Study Skills Instruction: Separate Course Approach versus The Infusion Approach
I have been doing some research into the best way to teach study skills. The exceptional book “Tools for Learning: A Guide to Teaching Study Skills” by M.D Gall, Joyce P. Gall, Dennis R. Jacobsen and Terry L. Bullock was used for this summary.
Explanation of the two approaches to study skills:
Separate Course: This is a short course on study skills, usually provided at beginning of school year.
Infusion Approach: Study Skills is taught during specific subjects and applied to that subject area.
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Separate Course Approach |
Infusion Approach |
| Advantages |
- Only needs a few teachers to implement program
- Few teachers – little resources needed
- Teachers should be motivated to teach the course and students would benefit from this
- A separate course means that the study skills content would actually get taught.
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- Reinforces skills in different subject areas
- Has ‘credibility’ as it is taught during specific subject areas and skills taught with appropriate content
- Students always practicing the skills
- Easy at Primary / Elementary level
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| Disadvantages |
- This approach only works well in Middle Schools and High Schools that have different teachers who take different subjects.
- Scheduling is a problem. All students should be given the course at the same time, but it is more common for some classes to wait, and thus be disadvantaged.
- Students may not transfer the knowledge to regular classrooms
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- This approach involves planning by all departments
- All teachers have to agree on sequence of activities
- The sequence needs to be scaffolded
- It is easy to forget to teach the skills
- Needs a group of people to co-ordinate
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Summary taken from “Tools for Learning: A Guide to Teaching Study Skills” by M.D Gall, Joyce P. Gall, Dennis R. Jacobsen and Terry L. Bullock (pages 45 – 48)
As you can see from the table, each approach has some advantages. However, a combination of both approaches is recommended.
What approach does your school use? Does that approach work?
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