Let me start off by saying that I'm not a big reader, and you'd probably never see me sitting down reading a book just for fun. However, let me say that the best advice I heard about college this week came from our very own IS 101 Reader, in the excerpt by Schwartz. In his excerpt, Schwartz identifies two main tactics of learning, mastery learning and performance learning. These two types of learning vary greatly with how content is absorbed and how well it is digested in the individual's mind. He conducted an experiment with his own college class to see if anyone still wanted an education just for the sake of learning without any reward. Surprisingly enough, he discovered that many students were more worried about the grade than the content of the class. This is the definition of performance based learning. I would have to consider myself a performance learner because that was the way I was raised up to be. I had always strived to keep a 4.0 GPA all through high school while managing four sports, and I did but I'd have to admit it was mostly for the scholarship and recognition at the end.
As a collegiate student now I have found out that being a performance based learner is not the path to be taking. Grades do mean a lot to me, and a lot to my major because I need them to further my education. However, I need to be more focused on learning the material and applying it to real life situations so I can buil a strong understanding of what I'm being taught. I need to become a mastery learner. I need to develop the skills to apply and memorize the crucial details of my subjects that will make me most successful in the future. With that also comes the enjoyment of just learning to learn, anjoy the challenges of discovering new ideas that will further me in my goals in the medical field. This excerpt was a great eye opener for me, and has definately changed my views on my classes, and why I'm here to get the education that I need to be great.
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