How do students learn study skills most effectively?

Starter Item

Here at London Guildhall University one of the departments is piloting a programme in which study skills is integrated into one of the Level 1 core units for undergraduate programmes. This consists of 12 one-hour workshops delivered over the course of the academic year covering topics such as time management, note taking, seminars, academic writing, group work and exam techniques. Initial indications are that this mode of developing student study skills is somewhat more effective than covering the field in an intensive one-week induction programme or offering this as a voluntary 'drop-in' service by a student support unit.

What are your experiences and views on integrating study skills into mainstream teaching? What are the drawbacks and limitations as well as advantages? What are the alternatives?

My own view is that all course objectives should include elements of study skills which are stated quite specifically and that teachers should be trained on how to best develop these skills their students. It could be argued that many lecturers do much of this anyway - for example, briefing students on exam techniques at the appropriate time. But perhaps these skills should be more explicitly stated in all course objectives.

Readers' Comments

For full text, see deliberations-forum archive - Dec 1999.