Study Skills Tips
Author:
Gail Tennen
English Skills
Quotation:
I told my students that we would
be having a quiz the next class. The quiz was also listed on
the class outline. I told them I would be asking them to define
three of the five terms on a study sheet I had given them. The
definitions were on the sheet. We had discussed all these terms
in class for two days; they had been written on the board. They
were also defined and discussed in the text chapter. One quarter
of the class failed the quiz. Two students said that they didn't
know we were going to have a quiz; one student asked where these
terms had come from as he had never seen them before.
-Anonymous Social Science professor
Introduction
All instructors have stories like
the one quoted above. It is important that we recognize behaviors
we can influence from behaviors outside our control. It is also
important not to equate student failure with instructor failure.
Once we have done everything we can to increase student success,
the responsibility rests with the student.
The challenge is assisting the student
to assume this responsibility.
This guide provides specific, quick
tips about improving students' general study skills as well
as their reading skills. These tips take little or no classroom
time. You will find that within a category some techniques will
appeal to you more than others. That is fine. We all have different
teaching styles, and the nature of our academic disciplines
may lend itself more to one technique than to others.
This is not meant as an exhaustive
resource on student success. The faculty with whom I worked
all asked for something short and accessible.
The last section of the guide directed
to instructors contains suggested solutions to common student
problems and questions.
The "Quick Students' Guides"
that are included here (guides to reading the textbook, listening
and notetaking, taking tests and time management) can be duplicated
and handed out to your students.
One guideline I kept in mind during
this project was that social science instructors are not and
do not want to be study skills instructors. It was made clear
to me that social science faculty have specific course contents
to teach and that they cannot take a lot of time away from that
primary task. The techniques suggested here do not take up a
lot of extra class time.
Learning Objectives
Lesson Goal
Provide quick tips for improving student success by helping
them master basic study skills. Provide handouts to students
who want to improve their general study skills, more effective
reading, listening and note-taking, and time management.
Learning Objectives
In general study skills, help students
to:
