Surface vs Deep learning

I still remember the dread, the I-really-don't-want-to-study-this-but-I-know-I-have-to feeling when I was trying to make myself study. I used to pride myself for my discipline, which I managed to train up through distance running, but trying to study something I did not want to study, required way more mental discipline than running when it hurts did.

After some reading of this book, I realized it could be my surface approach of studying that ended me up this way. It served its purpose well in Secondary School, I scraped through Junior College with it, but I could no longer do it in University level. It works well when the content level is low, but when boundless, it cannot work at all.

Attitudes to studying
"... the regularity with which students obliged to use a surface approach to a task, or to an entire course, describe their feelings of resentment, depression and anxiety. In contrast, deep approaches are almost universally associated with a sense of involvement, challenge and achievement, together with feelings of personal fulfilment and pleasure. ... STudents who are taking a deep approach find the material more interesting and easier to understand, and are therefore more likely to spend 'time on task'. But studying using a surface approach is a tedious and unrewarding activity: persisting with this approach leads to procrastination and delay (exactly!)"

"When students appear to be 'unable to study' we should examine their approaches to learning before blaming them for being idle and unmotivated..."

I'm so moved by this passage. I have been a victim of the surface approach of learning for many many years. Sometimes I catch glimpses of the deeper approaches which is very much heavenly. I wish I realized my problem earlier and was more self aware earlier. But thank God, it's still not too late!