Striving for Excellence in College: Tips for Active Learning (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

M. Neil Browne (Author), Stuart M. Keeley (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0130220582 | ISBN-13: 978-0130220585 | Publication Date: April 25, 2000 | Edition: 2

For courses in Study Skills and Freshman Orientation. This brief and reader-friendly text takes a practical, direct approach to teaching students to be more effective learners, by providing useful, immediate tips that can be used every day in almost every learning situation. It contains numerous concrete suggestions that any learner can use to accelerate achievement while in college, and encourages and helps students to take charge of their excellence in learning.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Takes a practical, direct approach to teaching students to be more effective learners by providing useful, immediate tips that can be used every day in almost every learning situation. It also provides a model of what it means to take our minds seriously. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

PREFACE

We can all learn how to improve our mental performance. We wrote this book to help you become more like the learner you want to be—productive and engaged. Besides encouragement, what we have to offer are tips that skilled learners already know and use to their benefit. We want you to know them, too.

We have faith in your curiosity and desire for self-improvement. But you need specific guidance from experienced learners to move your natural inclinations along. Learning is a process that uses particular skills and attitudes to expand your awareness and appreciation. These skills and attitudes do not fall into place just because you go to school or get a little older. We all need teachers to give us the clues and strategies that will allow us to reach a point where we can feel confidence about our capability to learn on our own.

This book is a gift to you from two teachers who are your partners in learning. In fact, as we wrote the book, we found ourselves reminded of many tips that we needed to use more frequently as we, too, continue to learn. For example, we both get lazy at times just like any learner and forget to take careful notes when we hear a wonderful speaker, read a moving passage, or discover for the first time a creative scientific experiment. We included so many tips for learning that we guarantee you will find several that will jumpstart your own learning. We hope this is a book that you will want to keep as a reminder of the many ways in which you can be a better learner tomorrow than you are today.

The aim of the book is not just learning, but excellence in learning. By excellence, we do not mean some lofty goal that only a few geniuses can hope to reach. Instead, we mean steady improvement toward your learning goals.

As you read this book, latch onto those tips that seem especially useful to you. The book is full of helpful hints, but you are the best judge of which ones will be beneficial as you continue to learn. We wrote the book so that college students, regardless of their current abilities, would finish the book with an expanded ability to think and learn more effectively, both during and after college.

This second edition has benefited from the constructive criticism of a number of students and teachers who used the first edition as a guide to excellence in college. In response to their suggestions and our own re-thinking, we have made the following changes in this new edition:

More examples of the active learning that Striving recommends. Speed bump boxes that attempt to model how an active learner is always trying to think against the grain. Active learning boxes that suggest how readers can practice what we are urging. End-of-the-chapter web sites and supplemental reading. Additional tips for active learning. More emphasis on the joy of active learning.

With these changes and the help of our readers, old and new, we offer this celebration of the active learner.

M. NEIL BROWNE
STUART M. KEELEY

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Product Details

• Paperback: 127 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 2 edition (April 25, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130220582
• ISBN-13: 978-0130220585
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,163,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much More Than A "Survival" Guide, August 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Striving for Excellence in College: Tips for Active Learning (Paperback)

After reading Browne & Keeley's ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS, I was intrigued. When I confronted STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE IN COLLEGE, I bought and read it, anticipating the same intellectual motivation I gained from ARQ. Without a doubt, STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE did anything but disappoint me.

In a society where education is undervalued and few students wish to make anything exceptional of their minds, STRIVING really stands out. I am used to college "survival guides" filled with tips as ridiculous as, "Go to class." or "Try not to cram ten chapters the night before the exam." Such books do nothing for a student who wishes not only to "survive" (almost anyone can do that), but also to excel. STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE IN COLLEGE, on the other hand, provides tips that engaged learners can benefit from. For example, rather than encouraging students to take notes ONLY on the "important" material (meaning material that ! will be on the test), Browne and Keeley encourage students to take notes that enable them to make new connections with other topics discussed in the class, as well as in other classes. Students who follow these tips will not only leave college with a superb GPA, but also with an elevated understanding of the world around them.

