So You Think You Know How To Study?

I'll admit it. I have done this and I'm not proud of it. I think we all have committed this fatal sin while studying for school during our educational lifespan. It is an all to common study strategy that isn't very effective. What is this ineffective strategy I am talking about? It's rereading. According to cognitive psychologists Daniel Willingham on his blog title Students Should Be Taught How To Study, rereading the chapter and notes (and I would add powerpoints) from class are students number 1 study strategy. The problem is that this strategy is very effective. One of the most effective study techniques is self-testing as noted in this APA article title Study Smart. Testing (or any learning activity that promotes practice and repetition) itself is learning activity that can help promote retention and recall. The critical keys here are practice and repetition with the material. Unfortunately not all students are motivated to self-test. In fact, many students will resist this. But students who are willing to self-test will be doing themselves a huge favor.

Conference Seasons!

Hello everyone,

Conference season is here! Last week Anton, Ursula, and I(Trevor) attended Lilly West 2012 over spring break. Terry Doyle gave the keynote speech, which can be viewed here at his website. I encourage everyone to take a look.

UVU's own Scholarship of Teaching and Engagement (SOTE) today and tomorrow. If you can make it, please come down and take in a session.

Be Engaged

The Washington Post published an article on February 15^th titled, “Colleges Looking Beyond the Lecture.” Big lecture classes seem to be a thing of the past as classes evolve into more hands on learning. The focus is shifting away from what is being taught by the professor to what is being learned by the students. Not only can students attend a class at a university, but anyone can watch lectures online. Jane Greco is quoted about a goal, “to separate out what you’re getting in our classroom that you can’t get online.” There are countless ways to get the students active in the classroom rather than mindlessly sitting there listening to the professor speak the entire time.

UVU is a place of engaged learning. Looking at what that means, I looked on UVU’s website which mentions, “engaged learning implies that graduates should leave UVU with a diploma in one hand and a resume in the other… to that end, UVU’s curriculum teaches the ‘how’ and ‘why’ in conjunction with the ‘what’ and ‘who.’” Teaching in this fashion gives students the added edge to succeed in the competitive business world. Getting students involved can vary from serving the community to classroom discussions. Nothing is too big or too small in getting students to learn the real-world application. Be creative, and have fun with it. If you would like ideas, feel free to contact the faculty center or request a SCOT (student consultant).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/colleges-looking-beyond-the-lecture/2012/02/03/gIQA7iUaGR_story.html

http://www.uvu.edu/engage/learn/index.html