Senior computer engineering major
We do lots of things in college, but the assumption is that we are here to learn. And we do — I know new things at the end of each day, things I did not start the day knowing. If we kept a list of what we learned every day of college, the size of that list after four years would be impressive.
However, I fear that I don’t retain all that I learn, and that far too much of what I learn each day slips from my mind over time. Today I was looking at my transcript and thinking about the classes I have taken since freshman year. There are lots of classes listed: introductions to fields, distributive studies and the classes that make up my major. What do I remember from that sophomore year seminar or that elective?
I couldn’t tell you the trends in global film theory, or remember what the hell I did in chemistry or find a Thevenin equivalent circuit (apparently I used to be smart). If I took a few minutes to review, maybe it would come flooding back to me, but if I took the final exams today, I would flunk, no matter how well I did originally. I suspect the same is true for my classmates and all the more so for alumni, further removed from the courses they took in college.
We are here to learn, and it is good to remind ourselves that we are learning every day. But learning is more than accumulating days of new knowledge. It takes weeks to work up to insight and months for understanding, and over the years, learning changes who we are and how we see the world.
When I reflect on my weeks and months and years, I find that I have learned. But my accumulated learning is not in the form of more facts memorized or even more theories understood. I have become better at critical thinking, better at analysis and explanation, better at planning and better at executing ideas. I have formed a worldview, informed by countless lingering impressions and themes of classes that resonated with me.
Most of those things I learned on the side, tangential to class material. A great part of it I learned outside of class entirely, through writing for The Diamondback or working with student groups or talking with friends. A few classes have stuck with me; the brief time I spent in those classrooms, for one reason or another, changed who I was. Most classes were not this way.
What does this mean? For one, it tells me the facts and figures I memorize for my exams probably don’t mean much in the long run. GPA matters to some people, so maybe it is worth the work. When I am planning how to spend my time, however, it is better to focus on things that will actually change how I think. It also means that in the classroom, I ought to be focusing on the bigger themes that will stick with me for five or 10 years.
Even if the facts fall away, I can remember large concepts and frameworks of thought and see how they play out in the world. I can focus on the connections from my classes to my life, so pieces of what I learn will float back up when I see their applications.
To our professors, lecturers and administrators: What goals do you have for your students’ learning beyond the semester? Is the fleeting moment on final exam day when the class knew the material worth it in itself, or are your goals to teach things that last? How can you change your teaching and the way the institution works so that we retain the important pieces in the long run?
I am learning, more slowly than it sometimes appears. I hope you are too.
