How to be an active learner

Most of these good ideas come from a helpful little book, Striving for Excellence in College: Tips for Active Learning, by M. Neil Browne and Stuart Keeley (2d ed., Prentice Hall, 2001, ISBN: 0-13-022058-2). If you're serious about your college career, I recommend reading more from it.
  • Active Learners are:"curious, eager for challenges, feeling responsible for their learning, desiring to improve their learning potential, looking forward to finding new information, confident that they can learn." [Striving, p. 14] Active learners function as intellectual inquirers rather than partisan idealogues. They evaluate and analyze evidence rather than forming conclusions based on pre-conceived biases.
  • What is an excellent college student? "a student, like you, who is preparing for a life of continual learning and who knows that the primary habits of mind required for such a life require an understanding of how to squeeze meaning from the confusing multitude of facts, ideas, and experiences. Central to this search for meaning are two fundamental skills: (1) the ability to think critically, to distinguish sense from relative nonsense and (2) the ability to think creatively, to generate new ideas and connections among ideas." [Striving, p. 2. Both these qualities are necessary to conceive and write quality interpretations of the historical past.]

    How can I function as an active learner?

    1. "Accept personal responsibility for your learning." I've created a learning environment that invites, indeed requires, you to be an active learner. You do not sit passively, listening to Prof. Slatta lecture (F2F or via video). You do what historians do! "It is only through well-constructed and well-delivered learning experiences that students will become adept at the skills and content necessary for productive, well-rounded lives." (Jeff Halstead, Navigating the New Pedagogy, 2011: 106)
    2. Focus on the process of learning, not just the results.[Quality learning is a journey, not a destination.]
    3. Two important parts of the learning process are self assessment (learning to evaluate your own work critically) and peer assessment (learning to evaluate the work of others).
    4. Take risks to build self-confidence. [Stretch yourself.]
    5. Tolerate your mistakes [and learn from them. Striving, pp. 14-15.]
    6. View doubt as an essential ingredient for excellent in college. . . . . Take pride in doubt." [If you already know it all, why are you here?]
    7. Embrace ambiguity; certainty is rare. Other than in basic math functions, certainty rarely exists. Don't just look for right answers; ask intriguing questions.
    8. Treat answers as beginnings, rather than endings.
    9. Use the library [and other resources] to challenge your most certain beliefs." [Striving, pp. 40-42].