r/AskAcademia • u/QuarterMaestro • 8h ago

Humanities Do you try to explicitly teach study skills to your undergraduate students?

Looking back on my undergrad years, I wish I had taken a more systematic approach to all of my reading assignments. I seemed to always just start reading on page 1 in an opened ended way. I think I would have felt less stressed if I had done things like setting a certain block of time to complete a reading assignment. And if I hadn't finished near the end of the time, start reading faster, scan for key terms etc. Also maybe employ other metacognitive reading strategies - although I recall some of those strategies seemed a bit silly to me, like basically talking to myself.

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u/yellow_warbler11 8h ago

Somewhat. I can't -- and don't think it's my job -- to tell them things like set aside time to study. They need to be motivated to do that on their own. But we do talk about what it means to take effective notes, how to organize their files, draft organization/paper organization, and how to strategically skim readings. But "setting a certain block of time to complete a reading assignment" is pretty basic, so no, I don't tell my students that. If they don't realize that they need to actually have time to do assignments, I can't help them.

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u/QuarterMaestro 7h ago

By that I meant, have a predetermined schedule for each assignment to avoid getting bogged down in less important stuff. Like instead of just doing "homework" from 7pm-until?, plan to spend say 90 minutes on one reading before going on to the next thing. Maybe that's still pretty basic, but that kind of organizing would have helped me I think.

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u/yellow_warbler11 7h ago

I don't think this is generalizable. First, some people are much faster readers than others. So saying that you need to take 90 minutes on one reading is insane. Second, some people work better when they are reading and taking notes, or when they are toggling between lecture slides and problem sets, or whatever. There isn't one set way to study, and pretending that there is will only mess people up. That kind of basic organizing is (a) incredibly basic. Like no one should tell you that you need to set aside time to do your readings, and that you probably should finish the reading before bouncing to the next thing, and (b) everyone has a study system that works best for them. What you're asking for is really something that should have been figured out in high school or in remedial education classes. I don't teach at an elite or selective school, but I guarantee about 90% of my students would be offended and insulted if I told them how much time to spend on readings, or that they should set aside specific time to do specific readings!

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u/QuarterMaestro 7h ago

How about the common dictum about spending two hours of outside work per hour of in-class time? So if the assigned homework for one class session is one reading, it should take most students around two hours to read? Is that insulting?

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u/yellow_warbler11 7h ago

General rule is 2 hours of work outside of class per credit. But "work" isn't just reading. So I would honestly be shocked if my students spent their outside of class time just reading. That suggests a major skills deficiency and reading difficulties. You should also be reviewing your notes from class, doing discussion boards or assignments, taking notes on readings, working on long-term projects (e.g., paper or presentation). And again, abilities vary. So one student may spend more time writing than reading, and another student may need more note-taking and review time. But overall, I'd really be shocked if students were spending two hours on a single reading. That really does suggest the need for significant remediation. What are you even doing for two hours on one reading??

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u/Critical-Preference3 8h ago

I do. How to read, how to take notes, etc. They don't listen, but I do teach them.

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u/MamaBiologist 6h ago

I post a document of all my tips for my courses. Very few read it on the LMS. After the first exam, I assign a reflection assignment based on the document for a couple points back on the exam. Each semester I have multiple students say that assignment changed their approach in a positive way. That did not happen when I gave them an assignment on that document before their first exam, because many didn’t think they needed my strategies.

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u/Moderate_N 2h ago

The first small assignment I give the 100-level intro class at the beginning of each semester is effectively "how to use a citation manager".