Author: Melinda Rhodes-DiSalvo

Exam Prep Tips

“Many students think that preparing for a test means memorizing information the night before or rereading the information until their brain convinces them, “I got it!” when that’s just wishful thinking. Test preparation workshops provided by learning centers usually emphasize the following strategies”:
  • Use effective learning strategies from day one (in this case right now).
  • Determine exactly what the test will cover, and practice teaching that information to an audience — either real or imaginary — until you can do it flawlessly.
  • Determine what types of questions will be asked. Prepare for the test based on the type of questions that will be asked.
  • Organize information by preparing charts, outlines, or study guides.
  • Schedule specific time for test preparation on your weekly calendar (throughout the week).
  • Chunk material and master that material. (Test yourself over it; teach it back to yourself.)
Peer tutors and the Office of Teaching & Learning can help you strategize for final exams.

McGuire, S.Y. (2015). Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate into Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation. Stylus: Sterling, Va.

Take Action to Boost Your Motivation and Learning

One of the most valuable actions you can take as a professional student is to boost your own motivation and learning. How do you do that?

1. Use learning strategies that work. (Here’s a reminder about effective study cycles.)

2. Examine your mindset. The most powerful influence on your grades are your behaviors, not innate intelligence or talent. Do you have a fixed or growth mindset? Check out www.mindsetonline.com to determine which one you have. In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort. They’re wrong.

3. Monitor and adjust self-talk. “Self-talk constantly occupies students’ (and everyone else’s) minds. If the majority of those thoughts are negative and self-destructive, they can negatively impact students’ learning efforts ….” On the other hand, compassionate and encouraging self-talk makes learning easier. You will “get this stuff,” you will learn what you need to complete the semester, you can adjust study strategies now to maximize performance during the last leg of this semester.

4. Attribute results to actions: An empowered learner examines or investigates how and what works when they study; empowered learners know they have the ability to change their results by changing behaviors.

5. Know your learning style preferences (but don’t think that’s the only way you learn!): Dr. Jerry Masty encourages students to take the VARK. Once you do that, use active learning strategies that match your preferences. (The Office of Teaching & Learning is here to assist.)

6. Rest, nutrition, and exercise: Schedule them in!

McGuire, S.Y. (2015). Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate into Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation. Stylus: Sterling, Va.

The Process of Moving From Scholarly Teaching to Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

To advance from scholarly teaching to SoTL, transformation of teaching activities into scholarly research can occur by following these 10 steps:

  1. Observation –  Make an observation within your educational environment – can be a success or a problem that needs solved or improved.
  2. Review background literature – This assists in forming research ideas, topics, and study designs.
  3. Question – Develop a clear research question based on the observation of interest.
  4. Hypothesis – Transform the question into a predictive hypothesis.
  5. Study design – Develop a plan to test the research hypothesis, refer to existing literature for methodologies, consult with a statistician.
  6. IRB – Submit the research plan to your Institutional Review Board to obtain human subjects approval.
  7. Implement study design & collect data – Mixed methods (quantitative +qualitative) approaches yield strong results and analyze results in context of the hypothesis.
  8. Disseminate – Present findings in the form of a conference presentation or journal article.
  9. Revise — Using peer feedback.
  10. Resubmit — Celebrate when accepted, revise and resubmit if possible, and plan for next steps.  Educational research is ongoing and cumulative.

For more information of transforming teaching activities into publishable scholarly projects, this “How to guide” is a great starting point:  http://advan.physiology.org/content/30/2/83.short

Citation: O’Loughlin, 2005.  A “how to” guide for developing a publishable Scholarship of Teaching project.  Advances in Physiology Education Jun 2006, 30 (2) 83-88; DOI: 10.1152/advan.00027.2005 

An Effective Study Cycle

Saundra Yancy McGuire advises students to consider a Study Cycle of intense study sessions. (If you have consulted with the Office of Teaching & Learning, you’ve been introduced to the concept of self-testing as study.)

