Saturday, January 12, 2013

大學生知道了沒

你學到了什麼,比你拿幾分更重要

何謂成功 何謂失敗

Thought on success: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2009/2/23/thoughts-on-success-students-can-be/
Students can be very tough on themselves. It concerns me that some carry a very narrow definition of success and others see asking for help as a sign of weakness. Years ago, freelance writer Linda Weltner shared the following story attributed to Norris Lee in The Boston Globe: 

A lecturer stands in the front of a class of overachievers, holding a 1-gallon wide-mouth mason jar. He fills it with good-size rocks, then asks the group, “Is this jar full?” The audience agrees that it is. 

“Oh, really?” he asks. He pours in several handfuls of gravel. “Is the jar full now?” The audience is doubtful. Probably not. He pours a handful of sand into the jar, filling it to the brim. “How about now?” he asks. Not yet. He pours in a pitcher of water. 

“OK,” he asks. “What’s the lesson to be learned here?” 

“Well,” says a man sitting near the front, “you’ve just demonstrated that no matter how full your schedule is, you can always fit more in.” 

“You’re absolutely wrong,” says the teacher. “The point I’m making is that if you don’t put the rocks in first, you’ll never get them all in.” 

This story says a lot about success. Harvard educators have more than education as a job; they must help students identify what the “rocks” in their world are at any point. By “rocks,” I mean the things a student wants to place high priority on when assessing progress made or distance still to go. Students want to be successful, but too often they see success in a limited way (for instance, a near flawless transcript) or they don’t really know what they are working toward. 

In high school, it was simpler. Students pushed to assemble records that would get them into top colleges. With tougher competition in college, it becomes more difficult to achieve the near flawless transcript. And, with many more post-graduate options, it is difficult to feel a clear sense of direction. 

In the past, when I have asked advisees what they want to be sure gets into the jar, or what they will use as a marker of success, they have thought hard. Some responses come to mind: I want to feel like I fit in personally and have one or two really good friends; I want to make strong progress in identifying a concentration; I want to interview my grandmother, whose health is failing, in order to begin to write a memoir. These responses have given the students a personal compass and a chance to look back at the end of the year with—more often than not—a sense of accomplishment and self-worth. That awareness has mattered hugely. 

My second concern is about the act of asking for help. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, a poet and psychoanalyst, made the following statement: “Asking the proper questions is the central action of transformation. Questions are the key that causes the secret doors of the psyche to swing open.” I know that it can be hard to ask questions or to acknowledge that you don’t have the answers that appear critical to move forward. But, it is important to remember that this is a complicated place and this is a complicated period of one’s development. We think more—not less—of students who ask questions and who take advantage of the myriad resources and support services here. Doing so suggests a kind of agency or taking charge that is both appropriate and applaudable and that contributes significantly to the achievement of success.


行使你的教育自主權:

從接受的角色轉換為主張的角色
如果你能用熱忱與殷切的好奇心去學習,自然能完成那些達到好成績之前,所必須要的苦差事
善用教授們訂出的輔導時間
與教員們密切聯繫 : 在哪些課堂上較可能與教授建立私交?可以主動挑選這種課
在教室以外的地方開啟與faculty的學術對話/非學術對話
握有學習的主控權,進行策略性的思考,展現你的自制力,小心審慎哪些事重點,該在何時完成
懂得方法的學生不會試著把所有東西都塞進腦子裡,以為這樣就可以好好吸收,而是選擇特定的學習方式,屆此管理自己所吸收的資訊。在念書時,為什麼我要念這些東西?我從中應該學到什麼?他們能幫我回答什麼問題?透過我的學習與練習將來我有辦法解決什麼難題?

