Study Skills for Higher Education

This assignment discusses the importance of study skills for higher education and focuses on the topics of different learning strategies and the development of a study plan. It also explores the role of building comprehension and retention in improving quality learning and increasing academic achievement. The obstacles pertaining to building comprehension and retention are evaluated, and conclusions are drawn based on the analysis.

Study Skills for Higher
Education

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
1. Discussion of different strategies of learning that allow individuals to learn best..................1
2. Development of a study plan which includes short and long term goals which can help to
achieve academic and professional success.................................................................................2
PART 2............................................................................................................................................3
Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
1. Discussion of role of building comprehension and retention in improving quality learning
and increase academic achievement of students..........................................................................3
2. Evaluation of obstacles pertaining to building comprehension and retention.........................5
3. Conclusions of these points.....................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Study skills are the set of qualities and abilities which are required to be achieved by
individuals so that they can reach to their long as well as short term goals. Some of them which
are considered as most important skills for students are reading, keeping notes, concentration etc.
With the help of all of the capability of individuals learning the material taught by teachers could
be improved (Anderson, Boud and Sampson, 2014). This assignment is based upon the study
skills which are required for higher educations. For the purpose of analysis various topics are
covered in this project which are different learning strategies and development of a study plan.
Additionally, role of building comprehension and retention in improving quality of learning and
evaluation of obstacles pertaining to building comprehension are also covered in this project.
PART 1
1. Discussion of different strategies of learning that allow individuals to learn best
The process which allows individuals to grab the knowledge shared by educators or
lecturers is known as learning. For the purpose of learning effectively different study skills such
as critical thinking, concentration, effective reading and note taking are required. There are
various learning strategies which are used by teachers for their students to help them to learn in
best manner. Discussion of all of them is as follows:
Discussion learning strategy: It can be defied as the strategy which is used by educators
for the purpose of allowing students to exchange their creative and innovative ideas with each
other so that their skills of reaching to career goals could be enhanced. With the help of this
strategy students can learn the best because it helps in the development of different qualities such
as problem solving, thinking and understanding the problems which may affect their learning
(Love and Barrett, 2016).
Simulation learning strategy: It is mainly used in constructive learning processes in
which students are allowed to perform experiments so that they can find new ways to deal with
the issues in the academics. It allows students to learn best because it provides them great
learning experience because it supports the process of learning by inspiring the students to try
new things to develop their skills.
Demonstration learning strategy: It can be defined as the strategy in which educators
use visual approached for the purpose of examining processes, information and ideas. Under this
1

strategy teachers play the role of learner in order to demonstrate the way to the students in which
they are required to study in classes. It helps students to learn best because they see the educators
as learner and then try to learn in the same way so that their skills and abilities to reach their
career goals could be increased.
Games learning strategy: It is a teaching method which is used by educators for the
purpose of developing interest of students in studies. All the subjects which are not having
interesting units could be taught with the help of this technique as it will build interest of all the
students to take part in game and learn the content from the uninteresting units. It can help to
learn the best because it enhances interest of individuals to study such contents which are not
interesting (Varasteh, Ghanizadeh and Akbari, 2016).
Drill and practice learning strategy: It is a learning strategy which is used by educators
to repeat the concepts in systematic manner so that knowledge of students regarding them could
be enhanced. It is an exercise with the purpose of making individuals perfect in some of the areas
by repeating them again and again in classroom. It can help to learn best as it will help the
students to be percent in the field in which they are studying.
For the purpose of providing best learning experience to the students all the above
described strategies could be used by educators. With the help of them the individuals will be
able to develop their study skills (Yang and Wang, 2015).
2. Development of a study plan which includes short and long term goals which can help to
achieve academic and professional success
Study plan: It is a plan which is focused with the development and attainment of study
skills so that they can reach to their career and professional objectives in career (Reed and Card,
2016). A plan is formed below which is focused with achievement of academic and professional
success:
Goals Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Time limit
Developing
ability of
notes taking
This quality is
required to
perform best
in academics.
It could be
measured by
analysing that
detailed
information of
In order to
achieve it
educators can
guide students
to take notes
By developing
this quality
academic
goals could be
accomplished.
The
development
of this skill
may take time
of 6 to 8
2

