Trombosis de la arteria basilar y tromboembolismo pulmonar
NIHSS 2-2-2-1-2-2-2-0-2-0-0-1-0-2-1 = 19 PRUEBAS COMPLEMENTARIAS
For a long time, lectures were the main mode of teaching in higher education.
Many lecturers spoke towards the blackboard for an hour, at the same time covering it with detailed notes. With no other source of information, your main task was to copy down these notes as accurately as possible. There was little chance of listening closely to what was said. You had to try to work out everything from your notes later on. Used this way, the lecture developed a bad reputation as a mindless, tedious and inefficient mode of learning.
Modern teaching texts can provide a much more reliable and accessible source of information than wads of scribbled notes. This means that lectures can now be used far more constructively, as a means of helping you to understand the concepts, theories and techniques in the texts. Far from depositing a pile of information in your head, the effect of a particularly powerful lecture might be to shake up all your thinking on a subject, so that you are no longer sure what to think. You might end up with a whole lot of new questions – but these questions could be exactly what you need to help you make more sense of your texts. Lectures like these help you to ‘get inside’
the subject you are studying.
Key Points
In a modern context, the lecture’s strength is not as a primary information source, but as an opportunity for you:
X to be talked through the thought processes which lie behind formal equations and diagrams
X to be shown how arguments and explanations work X to be shown how to apply techniques
X to hear how the language of the subject is used.
Getting the most out of a lecture
Listening to a lecture sets you three challenging and simultaneous tasks. You have to:
X attend to and make sense of a line of argument X think about what is said
X take notes of some kind.
Of course, you can’t actually do more than one of these at once. The best you can do is to switch quickly from one task to another. But in an odd way the urgency of struggling to cope with this mental juggling act is itself helpful. By putting you under pressure, lectures force you to take leaps and short cuts.
You have to seize the initiative in ‘making sense’ of the subject and ‘thinking on your feet’.
How can you juggle these three tasks? Clearly, you cannot afford to stop attending to the lecture for very long, or you will lose the drift of the argument. However, you are bound to miss some of what is said, because listening ‘intelligently’ will make you stop and think (as you make
connections with ideas already in your mind). You have to find a workable trade-off between listening and thinking. This is where selective note-making helps. Deciding what to write focuses your attention on the subject and makes you think. But the notes have to be brief, or they provide a distraction in themselves. You have to weigh up quality against speed.
Effective note-making
There is no ‘best’ way of making notes. Some people scribble busily throughout a lecture and produce several pages; others take down a few key points set out diagrammatically. Both approaches can be effective. It depends on why you are attending the lecture, the kind of lecture it is, and the way you work and learn.
If lectures are your main source of information, then you probably have to write down a lot to be sure of getting what you need. But if the lectures are backed up by handouts and textbooks, then you may need very few notes.
Equally, if a lecture is poorly delivered and packed with detailed information, you may have to write a lot just to keep track. Whereas, if the lecturer is lively and seizes your imagination with striking examples, you may learn more by concentrating on listening and writing occasional key points and topic headings. In the end, though, the main factor is you.
What sort of lecture listener are you?
Do you tend to daydream in lectures? Do you feel anxious about whether you are understanding enough? Do you feel confident that a few phrases, symbols and formulas will be enough to remind you of the points you need to hold on to? Or do you find it too difficult to decide which points are important as the lecture is in full flow? Do you worry that if you stop writing you will miss something crucial?
A
ctivity Break Think about your past experience of lectures. What kind of notes suit your listening style?If writing a lot helps you not to feel anxious and keeps you actively
‘working’, rather than letting things wash over you, then that is the right approach for you. But be aware that if you try to write everything down, you will learn very little during the lecture itself, and will have a lot of work still to do afterwards. Will you actually find time to make use of very full notes?
On the other hand, if you decide you need only brief notes, how will you know what to select?
Selective note-making
The start and end of a lecture are important times for note-making. At the start, you need to make notes of the topic and the purpose of the lecture. Similarly, at the end, try to summarize the key points. So, for the first and last ten minutes you might set out to take quite full notes – allowing yourself to be more relaxed in between. You may need only a few key formulas and diagrams and the odd word or phrase to remind you of the main points. Do include any examples the lecturer gives – these will help to remind you of arguments and explanations.
When a major point is made, get the whole thing down in detail so that you can make proper sense of it afterwards. Also note down any questions or comments that occur to you as you listen. After the lecture, these notes will help you to reconstruct what was going through your mind as you listened.
Styles of note-making
Selecting what to write down and positioning it on the page impose a structure on what you hear in a lecture. This structure helps you to understand and remember. Don’t be stingy with your paper. Spread your notes out and use lines, arrows, brackets and boxes to emphasize divisions and links within the material.
For example, you might put your own remarks and queries over to the right [or enclose them in square brackets]. Some people find it helpful to draw their notes as a big ‘spray diagram’, with the topic of the lecture in the centre circle and lines branching out to each subtopic (see Chapter 2, page 49).
Don’t expect your lecture notes to have as much structure and clarity as the notes you make as you read. The emphasis here is on speed. A very simple but important technique is to develop your own shorthand. For example:
Bacteria grow – v. wide range of temps:
salm., staph. – warm list.,Clost. bot. – low temp
In genl, temps > 63 ˚C for 30 mins (pasteuriztn) kill pathog.
bact. (WET)
Dry heat less effect This is short for:
Bacteria such as salmonellae and staphylococci grow best at a relatively warm temperature, but bacteria can grow over a very wide range of
temperatures. Some bacteria, such as listeriae and Clostridium botulinum, the cause of botulism, can grow at relatively low temperatures. In general, temperatures above that of pasteurization (63 °C for 30 minutes) kill pathogenic bacteria, provided they are wet. Dry heat is much less effective.
In my shorthand, ‘v’ stands for ‘very’, ‘temps’ for ‘temperatures’, ‘>’ for ‘greater than’ or ‘above’, and so on. I shortened the names of the bacteria because I assumed that I could look up the full names elsewhere. I wrote ‘WET’ in capital letters to emphasize the contrast with dry heat.
Improving your notes after the lecture
Having invested an hour in attending a lecture, it is often worth investing a bit more time afterwards on tidying up your notes – in particular, checking that you understand them and that you have copied formulas and calculations correctly. It may help if you can do this with another student. What you get out of lectures is determined not only by what you do during lectures, but also by the work you put in before and after.
Hints and Tips
X When you attend a lecture, be clear in your mind as towhy you are there, and what you want to take from it.
X Try to do some relevant reading before the lecture (however brief), to give yourself a good chance of making sense of it.
X Develop a flexible technique of listening, thinking and note-making that you can change according to the style of the lecture.
X Take account of your own habits, and work out a note-making strategy which helps you to concentrate.
X Don’t feel you have to write down ‘everything’. Listening is the main job. Pick out the main themes and key points.
X Check and tidy up your notes after the lecture.