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Sharpen the Saw

Sharpen the Saw

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Sounds familiar? Yes - it is the 7th Habit - from Stephen Covey's book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". Covey emphasizes the need to sharpen ourselves from time to time. He describes an incident of a man continuously cutting the branches of trees with a saw. When another man suggests that he stops to sharpen the saw to make things quicker, he responds - "Can't you see I am busy cutting the branch? I do not have time to sharpen the saw"! Let us stop and think. Many of us fall into this trap. We are so busy…
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If we teach, you need to learn. And practice

If we teach, you need to learn. And practice

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I am going through a course where I am getting mentored on several skills. In one of the sessions a participant asked the mentor "Can you help me do ......?" (She asked for a specific job she needed done) And the mentor answered: "I would love to do this for you. But I cannot DO your jobs for you. You need to learn, ask for help, practice and then do it. Only then will you be able to do things independently." I thought to myself - This is partially true for the skills of literature searching and referencing, and for…
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Medical Students and Peer Learning – Some Thoughts

Medical Students and Peer Learning – Some Thoughts

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As a child, in the 1960s, I had learnt the dance form Bharatanatyam for a few years. I used to go with some of my schoolmates for our evening classes. The dance master was a moody person - some days strict and almost angry; some days in a good mood. But one thing was sure - he was a great teacher. An interesting thing he did was - as new students joined the classes, he made the senior students (yours truly and some more) - teach them. Then he would make them perform and observe. Not only would he be…
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