DOCUMENT RESUME ED 355 616 EA 024 675 AUTHOR Thomas, Anne TITLE Study :.ills. INSTITUTION Oregon School Study Council, Eugene. REPORT NO ISSN-0095-6694 PUB DATE Jan 93 NOTE 46p. AVAILABLE FROM Oregon School Study Council, Unive-sity of Oregon, 1787 Agate Street, Eugene, OR 97403 ($4.50 prepaid members; $7 nonmembers; $3.00 postage and handling on billed orders). PUB TYPE Guides Classroom Use Teaching Guides (For Teacher) (052) Collected Works Serials (022) JOURNAL CIT OSSC Bulletin; v36 n5 Jan 1993 EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Academic Achievement; Elementary Secondary Education; Learning Strategies; Metacognition; Reading Habits; *Student Motivation; *Study Habits; *Study Skills IDENTIFIERS *Oregon ABSTRACT Three developments lend support to the idea that schools must help teach study skills: (1) advances in cognitive psychology that suggest children are active learners;(2) society's concern for at-risk students; and (3) growing demands for improved student performance. There is evidence that systematic study skills instruction does improve academic performance. Study skills entail a beneficial study environment, self-management, and time and stress management, as well as the more traditional skills of effective listening, reading comprehension, note-taking, and sophisticated writing skills. Motivation is essential for instilling study skills. Research suggests that behavioral self-management, mood management, and self-monitoring are successful tactics in developing motivation. Development of study skills should be addressed at every educational level. Programs to enhance teachers' preparation to teach study skills are important, because the perception they are unprepared negatively affects student performance. Efforts in Oregon demonstrate both the need to develop study skills and the outlines of some successes. Students' eagerness to acquire study skills dissipates quickly, demanding a strong commitment from school boards, administrators, teachers, parents, and students to make study skills instruction maximally effective. An appendix lists eight study skill programs. (Contains 21 references.) (TEJ) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** STUDY SKILLS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Offics of Educational Roswell and Immwoment EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) (hisdocument has peen reproduced as received from the Person or organization originating it. Anne Thomas C Minor changes nave been made to improve reproduction Quality Points of wevr or oranions stated in this dccLi- mon! do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER SERIC1." \) Oregon School Study Council January 1993 Volume 36, Number 5 D'jSSC BULLETiN REST COPY AVAILARE STUDY SKILLS Anne Thomas Oregon School Study Council January 1993 Volume 36, Number 5 ISSN 0095-6694 Nonmember price: $7.00 Member price: $4.50 Quantity Discounts: 10-24 copies15% 25-49 copies - 20% 50+ copies 25% OSSC STAFF Philip K. Piele, Executive Secretary Stuart C. Smith, Editor Linda S. Lumsden, Associate Editor and Production Deborah Drost, Assistant Editor and Production Audrey Muller, Publications Sales OSSC GOVERNING BOARD Dave Cone, School Board Member, Gresham Grade SD 4 Mike Delvin, School Board Member, North Bend SD 13 James Maxwell, Superintendent, Lane ESD Philip K. Piele, Professor and Executive Secretary, Oregon School Study Council David Conley, Associate Professor, Division of EducationalPolicy and Management, University of Oregon Bill Korach, Superintendent, Lake Oswego SD 7J Bob Stalick, Superintendent, Greater Albany Public SD 8J Diane Harr, School Board Member, Oregon School BoardsAssociation OREGON SCHOOL STUDY COUNCIL 1787 Agate Street University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon 97403 (503) 346-5044 Fax: (503) 346-2334 The University of Oregon is an affirmative action, equal opportunityemployer. Preface Marilyn Spencer has just finished a U.S. history lecture on the roots of the Revolutionary War, and her students have a few minutes before the end of class to begin reading tomorrow's assignment. She looks around the room and observes various students tackling the assignment. Becky Jones is carefully reading and taking notes. She has divided her paper in half and written questions on the left side of the page. As she reads, she writes the answers on the right side of the page opposite the questions. The teacher recalls that Becky also carefully listened during the lecture and took notes when an important point was made. Now the teacher's gaze settles on Bobby Smith. Bobby seems to be a bright student but was inattentive during the