很多時候，學習方法的重要性不亞於知識本身。當我們面對難以理解的新信息和概念時，我們每個人都會用不同的方法去理解和吸收這些信息。當學生在學習時，不論他學的是物理還是語言，他所用到的學習方法可以決定他以後的學術生涯是否成功。而對大學來說，他們也更傾向於招收具有強大學習技能的學生。
Alot of times how you learn something can be as important as what you learn. Weall have our own ways to process new information and ideas. When we encounternew information that’s difficult to understand, we have different ways to tryto understand and absorb the new information. The way a student learns asubject, whether it’s physics or language, can determine his success later inhis academic career, and universities look for students with strong studyskills that help them to be successful.
作爲一名招生顧問，我在上一個申請季遇到了一個十分有趣的文書題目-- “討論一件讓你感到不安的藝術、文學或科學作品”。 我的一位學生選擇了“薛定諤的貓”作爲主題。我們經常會在高中物理教科書裏看到這個課題，所以我很不希望她寫出一篇很老生常談的文書。於我而言，我想在文書中凸顯出她是一個在課堂之外也是對閱讀如飢似渴的人，而不是她總置身於各種量子物理的複雜思維實驗中。但她對於第二個想法的熱情似乎更高，所以我也就接受了她的想法。當我收到初稿時，我以爲她會給我一篇關於假設實驗設置的冗長描述，以及對神祕結論同樣冗長的解釋。雖然她的文書確實包含了一些以上的內容，但她在留學文書寫作meeloun論文網中的自我反思也相當有趣的。她承認，她和其他人一樣對貓怎麼能同時既活着又死了感到困惑，兩件相反的事情是如何同時發生的呢？她在文書中描述了想要想通這個問題有多難。試圖去理解這件事給她的智力上帶來了很多焦慮，而這段經歷卻也給她留下了深刻的印象。於是我盡了我招生顧問的職責，刪除了她文書開頭的幾段，幫助她根據最後一段寫出大綱，並告訴她下次再給我一份草稿。
An interestingprompt I encountered as an admissions consultant this past season was to“discuss a work of art, literature or science that unsettled you”. The studentwas a young lady with a very interesting background who choose the topic ofSchrodinger’s cat. I didn’t want to see her write several hundred words about atopic that routinely appears in every high school physics textbook. Rather thanget entangled in some convoluted thought experiment on quantum physics, Iwanted to show that she has read voraciously outside of the cla***oom. I waswilling to entertain the idea simply because she was very enthusiastic. When Ireceived the rough draft, I expected a lengthy description of the hypotheticalexperimental setup and an equally prolonged explanation of the arcaneconclusion. While I certainly got some of that, her reflection was quiteinteresting. She admitted that she was just as perplexed as the next person asto how the cat could be alive and dead at the same time, and she described thedifficulty of trying to wrap her head around that idea. Trying to understandhow two opposite things can be true at the same time has caused her a fairamount of intellectual anxiety and this experience had left an impression onher. As a responsible admissions consultant, I deleted the first fewparagraphs, helped her come up with an outline based on the last paragraph, andtold her to bring me another rough draft next time. high quality essay writing service on essay.lxws.net
我很慶幸我沒有阻止她寫這個話題，即使這個話題可能會把她塑造成一個亞洲書呆子形象。在她的研究中，她遇到了一些讓她困惑的事情，因爲這隻貓挑戰了她的信念--即兩個相反的事實不可能同時是真實的。我認爲這篇文章可以寫得很好，因爲它抓住了她邏輯的基本原則在智力上受到挑戰的時刻。雖然剛開始她對這個概念很不解，但最終她還是要發揮她最大的能力去理解它。我爲什麼要講這個故事？爲什麼這樣的事情會在經常在學生和老師之間發生？確實，這個故事表面上看是她在學習物理，但她也從中學會去接受一個她不能完全理解的觀點。作爲一個受過教育的成年人，我認爲第二部分比第一部分重要得多。事實上，這個世界上有很多矛盾，人們需要學會如何處理它們。我敢說，大部分讀過這篇文章的人現在都過着充實的成年生活，而他們早已遺忘高中時代對盒子裏假想的貓的細節。
I am glad Ididn’t stop her from writing on a topic that I thought would typecast her as anerdy Asian student. In her studies, she had come across something thatstumbled her because the cat had challenged her belief that two opposite factscannot both be true. I thought this could make a good essay because it capturesthe moment when a basic tenet of her logic is intellectually challenged. Shewas confused by this but in the end has to process the idea to her mind’s bestability. why am I telling this story? Why should incidents such as this stickout in the numerous student teacher interactions that goes on everyday? Yes,she was learning physics but she also learned to accept an idea she could notfully understand. As an educated adult, I would argue that for most practicalpurposes the second part was a much more important lesson than the first part.The truth is there are many contradictions in this world, and a person needs tolearn to deal with them. I would further venture to say that a most readers ofthis article have long forgotten the details of the hypothetical cat in the boxfrom their high school days and lives a fulfilling and productive adult life.
