Why Study Skills Matter
Part One of our Series: Studying for Success
By Dr. Doug Fisher, Professor of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University
Is part of being a student the fact that you study?
It seems reasonable to suggest that studying would be part of the definition of what makes a student. But as far as I can tell, most students never learn how to study and teaching students to study doesn’t seem to be a priority within the education system — but it should be.
Perhaps it’s because many people associate studying as merely a means to an end: usually passing a test. Or maybe people think that students already know how to study.
Perhaps we don’t think studying is something that is universally effective, after all, many of us have had really bad experiences with studying, where we crammed for a test and then forgot everything.
I would like to suggest that it’s time to reinvigorate study skills. In part, I suggest this because they work, but more importantly, I suggest this because teaching students how to study brings them closer to taking ownership of their learning.
Study Skills Help Students Become Better Learners
Most of us remember “studying” as creating flashcards to review or re-reading our notes. However, there is a lot more to studying than that. In fact, there are three categories of essential study skills, and the previously mentioned techniques only fall within the first, and most basic, category. The three categories are:
Cognitive skills. This category includes a number of effective approaches to studying, including taking and reviewing notes, summarizing information, reviewing vocabulary terms, and annotating a text.
Metacognitive skills. In addition to cognitive skills, students should be taught to plan and monitor their studying, set goals, engage in self-questioning, and recognize when they should use specific cognitive skills.
Affective skills. Beyond metacognitive skills, students need to develop motivation, agency, and self-concept if they are to integrate study skills as a habit.
Ideally, students should be taught a number of different cognitive study skills. As part of their learning, they should be provided with opportunities to plan and monitor their studying and reflect on the impact of their studies. Over time, and with practice, these metacognitive skills will develop. When students can identify useful tools for studying and when to use those tools, their ownership of learning is enhanced. When students understand that their studying has a positive return on investment, they start to define themselves as students who are skilled at studying. Their motivation increases and their agency, or belief that their efforts will be effective, increases.
Cramming Doesn’t Improve Learning
Studying is not a one-and-done phenomenon — spaced practice is an essential element of long-term retention. That’s why the cramming you did before a big test did not result in improved learning (even if you were able to recall some items on the assessment and get a little better grade). Instead, students need to be provided with opportunities to study in a distributed, spaced way. This habit is formed over time as students assume increased responsibility for their own learning. They see themselves as one of their teachers and use the adults in their lives as a resource for additional learning.
Using Formative Assessment as a Study Blueprint
Formative practice testing is an interesting way to teach students to study and can be applied in variety of ways. Students are provided a practice version of an assessment, which could be an essay, constructed response, multiple choice, or whatever in advance of the “real” assessment. Practice formative testing on its own is an effective way to improve summative scores, and the results tend to hold for a year after instruction and the practice tests.
However, when students analyze their own results and identify which items they got wrong and which they got right, they tend to perform even better. We can take this a step further by giving students more ownership of their learning. They can analyze their assessment results and attribute a level of difficulty to their right and wrong answers.
How Can I Help My Child Study?
- Make sure your child is learning a variety of cognitive study skills to use as needed.
- Discuss with your child what study skills they think they should be using in different scenarios.
- Use spaced practice by frequently studying for short periods of time. Create review games and activities.
- Focus on growth mindset and encourage them to take ownership of their learning.
- Analyze prior work together and see if they can identify their learning gaps.
- Help them set realistic goals and create strategies on how they can achieve them.
Douglas Fisher is a professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High & Middle College. He is a member of the California Reading Hall of Fame and was honored as an exemplary leader by the Conference on English Leadership. He is also part of the McGraw Hill author team for Wonders, a PreK-6 literacy curriculum.
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