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Einstein’s Secret to Amazing Problem Solving (and 10 Specific Ways You Can Use It

Einstein’s Secret to Amazing Problem Solving (and 10 Specific Ways You Can Use It)

Einstein's Secret to Jaw-Dropping Problem Solving
Einstein is quoted as having said that if he had one hour to save the world he would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution.
This quote does illustrate an important point: before jumping right into solving a problem, we should step back and invest time and effort to improve our understanding of it. Here are 10 strategies you can use to see problems from many different perspectives and master what is the most important step in problem solving: clearly defining the problem in the first place!

The Problem Is To Know What the Problem Is

The definition of the problem will be the focal point of all your problem-solving efforts. As such, it makes sense to devote as much attention and dedication to problem definition as possible. What usually happens is that as soon as we have a problem to work on we’re so eager to get to solutions that we neglect spending any time refining it.
What most of us don’t realize — and what supposedly Einstein might have been alluding to — is that the quality of the solutions we come up with will be in direct proportion to the quality of the description of the problem we’re trying to solve. Not only will your solutions be more abundant and of higher quality, but they’ll be achieved much, much more easily. Most importantly, you’ll have the confidence to be tackling a worthwhile problem.

Problem Definition Tools and Strategies

The good news is that getting different perspectives and angles in order to clearly define a problem is a skill that can be learned and developed. As such, there are many strategies you can use to perfect it. Here are the 10 most effective ones I know.

1. Rephrase the Problem

When a Toyota executive asked employees to brainstorm “ways to increase their productivity”, all he got back were blank stares. When he rephrased his request as “ways to make their jobs easier”, he could barely keep up with the amount of suggestions.
Words carry strong implicit meaning and, as such, play a major role in how we perceive a problem. In the example above, ‘be productive’ might seem like a sacrifice you’re doing for the company, while ‘make your job easier’ may be more like something you’re doing for your own benefit, but from which the company also benefits. In the end, the problem is still the same, but the feelings — and the points of view — associated with each of them are vastly different.
Play freely with the problem statement, rewording it several times. For a methodic approach, take single words and substitute variations. ‘Increase sales’? Try replacing ‘increase’ with ‘attract’, ‘develop’, ‘extend’, ‘repeat’ and see how your perception of the problem changes. A rich vocabulary plays an important role here, so you may want to use a thesaurus or develop your vocabulary.

2. Expose and Challenge Assumptions

Every problem — no matter how apparently simple it may be — comes with a long list of assumptions attached. Many of these assumptions may be inaccurate and could make your problem statement inadequate or even misguided.
The first step to get rid of bad assumptions is to make them explicit. Write a list and expose as many assumptions as you can — especially those that may seem the most obvious and ‘untouchable’.
That, in itself, brings more clarity to the problem at hand. But go further and test each assumption for validity: think in ways that they might not be valid and their consequences. What you will find may surprise you: that many of those bad assumptions are self-imposed — with just a bit of scrutiny you are able to safely drop them.
For example, suppose you’re about to enter the restaurant business. One of your assumptions might be ‘restaurants have a menu’. While such an assumption may seem true at first, try challenging it and maybe you’ll find some very interesting business models (such as one restaurant in which customers bring dish ideas for the chef to cook, for example).

3. Chunk Up

Each problem is a small piece of a greater problem. In the same way that you can explore a problem laterally — such as by playing with words or challenging assumptions — you can also explore it at different “altitudes”.
If you feel you’re overwhelmed with details or looking at a problem too narrowly, look at it from a more general perspective. In order to make your problem more general, ask questions such as: “What’s this a part of?”“What’s this an example of?” or “What’s the intention behind this?”.
For a detailed explanation of how this principle works, check the article Boost Your Brainstorm Effectiveness with the Why Habit.
Another approach that helps a lot in getting a more general view of a problem is replacing words in the problem statement with hypernyms. Hypernyms are words that have a broader meaning than the given word. (For example, a hypernym of ‘car’ is ‘vehicle’). A great, free tool for finding hypernyms for a given word is WordNet (just search for a word and click on the ‘S:’ label before the word definitions).

4. Chunk Down

If each problem is part of a greater problem, it also means that each problem is composed of many smaller problems. It turns out that decomposing a problem in many smaller problems — each of them more specific than the original — can also provide greater insights about it.
‘Chunking the problem down’ (making it more specific) is especially useful if you find the problem overwhelming or daunting.
Some of the typical questions you can ask to make a problem more specific are: “What are parts of this?” or “What are examples of this?”.
Just as in ‘chunking up’, word substitution can also come to great use here. The class of words that are useful here are hyponyms: words that are stricter in meaning than the given one. (E.g. two hyponyms of ‘car’ are ‘minivan’ and ‘limousine’). WordNet can also help you finding hyponyms.

