Making the transition to university is hard. There are many reasons for this, including living on one’s own, probably for the first time, being expected to make one’s own decisions, and adjusting to new academic pressures all without the sympathetic safety net of home. In addition, the study habits that worked in high school are no longer going to cut it. Part of the difficulty is that the expectations put on students in a university classroom are very different from those of high school. The game just elevated to a whole new level, which means figuring out new skills on the fly. All of a sudden students find themselves as a part of an active research community. As touched on in our ASTU class discussions, we are now expected to contribute to the collection of new knowledge that comes out of UBC each year.

In high school, one generally succeeded by memorizing information and then regurgitating it back onto a piece of paper during a test. However, on my first day of Introduction to Political Science here at UBC, Professor Erickson informed my class that we could memorize everything in the textbook and we might end up with a C in the class. In order to succeed in his class, we would need to not only know the information but be able to interact with it and expand upon it. Creating our own thoughts about material is just as important, if not more important, as understanding his take on the material.

Pictured below is a visual representation of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Up until this point, my fellow students and I have been happily using the skills described at the bottom of the pyramid, focusing on remembering and understanding information, and maybe occasionally stretching ourselves to apply our new knowledge. However, nothing new would ever be discovered if everybody relied on only learning old information. As students entering college, it is now our time to analyze, evaluate, and even create new knowledge. This requires us to think differently and at a higher level.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/vandycft/29428436431

According to a case study called Higher-order Thinking in a College Course by Josué López (https://www.nactateachers.org/attachments/article/563/JosueLopez_NACTA_Journal_December_2001-3.pdf) “The public is becoming increasingly aware of the need for students to develop the higher-order thinking abilities needed to cope with the exigencies of living in modem society.” In essence, we must learn higher level thinking skills, like analyzing, connecting, and predicting, in order to contribute to our ever advancing world. If high school was a training ground for college, then it is only natural to view college as a training ground for the job market. If we can learn to think at a higher level then we will not only be better prepared for the world after university, but one day we might find ourselves being cited instead of being the ones always doing the citing.