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Educational leaders are seeing with
increasing clearness the necessity of teaching students not only the
subject-matter of study but also methods of study. Teachers are
beginning to see that students waste a vast amount of time and form
many harmful habits because they do not know how to use their minds.
The recognition of this condition is taking the form of the movement
toward supervised study, which attempts to acquaint the student with
principles of economy and directness in using his mind. It is generally
agreed that there are certain tricks which make for mental efficiency,
consisting of methods of apperceiving facts, methods of review, devices
for arranging work.
Some are the fruits of psychological experimentation; others are
derived from experience. Many of them can be imparted by instruction,
and it is for the purpose of systematizing these and making them
available for students that this book is prepared.
The evils of unintelligent and unsupervised study are evident to all
who have any connection with modern education. They pervade the entire
educational structure from kindergarten through college. In college
they are especially apparent in the case of freshmen, who, in addition
to the numerous difficulties incident to entrance into the college
world, suffer peculiarly because they do not know how to attack the
difficult subjects of the curriculum.
But the college is not the most strategic point at which to administer
guidance in methods of study. Such training is even more acceptably
given in the high school and grades. Here habits of mental application
are largely set, and it is of the utmost importance that they be set
right, for the sake of the welfare of the individuals and of the
institutions of higher education that receive them later. Another
reason for incorporating training in methods of study into secondary
and elementary schools is that more individuals will be helped,
inasmuch as the eliminative process has not yet reached its culmination.
There is another group of students who need training in methods of
study. Brain workers in business and industry feel deeply the need of
greater mental efficiency and seek eagerly for means to attain it.
Their earnestness in this search is evidenced by the success of various
systems for the training of memory, will, and other mental traits.
Further evidence is found in the efforts of many corporations to
maintain schools and classes for the intellectual improvement of their
employees. To all such the author offers the work with the hope that it
may be useful in directing them toward greater mental efficiency.
In courses in Methods of Study in which the book is used as a
class-text, the instructor should lay emphasis not upon memorization of
the facts in the book, but upon the application of them in study. He or
she should expect to see parallel with progress through the book,
improvement in the mental ability of the students. Specific problems
may well be arranged on the basis of the subjects of the curriculum,
and students should be urged to utilize the suggestions immediately.
HOW TO USE YOUR MIND
·
CHAPTER I. INTELLECTUAL PROBLEMS OF THE COLLEGE FRESHMAN ·
CHAPTER II. NOTE-TAKING ·
CHAPTER III. BRAIN ACTION DURING STUDY ·
CHAPTER IV. FORMATION OF STUDY-HABITS ·
CHAPTER V. ACTIVE IMAGINATION ·
CHAPTER VI. FIRST AIDS TO MEMORY; IMPRESSION ·
CHAPTER VII. SECOND AIDS TO MEMORY: RETENTION, RECALL AND RECOGNITION
·
CHAPTER VIII. CONCENTRATION OF ATTENTION ·
CHAPTER IX. HOW WE REASON ·
CHAPTER X. EXPRESSION AS AN AID IN STUDY ·
CHAPTER XI. HOW TO BECOME INTERESTED IN A SUBJECT ·
CHAPTER XII. THE PLATEAU OF DESPOND ·
CHAPTER XIII. MENTAL SECOND-WIND ·
CHAPTER XIV. EXAMINATIONS ·
CHAPTER XV. BODILY CONDITIONS FOR EFFECTIVE STUDY ·
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