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From the author

Image of Andy NorthedgeHello

I've had the privilege of working with students of all ages and backgrounds during more than thirty years at the Open University and it is from them that I learned most of what is in this book. But I also learned a lot through reflecting on my own struggles as a psychology student many years ago. I remember in particular taking a course on theories of learning and puzzling over why the theories didn't tell me how to learn themselves. Later I came to see that learning is both a deep mystery and perfectly commonplace, since we all have to do it all the time in order to survive, and that we can learn a lot of useful things about learning just by reflecting on the daily learning we do in our lives. I found that this was true too for the students I worked with. If they focused on practical examples of the work they were tackling and reflected together on what was difficult and why, they could arrive at new insights and strategies which took them forward in their studies. Many had been given advice on studying, but found it difficult to apply the advice to their own personal struggles. They needed to work out their own ways of understanding how to manage the learning process.

That is where the idea for The Good Study Guide came from. I wanted to bring those penetrating discussions about the challenges of learning out of the classroom and the chat room. I wanted to make them widely available by writing about real examples of study activities and real students’ responses to them. Like everyone else, I have been learning about learning all my life, but I have had the good fortune to do so surrounded by the insightful students and creative teachers of the Open University. I hope I have been able to pass on some of their wisdom in this book.

Best wishes

Andy Northedge

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