5. Find Multiple Perspectives

Before rushing to solve a problem, always make sure you look at it from different perspectives. Looking at it with different eyes is a great way to have instant insight on new, overlooked directions.
For example, if you own a business and are trying to ‘increase sales’, try to view this problem from the point of view of, say, a customer. For example, from the customer’s viewpoint, this may be a matter of adding features to your product that one would be willing to pay more for.
Rewrite your problem statement many times, each time using one of these different perspectives. How would your competition see this problem? Your employees? Your mom?
Also, imagine how people in various roles would frame the problem. How would a politician see it? A college professor? A nun? Try to find the differences and similarities on how the different roles would deal with your problem.

6. Use Effective Language Constructs

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all formula for properly crafting the perfect problem statement, but there are some language constructs that always help making it more effective:
  • Assume a myriad of solutions. An excellent way to start a problem statement is:“In what ways might I…”. This expression is much superior to “How can I…” as it hints that there’s a multitude of solutions, and not just one — or maybe none. As simple as this sounds, the feeling of expectancy helps your brain find solutions.
  • Make it positive. Negative sentences require a lot more cognitive power to process and may slow you down — or even derail your train of thought. Positive statements also help you find the real goal behind the problem and, as such, are much more motivating.
    For example: instead of finding ways to ‘quit smoking’, you may find that ‘increase your energy’, ‘live longer’ and others are much more worthwhile goals.
  • Frame your problem in the form of a question. Our brain loves questions. If the question is powerful and engaging, our brains will do everything within their reach to answer it. We just can’t help it: Our brains will start working on the problem immediately and keep working in the background, even when we’re not aware of it.
  • If you’re still stuck, consider using the following formula for phrasing your problem statement:
    “In what ways (action) (object) (qualifier) (end result)?”
    Example: In what ways might I package (action) my book (object) more attractively (qualifier) so people will buy more of it (end result)?

7. Make It Engaging

In addition to using effective language constructs, it’s important to come up with a problem statement that truly excites you so you’re in the best frame of mind for creatively tackling the problem. If the problem looks too dull for you, invest the time adding vigor to it whilestill keeping it genuine. Make it enticing. Your brain will thank (and reward) you later.
One thing is to ‘increase sales’ (boring), another one is ‘wow your customers’. One thing is ‘to create a personal development blog’, another completely different is to ‘empower readers to live fully’.

8. Reverse the Problem

One trick that usually helps when you’re stuck with a problem is turning it on its head.
If you want to win, find out what would make you lose. If you are struggling finding ways to ‘increase sales’, find ways to decrease them instead. Then, all you need to do is reverse your answers. ‘Make more sales calls’ may seem an evident way of increasing sales, but sometimes we only see these ‘obvious’ answers when we look at the problem from an opposite direction.
This seemingly convoluted method may not seem intuitive at first, but turning a problem on its head can uncover rather obvious solutions to the original problem.

9. Gather Facts

Investigate causes and circumstances of the problem. Probe details about it — such as its origins and causes. Especially if you have a problem that’s too vague, investigating facts is usually more productive than trying to solve it right away.
If, for example, the problem stated by your spouse is “You never listen to me”, the solution is not obvious. However, if the statement is “You don’t make enough eye contact when I’m talking to you,” then the solution is obvious and you can skip brainstorming altogether. (You’ll still need to work on the implementation, though!)
Ask yourself questions about the problem. What is not known about it? Can you draw a diagram of the problem? What are the problem boundaries? Be curious. Ask questions and gather facts. It is said that a well-defined problem is halfway to being solved: I would add that a perfectly-defined problem is not a problem anymore.

10. Problem-Solve Your Problem Statement

I know I risk getting into an infinite loop here, but as you may have noticed, getting the right perspective of a problem is, well, a problem in itself. As such, feel free to use any creative thinking technique you know to help. There are plenty to choose from:
You may want to give yourself an Idea Quota of problem statements. Or write a List of 100problems to solve. SCAMPER your problem definition. These are just some of dozen techniques you can try.
Of course, how much effort you invest in defining the problem in contrast to how much effort you invest in solving your actual problem is a hard balance to achieve, though one which is attainable with practice.
Personally, I don’t think that 55 minutes of defining a problem versus 5 minutes acting on it is usually a good proportion. The point is that we must be aware of how important problem defining is and correct our tendency to spend too little time on it.
In fact, when you start paying more attention to how you define your problems, you’ll probably find that it is usually much harder than solving them. But you’ll also find that the payoff is well worth the effort.
References:

Go Vertical and change how you think - not just what you know.

