A frequent complaint of students, myself included, is that the scattered knowledge that we learn does not merge into a “big picture”. While I do agree that some of the onus (burden) lies on the professor’s shoulders, we are not just passive victims of information. One of the roles we may take in order to help contextualize the knowledge is to investigate the events that have led us up to this point. For example: How did we find out that we have white blood cells?
 
I’m not suggesting that you need to learn every little discovery that led up to one incidental fact, but if you have a broad understanding of how a particular phenomenon became interesting, you will understand the material in more detail.
 
Related to a previous post on Warming up before you study, understanding why lectures are important with context to the grander scheme of knowledge will help chunk the information into manageable, sensible pieces; not just an assortment of random facts.
 
What do I mean? How can we do it?
 
Perhaps an example will help. (In an attempt to compensate for my science-heavy posts,I will use an example from the arts.)
 
Fact: English (Shakespearean) sonnets are typically fourteen lines, written in iambic pentameter.
 
What do I know?:
- Shakespeare is a 15th century poet/playwright
- he wrote Romeo and Juliet, Othelo, The Tempest, Hamlet, etc.
- pentameter has something to do with five somethings
 
What am I curious about?:
- When did the sonnet come about? Why/how?
- Is there another type of non-English sonnet?
- Are all English sonnets from Shakespeare?
- Why are they different?
- If so when did this difference emerge?
- Does it have something to do with iambic pentameter? (Do I know what this means?)
- Why are sonnets so popular?
 
The key to answering many of these questions is to have some historical context on the development and the popularization of sonnets. Now the question is…
 
Where can we find this information?
 
Assuming that you are a frugal student like myself and you want to save money, there are always 3-4 solid standbys:
- Google.com
- Wikipedia (Scholarpedia for niche science topics)
- Institutional / Local Library
- Your textbook
 
The first two are good for a surface level understanding of what you need to contextualize, and often this is enough. Just search for sonnets (or whatever) in both Google.com and Wikipedia. A quick glance at wikipedia answers several of my questions: there is another type of sonnet, the Italian sonnet. In fact it was an Italian who presumably invented the sonnet. Also, Shakespeare did not use exclusively English sonnets, nor was he the one to create it, only to popularize it.
 
If you want a deeper understanding, a quick glance at ones textbook my reveal what you need to know about sonnets. If you want a brief history of some topic, occasionally you may find a book (or several) writen exclusively on one niche topic. You don’t need to read the whole book, nor would you want to, but generally the first chapter or introduction serves to provide a brief history or summary.
 
Why would we want to go through all this work?
 
First, I have to emphasize that it usually a waste of time to read a book to understand one unimportant fact. However, if a whole lecture series does not seem to have an overarching theme, understanding its history will help you understand and see the importance behind the lectures. While you could be blasé about your learning, it is crucially important to you. At a university level, it becomes your responsibility to get the marks that you want, and pursue opportunities. There is much less hand-holding and clear instruction.
 
By taking the initiative and learning this bit of extra information on your own, you will decrease the effort it will take to learn future material and increase your likelihood of remembering it. I like to relate this to having a boat with a small hole in it. While it will take a bit more time to repair the hole in your boat than to just put it in the water, you’re going to save yourself a lot of hardship (*cough*) later on.

• Carnival of Education: Week 128
• Lessons on Employment
• How and When to Question Authority
• Random Interesting Fact: Qualia
• Introduction