the unit
studied in
class is kept
by students or
not.
on regular
basis.
months
Improving
the quality of
critical
thinking
For the
purpose of
achieve
professional
success I am
required to
improve my
skills of
critical
thinking.
For measuring
this skill
challenges
could be taken
to find best
suitable
solutions for
them.
In order to
achieve this
skill students
can take help
of experienced
people who
can guide to
think
critically.
It is related to
professional
success
because
without this
skill it is not
possible to
reach there.
The
improvement
in this quality
may take time
of 12 to 15
months.
PART 2
Introduction
Academic achievement is very important for individuals who are at their higher
education. The main factor which is required to be focused by educators is improving quality of
learning so that students can achieve career growth. For the purpose of reaching to academic and
professional success it is very important for all the students to have great study skills which
could be developed with the help of comprehension and retention. This part of the report is based
upon these two main elements and the way in which both of them contribute in making
improvement of quality learning and increase academic achievement.
1. Discussion of role of building comprehension and retention in improving quality learning and
increase academic achievement of students
All the individuals who are not able to grab the knowledge shared by teachers require
higher attention of lecturers because they can guide them to study properly and achieve the goals
which are decided by them earlier (Elekaei, Faramarzi and Koosha, 2015). By building
comprehension and retention the teachers will be able to improve quality of learning and increase
3

academic achievement of students as it plays a vital role in the same procedure. Comprehension
is the ability of understanding the content which is being read and retention is the power of
remembering the studied material. Description of its roles is as follows:
 Help to development effective reading skills: Comprehension helps in the development
of effective reading skills which is very important for achieving academic success. It will
be beneficial in the improvement of learnings and development in the academic
achievement of students. When they will be able to read effectively then it will help them
to understand the content which is read by them. It also helps to revise the matter so that
it could be learned for a long period in future. These benefits of comprehension helps
individuals to improve the quality of learning and enhance the chances of academic
success (Lo, Anderson and Bunch-Crump, 2017).
 Helps to visualise things properly: Comprehension plays a vital role in the visualising
the matter properly so that the understandability of students could be developed. It will be
beneficial for students to make improvement in their quality of learning because all the
things which are visualised by individuals could be kept in mind for a long period in
future. It will also be beneficial for increment in academic achievement of students
because by visualising the studied material they will be able to score high in examination
which will be their academic success.
 Recall the material just read: Building comprehension is very important for students
because it can help them to recall the content which is just read by them. Some times due
to lack of concentration students may not be able to remember the content which is being
read by them. With the help of it the quality of learning of students could be improved
because it guides students to recall the studied content (Martin, Nguyen and McDaniel,
2016).
 Keep the studied material in mind: Retention is beneficial for the individuals to keep
all the studied content in mind which will help to improve the quality of learning. When
Students will be able to keep the matter in their mind for a long period then they will also
be able to learn effectively. It can also improve the ability of students to increase
academic achievement because it will guide them to keep the learned content in their
mind so that higher marks could be scored in exams.
4

If educators pay attention towards building of comprehension and retention then it can
help to improve the quality of learning and also increase the possibility of academic success for
students. Comprehension and retention play vital role in the development of individuals at higher
education because both of them can help to score higher marks in exams.
2. Evaluation of obstacles pertaining to building comprehension and retention
Building comprehension and retention is very important for students for the purpose of
developing their study skills (Comprehension and retention. 2019). Both of them guides
individuals to understand the information recorded in books or available on online sources and
keep them in the mind. There are various obstacles which are pertaining to building
comprehension and retention. All of them could be understood with the help of following
discussion:
Weak reading skills: It is one of the main obstacle which pertain tyhe building of
comprehension and retention. If students are not able to read properly then it will create issues
for them to understand and keep the studied content in mind. Due to this their skills to build
these qualities will be affected and it will also create difficulties for them to achieve academic
success.
Reading content which is not understandable: If the information which is provided to
the students is not understandable for them or it is about something which was not studied by
them earlier then it will affect their learning. For the purpose of dealing with this obstacles they
will be required to build comprehension and retention (Spiro, Bruce and Brewer, 2017). When
individuals will not be able to understand the content then it will very difficult for them to keep it
in mind of learn it. Due to this there is a high requirement of development of these two skills.
Lack of proper guidance: It is also a issue which creates difficulties for students at
academic level because when they are not having proper guidance then they will not be able to
reach their academic goals. It pertains the building of retention and comprehension so that they
can understand and recall the material studied by them and score high marks in the exams to
achieve success.
Negative past experience: Some of the students have very bad experience in their
studies because of bad teachers, boring schooling and sloppy online courses and in this condition
they have to build their qualities of retention and comprehension. It will be beneficial for them to
5

