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College is a critical stage in life. This is because entering college is when you finally put aside the burden of the college entrance examination and start chasing your ideals and interests for the first time. This is the first time you leave family life and participate in group and social life independently. This is the first time you no longer simply study or memorize theoretical knowledge from books, but have the opportunity to practice it while learning theory. This is the first time that your parents no longer arrange everything in your life and study, but you have enough freedom to deal with various problems encountered in your life and study, and to control all your own time.
College is a critical stage in life. This is because this is the last opportunity in your life to receive education in a systematic way. This is the last time you can devote yourself to building your knowledge base. This may be the last stage of your life in which you can devote a large amount of time to learning. It may also be the last growth process in which you can have high plasticity and focus on enriching yourself. This may be the last time you can be in a relatively tolerant and ideal environment where you can learn how to behave.
College is a critical stage in life. At this stage, all college students should carefully grasp every "first time" and let them become the cornerstone of their future life; at this stage, all college students should also cherish every "last time" and not let themselves be in trouble. I will regret it in the distant future. During the four years of college, everyone should work hard to weave life dreams for themselves, clarify their direction of struggle, and lay the foundation for their career.
Everyone only spends four years in college once. Four years in college should be spent like this...
The way of self-study: from drawing inferences from one example to learning without a teacher
I remember when I was a teaching assistant at Columbia University, a parent of a Chinese student complained to me: "What on earth are you teaching in your university? My child has finished his sophomore year in the computer science department, and he can't even use VisiCalc[1]." "
I replied at the time: "Computers are developing at a rapid pace. We cannot guarantee that any technology taught in universities will still be useful five years later, and we cannot guarantee that students can learn every technology. and tools. What we can guarantee is that your child will learn to think and master the method of learning, so that no matter what new technology or new tools appear in five years, your child will be able to handle them with ease. ”
She then asked: "Learning the latest software is not education, so what is the essence of education?"
I replied: "If we forget everything we have learned , what is left in the end is the essence of education.
What I said at that time comes from the famous saying of educator B. F. Skinner. The so-called "what is left" is actually the ability of self-study. The ability to draw inferences from one example or learn from others without a teacher. College is not a "vocational training class", but a platform for students to adapt to society and adapt to different jobs. During college, it is important to learn professional knowledge, but more important is to learn to be independent. Only in this way can college graduates adapt to the ever-changing future world. I know many friends who came to the United States to study as graduate students after studying in China. They think that after coming to the United States, whether it is study or work. What they lack most in life is the ability to think independently because they rarely think and make decisions independently in China.
When they were in middle school, the teacher would repeat the key content of each lesson again and again. After entering college, teachers will only act as guides, and students must learn, explore and practice independently. After entering the workplace, self-learning ability becomes more important. Microsoft once made a statistic: In every situation. Only about 10% of the knowledge content mastered by a Microsoft employee was accumulated in the past study and work. The other knowledge was relearned after joining Microsoft. This data fully shows that a person lacks self-learning ability. It is difficult for people to gain a foothold in a modern enterprise like Microsoft.
Self-learning ability must be developed during college. Many students always complain that the teachers do not teach well and do not know much, and the school curriculum is not good. Reasonable. I usually advise these students: "It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness." College students should not just follow the teacher, but should take the initiative to walk in front of the teacher. There are usually dozens of pages of information in the textbook, and it is impossible to learn all the knowledge through just listening in class. The best way to learn is to think through the relevant issues in the textbook before the teacher lectures, and then follow up. Compare your own deficiencies in understanding and understanding with the teacher's explanations in class.
When middle school students learn knowledge, they are more interested in "remembering" knowledge, while college students should require themselves to "understand" knowledge and be good at asking questions. For every knowledge point, you should ask a few more "whys". Once you truly understand the ins and outs of a theory or method, you can learn other knowledge, solve other problems, and even achieve the state of self-taught without a teacher.
In fact, many problems have different ideas or perspectives. When learning knowledge or solving problems, don't always stick to one mode of thinking, and don't let yourself become a slave to textbooks or experience.
Only by daring to innovate in learning and being good at thinking about problems from a new perspective can students' potential thinking, creative and learning abilities be truly stimulated.
"Book of Rites·Xue Ji" says: "Studying alone without friends will lead to loneliness and ignorance." In other words, college students should make full use of the talent resources in the school and absorb knowledge and methods from various channels. If you meet a good teacher, you can take the initiative to ask them for advice, or ask them to recommend some extracurricular reference readings. In addition to senior professors, young teachers, doctoral students, master's students and even classmates in universities are the best sources of knowledge and learning partners. Everyone has a different understanding and understanding of the problem. Only by helping each other and learning from each other can everyone make progress together.
Some classmates once told me that they envied me having a master who had won the Turing Award to teach me when I was studying. In fact, although I admire my teacher very much, he did not teach me much professional knowledge during college. He just pointed out the general direction for me, let me share his experience, provided me with research resources, and taught me how to be a human being. He did not have the time or need to guide me in specific professional knowledge. The professional knowledge I accumulated in college was acquired through self-study. When I first started, I blushed many times and asked my seniors for the most basic knowledge. I asked many superficial questions during meetings and discussions. In my spare time, I also took the initiative to discuss and discuss with my classmates. "Three people walking together must have my teacher." College students are surrounded by good teachers and helpful friends. As long as we cherish these rare opportunities, ask bold questions, and discuss things frequently, we can learn the most useful knowledge and methods.
College students should make full use of libraries and the Internet to develop independent study and research skills to prepare for future work or further study. First of all, in addition to studying the courses prescribed by the teacher, college students must learn to search for books and documents in order to have access to a wider range of knowledge and research results. For example, when we discover a topic that interests us in a class, we should actively go to the library to check relevant literature to understand the ins and outs of the topic and current research trends. Proficient and full use of library resources is one of the essential skills for college students, especially those interested in scientific research. When studying, you should try to read as many original English textbooks as possible. Some original textbooks are written in simple and easy-to-understand terms, with plenty of examples, making them more suitable for self-study than Chinese textbooks. Secondly, in addition to books, the Internet is also a huge resource library. College students can use search engines to find all kinds of information online. Half a year after the "Kaifu Student Network" was launched, I found that many students actually do not have a good grasp of Internet search skills. Sometimes the questions they ask can be easily answered by simply searching in a search engine. Some students easily believe in rumors on the Internet and do not use search engines to check and verify them themselves. In addition to search engines, there are many websites and communities on the Internet that are also good learning grounds.
When studying on your own, don’t be complacent just because you’ve met the school’s requirements, and don’t think that it’s enough to do well in college. Today in the 21st century, talent has become an international concept. When you are satisfied with your results, I suggest you start studying some courses from top international universities on your own. For example, the open courses of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States have been released online for free. You may wish to take a look at MIT's online courses and take MIT's online test questions. When you can master MIT courses with ease, you can face international challenges with more confidence.
In short, being good at drawing inferences from one instance and learning to teach yourself without a teacher is the best gift you can give yourself in the four years of college