Programs & ServicesEducation X101: Learning Strategies for History
Course Overview
2 credit, semester long, graded course. Open to all students, regardless of where they are in their undergraduate education, as long as they are co-enrolled in a course offered by the History department.
Course Structure
Education X101 is a course that supports the academic demands of a history course. Education X101 is not another discussion section but it is a separate two-credit class designed to help the student manage their learning within the lecture and/or discussion format. X101 is taught by an advanced history graduate student. The class size is small (capped at 19 students) allowing students to get to know each other and creating an environment in which students are encouraged to work and learn collaboratively.
Course Objectives
Education X101 helps students:
- Improve reading efficiency by learning how to read different sorts of historical texts actively, strategically, and critically to identify major historical themes.
- Become more active learners who take control of their own learning by anticipating the upcoming lecture/discussion, summarizing the most recent lecture/discussion, and formulating questions they hope will be answered as they attend a lecture/discussion or read a text chapter.
- Write well-organized, historically accurate essays by learning ways to analyze arguments, identify thesis statements and supporting arguments, and distinguish between essential and non-essential information.
- Transform the text and lecture/discussion information by writing summaries, creating cognitive maps and/or time lines, and verbalizing what they have learned and what they do not fully comprehend.
- Analyze their own thinking and learning by becomming aware of what they know, need to know, and are learning so they can relate new information to prior knowledge.
- "Think like a historian" and learn different approaches to history, thus gaining a better understanding and appreciation of the discipline and recognizing the value of history in everyday life.
- Learn to work collaboratively with other students through X101 student discussion of lecture/reading notes and the formulation of smaller study groups specifically geared toward the study of history.
- Develop study skills such as note taking, preparing for exams, time management, and goal setting.
Who benefits from taking Education X101?
- Students who would like to optimize their study skills.
- Students who are considering a career in a field related to education or history.
- Students who would like additional help working in a small classroom with opportunities for more structured one-on-one discussions.
- Students who would like additional support in a large lecture course where there are many independent reading assignments.
- Students who want to know more about history as a college subject.
- Students who want to know what it takes to do well at the college level.
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This file was last updated on November 10, 2003 by Seak-Zoon Roh
Copyright 2003,
Trustees of Indiana University