Teaching of study skills
Introduction
Study skills, academic skills, or study strategies are approaches applied to learning. They are generally critical to success in school, considered essential for acquiring good grades, and useful for learning throughout one's life. Study skills are an array of skills which tackle the process of organising and taking in new information, retaining information, or dealing with assessments. This include mnemonics, which aid the retention of list of information effective reading; concentration techniques; and effective note-taking.
While often left up to the students and their support network, study skills are increasingly taught in high school and at the university level. More broadly, any skill which boosts a person's ability to study, retain and recall information which assist in and passing exams can be termed a study skill, and this could include time management and motivational techniques.
Study skills are discrete techniques that can be learned, usually in a short time, and applied to all or most fields of study. They must therefore be distinguished from strategies that are specific to a particular field of study, and from abilities inherent in the student, such as aspects of intelligence or learning styles.
Techniques of study skills
The teaching techniques regarding the study skills can be given as follows:
1. SQ3R Technique
This method of study has been given by Robinson of the spellings, "S" stands for "Survey" which refers to a quick glance through the title page, preface, chapter headings etc. of a text. This gives the students an idea of the themes dealt with in the text and how they organised. "Q" stands for "Question". The survey of the text will raise some questions about the text. The three "R" stands for "Read", " Recall", and "Review". Students are expected to learn with a critical frame of mind. Then students should recall what they read. Reviewing is critical examination of the book.
2. REAP technique
This method is useful during the first interaction with the subject of study is REAP method. This method helps the students to improve their understanding of the text and bridge the idea with that of the author's. Reap is an acronym for Read, Encode, Annotate and Ponder.
a. Read: Reading a section to discern the idea.
b. Encode: Paraphrasing the idea from the author's perspective to the student's own words.
c. Annotate: Annotating the section with critical understanding and other relevant notes.
d. Ponder: To ponder about what they read through thinking, discussing with others and reading related materials. Thus it allows possibility of elaboration and fulfillment of zone of proximal development.
3. Note-taking and Note-making
Learning to take notes effectively is not only important to study but also in many other situations, at work and in our personal life. Note taking is a passive process which is done at lectures. It allows the learner to have a written record of the lecture which may not be in a textbook. Some of the sources of note taking are books, newspapers, audio visual resources, programmes.
Note making is more active and focused activity where the learners assimilates or all information and makes sense of it for themselves. After note-taking the learners integrate these notes with reading from articles prescribed or recommended books or tutorials.
4. PQRST technique
A method used to focus on key information when studying from books and uncritically is the PQRST method. This method prioritises the information in a way that relates directly to how they will be asked to used that information in an exam. PQRST is an acronym for Preview, Question, Read, Summary, Test.
5. Flashcard training
Flashcards are visual cues on cards. These have numerous uses in teaching and learning, but can be used for revision. Students often make their own flashcards, or more detailed index cards - cards designed for filing, of an A5 size, on which short summaries are written. Being discrete and separate, they have the advantage of allowing students to reorder them, pick a selection to read over, or choose randomly for self - testing. Software equivalent can be used.
6. Organized summaries
"Summarizing" is one of the important study skill. So students are needed to train it in it too. The strategies to be followed for summarizing can be given as follows:
1. Skimming or surveying the text or passage.
2. Revising and reviewing the parts of the text.
3. Jotting down the points (main and subsidiary).
4. Writing the rough draft of the summary.
A method used to focus on key information when studying from books and uncritically is the PQRST method. This method prioritises the information in a way that relates directly to how they will be asked to used that information in an exam. PQRST is an acronym for Preview, Question, Read, Summary, Test.
5. Flashcard training
Flashcards are visual cues on cards. These have numerous uses in teaching and learning, but can be used for revision. Students often make their own flashcards, or more detailed index cards - cards designed for filing, of an A5 size, on which short summaries are written. Being discrete and separate, they have the advantage of allowing students to reorder them, pick a selection to read over, or choose randomly for self - testing. Software equivalent can be used.
6. Organized summaries
"Summarizing" is one of the important study skill. So students are needed to train it in it too. The strategies to be followed for summarizing can be given as follows:
1. Skimming or surveying the text or passage.
2. Revising and reviewing the parts of the text.
3. Jotting down the points (main and subsidiary).
4. Writing the rough draft of the summary.
5. Writing the final draft of summary in the given length if mentioned.
6. Suggesting a suitable title.
7. Using dictionaries
Referring to a dictionary is an important study skill. A "dictionary" is a list of words in alphabetical order. We should train our learners in the use of dictionaries through word meaning tasks and other tasks. Some of such tasks can be as given below:
1. To find out several possible meanings of a word.
2. To arrange words alphabetically and write their meanings.
3. To find out the head words or root words for the given words.
4. To find out pronunciation of the given words.
While referring to a dictionary, certain things are to be followed. First, before using it, the students should look carefully in the preliminary section of the dictionary for the key. Here he would get the explanation of the way in which the entries are arranged in the meanings of symbols used by the editor.
8. Using thesaurus and reference books
A thesaurus is a book which contains words and phrases arranged according to their meanings. It is opposite to dictionary. One knows the meaning but cannot recall the word. It also gives the antonyms of the words. Are you students need to be guided in the skill of using thesaurus.
A reference book is one which contains information. Encyclopedias, atlases, directories, year books and annuals are various types of reference books. Our students need to be trained in the use of all these books.
9. Visual imagery
Some learners are thought to have a visual learning style, and will benefit greatly from taking information from their studies which are often heavily verbal, and using visual techniques to help and encode and retain it in memory.
6. Suggesting a suitable title.
7. Using dictionaries
Referring to a dictionary is an important study skill. A "dictionary" is a list of words in alphabetical order. We should train our learners in the use of dictionaries through word meaning tasks and other tasks. Some of such tasks can be as given below:
1. To find out several possible meanings of a word.
2. To arrange words alphabetically and write their meanings.
3. To find out the head words or root words for the given words.
4. To find out pronunciation of the given words.
While referring to a dictionary, certain things are to be followed. First, before using it, the students should look carefully in the preliminary section of the dictionary for the key. Here he would get the explanation of the way in which the entries are arranged in the meanings of symbols used by the editor.
8. Using thesaurus and reference books
A thesaurus is a book which contains words and phrases arranged according to their meanings. It is opposite to dictionary. One knows the meaning but cannot recall the word. It also gives the antonyms of the words. Are you students need to be guided in the skill of using thesaurus.
A reference book is one which contains information. Encyclopedias, atlases, directories, year books and annuals are various types of reference books. Our students need to be trained in the use of all these books.
9. Visual imagery
Some learners are thought to have a visual learning style, and will benefit greatly from taking information from their studies which are often heavily verbal, and using visual techniques to help and encode and retain it in memory.
Some memory techniques make use of visual memory, for example the method of locy, a system of visualising key information in real physical locations e.g.around a room.
10. Using library
One more study skill in which we need to nurture and developed in ourselves are in our students is the habit of working in the library. We should know how to use the resources in the library and teache our students about them. The students need to know about the information source cards of books and journals. Students should be guided regarding the note cards which are used for quotations from a text, comments on the text, and the summary of the auther's views. Students need to be taught the use of library catalogue cards. For additional information, we should meet the library assistant.
10. Using library
One more study skill in which we need to nurture and developed in ourselves are in our students is the habit of working in the library. We should know how to use the resources in the library and teache our students about them. The students need to know about the information source cards of books and journals. Students should be guided regarding the note cards which are used for quotations from a text, comments on the text, and the summary of the auther's views. Students need to be taught the use of library catalogue cards. For additional information, we should meet the library assistant.
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