The goal of all education is to cause change: change for the student, of course, but often also change for the teacher and the course material as well. Change is inherent in life, but the kind of change we seek in education is deliberate. We have specific objectives for the targeted change, with the hope that the change will be positive and beneficial.

From your perspective as a student, this change involves who you are, what you do and how you do it. Good education is concerned as much with the process of change and education as with the content. Ultimately, education must result in change in attitude and thought processes to be effective. The ultimate method of bringing this change about must involve self-aware control of the process itself: you must understand what is happening and "buy in" to that process as an active participant. How can you participate actively in implementing this change consciously and with self-awareness?

First, you must understand what the goals of the course are in the context of your persoanl goals: the course must build on and affirm the purpose for which you came to school for in the first place. That purpose may encompass multiple components: a better "job," making money, security, life-long challenge, and hopefully, defining a career and profession in the context of a complete life. Addressing these questions is the first step in getting the necessary self-commitment. Education is difficult. Learning is a dynamic and increasingly challenging activity. It requires you to actively court change in how you study, what you do with your time, how you manage your mind and body, how you redefine who you are and what you believe during the educational experience and throughout your life.

These are broad and deep questions. You certainly can’t address all of them in the way they need to be addressed in this course. What you can do is set the stage and start the process. After all, all learning is self-centered and individual. It is dynamic and interactive. It is continuous and involves continuous feedback and modification in both content and method. The more you know, the easier it is to learn more. The more ways you develop to learn, the easier it is.

So how do make this buy-in? Several steps are involved and some of these must be repeated at various stages of the learning process. First is visualization of what the change will involve. Let’s think about this for a minute. You certainly don’t have a firm idea of just what you want to be yet so you probably aren’t in a position to concretely visualize what you will be like at the end of the long preparation process ahead of you for this profession. You can get started, however, by thinking about those skills and abilities you already think you have and those you will need when you graduate. What are some of these?

You will need to know many things, understand many concepts, and be able to do many things. Let’s discuss what you need to know in terms of facts and understanding later. Right now, in the context of the lab, let’s think about the skills you should have when you leave this program. You should be able to do the following with agility and confidence: