2013专八听力原文

2013听力原文 Section A What Do Active Learners Do? Good morning! Today I’ll discuss what is active learning and what do active learners do. In order to define active learning, I’ll look at the differences between active learning and passive learning by examining six characteristics of active learners and contrasting them with those of passive learners. Ok. Let’s start with the first characteristic. Active learners tend to read with the purpose of understanding and remembering. I bet that no one deliberately sits down to read with the purpose of not understanding the text. However, I’m sure that some of you have been in a situation, probably more than once, where you read, quote and unquote, an assignment, closed the text and thought “what the world was that about?” When you interact with the text in this manner, you are reading passively. Active readers, on the other hand, set goals before they read and check their understanding as they read. When they finish, they can explain the main points and know that they have understood what they have read. Now, the second characteristic of active learners is to reflect on information and think critically. Being reflective is an important part of active learning, because it means that you are thinking about the information. In other words, you are processing the information. For instance, you may make connections between the new information and what you already know, identify concepts that you may not understand very well, or evaluate the importance of what you are reading. An active learner reflects constantly in this way. In contrast, passive learners may read the text and listen to lectures and even understand most of what is read and heard, but they do not take that crucial next step of actually thinking about it. Let’s move on to the third one. The third characteristic is to listen actively by taking comprehensive notes in an organized way, like what you should be doing now. We lecturers are always amazed at the number of students who engage in activities other than listening and note-taking in their lecture classes. We’ve seen students reading newspapers, doing an assignment for another class, or chatting with a classmate. Perhaps the all-time winner for passive learning, however, was a student who regularly came to my class with a pillow and fell asleep. Unlike these students, active learners are engaged learners. They listen actively to the professor for the entire class period, and they write down as much information as possible. To be an active note-taker, you must be more than simply present. You have to think about the information before you write. The fourth characteristic is to get assistance when they are experiencing problems. Because active learners are constantly monitoring their understanding, they know when their comprehension breaks down, and they ask for help before they become lost. In addition, active learners often predict the courses (or even particular concepts within courses) that may give them trouble. They have a plan in mind for getting assistance should they need it. Active learners may seek assistance from their professors or peers. Although passive learners may seek help at some point, it is often too little, too late. In addition, because passive learners do not reflect and think critically, they often don’t even realize that they need help. The next characteristic is to question information. This means that active learners raise questions on information that they read and hear, while passive learners accept both the printed page and the words of their professors as “truth”. Of course, active learners don’t question everything, but they do evaluate what they read and hear. When new information fails to “fit in” with what they already know, they may differ in the conclusions th