Tomorrow's Pharmacist October 1999 p20-23
Edited by Pamela Mason

Independent learning

A beginner's guide to independent learning

By Lindsay Taylor, MA (learning and teaching), MRPharmS

As a learner in higher and postgraduate education, you have to take responsibility for your own learning, if you are to progress satisfactorily. This article is intended to help you recognise what you need to be able to do, and points you towards some self-help ideas.

What, you might well ask, is a "beginner's" guide doing in a publication addressed to those who have already proved that they can learn? The fact that you have made it to university means that you have passed "A" levels or their equivalent, and graduation involves success in a wide variety of exams. Surely you must have mastered something relevant and consequently do not consider yourself to be a beginner when it comes to learning.
However, as with so many aspects of pharmacy, it is the detail that is vital. Before deciding that this article does not apply to you, have another look at the title - the word that is crucial, and needs explaining, is "independent".
Consider the following real life example to demonstrate what it means. A group of pharmacy students in the late 1960s were privileged to have lectures from the head of the pharmacology department. He was extremely knowledgeable about his subject, and never needed to use notes or audio visual aids when describing his latest research in great detail. Unfortunately, many of the students were not quite so conversant with the fundamentals of the subject as he had assumed. The majority did not understand a word of the lectures, and, come examination time, many failed miserably.
There were others - admittedly a minority - who did pass, and rightly so. They took the view that they had to do something to help themselves if they were going to master the subject sufficiently well to pass the exam. The techniques they used varied from using a tape recorder in the lectures to using suitable textbooks from the library. No one had said "this is what you must do". The students took responsibility for their own progress and demonstrated an independent approach to their studies. Of course, learning is not just about assimilating enough facts in order to pass an examination; a great many valuable life skills need to be acquired, which will not only be excellent preparation for work, but also for the continuing professional development that every pharmacist should undertake.
It is unlikely that a similar situation could exist today, as the necessity to consider learning outcomes and audits is much better recognised. However, the principle is still valid. You need to take responsibility for your own learning. To be able to act independently, there are certain skills that you need to acquire that perhaps you have not needed before. The next step is to go and do something constructive that suits your needs. It is not just recognising that something has to be done, but knowing what to do and how best to do it. What you do then is of course your decision - as are the consequences!

Learning effectively

Clearly, you will already have developed some learning skills. For example, you will probably know what works best for you in terms of the of ultimate test of learning that is needed for exams. For some it is summarising notes and writing, for others it is using mnemonics to remember the salient points. Revising is certainly a type of learning, but you are really only in a position to revise what you have already learnt and understood. The student who tries to memorise lecture notes without having done some learning first is asking for trouble (ie, failure in the exam). The difficulty for those who are used to a traditional school system, where students are directed to do certain tasks - and penalised if they do not - is different, which is where the independent learning comes in. You should find the following suggestions helpful:

After a lecture, go over the notes you have made as soon as possible. Make sure that there are clear headings and that any bit that you did not understand is followed up; you will not have time later in the course.
Many students are very well organised and know exactly which notes are in which folder and where; if you are not used to being so disciplined, try using your colleagues' structures - you can always "customise" them later.
Use the learning outcomes or objectives which are given at the beginning of the lecture (or course of lectures) to check that you have grasped the basic ideas. If, for example, you cannot synthesise a chemical compound or describe the scope of the Medicines Act after a lecture intended to enable you to be able to, ask yourself "why not?" Was it because you did not listen? Or perhaps the handouts were not clear? The reason(s) will then direct you to the next step.
It might be easiest (and students are all for that) to simply go and see the lecturer concerned and ask him or her to explain again. However in today's crowded universities and timetables, that may not be possible or appropriate - you will have to be independent.
Use the course handbook to find out which text books are recommended for your course - they should be in the library, along with other similar texts; you can then read another viewpoint on the same material, which may well explain the points you had not understood sufficiently. Do not forget to add the explanations to your lecture notes too.
Use the sessions that support lectures to your advantage. For example the whole point of a tutorial is to consolidate learning that has begun elsewhere. If you are the type of person who learns best in a small group where you can ask questions, it is vital to attend. Practicals, workshops and computer aided learning are other examples where you can cover the material in a different way, which may suit your learning style better.
Seminars generally extend the basic ideas further, and perhaps help you to apply what you have learnt to a real life situation. Many students will find them a much more interesting and meaningful way to learn than writing notes in a lecture.
A popular approach - particularly when students are new to the surroundings and not sure what is expected of them - is to resort to working with colleagues in the same position. If you pool resources and use the different learning styles of the whole group, and still cannot quite understand something, then ask to see the lecturer concerned. A small group who has already tried to help itself will persuade a lecturer much more effectively than a single individual that extra tuition is needed.
Make sure you know what learning style suits you best. One way to find out is to do the quiz in the Society's preregistration trainees' folder.

Learning efficiently

Many of these ideas will not be revolutionary, especially to those of you embarking on your preregistration year. Inevitably, many students' greatest worry, particularly after graduation, is about the amount of study time that they have. A word of consolation - a lot of effective learning takes place in the workplace. Your concern now is to learn efficiently in order to maximise the use of the limited time available for study after a working day.
Again, you should find the following points helpful. Although some may seem obvious, they are intended to stimulate ideas that you can adapt to your circumstances:

Remember that time is a personal concept, which requires commitment to manage effectively; working faster or longer are poor strategies.
Plan your time out of work so that you can enjoy ordinary activities such as watching television and going out with friends as well as studying - then you won't feel guilty (as if you would!). If the balance is wrong, and you are not covering as much as you need to, then you will need to prioritise your activities and watch only your favourite "soap", rather than all of them.
Plan where you work so that the resources you need are available and accessible - then you do not waste time getting started.
Be realistic about "time wasters" - the obstacles that distract you - and the time it takes to complete tasks.

