I’m from Iowa, so let me start with a parable about planting crops:<\/p>\n
One early spring day, a man didn\u2019t know if he should plant corn or beans. So, he went to the village elder. He told the elder all of his thoughts on the weather, the heartiness of corn, the economy, and the price of beans. The elder answered, \u201cPlant what you want\u2014asking the question is enough.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I am embarking on this class with an open and inquisitive mindset. I often think of stories and little illustrations. Let me share what I’ve been planting from the reading and my preparation for this course.<\/p>\n
“The moment we stop making plans is the moment we start to learn.”[1]<\/a> Ahrens points out that insight and expertise come from embodied experience. Dr. Clark told our cohort in D.C. that the goal is to produce doctorate-level work on our worst day. I’ve been considering how I will gain embodied experience that facilitates expertise. Ahrens says, “to become an expert, we need the freedom to make our own decisions and all the necessary mistakes that help us to learn.”[2]<\/a> Paradoxically, I’ll know what to plant because I have planted before.<\/p>\n
This week, I read Adler and Van Doren’s classic How to Read a Book, Ahrens’ Smart Notes, and Paul and Elder’s Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking. I want to share the rhythm I developed from these books.<\/p>\n
This year, two of my wife’s brothers and I started doctoral programs: one in Education, one in Missiology, and me in this program. We sat down at a table together at Christmas and discussed our first semester. We asked each other about the best book we’d read so far. I named Adler and Van Doren’s How to Read a Book. I picked this book up and read it last August when Dr. Clark mentioned it in his opening Zoom call with us. It’s changed the way I read.<\/p>\n
In my rhythm, I set an hour for myself with a book. In that hour, I do an inspectional read, making notes and symbols in the margin for key points and disagreements and folding down corners of key pages. I’m 50\/50 so far on completing a book in an hour. Then, I switch to notetaking in Zotero using the knowledge I gained from Ahrens.<\/p>\n
Ahrens provides an excellent book on notetaking. The book’s theme is that good notetaking and tracking systems can make writing significantly easier. I’ve started taking all my notes in Zotero. I categorize my notes into four areas: Theme, Research Uses, Concepts and Ideas, and Disagree.<\/p>\n
Both tasks, Inspectional Reading and Notetaking, require critical thinking. Paul and Elder say critical thinking will “raise vital questions” and “gather and assess relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively.”[3]<\/a> When I Read Inspectionally, I look for vital questions and ideas. When I take notes, I’m trying to interpret how these fit into my research syntopically\u2014in conversation with the other authors and sources I have.<\/p>\n
Neither Ahrens, Paul and Elder, nor Adler and Van Doren provide expertise. Instead, they provide a tool that helps facilitate expertise. SQ3R, Zettel Kasten, and Inspectional reading are not expertise but tools that help us live embodied lives capable of critical thinking. Reading, notetaking, and writing are not difficult; thinking is. Going forward, I imagine critical thinking will be the most difficult thing I do.<\/p>\n
Luhman, who developed the notetaking system around which Ahrens writes, says, “I only do what is easy. I only write when I immediately know how to do it.”[4]<\/a> When we’ve established embodied patterns that facilitate reading, effective notetaking, critical thinking, and syntopical exploration, then writing flows. Let me share an example of what I’ve been planting recently. I wrote this after reading Ahrens:<\/p>\n
Ahrens referenced Carol Dweck, who showed “that the most reliable predictor for long-term success is having a ‘growth mindset,'” that “actively seek[s] and welcome[s] feedback, be it positive or negative.”[5]<\/a> As we embark on our time with Dr. Clark, I think about how I will receive and welcome feedback.<\/p>\n
Andrew Haidt makes a similar point in The Anxious Generation<\/em>, where he lays out Discovery Mode vs. Defend Mode. In Discovery Mode, we are poised emotionally to learn and try new skills, compared to Defend Mode, where we are poised to weariness and distrust.[6]<\/a> Putting Dweck and Haidt together, when we can seek feedback, positive or negative, in that growth mindset, we are in the discovery mode, open to learning and trying new skills, hopefully leading to long-term success. This can further be connected to Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence<\/em>, where he showed hope as a better predictor of first-semester students than SAT scores.[7]<\/a> Hope, which is the belief in better things in the future, coupled with a growth mindset that feedback is good and helpful, will empower me to be successful in the long run.<\/p>\n
I can plant what I want because I’m getting feedback, am hopeful, and am poised to learn and try new skills. I’m looking forward to your feedback and growing in this process with all of you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
[1]<\/a> S\u00f6nke Ahrens, How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking: For Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers<\/em> (North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace, 2017). 64<\/p>\n
[2]<\/a> Ahrens, Smart Notes, 65<\/p>\n
[3]<\/a> Richard Paul and Linda Elder, The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking: Concepts and Tools<\/em>, 8th edition, Thinker\u2019s Guide Library (Lanham, Md: Rowman and Littlefield, 2020). 9<\/p>\n
[4]<\/a> Ahrens, Smart Notes, 15<\/p>\n
[5]<\/a> Ahrens, 53<\/p>\n