Why Study is a 4-letter word

I find in my work that the overwhelming nature of the idea of STUDY regularly de-motivates students, despite their best intentions to BE SUCCESSFUL. Students often don't know where to start, or how to measure progress or even to know when they are done. As a result, there is no sense of PRODUCTIVITY, which can motivate. The various uncertainties often lead to procrastination and/or cramming in preparation for assessments -- both large and small. Because STUDYING is such an abstract concept, unless it is broken down into its constituent actions, students who are feeling overwhelmed or anxious or even disaffected will avoid it.

Whenever a student includes the word "study" as part of a plan to improve his or her grades or to prepare for a test or a quiz, I challenge the idea of "study" and encourage active, task-oriented verbs instead. For so many, "study" can be as passive as reading over notes or as active as practicing problems/questions. By asking a student to tell me what I would see if I were watching him/her study, I am able to pinpoint the reality of the task. I can then make suggestions for improvement and turn that picture into a specific task list. For example:

Trina has to study her notes to prepare for a quiz in History --
Q: If I were to watch you study, what would I see?
A: "I would be looking at my notebook and rereading what I wrote in class."

Q: Why are you rereading? -- What is the purpose?
A: "So I can remember what I learned."

At this point, I have learned that there is little active engagement, though Trina's intentions are matched nicely with the goal of preparing for the quiz. What's missing is the connection(s) Trina could make to her reading, her class discussion and/or lecture and what she's learned previously about the topic at hand. Also what is missing is the analytical thought that will improve her memory and network the newly incorporated material with what has been learned previously. After modeling some of this using the content in front of us, I can record a task plan for preparing for her history quiz that looks something like this:

• From the notes, make a list of the key words and phrases that you want to USE to communicate your undersatnding of this topic
• Compare your list from the notes to the related text reading or to the teacher's study guide and add other terms or phrases that you need to know
• Using this list, talk through (or write) explanations that connect the terms and allow you to draw conclusions about how, when and why the terms are related
• As you talk (or write), keep track of the questions that come up -- these will identify your knowledge gaps
• Decide how to fill the knowledge gaps -- ask the teacher, ask a classmate, check the text or other course material, reference another reliable source
  
• Once you are secure in your knowledge, try to predict the questions -- see how well you can answer them -- draft 2-3 multiple choice questions; write a few fill-ins; compose a short-answer or analytical essay question
• Finally, check your knowledge by practicing -- use on-line resources for the text; quiz a classmate and/or ask them to quiz you
  

By breaking the process of studying into specific tasks, I have provided a step-by-step plan that can ensure Trina's study efforts result in longer-term retention of material with the shorter-term objective of ensuring successful performance on her assessment. The plan also addresses the problem of feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of studying.

Though this is only one example, the actions in red can be included in so many task plans -- whether for science, English literature, foreign language and/or math, to varying degrees. As this blog progresses, I will use other subjects as the contexts for examining the process of learning -- always with objectives in mind, and often in response to a problem that a student has posed.