In the Center for Creative Leadership (http://www.ccl.org/leadership/enewsletter/2013/) the concepts of professional development are categorized into two treks, horizontal and vertical.

Horizontal development focuses on new skills, abilities and behaviors. It is technical learning and competency-based. Horizontal development is most useful when a problem is clearly defined and we have known techniques for solving it.

Vertical development, in contrast, refers to the mental and emotional "stages" that people progress through. It's about advancing your thinking capability. At each higher level, you learn to think in more complex, systemic, strategic and interdependent ways.

Our world and our work are growing increasingly complex. Our environment is too complex for our current stage of development. We're overwhelmed and stressed and stuck. Going vertical in your development is the only way to break through your current level and gain the ability to think bigger and broader. Look for coaching, action learning and stretch assignments as opportunities to change how you think - not just what you know.

Some simple methods for Going Vertical, involve problem solving at increasingly higher levels. The good news is that these are skills that can be learned, and/or improved upon using some relatively simple techniques. One of my favorite exercises is designed to train individuals to consider problems or issues from more than one perspective. In other writings it's been referred to as 'sideways thinking', but I prefer to call it by its official name, Sudoku. 

The standard 9X9 grid requires the individual to look for number placement not less than 333 ways. Yet while loving the Sudoku, the complex exercise is shrouded in the simple task of determining which of the 9 numbers (1-9) belongs in the block. The micro-view and macro-view of the puzzle can be replicated in a real-world scenario. Examining a situation from multiple perspectives enhances the likelihood of the best selection choice being made.

When you can master your reaction to problems by instantly examining other possibilities for resolving the problem, then you have moved vertically and will be increasingly looked to as someone who sees opportunities where others see only obstacles.

I invite you to apply your skill at solving increasingly mor challenging Sudoku puzzles, until you can solve them with speed. Then post and share your successes here. If you find this information useful or valuable, pass it on to those in your network and help them Go Vertical!
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About the author
Dr. Eugene Matthews has authored several articles and eBooks regarding leadership, coaching, and mentoring. If you found this information useful, consider subscribing to this blog and having topical and informative articles sent directly to your email!

Teachers' gestures boost math learning!

Mar. 29, 2013 — Students perform better when their instructors use hand gestures -- a simple teaching tool that could yield benefits in higher-level math such as algebra.

A study published in Child Development,the top-ranked educational psychology journal, provides some of the strongest evidence yet that gesturing may have a unique effect on learning. Teachers in the United States tend to use gestures less than teachers in other countries. "Gesturing can be a very beneficial tool that is completely free and easily employed in classrooms," said Kimberly Fenn, study co-author and assistant professor of psychology at Michigan State University. "And I think it can have long-lasting effects."
Fenn and Ryan Duffy of MSU and Susan Cook of the University of Iowa conducted an experiment with 184 second-, third- and fourth-graders in Michigan elementary classrooms.
Half ofthe students were shown videos of an instructor teaching math problems using only speech. The others were shown videos of the instructor teaching the same problems using both speech and gestures.
The problem involved mathematical equivalence (i.e., 4+5+7=__+7), which is known to be critical to later algebraic learning. In the speech-only videos, the instructor simply explains the problem. In the other videos, the instructor uses two hand gestures while speaking, using different hands to refer to the two sides of the equation.
Students who learned from the gesture videos performed better on a test given immediately afterward than those who learned from the speech-only video.
Another test was given 24 hours later, and the gesture students actually showed improvement in their performance while the speech-only students did not.
While previous research has shown the benefits of gestures in a one-on-one tutoring-style environment, the new study is the first to test the role of gestures in equivalence learning in a regular classroom.
The study also is the first to show that gestures can help students transfer learning to new contexts -- such as transferring the knowledge learned in an addition-based equation to a multiplication-based equation.
Fenn noted that U.S. students lag behind those in many other Western countries in math and have a particularly hard time mastering equivalence problems in early grades.
"So if we can help them grasp this foundational knowledge earlier," she said, "it will help them as they learn algebra and higher levels of mathematics."
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Michigan State University.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:
  1. Susan Wagner Cook, Ryan G. Duffy, Kimberly M. Fenn.Consolidation and Transfer of Learning After Observing Hand GestureChild Development, 2013; DOI:10.1111/cdev.12097

How to Combat Academic Burnout (in one weekend or less!)

