Center helps build student efficiency
By MELODY WARD
Of the Emerald
Sometimes it isn't enough just
to spend long hours with the
books.
0
The cause of many-students’
frustrations can be traced to ineffi
cient use of study techniques, ac
cording to David Hubin, Learning
Resources Center director.
EUGENE TRAVEL
WANT TO GO HOME
FOR CHRISTMAS?
BOOK YOUR SUPERSAVER
NOW!
NOW TAKING
APPLICATIONS
FOR PART TIME WORK
(HOSTESS, CASHIER,
BUSBOY, KITCHEN)
831 E. 13th
687-2823
Apply at Sizzler
General Offices
71 Centennial Loop
Suite A
Opening October 12
Gilbert & Sullivan’s
Pirates of Penzance
Performances
October 12, 13, 14, 20, 21, 22
Tickets are now on sale
at die Eugene Opera!
office, for $5.00 and $7.00.
STUDENT TICKETS $3.00
()penimi early February, (iuiseppi Verdi's
Kigoletto
()|>eniii^ mid-April, Rossini's
Barber of Seville
Audition information for singers and
players available at the Eugene
C)pera! office, 1192 High Street,
485-3985.
“The center is a way of allowing
students to make full use of their
academic material,” says Hubin.
“Stanford, Cornell and Rice all
have learning centers. The
rationale that’s been used is that
many of the students have never
devoted time to developing
specific learning techniques.”
Hubin thinks the center’s new
location in Friendly Hall will im
prove its accessibility. Previously,
the facility was housed in Condon
Hall.
The center offers several
“skills" classes, ranging from
spelling techniques to prepara
tions for major standardized tests
like the GRE and the LSAT.
“One of my interests is in the
area of math anxiety,” Hubin says.
"What’s been shown is that those
exams serve as a gatekeeper—a
weeding-out instrument.
In addition to courses in learn
ing skills, the center also main
tains an extensive tutorial staff,
and trains students to be tutors.
The cost of tutoring is $10 per
term, but the fee covers adminis
trative costs rather than tutor
salaries. Tutors receive academic
credit for their involvement in the
program.
The fee for center-offered
courses is $15. Hubin says his
long range priority is to move
away from charging fees for most
sen/ices, but thinks it appropriate
to retain the fees for exam prep
aration courses.
Strengthening the center’s rela
tionship with academic depart
ments is high on Hubin’s im
mediate priority list. “We need to
complement what’s going on in
academic classes,” he notes.
“Our mission is to service the en
tire academic community.”
Hubin stresses that the center is
neither a remedial program, nor
for first-year students only, al
though it offers many services that
are geared toward both needs.
“Learning facilitation is not a
remedial concept. Often tutoring
is viewed as simply remedial. I
view it as facilitative of success
wherever you are in the con
tinuum.”
Hubin points out that success in
the academic environment is “Not
a question of reading all the books
and memorizing all the facts.”
IA Solid Ingenuity Classic
The center helps with strategies
for learning and techniques or per
formance, says faculty instructor
Susan Lesyk, who teaches most
of the reading courses, including
speed reading.
The center’s speed reading dif
fers from commercial offerings in
two ways; it’s about $385
cheaper, and it is geared primarily
toward academic needs.
“Our class is designed for the
student,” Lesyk says. “Much of
the comprehension strategies are
person’s basic intelligence."
Turning reading and listening
into active processes greatly en
hances the student’s ability to
learn effectively, Leysk says.
“In a university setting, the
working knowledge of the facts is
the given. You need to be able to
move into an analytical relation
ship,” Hubin says. “I don’t think
that students are trained in high
school to move beyond that.”
Leysk agrees. “Some students
see all the pieces, but they don’t
David Hubin
Photo by Greg Gawlowski
applied to textbooks and
academic classes.’’ Speed read
ing classes are also offered for fa
culty members.
Leysk says that while many
students can comprehend the
material given enough time, the
speed reading techniques allow
students to approach their mate,
ial more critically and efficiently.
‘Teachers tend to believe you
have it, or you don’t,” Lesyk re
marks. “But these skills can be
taught. They don’t reflect on the
see the whole. And if they can't
see that, then the pieces don’t fall
into place,” she says. She
teaches “patterns of organiza
tion” in the study techniques and
speed reading courses.
“We always have more re
quests for tutors than we can fill,”
Leysk says. “It’s frustrating to turn
away students.”
The center conducts seminars
to instruct tutors in their specific
subject areas. “In the tutoring ex
perience, they actually see how
the skills work. And tutors have
always commented that they learn
to apply them to their own work.
I’ve always maintained that the
best way to learn something is to
teach it,” she says.
Leysk recommends that any
one who plans to teach get some
kind of tutorial experience. She
says practicum students who are
interested in teaching supervised
classes in learning and study skills
are also needed at the center.