Improving Learning by Enhancing Study Skills of Community College Students

1
Improving Learning by Enhancing Study Skills of
Community College Students

• Kathryn H. Sorensen, Biology
• American River College, Sacramento CA

2
American River College

• 34,000 students
• 2 year community college
• Transfer, remedial, 2-year degree, certificate
  programs

3
Science Skills Center

• Developed in response to student needs
• Based on Supplemental Instruction (SI) model from
  UM- Kansas City
• ½ unit transferable course
• Meet with students for 20 minutes a week for 6-8
  weeks
• Taught by faculty, Instructional Assistants, and
  student tutors

4
Curriculum/ Schedule

• Week One
• Time management/ Learning Styles/ Previewing of
  text
• Number of hours of work, school, and study time.
  Calculate numbers of hours of study time.
• What is the student doing in class and out of
  class?
• You cant read a science text like a novel.

5
Curriculum/ Schedule

• Week Two
• Annotation of text/ Paraphrasing
• Yes, its ok to write in your book.
• Practice, practice, practice
• Week Three
• Note-taking/ Graphics
• RAD notes format
• Diagrams are not optional reading

6
Curriculum/ Schedule

• Week Four
• Concept Mapping
• This is hard and takes time, but only if youre
  doing it right.
• Week Five
• Test-taking strategies/ Analysis
• These are only helpful if you are using the
  information from the other modules.
• Week Six
• Evaluation

7
Key to Curriculum

• Co-requisite with a science course (majors and
  non-majors)
• All homework given from that science course
• Metacognitive journal by students
• Accountable to someone outside of class

8
(No Transcript)
9
(No Transcript)
10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
Student Responses

• Percentage of students who responded Very or
  Somewhat Helpful
• Time Management- 85
• Text-reading- 86.4
• Paraphrasing- 87.3
• Note-taking- 84.6
• Concept Mapping- 81.3
• Graphics Reading- 83.6
• Test Preparation- 87.8

17
Student Reponses

• Did the SSC help raise your grade?
• 70.5 said yes
• Of the students who responded yes
• 48.2 raised by half a grade point
• 51.8 raised by a full grade point or more

18
Comments

• I think the SSC is fine. I have a BS degree, so
  came in with some sets well developed. Even
  still, I found new information.
• They introduced me to concepts that I would never
  have thought of. These concepts were more helpful
  than my usual way of studying
• I thought the SSC was helpful and I did and will
  encourage other people to take this course. I
  learned new ways to help me study and reminded me
  of things I learned in the past that were
  helpful.
• So far I have increased my overall class grade
  from a 68 to a 77

19
Comments- Test-taking

• Having the test taking strategy more early on in
  the program.
• I really liked the test preparation and I would
  think it would be helpful to move it in the
  beginning, because it really helped me with the
  test taking skills. I just tested it recently,
  but it would have been awesome if I could have
  used it in the beginning of the biology class.
• Test-taking strategies should be done earlier in
  the process
• The test strategies really helped. I wish I had
  taken it earlier.
• Give test preparation at the beginning
• Everything was quite good but emphasizing test
  techniques would be great