Burnt Matchstick Art,
Stanislav Aristov 16
Has your interest in the courses you've been teaching, lessened?
Are your lectures less inspiring than they once were?
Does class participation seem to decrease?

If this sounds like you, or someone you know, perhaps they are battling with Academic Burnout. This  malady commonly occurs during an academic year, but particularly when you, the professor, teacher, presenter, or instructor, have not been inspired. Burnout is a psychological term that refers to long-term exhaustion and diminished interest in work. The causes for burnout in the academic realm are varied, but I liken the primary source to the following aphorism:
"A vessel filled with only self, will soon become empty."
You can combat your academic interest over a single weekend, and reap the benefits for years to come. Here's how:

Outside Resources
Begin by re-examining what your interests are. If you find that what grabbed your attention years ago is no longer attention grabbing, consider signing up for the newsletters@sciencedaily.com. Each week you will be sent dozens of informational discussions and articles across a spectrum of interests...and it is free.

Outside Parallel Think Groups 
If you have been teaching in a niche area, consider searching LinkedIn groups for forums that match your niche. If none exists, why not start one of your own and draw other like minded academics to you. Regardless as to how specific your interest is, there is a better than great chance that you will find others on LinkedIn, or draw others there. I mention this platform simply because of the level of credibility and professionalism I've experienced in groups I'm associated with.

Outside 'Virtual Assistance'
A less labor intensive method for generating new ideas or cultivating promising research with current information is, use of curated content. Scoop.it, Paper.li, and other source/sites can scrub the internet for applicable information and present it directly to you daily, or even twice daily! You control what is searched for, and you decide what to examine or ignore. It's a lot like having a personal virtual assistant reporting to you with informational articles, book reviews, interviews and other relevant and thought provoking information.

Whether you settle on on one or more of the tactics presented, the next step is where you actually release the hold burnout has latched onto you. Regardless as to the depth of the information your 'virtual assistant' has brought to you, it is essential that you take the next step and validate it.
"Trust, but verify."
Breath New Life Into Old Techniques
At this stage, you will begin to reclaim some of the vigor and interest you once held. You can begin to examine new ways of presenting the information, or expand on methods you already use. For example if you have traditionally lectured on the parts of the brain, and how the represent memory, cognition, motor skills, or emotion; you might consider integrating your slide presentation with a Movenote generated video (www.movenote.com) which allows you to break your lecture into smaller 5,10,or 15 minute consumable 'chunks'.

Your audience can watch your video on their mobile device before a quiz or exam, or simply be better prepared to engage in the class discussion. Here is an example I created to explain the program redesign for Criminal Justice http://api.movenote.com/v/dGRfKXmc65uVp What you will notice is the capability of integrating text, slides, or other media in a consumable and interesting format, which can be leveraged in various ways in your classroom. I mention Movenote because I've been using it in my classrooms with great success, and for academics, there is no cost.

I hope that you will explore these ideas and recommendations, and reclaim the vigor and interest that brought you into academia to begin with, and combat your burnout! I would love to hear from you as to how you employed these and other ideas to combat and defeat your academic burnout. Feel free to comment here, follow my on Twitter @Mfaculty, or drop me an email at mobilefaculty@gmail.com.