The tips withing STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE IN COLLEGE have enabled me to leave even the most poorly-taught college classes with something worth having. Additionally, the tips help to make classes more interesting. All in all, STRIVING has proved to be an important addition to my college experience. I have found it interesting, useful, and motivating. This book should be on ALL freshman reading lists.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Striving for Excellence in College, April 14, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Striving for Excellence in College: Tips for Active Learning (Paperback)

Excellent! This book is a wonderfully detailed guide for achieving college success. Returning to college after several years was intimidating, but this book provided step-by-step instructions for overcoming self-doubt and becoming a better student. Everything from taking notes, to surrounding yourself with folks who are also serious about learning is discussed and explained. I bought this book two years ago, and I'm graduating from undergrad and on my way to gradschool! The tips and suggestions definitely made me a better student. This is a great book for anyone who wants to get the most out of their college experience.

4.0 out of 5 stars This book strives to help you to become a strategic learner!, September 7, 2005

By 

Lee Say Keng "KNOWLEDGE ADVENTURER/TECHNOLOGY... (Ho Chi Minh City/Singapore) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Striving for Excellence in College: Tips for Active Learning (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

For the uninitiated, the lead author of this particular book (i.e. Neil Browne) is actually the same author of `Asking the Right Questions (ARQ): A Guide to Critical Thinking', which has gone through seven editions to become, I believe, a highly successful critical thinking guide for students. Its primary focus is critical analysis & synthesis of information. If you have read the ARQ book, then reading this particular book is quite a breeze.

In a nutshell, & with the deliberate merging of two synonymous areas - `critical thinking' with `active learning' -, this book strives to improve your mental performance in college. In essence, it strives to help you to become a strategic learner. A strategic learner always pursues excellence in his/her learning. He/she also always thinks through what he/she has learned.

The authors have very skillfully elaborated & artfully illustrated the pursuit of excellence in learning along the following three premises:

- your attitude affect your learning;
- your focus on knowledge about how to learn more effectively;
- your role in maximizing the external environment;

Under these three premises, the book chapters have been laid out as follows:

- Taking charge of your own learning (Chapter 2);
- Resisting the need to be entertained (Chapter 3);
- Resisting mental habits that interfere with active learning (Chapter 4);
- Taking pride in doubt (Chapter 5);
- Asking questions to help make sense of the reasoning (Chapter 6);
- Asking questions to evaluate the reasoning (Chapter 7);
- Asking questions that make connections (Chapter 8);
- Preparing for class where active learning takes place (Chapter 9);
- Taking notes for active learning (Chapter 10);
- Searching for clarity in texts, lectures, discussion & assignments (Chapter 11);
- Finding peers who respect active learning (Chapter 12);
- Adjusting to professors who seem not to encourage active learning (Chapter 13);
- Discovering multiple perspectives (Chapter 14);

As you can see from the chapter layout, there is natural progression as you learn & build on skills & knowledge, starting from the first chapter. The author is very generous with expert tips. I find them very practical indeed, even for working professionals. There is also quick review box at the end of each chapter.

For students, this is definitely a very good book to have with you.

This book is targeted at college students. I want to add that it is also useful for any adult pursuing academic work.

The authors' approach in writing this book is commendable: firstly, they give you a self-assessment; then help you to identify potential obstacles as you negotiate through college; & then, show you how to overcome them & finally, provide you with many possible solutions (tips) so that you can choose the ones that you think will work for you.

Chapters 5, 6, 7 & 8 are superbly written, as most of the materials have been drawn from the lead author's earlier work. For the student, Chapter 9, 10 & 11 will be most useful in helping you to enhance & reinforce your study habits in college. Chapter 12, 13 & 14 show you how to maximize your external environment.

My only adverse comment of this book is that Chapter 14 should have been expanded. In my view, this chapter is too brief. The authors should have put in more meat here. From the standpoint of mental performance, holding multiple perspectives (including contrary & conflicting ones) in one's mind at all times is a very important success trait, not only in college but also in the working world. I am often reminded by this quotation of F Scott Fitzgerald: " The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, & still retain the ability to function."