邁向成功的三個關鍵:
設定個人目標
培養學習策略
做計畫(找出阻礙你的原因,並且把它排除掉)

時間管理並不只是跟避免拖拖拉拉有關,他的經隨是,你必須主動管理,你怎樣使用時間這種最珍貴的資源。分析你是怎麼消耗掉一整天的。估算一下自己在一週之內做了哪些事。打開一個你自製的電子表格,在左邊欄位列出以半小時為單位的時間,頂端列出七欄代表七天。寫下你覺得在哪個時間點應該要做的事。把每件事花了多少時間都寫下來上課練習吃飯與同學碰面上網逛臉書睡覺。不要有所遺漏,包括運動玩樂看電視,在這些活動之間,你必須插入25~35小時的空檔溫習功課。
第二步驟是精確記入實際做的事情,當然不會百分百一樣誰都有發呆分心的時候,人生也有許多無法預期與計畫之外的事。重點是看出你與理想的計畫相差多遠。

提早一點起床,在上課前念書或溫習筆記,如果課堂間有一小時空檔,他們會坐下來念書而不是喝咖啡,聊天發呆。我認識的一些最有成就的學生,他們把白天時間當成在上班。這種觀念跟校園文化相反,大部分學生都是晚上七點才開始念書,然後一直念過午夜,如果你平均一天上三小時的課,那麼你等於是把八小時的白天時間浪費在學業以外的事情上面。你可以先把工作做完,然後好好享受剩餘的時光。

問你的授課老師,他們對於修課學生會提出哪些學習建議,請教那些跟你修同一門課但是表現較好的同學,問他們是怎樣吸收教材的。

把問題寫下,期中考試題也袋了,圈出他還不懂的地方,他先想好要做些什麼,把問題以及他不懂的一些關連列出來,大衛讓教授可以把注意力擺在一組特定的問題上,事後他可以獲得更多了解教材的洞見,

Friday, January 11, 2013

三本很受啟發的書

Outliers: the story of success
好上加好的馬太效應
一萬小時的努力
天才的迷思

上哈佛學到的事
每天讀四個小時的書,然後睡五個小時的覺。其他時間就去練舞或是練舞台劇。
就算是結果相同的事,也要做的與眾不凡。
追求最好的,盡最大的努力。而且一開始就要為了盡最大努力追求最好而祈禱。
想要有效率讀書,第一步就是要保留一段不受他人妨礙,數個小時的完整讀書時間。
和教授親近
真正的自信,是來自於將困難克服的那一刻。一再挑戰自己的極限,也將自己的能力做最大的延伸。
所謂不可能是不努力的人找的藉口
brown bag lunch
將時間好好安排,做真正想做的事情(像一間吃到飽餐廳,如果傻傻地想到什麼就吃什麼,很有可能會吃壞肚子,或是塞進一堆沒營養的東西,等看到真正美味的食物時,大概也吃不下了)
在哈佛待了一年之後,我用不同的角度審視我自己。以前的我只希望有所不同,希望變得更好,但卻不知道應該先從改變自己開始。每年都在同一塊土地上撥下相同的種子,用同樣的方式耕種,然後奢望今年比往年更豐收,簡直像個懶惰又貪心的農夫,如果每年都種一樣的農作物,久了地力就會逐漸損耗,這時就要採取休耕或是轉種其他作物,一直到地力恢復為止,這是另一種意義的領土擴張。用更具創意及生產立的方式來開發既有的土地,這點遠比擴大佔地更重要。也因此,一定要懂嘗試用不同的角度來看待相同的事物,只有想法改變,並不會讓結果有所不同。必須在行動及生活習慣上做改變,才可能有不同的結果。我們應該練習如何努力才能達成願望。
努力也是需要練習的,嘗試過的人才知道如何努力,光有決心是不夠的,
成就也一樣,要先知道如何成就小事,這樣才有可能成就大事

Talent is overrated. What really separates world-class performers from everybody else
我比別人更認真 刻意練習 讓自己發光
刻意練習是專為突破現狀,更上層樓而設計的活動,他挑戰你的心智,需要教練從旁協助
多年密集的刻意練習訓練會改造身體和大腦,讓卓越者比多數人感知更多,知曉更多,記憶更多
確知目標和方向:顯而易見卻值得深思的第一步:在於知道你想做什麼,這裡的關鍵字不是什麼,是知道。卓越之路需要經理多年的嚴苛考驗,若非全心全力投入,誰都不可能達成。你比需明確知道你想要做什麼,而不是覺得,傾向或考慮自己要做什麼
自發練習必須集中在上午,由於練習如此辛苦,這些小提琴家必須精確安排固定作息時間才能大量練習