Best wishes
Dr. Eugene Matthews

Daily online testing boosts college performance, reduces achievement gaps

Daily online testing boosts college performance, reduces achievement gaps
Nov. 21, 2013 — More low-income students are attending college than ever before, but many of them are ill prepared for the challenges of higher learning. Now University of Texas at Austin researchers are finding ways to level the higher-education playing field with a new online learning model. 
With a new teaching platform called TOWER (Texas Online World of Educational Research), psychology professors James Pennebaker and Samuel Gosling are transforming the way students learn. The findings, published online this month in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS ONE, show the customized online teaching model leads to improved test scores and attendance for all students. But students of low socioeconomic status are benefiting the most.
In fall 2011, Pennebaker and Gosling integrated the TOWER system into their large classroom-based Psychology 301 course, in which they delivered personalized in-class quizzes, free online readings, small discussion groups, and live chats to each student's laptop or tablet. Facilitated by Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services, the new system allowed the researchers to retrieve data about the students and see how they navigated the online tools.
The researchers found that daily "benchmark" quizzes, which were followed up with instant results on incorrectly answered questions, helped the students remember and learn from their mistakes, says Pennebaker.
"One important self-regulatory method to improve preparation and performance is to give students frequent testing along with rapid, targeted and structured feedback on their performance, so that they can adjust their learning and studying strategies in time to improve their grades in a course," says Pennebaker, who team-teaches the course with Gosling.
In the experiment, 901 students enrolled in the fall 2011 TOWER course provided information about their parents' education levels. The subjects took 26 brief multiple-choice quizzes at the beginning of every class. Eighty-six percent of the final grade was based on the quizzes, and 14 percent was based on online writing assignments. No final or other exams were administered. The TOWER student performance was compared with 935 students enrolled in Gosling's and Pennebaker's previous traditional Psychology 301 courses, in which four exams accounted for the bulk of the final grade.
According to the results:
- The new system resulted in a 50 percent reduction in the achievement gap as measured by grades among students of different social classes.
- TOWER students performed better in other classes, both in the semester they took the course and in subsequent semester classes.
- TOWER exam performance was about half a letter grade above previous semesters, based on comparisons of identical questions asked from earlier years.
- The daily quizzes encouraged students to attend classes at much higher rates.
The researchers attribute much of the students' success to the daily quizzes, which required them to diligently keep up with the material. As a result, they developed better skills in time management and studying.
"These findings suggest that frequent quizzing should be used routinely in large lecture courses to improve performance in class and in other concurrent and subsequent courses," Gosling says. "Repeated testing of students does much more than assess learning skills; it is a powerful vehicle that directly enhances learning and thinking skills."
This fall, the researchers implemented the TOWER model into their live-broadcast online Psychology 301 class, called a SMOC (synchronous massive online course). Gosling says this new online platform will help instructors provide rapid, individualized feedback on students' performance in massive lecture courses, a feat that is not possible even in average-size conventional classes.
"In light of the benefits of frequent testing with immediate feedback, colleges might benefit from adopting these methods during students' first semesters so they can continue to benefit from the learning skills they acquire," Gosling says.

Who learns from the carrot, and who from the stick?

Who learns from the carrot, and who from the stick?

Nov. 21, 2013 — To flexibly deal with our ever-changing world, we need to learn from both the negative and positive consequences of our behaviour. In other words, from punishment and reward. Hanneke den Ouden from the Donders Institute in Nijmegen demonstrated that serotonin and dopamine related genes influence how we base our choices on past punishments or rewards. This influence depends on which gene variant you inherited from your parents.

These results  were published in Neuronon 20 November.
The brain chemicals dopamine and serotonin partly determine our sensitivity to reward and punishment. At least, this was a common assumption. Hanneke den Ouden and Roshan Cools investigated this assumption together with colleagues from the Donders Institute and New York University. Den Ouden explains: 'We used a simple computer game to test the genetic influence of the genes DAT1 and SERT, as these genes influence dopamine and serotonin. We discovered that the dopamine gene affects how we learn from the long-term consequences of our choices, while the serotonin gene affects our choices in the short term.'
Online game
'In nearly 700 people we analysed which variant of the SERTand the DAT1 genes they had', Den Ouden describes. 'Using an online game, we investigated how well people are able to adjust their choice strategy after receiving a reward or a punishment.' The players would repeatedly choose one of two symbols. Symbol A usually resulted in a reward whereas symbol B usually resulted in punishment. Halfway through the game, these rules were reversed. The game allowed the researchers to measure how flexible people are in adjusting their choices when the rules change. But it also showed whether people impulsively change their choice when the computer happened to give misleading feedback.
Different genes, different strategies
Den Ouden: 'Different players use different strategies. It all depends on their genetic material. People's tendency to change their choice immediately after receiving a punishment depends on which serotonin gene variant they inherited from their parents. The dopamine gene variant, on the other hand, exerts influence on whether people can stop themselves making the choice that was previously rewarded, but no longer is.'
This study shows that dopamine and serotonin are important for different forms of flexibility associated with receiving reward and punishment. Many neuropsychiatric disorders caused by abnormal dopamine and/or serotonin levels are associated with forms of inflexibility, for example addiction, anxiety, or Parkinson's disease. So this study not only tells us more about the heritability of our choice behaviour; a better understanding of the relationship between brain chemicals and behaviour in healthy people will ultimately help to provide us with better insight into these neuropsychiatric disorders.

