Study skills

Timo TapolaStudent psychologistSeptember 3rd 2014

What do you need to successfully study at a university?

Time management

Mind managent

Ingredients of success

• Time management• Right goal setting• Motivation, interest• Concentration and focusing

• Approach to studying• Effective learning• Peer-to-peer support

Time Management

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Time ManagementLong-term and short-term planning of studies• Planning is related to academic performance (Plant & al. 2005)Start studying at the beginning of a course, not only under pressure of a deadline• Procrastination may have some short-term benefits (Schraw & al. 2007) but the learning

outcomes are better when you divide the workload over a longer time (Rawson & Kintsch, 2005)

Allocate time for independent studyingSubdivide difficult tasks into smaller tasksPrioritize assignmentsGive yourself feedback how you are doing with your timemanagement

Time Management

What works for you?

Share your ideas in your group.

Right goal setting creates motivation

Energizing goals are:

SpecificMeasurableAttainableRealisticTime bound

It is very useful to divide large goals into attainable subgoals

Balance between study goals and personal goals• Related to psychological well-being

Think about your study related goals (e.g. your goals for this week/period).

Are your goalsSpecific

MeasurableAttainableRealistic

Time bound ?

MotivationInternal motivation: you are interested in the substance• Related to psychological well-being, does not depend on performance (Burton & al. 2006)

Identified motivation: recognition and acceptance of the value and importance of a goal• Keeps one oriented toward the long-term significance of one’s goals and fosters persistence at

uninteresting but important goals• Related to academic performance (Burton & al. 2006)

External motivation: you want to get an external reward (e.g. pass a course)• May direct to choose less challenging goals. The content of learning becomes easily secondary.

Motivation

On which of these motivations do you mostly rely on when studying in university?

Internal motivation: you are interested in the substance• Related to psychological well-being, does not depend on performance (Burton & al. 2006)

Identified motivation: recognition and acceptance of the value and importance of a goal• Keeps one oriented toward the long-term significance of one’s goals and fosters persistence at uninteresting but

important goals• Related to academic performance (Burton & al. 2006)

External motivation: you want to get an external reward (e.g. pass a course)• May direct to choose less challenging goals. The content of learning becomes easily secondary.

Concentration and Focusing

Proper time management creates foundation for right focus.

• Create a distraction-free space for studying. Some people only manage to study not at home.• Be clear when it´s time to study and when it´s your free time.• Remember to give positive feedback to yourself on the small achievements.• Set own deadlines before the real deadlines, so you don’t need to worry when something

takes a bit more time than estimated.

Concentration and Focusing

What works for you?

Share your ways of concentrating and focusing with your group.

Approaches to Studying

• Surface approach: you try to memorize and repeat information• Deep approach: you try to understand the content by organizing and

structuring it into a coherent whole• Strategic approach: you put effort into organized studying and try to do

well in the course. Can be combined with both surface approach and deep approach

(Entwistle & Peterson, 2004)

Think about a course you are attending this fall.

What does it mean in practice, if you have:

a) Surface approach

b) Deep approach

c) Strategic approach

How will these approaches affect on your study techniques and learning outcomes?

Effective learningSet clear learning goals• Clarify the purpose of reading/rehearsingIt’s important to activate your previous knowledge and relate the new knowledge to it • Both quantity and quality of a person’s prior knowledge affect learning,

misconceptions are often counterproductive (Kendeou & van den Broek, 2005)

Get an overview of the content at first (e.g. summaries, contents)Look for answers to specific questions Distinguish essential points from unessential points

…effective learningIt’s important to elaborate the knowledge

• Interpretations, predictive inferences and monitoring of one’s own learning are related to good learning outcomes but these strategies are demanding on working memory resources (Linderholm & van den Broek, 2002)

Learning techniques which help to elaborate knowledge: mind maps, making summaries, making examples

Monitor and assess your own learning. Give feedback to yourself.• Reread if necessary

Revise the main pointsAsk for help when neededStudy together

Peer-to-peer support

Commitment: By studying together you can easily facilitate your studying and also strengthen your time management.

Communication: An efficient way to learn is to explain/discuss something to/with fellow student.

Feedback: Also the positive feedback about the small accomplishments is easier give/receive with a group than alone.

Procrastination

We often procrastinate when • the task is difficult• the task requires a lot of time• we don’t have the skills required to complete the task

Reasons for procrastination:• Perfectionism• Fear of failure• Evaluation anxiety

How to overcome procrastination:• Be aware when you start procrastinating• Reasonable goals, smaller sub goals• Work to acquire the skills and knowledge needed for the task• Plan how to do the task, when to do it, where to do it and with whom

(e.g. Steel, 2007)

References

Burton Kimberly, Lydon John, D`Alessandro David & Koestner Richard (2006): The Differential Effects of Intrinsic and Identified Motivation on Well-Being and Performance: Prospective, Experimental and Implicit Approaches to Self-Determination Theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 91, no. 4, 750-762.

Entwistle N.J. & Peterson E.R. (2004): Conceptions of learning and knowledge in higher education: Relationships with study behaviour and influences of learning environments. International Journal of Educational Research 41, 407-428.

Linderholm Tracy & van den Broek Paul (2002): The Effects of Reading Purpose and Working Memory Capacity on the Processing of Expository Text. Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 94, no. 4, 778-784.

…references

Kendou Panayiota & van den Broek Paul (2005): The Effects of Readers’ Misconceptions on Comprehension of Scientific Text. Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 97, no. 2, 235-245.

Plant E. Ashby, Ericsson Anders, Hill Len & Asberg Kia (2005): Why Study Time Does Not Predict Grade Point Average across College Students: Implications of Deliberate Practice for Academic Performance. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 30, 96-116.

Rawson Katherine & Kintsch Walter (2005): Rereading Effects Depend on Time of Test. Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 97, no. 1, 70-80.

Salmela-Aro Katariina & Nurmi Jari-Erik (2005): Mikä meitä liikuttaa – modernin motivaatiopsykologian perusteet. PS-Kustannus, Jyväskylä.

Schraw Gregory, Olafson Lori & Wadkins Theresa (2007): Doing Things We Do: A Grounded Theory of Academic Procrastination. Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 99, no. 1, 12-25.

Steel Piers(2007): The Nature of Procrastination: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review of Quintessential Self-Regulatory Failure. Psychological Bulletin, vol. 133, 1, 65-94.