deal with all the problems such as weak learning which are faced by them while studying. It is
one of the common obstacles which pertain building of the two main abilities.
Lack of focus: For all the learners it is very important to be focused with their studies so
that they can meet their career goals. If they are not highly able to pay attention towards it then it
may create problems for them to score high in examination. It is also an obstacle in studying
which pertain comprehension and retention so that abilities of students to focus on their studied
could be enhanced.
Personal mind sets: Some of the students have low self esteem which results in adverse
mind set of them regarding different things. For example, if individuals think that they will not
be able to solve mathematical problems or they are weak in it then it will be very difficult for
them perform such tasks whether it is easy or tough. It happen due to personal mind set and this
obstacle pertain retention and comprehension so that student's negative mentality could be
changes to positive one and they get motivated (Swanson, Vaughn and Wexler, 2017).
All the above described factors are the obstacles which are pertaining retention and
comprehension in studies. By paying attention towards all of them educators will be able to
develop study skills of all the students and they can also motivate them to perform diffident tasks
effectively.
3. Conclusions of these points
By analysing the above points it has been assessed that for all the students it is very
important to develop their study skills so that they can face all the difficulties which are affecting
their studies. For this purpose educators are suggested to build comprehension and retention for
all their students which will be beneficial for them to achieve academic success. Both of them
are playing important role in the improvement of quality of learning and increasing chances of
attaining academic goals. With the help of them different benefits could be acquired by students.
These are beneficial in developing reading skills, visualisation of things, keeping the studied
content in mind and recalling it when it is required. Comprehension and retention are pertained
by various obstacles which are encouraging students to develop study skills. These are lack of
focus, personal mind set, weak reading skills, lack of proper guidance, content which is not
understandable etc. All these obstacles guide educators to build comprehension and retention in
their students. It will be beneficial for individuals to improve their quality of learning and
reaching to career goals and objectives.
6

CONCLUSION
From the above project report it has been concluded that study skills are the qualities
which guide students to perform all the tasks properly which are related to their studies. There
are various learning strategies which could be used by teachers while teaching individuals for
facilitating them to learn the best. These are discussion, demonstration, drill and practice,
simulation, games learning strategies etc. A study plan could also be developed by lecturer to
guide students to achieve professional as well as academic success. For all the individuals it is
very important to build comprehension and retention because both of them will be very
beneficial for them to improve their quality of learning. Additionally, they will also be able to
increase chances of reaching academic success by acquiring these qualities. There are various
obstacles which are pertaining building of them. These are lack of focus, personal mind set,
negative past experience etc.
7

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Anderson, G., Boud, D. and Sampson, J., 2014. Learning contracts: A practical guide.
Routledge.
Elekaei, A., Faramarzi, S. and Koosha, M., 2015. The Impact of Gloss Types on Reading
Comprehension, Vocabulary Gain and Vocabulary Retention: A Comparative
Study. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature. 4(5). pp.97-
103.
Lo, Y. Y., Anderson, A. L. and Bunch-Crump, K., 2017. Building vocabulary of English learners
with reading disabilities through computer-assisted morphology
instruction. Intervention in School and Clinic. 52(3). pp.133-140.
Love, K. G. and Barrett, M. S., 2016. A case study of teaching and learning strategies in an
orchestral composition masterclass. Psychology of Music. 44(4). pp.830-846.
Martin, N. D., Nguyen, K. and McDaniel, M. A., 2016. Structure building differences influence
learning from educational text: Effects on encoding, retention, and metacognitive
control. Contemporary Educational Psychology. 46. pp.52-60.
Reed, J. E. and Card, A. J., 2016. The problem with plan-do-study-act cycles. BMJ Qual Saf.
25(3). pp.147-152.
Spiro, R. J., Bruce, B. C. and Brewer, W. F., 2017. Theoretical issues in reading comprehension:
Perspectives from cognitive psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence and
education. Routledge.
Swanson, E., Vaughn, S. and Wexler, J., 2017. Enhancing adolescents’ comprehension of text by
building vocabulary knowledge. TEACHING Exceptional Children. 50(2). pp.84-94.
Varasteh, H., Ghanizadeh, A. and Akbari, O., 2016. The role of task value, effort-regulation, and
ambiguity tolerance in predicting EFL learners’ test anxiety, learning strategies, and
language achievement. Psychological Studies. 61(1). pp.2-12.
Yang, P. L. and Wang, A. L., 2015. Investigation the Relationship among Language Learning
Strategies, English Self-Efficacy, and Explicit Strategy Instructions. Taiwan Journal of
TESOL. 12(1). pp.35-62.
Online
Comprehension and retention. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.lynda.com/Business-Software-tutorials/difference-between-
comprehension-retention/171055/364212-4.html>
8