Dialogue as a Study Tool

By Paul Merimee — November 4, 2022

Tags: dialogic engagement, dialogue, facts, grow, helpful hint, learning community, open mind, peer learning, perspective matters, purposeful learning, study smarter, the more you know

Sometimes we become hyper-focused on the intricacies of specific study patterns, caught up in the numerous decks of homemade flashcards, or lost in the overly massive textbook that seems better suited to being a door-stopper than an educational tool. These are not bad in and of themselves. However, it is important to not become overly reliant on them and to introduce some variety in your study techniques.

In my own experience studying for the MCAT, a test that is often mistakenly thought of as pure memorization, I found that the most effective way to learn the material was to explain it to or talk to others who were studying for the same test. This idea is not new. "The best way to learn something is to teach it" is another way to phrase this. While I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment, dialogue is another way to learn that is particularly effective when you do not know the topic well enough to teach it.

It is important to recognize the fundamentals of good dialogue and understand why it is a helpful tool in school. Dialogue requires at least two people who both know a bit about the topic on hand. If you want to have a dialogue about something, find a classmate.

Fundamental #1: An Open Mind

A dialogue will go nowhere if there is no room for mistakes or detours. Just like studying flashcards or doing example problems, we must let ourselves and others make mistakes. If your friend refers to gluconeogenesis as functioning in the pancreas, it is better to explain why that is incorrect and why it occurs in the liver and kidneys rather than just laughing at the error.

If you are discussing Hobbes's political theory, you should entertain your friend's idea that the Leviathan is quite a brilliant system. If you and your partner agree about a topic, consider the other perspective and test your positions. Have an open mind about what you are discussing; otherwise, you leave yourself little room for growth.

Fundamental #2: Look for the Underlying Principles

The extreme of having an open mind is that you will never get anywhere in your dialogue. By the end, you will find yourself on an entirely different topic, unaware of how you got there. You'll likely be more confused than when you began. This fundamental provides the focus. It is the why and the how. Why does gluconeogenesis take place in the liver/kidneys? How does Hobbes come up with the Leviathan in the first place?

These kinds of questions are essential to a healthy dialogue. They allow you to get to the heart of the topic so that you can evaluate its underlying principles bare of all the excess. To sum this fundamental up: ask questions. When you do not know the answers go back to the source and get curious. You must also encourage your partner to defend and explain their position. Only then does dialogue begin to work as intended.

Fundamental #3: Internalize the Facts

Now that we arrived at the heart of the matter, we must take what's learned through the dialogue and internalize it. It is wonderful that you now know why gluconeogenesis takes place where it does, but if you do not remember that, then what's the use? Thankfully, dialogue helps us remember. Now we have an event, emotions, and sensations to tie to the fact. Words on a notecard are well and good, but they do not always stand out in our memories.

A dialogue with a friend where you stay up well past your bedtime drinking too much coffee and eating too many snacks is far more memorable, but we need to make sure we remember the content as much as the company. If having an open mind is the starting point and searching for the underlying principles is the guardrail, then internalizing the facts is the finish line.

Why Dialogue is Helpful

Now that we have a better grasp of what dialogue should be, consider why we should use it. As I said above, dialogue helps imprint facts on our minds by tying them to particular experiences. It also allows us to reflect on what we have already learned and use that knowledge in a practical, semi-unstructured environment. We do not just learn to take tests, so having a situation where we implement our knowledge is valuable.

I would rather receive treatment from a doctor with a 3.2 GPA but five years of practical experience than a doctor with a 3.9 GPA but only two months of experience. This is the difference between academic knowledge and applied knowledge. Academic knowledge is generalized or abstract knowledge. Applied knowledge is the experiential, multi-faceted, and multi-disciplined cousin of academic knowledge. Dialogue will help you use your knowledge in a real-world situation. If done right, even gain a better grasp of it.

Throughout your college experience, you will likely have many opportunities to debate, discuss, defend, or attack various positions. Embrace these opportunities and use them to widen your intellectual horizons, deepen your knowledge, and test yourself. Dialogue should be an important tool in your academic toolkit, alongside all the other study techniques you already have and will learn in college. Beyond that, knowing how to have a healthy dialogue will serve you in your job, personal life, and dozens of other situations. In my opinion, dialogue can also bring a vibrancy to studying that is often lacking in the rote memorization or endless reading of notecards, textbooks, and PowerPoints.

Paul Merimee

Paul Merimee grew up in sunny and vibrant Cleveland, Ohio with his eight siblings. In his early years Paul loved to read, voraciously consuming anything that had an engaging front cover at the library. Paul wanted to be a software engineer, not an author. He somehow ended up going to a small, liberal arts college in the middle of Wyoming. It was there that he was introduced to the great writers like Homer, Dostoevsky, Aristotle, and more.

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