EduCanon - A new way to leverage an old tool!

How can you build an interactive lesson from a YouTube video, for free? Check out EduCanon!

Click here to get answers to some of the top questions regarding eduCanon including who they are and how it works! Although they've been around for awhile, I just stumbled across them while searching for another way to communicate with my students using video. This platform offers a lot of value added utility, although right now it is somewhat limited to YouTube. That's actually not a bad thing since YouTube is such a simple tool to use.

As an instructor you can also record your lectures, portions of class discussions, and pose questions in a variety of ways for students to interact with. There are a lot of expensive and inexpensive alternatives, but this is one of the first ones that I've come across that was actually free and follows a reasonable learning pedagogy. Perhaps this is the tool you've been waiting for to 'flip your class' or simply enhance your instruction. I plan to "kick the tires" on it myself before I dive in head first!
~
MFaculty

SQ3R - Learning Skills from MindTools.com (old school - new tools)

SQ3R - Learning Skills from MindTools.com

SQ3R

Studying More Effectively

"Mind Map" is a trademark of the Buzan Organization (see www.thinkbuzan.com). We have no association with the Buzan Organization.

There are better ways to retain information!
© iStockphoto/Cimmerian
Nowadays, it's easy to access new reading material. You can read on a smartphone, tablet, or e-book reader, and you can order traditional media such as books and magazines for next-day (or same-day) delivery.
However, it's not so easy to remember everything that you've read.
SQ3R helps you do this. It helps you think about what you want to get from a document, study it in an appropriate level of detail, and remember information well.
As such, it makes your reading both more efficient and more effective.
In this article, we'll look at how to use SQ3R, and we'll see how you can make it a routine part of the way you learn.

Overview

Francis Pleasant Robinson developed SQ3R, and published it in his 1946 book, "Effective Study." He created the technique for college students, but, even now, it's suitable for learning in almost every situation, including at work.
SQ3R is an acronym that stands for five steps that you should use when reading something that you want to remember. These five steps are:
  1. Survey.
  2. Question.
  3. Read.
  4. Recall.
  5. Review.
By following these steps, you ensure that you spend your time reading the most appropriate document, you study the right parts of that document in the right level of detail, you integrate new knowledge with existing knowledge, and you fix information in your mind, so that you can remember it in the long term.

Applying the Tool

To use SQ3R, follow the five steps below.

Step 1: Survey

Start by skimming through the material you've identified, to decide if it will be useful and to get an overview of the topic.
For example, if you've selected a book, scan the contents, introduction, chapter introductions, and chapter summaries to pick up an overview of the text.
For a website, look at the "breadcrumbs," which indicate the relative location of pages within the site. (If breadcrumbs are used, they're usually at the top of the page.) Also use the menus or the site map to see where the article sits within the overall structure of the site.
Then, look at typographical elements of the text, such as italics, bold words, subheadings, and boxed text. These often point to words or ideas that are important.
Last, explore any images, maps, charts, or diagrams that are embedded in the text.
Use these clues to decide whether this text will give you the information you're looking for. If it doesn't meet your needs, look for a different information source.

Step 2: Question

Now note down any questions that you may have about the subject. These could be the questions that led you to read it in the first place, or ones that you thought of during your survey.
Also, think about what else you want to achieve from this reading. What do you need to find out from this material? What are you most interested in learning? And how will this information help you?
When you question the material, you engage your mind and prepare it for learning. You're far more likely to retain information when you're actively looking for it.

Step 3: Read

Now read the document, one section at a time. Make a note of anything that you don't understand – you can use these notes later on, when you explore related materials.
You may find that this read-through takes more time than you expect, especially if the information is dense or complex.
Keep yourself focused by turning every subheading or chapter title into a question that you must answer before you move on. For example, you could turn the subtitle, "The Advantages of SQ3R" into the question, "What are the advantages of SQ3R?" and run through the answer in your mind before you move onto the next part of the text.

Tip:

While you're reading, use Mind Maps®   or Cornell Note Taking   to take notes on important concepts, and to record your reactions to what you're reading. Alternatively (and if you own the document) you can "read actively" by underlining important passages or by using a highlighter pen to show key points.

Step 4: Recall

Once you've read the appropriate sections of the document, run through it in your mind several times. Identify the important points, and then work out how other information fits around them.
Then, go back to your questions from Step 2, and try to answer them from memory. Only turn back to the text if you're unable to answer a question this way.

