Last changed 25 Oct 2001 ............... Length about 500 words (3000 bytes).
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Teaching Study Skills

CRHE workshop/seminar on teaching study skills

The second CRHE session will be on teaching study skills.

(If you aren't a signed up member of CRHE, use their web page to sign up: no cost! you are wanted! http://www.gla.ac.uk/centres/crhe/updateform.htm).

Thursday 25 Oct, 5pm for 5:15 start, in the basement of TLS, (Florentine House, next to the waste ground carpark by the library).

Presenters: Steve Draper, Quintin Cutts

Purpose of session:

Could be just a cosy chat.
However to give bite to the discussion, we may decide at the start that by the end we will have a proposed university policy document that participants will sign (or sign an objection to). What should the university be doing about teaching study skills? (in my opinion the biggest omission in current teaching practice here).

Format

The current plan is to have a group discussion around the questions below (give or take a few).

  1. Are study skills general, or subject-specific? If the former, you can run one course for all undergraduates. If the latter, you shouldn't run study skills courses but require all lecturers to use one or two slots on the skills needed in their course.

  2. When should study skills be taught? in advance is logical, before they are needed. I.e. day 1 of term 1 of year 1.
    OR taught only after the students have failed some exam or coursework so they are motivated to learn to do better.

  3. Should study skills be taught to all students, or just to a very small minority (usually those in deep trouble, and thus making study skills a stigmatising activity). If to all, then they must be taught by big class lectures: no more cosy little workshops. It is never going to be possible to hire 10 or 20 times the number of ELAs that would be needed to do workshops for all.

  4. "Metacognition". Should we not just teach study skills, but strive to put the students in control: self-monitoring their own study skills needs. E.g. have them work through self-analysis worksheets, where they identify what they think they most need to change next.

  5. Bring your own issue to discuss.

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