Web Posted on:January 7, 1999
STUDY SKILLS FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS: UNDER PREPARED OR RETURNING ADULT LEARNER
DR. SHARON MITCHELL WOOTEN
2704 NANTUCKET LANE
TALLAHASSEE, FL 32307
(850) 599-3168 - WORK
(850) 668-0373 - HOME
Study Skills and the college student has been the topic of much research by utilizing surveys and trying specific methods of instruction. With this in mind, I have collected data from the past decade-plus in the Study Skills Improvement course that I teach at Florida A&M University (FAMU). The study skills course has been specifically designed for college students who are learning disabled and participants in the Learning Development and Evaluation Center (LDEC) at FAMU. The LDEC is a specially designed program for college students who have a learning disability/ies.
Comprehensive, study skills help to awaken motivation, and this interest will help to ensure that students become active rather than passive in the process of learning. Study skills help students learn to use their abilities to devise some effective organizational skills. When students learn to organize priorities and have a personalized systems that is workable and successful, they will find that the internal rewards are reason enough to justify the time spent on learning.
Basically, study skills is a plan which includes knowing how to use a variety of resources to enhance learning about any particular topic. Developing techniques for effective receiving, retaining and recall of information. Learning is simply a plan; how to store and retrieve information. Forgetting is simply a loss of stored information, and this for the most part temporary.
Practicing good study skills helps develop a set of test-taking strategies. It is important to learn how to approach a variety of exams. Test-wiseness is receiving, retaining, and recalling the information and much more.
In summary, study skills is simply a complex methodology for encoding, storing, retaining, retrieving and using information in a logical, effective, and efficient manner so as to be ready for evaluations. The prepared learner will never be caught totally off-guard. A "pop-quiz" can take on new meaning. Fear of embarrassment can be replaced with joy and self-confidence.
Study skills involve reading, listening, receiving, and processing information in an efficient manner for memory. When memory is absent, study appears not to have taken place. People who have memory-related deficits, such as those experienced by the learning disabled learners, can develop successful strategies and techniques for memory. Being able to achieve a greater level of success in the area of knowledge is not a mysterious plan that is available to a select few. What does it take to become a successful learner? The main ingredients are:
- Practicing motivational techniques
- Developing learning/memory techniques
- Using reading related skills (SQ3R)
- Notetaking and outlining
- Using personal learning styles
- Learning how to study
- Learning test-wiseness
- Learning time-management
- Using learning resources
- Developing organizational strategies
- Evaluating professors and their teaching styles
The Study Skills Improvement course at FAMU continues to provide fruitful learning and delivery techniques for learners who have a learning disability or who are returning to educational pursuits after one or more years away from school or college.