Step 5: Review

Once you can recall the information, you can start to review it.
First, reread the document or your notes. This is especially important if you don't feel confident that you've understood all of the information.
Then discuss the material with someone else – this is a highly effective method of reviewing information. Explain what you have just learned as comprehensively as you can, and do your best to put the information into a context that's meaningful for your team, organization, or industry.
Finally, schedule regular reviews of the material to keep it fresh in your mind. Do this after a week, after a month, and after several months – this helps to embed the material into your long-term memory.

Tip:

If you don't have the chance to discuss your learning face to face, consider keeping a blog or creating fact sheets to outline what you've learned.

Making SQ3R a Habit

At first, SQ3R may feel time-consuming. However, the more you use it, the less you'll have to think about the process.
To turn this reading technique into a habit  , use it each time you need to read something in detail. At first, allow extra time to get into the habit of using the five steps, and look for opportunities to discuss what you've learned with colleagues.

Key Points

SQ3R is five-step technique that you can use to learn more effectively, and to increase your retention of written information. It helps you to focus what you need from a document, and to create a clear structure for the information in your mind.
SQ3R's step are:
  1. Survey.
  2. Question.
  3. Read.
  4. Recall.
  5. Review.
You can use SQ3R whether you're reading online or on paper. It can take extra time to follow the five steps at first, but you'll find that if you make the effort, you'll learn and retain significantly more.
- See more at: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_02.htm#sthash.KWAp4v6G.dpuf

The difference between the Associate’s Degree and the Bachelor’s Degree in criminal justice

The Associate’s Degree is a two-year degree and focuses on the general skills required of persons pursuing a career in criminal justice. Skill based practical courses such as basic police photography, traffic accident investigation, firearms management, unarmed self-defense, report writing, or crime scene protection are typical in the Associates Degree. In addition to the law-enforcement centric training, the Associates Degree typically includes basic general education requirements as well including, but not limited to; math, English or communication, sciences, history, general psychology, and other general sociological or behavioral topics.

While the Associates Degree in some cases is viewed as preparatory to the Bachelor’s Degree (which usually requires four years for completion), the focus area of the Bachelor’s Degree extends well beyond the practical found at the Associate’s level. Within the 120-126 credit hours of coursework required for the Bachelor’s degree, the program concentration will be more focused on advanced studies well beyond the basics covered at the Associates degree level.


For example, the baccalaureate degree seeking student can expect to be exposed to practical application of theories, research and analysis of laws and best practices. Central to criminal justice focus, students will develop skills related to teaming, management, supervision and leadership practices in criminal justice. They will also be exposed to other agencies, existing organizations and functional areas of interest with regard to criminal justice as a discipline.

The general intent of the Associate’s Degree in criminal justice is to better prepare students for introduction and access to initial entry-level positions in the criminal justice field. Whereas the Bachelor’s Degree in criminal justice is focused toward better equipping students to perform at the mid-level positions in the criminal justice field, regardless where they start in the discipline. The academic rigor expected at the baccalaureate and advanced degree levels are necessary to prepare criminal justice practitioner for the variety of situations they may encounter during their career.

So the question becomes which degree is best?
To best answer that question the individual must first have an established goal for use of their degree. Since a degree is not required in order to become a police officer in most states, the Associates degree may be sufficient for initial entry into law enforcement, if the goal is to be successful at the entry-level positions. For most state, government, nonprofit, and private sector organizations, the Bachelor’s degree is necessary for initial entry, and in order to be competitive for advancement.

Furthermore, although many detectives, analysts, and other specialization ranks do not require a Bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, most require a baccalaureate degree in some discipline or another. Degrees beyond the bachelor’s degree, including the Master’s and PhD are generally pursued by those interested in teaching, training, instructing, or research in the area of criminal justice.

Finally, where does one start their educational journey?
For most, the best place to start is at the local college or university, by asking questions of the criminal justice instructor, or the criminal justice advisors, regarding how to best plan the academic journey to result in academic success and job placement and/or advancement.

As the late Stephen Covey was quoted, it is important to "begin with the end in mind."

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Eugene Matthews is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and teaches a local university in Missouri.

QR Codes in Education: Reach and Engage Students in Learning

Engaging student in active learning is a continual quest for most educators. What follows are links to one under used tool which educators can leverage to increase student engagement and, we hope, student learning. In addition to a brief explanation of QR Codes and QR Generators, I’ve also included several sites where educators have successfully used QR coding in a variety of ways to engage their students in learning. Not every method discussed may be appropriate for your student, but with a little imagination, you can probably tweak enough of the offerings to justify the time you invest in reading this article. To increase that likelihood I’ve added a bonus method at the end.

QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response Code) is the trademark for a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) first designed for the automotive industry in Japan. The information encoded by a QR code may be made up of four standardized types (“modes”) of data (numeric, alphanumeric, byte / binary, Kanji) or, through supported extensions, virtually any type of data. The QR code when scanned with the camera of a mobile device such as an iPad, Android tablet, or smartphone can transfer video, web links, text and email addresses amongst other digital content quickly and easily to users.

What is most impressive about the QR code is that it is free; all that is needed is a free QR Code generator. In addition to the many instructional videos available on YouTube.com that detail exactly how to create QR codes, below are two sites that list some of the top QR code generators. Those with “*” indicate QR generators that have appeared on multiple lists as most preferred or highly rated.

http://freenuts.com/top-10-free-online-qr-code-generators/
*Kaywa QR Code
*Maestro
*BeQRious
*GoQRme
*BeeTagg QR Generator
ZXing Project
Delivr
Azonmedia
Online Qr Lab
Mobile-Barcodes

http://www.freakzion.com/index.php/The-Blog-July-2013/qr-codes-the-best-10-qr-code-generators.html
*Kaywa QR Code
*Maestro
*BeQRious
*GoQRme
*BeeTagg QR Generator
QR Stuff
QRLicious
The QR Code Generator

Exploring The Educational Potential of QR Codes by Joe Dale (http://connectlearningtoday.com/exploring-the-educational-potential-of-qr-codes-3/)
Popular with advertisers and marketing companies, QR codes give readers an immediate opportunity to visit a website to find out more information about a range of facts, products and services.

For schools that have invested in iPads or tablets as learning tools or allow their students to bring in their own devices (BYOD), QR codes have proven to be a great timesaver for sharing links and distributing information en masse. Projecting large QR codes on a screen so they can be scanned from around the class makes it easy for students to access the same content on their own devices and interact with it individually instead of passively looking at the interactive whiteboard.

5 Real Ways To Use QR Codes In Education by Nick Grantham (http://www.fractuslearning.com/2012/02/20/qr-codes-in-education/#sthash.9bITZFOQ.dpuf)

Book Reviews: One of the best ideas I have heard for using QR codes is in the school library. QR codes are created for specific books, linking to reviews, trailers, or additional resources.

QR Code Orienteering: Create an orienteering course where each checkpoint is a QR code. As students check-in (scan the code) the virtual treasure map will unfold, with each code being a clue to find the next.

Multimedia Content: A popular use for QR codes in education is to add multimedia content to hard copy pages. It is kind of like a stepping-stone on our way to fully digitized textbooks and worksheets.

Solutions And Tutorials: A practical and fun application for QR codes is a modern version of answers being written in the back of the book. By placing answers to questions online and linking with QR codes, students can attempt their own solutions before using the code to review the correct answer. Not only is this a novel way for students to look up answers, it once again lets teachers use interactive media to present solutions in a more thorough and engaging manner.

QR Codes On School Equipment: QR codes let us link physical objects in the real world with digital assets online. This is very useful as we can now attach all sorts of additional information to equipment to assist in use.

Ways to Use QR Codes for Education by Christy Crawford
For the complete list visit (http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2012/09/ways-use-qr-codes-education). The following ideas are focused more toward HigherEd interactions.

1. Become a museum curator. Bring a President’s Day, Black History Month, or Women’s History Month bulletin board to life with QR codes. Place the code linking to compelling video or audio and/or a short quiz underneath images

3. Is there a special basket, bin, or shelf in your library devoted to an author? Use a QR code on that basket, bin, or shelf to instantly pull up videos of the author discussing their life, their favorite books, or tips on writing

6. Eliminate math phobia. Send home how-to videos for “scary” math problems by adding QR codes to homework sheets. Nervous parents will get at-home assistance and students will appreciate the review.

______________________

Bonus: Virtual Introductions. When staff or faculty are in class session and therefor unavailable to introduce themselves to perspective students, a QR code can reclaim a missed opportunity. Similar to a self-guided tour, the staff and faculty can generate a short introductory video with a brief bio and other information of interest linked to a QR code. Perspective students, parents, or campus guides can scan the QR code and use their mobile device to get a brief introduction from staff and faculty.

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