50 pages • 1 hour read
Ken BainWhat the Best College Students Do
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Deep Learning Versus High Grades
Today’s hurry-up society puts pressure on students to attend college, get good grades, and find well-paying jobs. This approach turns higher education into a system that merely accredits people for work, but the real purpose—and the real opportunity—of college is the chance to think deeply and learn widely.
Many students study for the test rather than for understanding. Doing so can bring them high grades, but the knowledge they acquire is superficial and won’t do them much good in the wider world. A better approach is to become curious about the material to be studied, to wonder about it, ask questions, try to prove or disprove its assertions, discuss it with others, write about it, study outside experts’ descriptions of it, and compare it to other fields of study. This process often leads a student to explore related subjects and, sometimes, to discover an area that ignites enthusiasm and passion—a field that may become that student’s concentration. Sometimes it may appear as if the student has wandered away from the material on which she or he will be tested, although Bain promises: “Anyone who concentrates on deep learning, however, can make high marks” (10). Deep learning provides students with a more thorough and better-interconnected understanding of the material, which also helps them at test time.
The real value of deep learning, however, isn’t as a study aid. Deep learning has a way of changing students’ perspectives, not only on the big questions that the material raises, but also on the students’ views of the world and life. It fosters a more open-minded attitude coupled with a rigorous demand for solid evidence and proof, and it leads to a more disciplined, logical way of thinking about and analyzing information. Deep learning also engages students’ creative powers and encourages innovative problem solving.
A student whose college experience involves deep learning will enter the work world not merely as someone who can spit out facts but as someone who can think coherently about those facts and use them to create new and useful solutions to any sort of challenge, from the problems that crop up on the job to the great challenges that confront humanity. Students interviewed by the author who engaged in deep learning generally graduated to become “dynamic and innovative men and women who changed the world in which they lived” (4).
Deep Learning as a Process
It’s hard to define deep learning, since it entails so many aspects of thinking, and the process is unique to each student. For everyone, however, this type of education goes far beyond mere memorization toward a comprehensive encounter with the subject matter. Deep learning is a process, a journey rather than a destination. Several traits and attitudes empower the deep learning approach:
Curiosity: The feeling of curiosity isn’t just for children; it’s for anyone who wants to discover new ideas and new ways of thinking. Successful students wonder at the information, ideas, theories, and attitudes they encounter in their fields of study. They pursue their interests and let themselves be lured in by the intriguing nature of the material. For them, a sense of wonder awakens the desire to know more, and soon they’re “riding their curiosity into a wonderland of intellectual adventure and imagination” (37).
Questions: A serious student asks lots of questions—of professors, fellow students, and the material itself. Good questions lead to answers that open up the subject matter to further understanding. A well-placed question can stimulate deep conversation and lead to innovative ideas and discoveries. As Nobelist Paul Samuelson said, “Good questions outrank easy answers” (21).
Skepticism: Deep-learning students learn not to take anything at face value but to examine thoroughly the claims and evidence on which theories and opinions are based. These students debate issues and theories, taking turns defending one side or another; this practice helps refine understanding and increases precision of thought. Students also find themselves doubting their own beliefs, taking them apart in a search for bias and simplistic thinking.
Complexity: Many important topics are too complex for easy answers; some may have no final answer at all. These ill-structured problems, including ethical dilemmas, political controversies, and deep philosophical topics, yield very slowly to persistent thought, research, and argument, but the process adds strength to students’ powers of thought and depth to their perspective on important issues.
Perspective: One of the best ways to understand a subject is to read deeply in other subjects. Every field has its own way of looking at large questions and problems, and the methods of one field often can be applied in another. The mind can’t help but compare, for example, physics and chemistry or literature and philosophy. The different ways that the arts and sciences regard a tree, a sunset, a war, or a love affair can add dimension to learning and creativity to problem solving. Paul Baker’s class Integration of Abilities brought together theater, painting, writing, geometry, and philosophy to create mental challenges that enlarged the thought range of his students.
Self-care: Deep learning takes hard work and has its share of pitfalls. Every student encounters a class that feels overwhelming, and every field of study contains theories that strain even the ablest minds. At these times, it’s best to nurture oneself by remembering that there’s always a way through tough material; that intelligence isn’t fixed but can grow with practice, and, as Stephen Colbert puts it, “a failure just extends for as long as you conceive of it as important” (53).
Responsibility: Learning changes the learner, and sometimes a student learns that she or he doesn’t have the enthusiasm to persist in a particular field, or that another subject of study has taken its place in their heart. In these cases, there’s no shame in switching commitments, as long as it’s done with care. The deepest commitment, though, is to the educational experience. When students take control of that process and accept responsibility for getting the results they want, a temporary lapse of interest—or a test failure or late paper or financial problem—will be met head-on with determination and the willingness to push through toward the goal.
Deep learning goes well beyond simple memorization to encompass the immense world of knowledge, ideas, and thought. It is an open-ended process: Its purpose isn’t to find final answers but to explore ever farther into the fathomless realm of the great topics. A great deal of information will be acquired during this experience, but the greater benefit is the ability to think effectively and productively—to see the world with a new and ever-expanding perspective.
Purpose and Community Involvement
Students can learn narrowly, pass exams, and graduate to do narrow work in a narrow field. This will pay the bills until that limited knowledge becomes obsolete in a time of fast-changing technology. It’s far better to pursue education not as a meal ticket but as a way of empowering a much larger purpose that contributes to others.
Most of the people described in the book—students who studied deeply and widely and went on to success in life—chose areas of study that supported their growing commitment to helping humanity. After retiring from a career in basketball, Will Allen drew on his college perspectives to create food growing and distribution centers that help inner-city residents improve their nutrition and take more control of their urban life. Mary Ann Hopkins let her curiosity run wild while growing up and later in college; she became an MD and joined Doctors Without Borders to help bring medicine to beleaguered communities around the world.
Tom Springer discovered his passion to write in college, got a master’s degree, and wrote and produced projects that aired on National Public Radio; later, he managed the Kellogg Foundation’s outreach program, which reconnects children to nature. David Protess found a vibrant college community of people who thought deeply about social fairness; later, as a professor, he developed study groups that campaigned to free unjustly convicted death row inmates; in the process, they helped bring down the Illinois death penalty. Mount Sinai School of Medicine made a commitment to admit more liberal arts graduates; they found these enrollees not only did as well or better than science majors, but also “more frequently chose primary care specialties” (212) that are vitally needed in community healthcare facilities.
The deep learning that the book’s profiled students undertook taught them to transcend their own biases, both intellectual and social, and to look at difficult problems freshly. In most cases, this experience instilled in them a lasting compassion for the downtrodden and a yearning to use their own education in service to those trapped in unfair or neglectful social systems. Students who chose scientific careers later found ways to aim their efforts toward solving problems faced by humanity, including issues faced by the underserved people of the world. A high purpose inspires wide education, and wide education inspires compassion; thus, deep learning tends to guide students toward goals that involve helping people.