lecture. He's reading now, but the pages are turning quickly, and he is not taking notes. Even though it is early in the year, Marilyn Spencer already has a pretty good idea how these two students will fare. Their study skillsor the lack thereofare an indicator of their success. Study skills are a relatively recent addition to schools' curriculum, and several school districts have already embraced the concept. But is it neces- sary? Can't students figure out how to study on their own? If they are taught study skills, will it improve their performance? This Bulletin explores study skillswhat they are, how they can be taught, and whether they workand the implications such teaching has for public schools. Anne Thomas has a master's degree in journalism from the University of Oregon. She has teaching experience on the elementary, secondary, and collegiate levels and has worked for the Cottage Grove Sentinel, Ashland Daily Tidings, and Springfield News. Appreciation is due M. D. "Mark" Gall, professor of education, Uni- versity of Oregon, for his contribution to the editing and revision of an earlier draft. iii Contents Preface iii Introduction 1 1. Do Study Skills Help Children Learn? 2 Why Teach Study Skills? 3 How Learning Occurs 3 Is There Evidence That Study Skills Help? 4 2. What Are Study Skills? 7 Study Skills Involve More Than Note Taking 7 Academic Techniques and Skills 10 3. how Should Study Skills Be Taught? 15 Success Leads to Success 15 How Early Should Study Skills Be Taught? 16 Should Study Skills Be Part of the Main Curriculum? 16 The Role of Educators 17 The Role of Parents 20 The Role of Stuaents 20 4. What's Being Done in Oregon? 22 Skills Assessment Survey Results 23 Two Examples of Local Programs 26 Experimental Programs 27 5. Where Do We Go from Here? 30 Not Everyone Goes to College 30 Establish a Policy 31 Teach the Teachers First 31 Enthusiasm Motivates 32 G Conclusion Appendix Bibliography Interviews Introduction It is not uncommon for students to progress through elementary, junior high, and high school with few hints about how to listen to lectures, take notes, write papers, or prepare for and take tests. When they reach college, these students often find themselves lacking essential skills needed for academic success. If they are unsuccessful in developing those skills, their college careers end abruptly. Ron Johnson, superintendent of the Lowell School District in Lowell, Oregon, recalls that approximately ten years ago the district surveyed some of its graduates who had gone on to college and asked them what was lacking from their high school education. The answer: learning how to study. As a result, the Lowell district started a program called Study Technologies Equal Pupil Success (STEPS). Many educators are wondering how schools can better help students learn. Researchers, too, have wondered why some students encounter aca- demic difficulty during their school years or later in college. They are finding that a major reason is inadequate study skills for the learning tasks that students are assigned. It is increasingly difficult for people to sort through and assimilate the amount of information available through advances in technology. Students who have learned how to learnthe essence of study skillswill be the ones who can process this information and use it in school, the world of work, and personal life. As Sharon J. Derby (1988) says, Students who receive good strategy training during their years in school can acquire a form of knowledge especially useful in coping with the wide variety of learning situations they will encounter throughout their lives. Given the amount of time that people spend in school, in job-related training, and in acquiring knowledge associated with their interests and hobbies, the ability to find good solutions to learning problems may be the most important thinking skill of all. In other words, students who acquire study skills are not just learning one particular subject, they are learning how to learn. 1 Chapter 1 Do Study Skills Help Children Learn? Some educators may think that teaching study skillsis just another fad. If such skills are so important, why haven't theybeen taught before? Further, how do we know that teaching study skills willhelp children achieve scho- lastic success? M. D. "Mark" Gall, professor in the University ofOregon's College of Education and coauthor of Tools for Learning andMaking the Grade, thinks one reason study skillshave not been taught much is that teachers, lacking training in teaching study skills, feel uncomfortableteaching them. Another reason is that teachers are expected to teach content, not skills. When George