How To Think Within the Ideas of a Subject!!..

Learning to think within the ideas of a subject is like learning to perform well in basketball, ballet, or on the piano. Thinking within the ideas of a subject at an advanced level without disciplined practice is as unnatural to the human mind as sitting down at a piano and spontaneously playing Chopin’s Polonaise.

Unfortunately, many classes do not highlight how to think within the ideas of the subject. Merely receiving lectures on the content of a subject will not teach you how to think within its ideas. You must therefore set out to discover how to think within biology, how to think within chemistry, how to think within economics, etc. You will not discover this thinking by cramming large masses of partially digested contents of a textbook or sets of lectures into your head. Here is what we recommend.

Recognize that you are seeking a new way to look at learning. Recognize that it will take time to become comfortable in this new perspective. Consider your task as a student to learn new ways to think. Stretching the mind to accommodate new ideas is crucial.

For example, if you are in a history course, your job is to learn how to think historically. Or, if you are in a writing class, your job is to learn to think like a skilled writer. Or, if you are in a Sociology, Psychology, Geography, Biology, Philosophy, or Chemistry class, you should be striving to think sociologically, psychologically, geographically, biologically, philosophically, or chemically. If you are in a Nursing, Engineering, or Architecture class, you should be attempting to think like a professional nurse, like an engineer, or like an architect. Your mind must stretch to be successful.

Recognize that there are key ideas behind the subject that give a unified meaning to it. Look up a variety of formulations of the essence of the subject (use dictionaries, textbooks, encyclopedias). Remember that you are looking for the ideas that give a unified meaning to the subject. What makes art, art? What makes science, science? What makes biology, biology? Try to find the common denominator of the various accounts. Ask your instructor for help.

Now relate every new idea (in the textbook or lectures) to the fundamental idea with which you have begun. The big idea with which you began should be in the background of all new ideas. Seek intuitive connections, connections that make complete sense to you.