Speaker lectures on learning

The doctor said 'learning is putting stuff in your brain.'
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
POLAND -- See it. Catch it. Hold on.
Dr. Steven Robbins believes those three simple steps to catching a ball also apply to learning.
Robbins gave a motivational talk Monday at Poland Library on "The Third Tier," a book of about 100 pages that uses athletics as a metaphor for learning. The goal of the book is to help pupils, especially athletes, understand, as Robbins said in the book, "What needs to be done in order for you to learn something."
Robbins said he realized as he faced his first medical school exam that he did not know how to study. His focus on the process of learning, including "The Third Tier" and a second book he is writing, "The Power of Motivation," grew out of a series of study experiments during medical school.
His goal
He said his goal is to give pupils tips toward understanding how to learn, so they can earn better grades with less study time. Improving learning, and subsequently, grades, is a matter of learning more effectively and maximizing time, not by using complex formulas or studying longer, he said.
"Learning is putting stuff in your brain," Robbins said. "Anything you learn is information, and information can be broken down into facts."
Personality, motivation and a host of other factors can get in the way of effective learning, Robbins said. To overcome those obstacles, "You have to know yourself, then compensate."
Before he began his talk, Robbins made a point of introducing himself to each person in the room. He then took off his suit coat, rolled up his shirt sleeves and popped the top off of a marker, poised to write on an easel.
He then started his talk by addressing each person in the room by name, then asked, "What would you like to know?"
Audience's questions
Several people told Robbins how they wanted to help their children or grandchildren develop better study habits and improve their grades. He then used the concepts of "The Third Tier," to address their situations.
Robbins is a graduate of Ouachita Baptist University and the University of Arkansas. After receiving his medical degree from the University of Arkansas, he came to Youngstown to complete his residency in internal medicine at St. Elizabeth Medical Center. He teaches medical interns Northeast Ohio Universities College of Medicine, where he is associate program director.
Robbins poked fun at himself, clearing up any notion that his books have sports metaphors out of any athletic prowess of his own.
"When you go to a high school with only 60 kids in it, everybody plays," he said. "I turned to academics because coaches quickly determined that I possessed a deadly combination: I was small and slow."
XMore information is available at Robbins' Web site at www.3TLearning.com. Copies of "The Third Tier" are available at the Poland Library bookstore, where all proceeds will go to the library.