Explicit teaching of Study Skills will get results.

Most schools have a study skills program that all high school or middle school students complete.   It is usually taught in form class and totally out of context of the regular classroom.  Some schools employ outside professionals to teach a crash course, a type of guerrilla warfare practice where study skills are taught in 10 easy steps.

 But how many of us explicitly teach and reinforce study skills in the classroom.

 Metacognition – the skills that need to be taught

Metacognition is a term commonly defined as ‘thinking about thinking’ or ‘learning how to learn’.  I like the definition provided by Corinne Smith and Lisa Strick (1997)

                “Metacognitive skills are informal strategies that good students use to help themselves learn, store and recall information” (p126)

 These two authors, in a book called Learning Disabilities: A to Z  give a pretty exhaustive list of metacognitive skills relating to study skills.  The list relates to organisation and time management skills, study skills, test-taking skills, memory skills and problem solving and decision-making skills. 

Organisation and time management skills

• Keep an assignment notebook
• Record due dates on a calendar
• Make lists of things to do
• Estimate the amount of time a project or an assignment will take
• Set deadlines
• Establish a work schedule
• Organise a notebook with pockets and dividers
• Develop a filing system for items that need to be saved
• Maintain a clutter free work space

 The reality of it all

The reality of it all is that whilst we often discuss these ideas with our students, we don’t systematically reinforce the actions and strategies related to each point. 

Start teaching Study Skills today.

Take a chance and start explicitly teaching study skills in each of your classes.  Start simple and focus on one task at a time. 

Here is an example of how I would explicitly teach the skill “Develop a filing system for items that need to be saved” and it is based on an Ancient History topic for Year 8 students.

Before the unit begins:

• Explain to students what you would like them to bring to each class.  If you provide handouts you will need to give suggestions on how to store them, at school, in the locker and at home.

During the unit:

• Assignment notes – think about how you would like these saved, remind students if you expect to see drafts or notes
• Exam revision – discuss how the notes could be written and where you would keep them

End of the unit:

• Suggest to students that all handouts could be filed at home in a filing cabinet.  This would be an opportunity to also discuss what label to use in the filing cabinet.
• Assignments – Students could keep a hard copy and copy on computer.  You could discuss with students where they would save the hard copy and electronic copy?

These examples wouldn’t take very long to discuss in class.  However, they will be easily forgotten if not discussed and reinforced regularly. 

Now I am no fool, and obviously this strategy won’t work for everyone.  However, we need to try and teach these skills to our students.  We expect them to be organised but we fail to give them strategies. 

You could even offer some ideas in the comments section below.