通過以上兩部分經歷可見，相對於物理課本身的內容來說，現在的教育體系（包括教師、學生和家長）對學生如何吸收新思想的智力體驗這一部分關注相對較少。這就是爲什麼我一開始不太贊成她選擇的話題。當然，內容和智力體驗都很重要，非要說哪一個更重要沒有任何意義。學生必須吸收學校所教的內容，但他們也應該看重這種經歷。然而，就現在而言，相對於智力體驗，知識本身還是會得到更多的重視。
Given these twoparts of the learning experience, the education system, including teachers,students and parents, pay relatively little attention to the intellectualexperience of how students absorb new ideas compared with the content of thephysics lesson. This is why I initially didn’t quite approve of her choice oftopic. Of course both the content and the intellectual experience are bothimportant, and to say either is more important would be an invalid statement.Students must absorb the content of what is taught in school, but they shouldalso appreciate the experience. However it is quite fair to say that thecontent get disproportionately more consideration than the learning experienceof working through that content.
語言學習也是一個很好的例子。學生必須牢記大量的詞彙和語法，雖然記憶是語言訓練的一個必要部分，但學習者需要有效、靈活、甚至巧妙地運用語言，才能真正掌握它。換句話說，語言使社會互動成爲可能，但真正要掌握語言還是需要理解社會環境。通過了解每個人在互動中如何傳遞信息，可以讓我們更熟練地使用語言。因此，當學生必須使用不完善的詞彙進行交流時，反思是很重要的一步。他們應該考慮如何用有限的詞彙儘可能表達出他們的意圖。如果他們在交談中出現了錯誤，這將非常有助於學生了解其原因，因爲學生必須要了解自己是怎麼使用語言的，以及他的聽衆是如何理解他的話的。然而，當溝通中出現錯誤時，人們往往會立即關注詞彙和語言機制，而不去關注怎樣更有效溝通。很少有老師思考如何能幫助學生在詞彙量有限的情況下更好地去傳遞信息。相反，他們只是要求學生去記住更多單詞，而這些單詞學生在實際口頭或書面交流中根本不會使用到。
Languagetraining illustrate the situation quite well due to the huge amount ofvocabulary and grammar that must be committed to memory. While memorization isa necessary part of language training, true mastery of a language comes fromthe ability to effectively, flexibly and even artfully use the language. Inanother words, language enables social interaction and true mastery requiresunderstanding of the social context. The skillful use of language is betterlearned through understanding how each person in the interaction transmitsinformation. Therefore, it is important for students to reflect on incidenceswhen they must communicate using imperfect vocabulary. They should think abouthow to get their message across with the limited vocabulary they have. If thereis a miscommunication, it would be extremely helpful for the student tounderstand its causes. In order to do so, the student must be aware of his ownlanguage use as well as how his audience perceive his words. However, when amiscommunication occurs, attention more often placed immediately on thevocabulary and the mechanics of the language rather than effectivecommunication. Little thought is place on how to help the student to improvethe way they deliver the message using the words they already have. Instead,each day they are asked memorized more words they do not how to use in realverbal or written communication.
那麼，誰應該更關注智力學習體驗呢？這當然是學生的責任，但單靠學生是無法使智力學習得到更多關注的。因爲長久以來，他們的注意力總是更多地集中在學習內容上，所以我們不能期望學生突然理解這種學習經歷的意義。以我剛開始提到的那位學生爲例，雖然她的困惑可能促使她寫一篇關於這次經歷的文章，但她仍然不能完全將這次經歷融入到她的長期學術生涯中。她太喜歡關注例子中的細節，而不是思考這種經歷如何適用於生活的其他方面。幫助學生更仔細地思考他們的學習經歷，培養批判性思維習慣，這對於信息密集的學術環境是非常必要的。關注大學招生的讀者可能已經注意到，前面提到的文書題目正是弗吉尼亞大學所用的文書題目。和任何文書題目一樣，我們要去思考爲什麼招生人員認爲這個題目很重要，這可以幫我們找到一些方法來解決這個題目。
So who shouldpay more attention to the intellectual learning experience? This is certainlythe responsibility of the student, but he should not be expected to go downthis path alone. Students cannot be expected to understand the significance ofsuch learning experiences especially since their focus has always directedtowards the mechanics of content. Take the student in the example given at thebeginning, while the intensity of her perplexity may have triggered her towrite an essay about the experience, she was still not able to fullycontextualize the experience and apply it to her long term academic career. Sheis too like to focus on the details in the example than to think about how thisexperience applies to contradictions in other parts of life. Helping studentsto think more circumspectly about theirlearning experience develops critical thinking habits necessary for ainformation dense academic environment. Readers who keenly follow collegeadmissions may have noticed that the essay prompt mentioned in the earlier isused by University of Virginia in its application. As with any essay prompt,some thought about why the question is deemed important by admissions officerscan shed some light on possible ways to approach the prompt.