The five steps to the study cycle include:

  1. Preview
  2. Attend Class
  3. Review
  4. Intense Study Sessions
  5. Assess
Previewing involves reviewing learning outcomes for a lecture or module that allows you to see the big picture and figure out how what you will learn fits together. Attending class is critical because you can transform that into study time, engaging with the material in a number of different ways instead of passively listening. “As soon as possible after class, (you) should undertake … review of (your) notes, recalling what happened in class and explaining it to (yourself) (a phenomenon called elaborative rehearsal) ….”

“Intense study sessions can be as short as 15-20 minutes … or as long as 75-90 minutes though 50-60 minutes is a typical duration.”

During those sessions:

  1. Set specific goals.
  2. Do active learning tasks. (Need help with this? Contact the Office of Teaching & Learning.)
  3. Take a break/have a reward.
  4. Review.
Then track your progress and determine how to adjust the approach to best serve you as a learner.

McGuire, S.Y. (2015). Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate into Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation. Stylus: Sterling, Va.

Teach Students How to Learn Provides Insight Into Learner Empowerment

The first of two discussion session on application of instructional practices outlined in Teach Students How to Learn — the OTLs autumn semester book group selection — took place this week. Faculty attending said this particular selection was helpful in gaining insight into how students can empower themselves as learners.

The Office of Teaching & Learning has shared some of the strategies presented in this text with students. In particular, we provided them with information on metacognitive learning strategies and the study cycle.

Continue reading →

How to Productively Manage Student Entitlement

An issue that often arises in the classroom is student entitlement. Maryellen Weimer, Ph.D., noted in a recent “Faculty Focus” newsletter, that advice on “confronting entitled perspectives is challenging. If a student wants to take the exam at a later date so he can attend Grandma’s 90thbirthday celebration, or if the objection to phone usage during class is answered with, ‘I paid for this course—what I do in it is my business’ — the faculty member can say no or can cause the student to incur some consequences. Although those actions may take care of the immediate issue, they probably won’t change the student’s attitude. Rather, the student is more likely to conclude that the faculty member is difficult, or more jocularly, a jerk.”

Weimer suggests a two-prong approach to handling entitlement.

  • Teachers should clarify their expectations at the beginning of the course and in the syllabus, and provide reminders as needed. “Grades are not curved in this class.” “Students with borderline grades are not bumped up.” “Exams are taken the days they are scheduled.” “Late homework gets feedback but no credit.”
  • A second preventative approach involves having a conversation about entitlement before it’s expressed. Do students know what it is? Are the attitudes ones they hold?

She concludes, “Is persuading students a reasonable goal for conversations about entitlement? Probably not for one conversation, but if the message is consistently delivered by multiple teachers and across the institution, then we’ll start seeing progress.”

Spiral Approach Used to Teach Clinical Skills Across Years

Tufts University School of Dentistry has piloted a course for fourth-year students “that now involves a team of students from each year and a real-time student response tool that plants the seeds of community in previously anonymous auditorium classes,” according to a new Educause article.

The course teamed “each fourth-year student with a third-year student, a second-year student, and a first-year student so they could work together on the fourth-year student’s case. This is a new pedagogical approach called ‘Student-driven Pedagogy of Integrated, Reinforced Active Learning (SPIRAL),’ modified from a program designed by Mark Wolff and Andrew Spielman from New York University College of Dentistry (see figure 2).

 

According to course developers, “Each student has particular responsibilities to align with their progress through the program.

  • First-year students are responsible for presenting information pertinent to the case that has to do with the patient but represents ‘Normal’ (see figure 2).
  • Second-year students are responsible for presenting information on the medications the patient is taking, any illnesses the patient has, and risk factors.
  • Third-year students are expected to answer a clinical question using evidence-based principles.
  • Fourth-year students select one of their patients for the case presentation and coordinate the team project while working with their patient. They also must demonstrate leadership skills through coordination of their team, and afterwards they conduct a self-assessment.

