can't apply to everyone, many voices will speak to you from the following features on these pages:

• Windows on the World, a feature that appears in every chapter, involves real-life students asking questions that affect their lives. Experts and other students give advice to help the students meet their challenges.
• Examples throughout the text deal with the situations and stresses that various students face—working while in school, parenting, dealing with financial problems, and much more.
• Finally, a summary word or phrase from a non-English language at the end of each chapter will invite you to consider how an idea from another culture might apply to your own life.

Become Aware of the Exercises and Features That Will Help You Learn

As you scan each chapter, you will find the following features, each of which is designed to help you master chapter content and apply what you have learned to your own life and future:

• Thinking It Through. This exercise encourages you to evaluate your attitudes and knowledge before you read each chapter. Reviewing your completed checklist after you finish the chapter will help you pinpoint changes in your ideas and knowledge.
• Thinking Back/Thinking Ahead. This question-and-answer feature provides a quick review of what you just read in the first half of the chapter (Thinking Back) and a preview of what's to come in the remainder (Thinking Ahead).
• Important Points to Remember. To further solidify what you have read, a summary helps you focus on the critical information in each of the chapter's major sections.
• End-of-Chapter Exercises: Building Skills for College, Career, and Life Success. Today's graduates must be effective thinkers, team players, writers, and strategic planners. This exercise set will encourage you to develop the following valuable skills. The exercises include:
• Critical Thinking: Applying learning to Life encourages you to apply critical thinking to chapter content as the content relates to your personal needs and goals.
• Teamwork: Combining Forces gives you an opportunity to interact and learn in a group setting, building your teamwork and leadership skills in the process.
• Writing: Discovery Through Journaling gives you the chance to express your thoughts and develop your writing ability.
• Career Portfolio: Charting Your Course helps you build a career portfolio by gathering evidence of your unique qualifications, experience, and progress. By the end of the semester, you will have a packet of information that will help you focus your career search to find a fulfilling job.

MOTIVATION

Now that you are aware of what is available to you within these pages, the next step depends on your motivation—your ability to get yourself moving toward your goal. In this case, being motivated means first reading and studying Keys To Effective Learning and then taking action to use what you have learned, so that you can create options and opportunity in your life.

You are responsible for your education, your growth, your knowledge, and your future. If you know yourself, choose the best paths available to you, and follow them with determination, you will earn the success that you deserve in school, the workplace, and your personal life. We can offer helpful suggestions, strategies, ideas, and systems, but ultimately it is up to you to use them. So start now. Take whatever fits your unique situations, needs, and wants, and create the life you want to lead. You've made a terrific start by choosing to pursue an education-now you can build the future of your dreams.

About this edition

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0136321917
• ISBN 13: 9780136321910
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 535