Reading skills

library If you thought that you did not need help with your learning, then you might be even more surprised that you could also benefit from help to improve your reading skills. But think for a minute. A great deal of your precious time will be spent reading, so it must make sense to use that time as effectively as possible. Skilled readers are those who stand the best chance of learning effectively and efficiently from their efforts, and are those who can vary their reading method according to both the material and to the reason for reading it. Try some of the following ideas to ensure that you use the most appropriate type of reading for the task in hand.
Scanning This involves a very rapid search for some important point (eg, your name on a list of exam results). The skill is not to get diverted by all the other information that you do not need to access - friends' names, for example. You have to be very disciplined if you use this method when searching using the internet, simply because your attention is caught by all the other fascinating information which is irrelevant to the task in hand.
The most obvious application of scanning for pharmacy students is in the "open book" part of the preregistration exam, when you are looking for precise details about a certain drug among a great deal of other information. However, as the exam is set to reflect the practice of pharmacy, any improvement in your ability to scan is going to help you as a pharmacist too.
Skimming This is also a very rapid method of reading, but not for anything special - for example, you can use it just to see if a reference source may be of some use. The most obvious example is when looking through the list of contents in a reference source such as a library book for non- specific information that might be suitable for use in an essay.
Light reading Most reading is done in this manner - which is fine for a novel where the aim is escapism. There is no attempt to analyse the material or to remember anything. This is perfectly justifiable and of great value, but is not so useful for learning.
Word by word This is the exact opposite to the previous example. You might associate this type of learning with children learning to read, but there are times when students, especially those doing sciences and foreign languages, need it, too. In normal reading a glance at the sentence is usually sufficient to recognise and read it almost automatically. An unfamiliar word, or a formula (a highly condensed form of conveying information), needs careful attention to every syllable.
Read the following phrase and word: "a stitch in time saves nine" and "methoxyhaemoglobinaemia". As you have met the phrase before, it takes no effort to read it, whereas anyone meeting the word for the first time will have to dissect it to extract a meaning from each component. It is not too difficult to work out which takes longer, but the unknown word only contains one more letter! Do not be ashamed to use this type of reading - just make sure you do not do it unnecessarily, or for word patterns and formulae that should be familiar.
Some people have poor reading skills, and if this applies to you, try to overcome your difficulties. However, you may also need to seek further help. Most universities will have departments that support students in this way, or at least some resources that you can borrow, once you have realised the exact nature of the problem.
You may find some of the following factors reduce your reading skills:

Poor reading speed Research has shown that the average adult does not progress with their reading skills beyond those of a 10 year old; they read almost all material at less than 250 words per minute (wpm). As a student you need to aim at 400 - 500 wpm for light material, with 80 - 90 per cent comprehension. Try reading light material as fast as you can, forcing yourself forward and not backtracking. A newspaper is ideal, as the columns are narrow enough to read each line at a glance. When you have practised every day for about a fortnight, you can then try slowing down for material that needs special attention.
Mouthing the words If you are saying the words under your breath as you read them, you can never read faster than you can speak. You will have to force yourself to go much faster (using the exercise above) to break yourself of the habit.
Poor vocabulary As with reading speed, a successful student needs to be better than the average person. An average person can get by on an active vocabulary of 3,000 words - although they may know, but not use, 20,000 - 25,000 words. The minimum number of known words needed for study is 25,000, and 40,000 is preferable. To improve your vocabulary, set yourself the task of learning some words that are related to your course work every day. However, unless these words are learnt in several contexts, they will not be remembered. Using the new words helps, too, as do study aids such as dictionaries for your particular subject. A Thesaurus, which is included in most word processing packages, is useful for finding alternative words and their real meaning.
Too many eye fixations and "back tracking" If you refer back to the example of reading unfamiliar words, you will remember that such words need to be dissected, whereas those that are easily recognised are read automatically in larger sections consisting of several words.

Part of the problem lies in recognising what you do. The rest is practising - fixing your eyes on only three or four points in the line of print and reading all the words from them. Force your eyes along the line, not allowing them to go back. And just in case your problems are due to poor eyesight, get that checked too.
Hopefully you will now have a few ideas to help you to go and actively set out to acquire knowledge and skills, which is a reasonable start for anyone practising independent learning.

Types of learners and learning styles

Learning and learners may be classified as follows:

Activists The classic "learning by doing" types who are not good at listening passively.
Reflectors Their cautious philosophy, which includes much thinking before taking any action, is appropriate to certain situations. However, it can mean that too long is spent gathering data rather than getting on with the task in hand.
Theorists They are well suited to research, as they like to make observations that are then incorporated into complex theories.
Pragmatists They always try out new theories and ideas to see if they work in the real world; they make practical decisions and solve problems with confidence.

At the time of writing, Ms Taylor was Boots teacher-practitioner, De Montfort University, Leicester. She is now NHS information and services manager for AAH Lloyds Pharmacy

Tomorrow's Pharmacist October 1999 p20-23 Edited by Pamela Mason