I often get the question:
How do I study for this class?
… and in the past I’ve sometimes struggled to answer that question because everyone learns differently. With this in mind, I’ve developed the following chart to help students figure out how best to study for this class given their personal learning style.
This chart is modeled based on research indexing different kinds of learning styles across four dimensions (active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, visual/verbal, and sequential/global). This model was formulated by Richard M. Felder and Linda K. Silverman. Later, Richard M. Felder and Barbara A. Soloman developed an assessment tool for learning about a respondents’ learning preferences.
As the first part of this assignment, you should take this assessment here, and review your results against the descriptions of the dimensions here.
Once you’ve reviewed your results, you can reference the following chart to see what I recommend in terms of your studying. Importantly, you should check out the study tips along all four dimensions (i.e. identify where you stand in each row of the table below). In the Study Plan assignment posted in Moodle, reflect on which study tips seem like they will be most supportive to you in 200-300 words.
It’s important to note that these are just suggestions for directing your study habits. As with all indexes, this one has its limits. In writing up your response, focus on those suggestions that speak to you! Later in the semester, you will have an opportunity to reflect on how studying is going and adjust as necessary. Remember that I’m here to help you figure out how best to navigate this course!
| More Active (learn by doing) |
Be sure to complete all course lab assignments. Active learners will get a lot out of these! Work through practice problems in the course text. Ask tutors in the Spinelli Center if they can help you work through practice problems. Bonus: Find online tutorials related to the course standards, and see if you can follow along to complete them in R. Bonus: Reach out to me for some good practice datasets and see if you can apply the coding skills we are learning to those datasets! |
More Reflective (learn by thinking) |
While reviewing reading materials and lecture notes, see if you can stop and write short paragraphs summarizing a course concept or what is happening when we use certain functions in R. Ask tutors in the Spinelli Center if they can help you talk out a particular concept. Find a friend and see if you can explain a challenging course concept to them. …or see if you can explain the concept to me in office hours! Form a study group and build in time to talk through challenging course concepts with each other. |
| Sensing Preference (preference for learning facts) |
When reading the course texts, you may pay extra attention to the sections where the authors walk through real world examples where certain data science tools would be applied. Ask tutors in the Spinelli Center if they can walk you through a concept by showing a real world example of where it would be applied. If course material is feeling too abstract, ask me to give an example where it may be applied in the real world in class or in office hours. |
Intuitive Preference (preference for learning theories and relationships) |
When reading the course texts, you may pay extra attention to the sections where the authors explain the meaning, rationales, and theories behind course concepts and tools and how they relate to one another. Ask tutors in the Spinelli Center if they can walk you through a concept by explaining its meaning and function and how it gets applied. If course material is feeling too rigid or mechanical, ask me to explain the theories behind certain functions in class or in office hours. |
| More Visual (learn by seeing) |
Be sure to pay close attention to diagrams and images in course reading assignments and lecture slides. If you’re not following along with a concept in lecture, ask me if we can pause and draw it out on the white board. Ask tutors in the Spinelli Center to help you draw a diagram or image to explain a challenging concept. As you are reviewing lecture notes and readings, see if you can summarize a challenging concept by drawing a diagram or schematic of the concept. For instance, you might draw what happens to a data frame when you applying a certain wrangling verb. There are often really helpful icon diagrams in R cheatsheets. I will do my best to always link relevant cheatsheets in course lab assignments. |
More Verbal (learn by hearing and saying) |
Watch my lab recaps in Perusall and ask questions when you are struggling to understand a concept from the lab. If you’re not following along with a concept in lecture, ask me if we can pause and explain the concept in a different way. Ask tutors in the Spinelli Center if they can explain a concept in a different way. Form a study group so that you can listen to other students explain course concepts. Find YouTube videos that explain course concepts that you are struggling with. Bonus: DataCamp offers a number of courses on topics we will cover in the course, and students can create a free account! You may wish to work through a DataCamp course related to a concept you are struggling with. |
| More Sequential (learn step-by-step) |
Ask tutors in the Spinelli Center if they can walk you step-by-step through a practice problem. Identify practice problems that you struggled with in labs or in class, and write out step-by-step how you would tackle that problem. Review quiz questions you got incorrect by working with a classmate to write out the steps to the correct answer. Ask me to explain the logic behind the steps we take to answer a certain problem in class or in office hours. |
More Global (learn big picture) |
Ask tutors in the Spinelli Center if they can help you draw connections between different course concepts and ideas. Create concept maps that show the relationships between different course concepts. Review quiz questions you got incorrect by working with a classmate to relate the question to another question you got correct or to another concept that you understand well. Ask me to explain how different course concepts and ideas connect to one another in class or in office hours. |