Bain’s Style of Learning

In Ken Bain’s book, What the Best College Students Do, Bain mentions that “These “surface learners,” as the psychologists call them, looked for facts and words they could memorize, attempting to anticipate any questions someone might as them.” Bain is discussing how when given an article the students deemed “surface learners” reacted by trying to look over the article and commit to memory anything they thought was important in order to do well if asked any questions about it. I feel like this is how I constantly view my learning. I prepare myself to learn just enough to be able to perform well on an assessment or to be able to discuss it with someone. Sometimes I struggle with finding the deeper meaning to something that I am learning but I am trying to change that by being more of an active learner. One of the drawbacks to this type of learning is that people often become “routine experts” and learn how to constantly perform well but maybe not learn as much as is possible.