“For the peer-review element, the students analyze one another as a team by reflecting on the project to discover areas for improvement and assess factors of one another’s teamwork, presentation, and time-management skills. We also have mentors for each team — faculty and clinical staff members who oversee the team and monitor its progress.”

Read the complete “Integrating 21-st Century Workplace Skills into Lecture Based Courses article.

Identifying Most Important Information: What to Listen For in Lectures

For example, you can listen to someone, but not truly tune in to what he or she is saying. And the way you listen to a concert for enjoyment and appreciation is not the same mode of listening you’d find most effective if you’re trying to understand and absorb the material being presented. Thus, students who want to get the most out of your lectures can benefit from some straightforward advice that can help them focus their concentration as they listen.

In Essential Study Skills, Eighth Edition, Linda Wong encourages students to listen for six kinds of information as they pay attention to your lecture and take notes. These are:

1. Key or “signal” words. Keywords (or “signal words”) such as “causes,” “purposes,” “effects,” “ways,” “advantages,” “characteristics,” and “types” can be used as “headings” to indicate that the speaker is introducing a major portion of the lecture (e.g. “Now, I am going to discuss the top five ways that…”).

2 . Main ideas. Topic sentences indicate the main points or ideas that the speaker is trying to communicate. These are often indicated by such words as “First…” “Second…” “Third…” and “Finally…”.

3. Definitions and key terms. If the instructor is taking the time to define a term, it is almost certainly a critical concept that’s central to your understanding of the topic. If the speaker says something like “[the term] means…” or “[term], also known as…”, you’re hearing a definition. Wong recommends writing “DEF” or “=” in your notes to indicate that you’ve copied down a term defined in class.

4. Supporting details. Examples, dates, statistics, anecdotes and other details illustrate the key points, provide supporting evidence for the topic under discussion, and help clarify your understanding.

5. The speaker’s verbal clues. Most instructors will use certain keywords (as described above) to indicate important concepts. You may also notice that an instructor becomes more enthusiastic at a certain point in the lecture,  or that he or she “punctuates” key points with a louder voice, deeper tone, or particular gestures. The more familiar you become with the instructor’s speaking style, the more readily you’ll come to know his or her method of confirming that a particular point is important. (And of course, if the instructor says “This is important,” it’s important!)

6. The conclusion. The instructor will likely “wrap up” the lecture by summarizing the main points that he or she covered that day. Be sure to capture these points, and write them under the heading “Conclusion” so that you can readily find them when it’s time to review.

Source: https://blog.cengage.com/tips-for-students-how-to-focus-listen-attentively-to-college-lectures/

How to Productively Manage Student Entitlement

An issue that often arises in the classroom centers on student entitlement. Maryellen Weimer, Ph.D., noted in this week’s “Faculty Focus” newsletter, “Maybe the advice is missing because confronting entitled perspectives is challenging. If a student wants to take the exam at a later date so he can attend Grandma’s 90thbirthday celebration, or if the objection to phone usage during class is answered with, “I paid for this course—what I do in it is my business”—the faculty member can say no or can cause the student to incur some consequences. Although those actions may take care of the immediate issue, they probably won’t change the student’s attitude. Rather, the student is more likely to conclude that the faculty member is difficult, or more jocularly, a jerk.”

Weimer suggests a two-prong approach to entitlement.

1. Teachers should clarify their expectations at the beginning of the course and in the syllabus, and provide reminders as needed. “Grades are not curved in this class.” “Students with borderline grades are not bumped up.” “Exams are taken the days they are scheduled.” “Late homework gets feedback but no credit.”

2. A second preventative approach involves having a conversation about entitlement before it’s expressed. Do students know what it is? Are the attitudes ones they hold?

She concludes, “Is persuading students a reasonable goal for conversations about entitlement? Probably not for one conversation, but if the message is consistently delivered by multiple teachers and across the institution, then we’ll start seeing progress.”