Study Skills for Higher Education

This report discusses the role of building comprehension and retention in improving the quality of learning and academic achievement of students. It also explores the obstacles faced in building these skills.

Study Skills for Higher
Education

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................1
a. Role of building comprehension and retention in improving quality of learning and
academic achievement of the students .......................................................................................1
b. Obstacles pertaining to building comprehension and retention..............................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Study skills is considered as an array of gaining or attaining new skills that contributes in
the process of dealing with assessments along with the retention of important information. The
number of advantages which are associated with same includes effective reading, high
concentration and efficient note taking. Currently, the presence of skills in respect to the study
and learning is minimal in students (Asonitou, 2015). This will have direct impact over their
academic career which restricts them in performance of functions. The main aim of this report is
about ascertainment of the role of building reading comprehension and retention in improvement
of the learning and academic achievement of the students.
This report covers the role of building comprehension and retention in improvement of
the quality of learning and increment in academic achievement of students and obstacles
pertaining to building comprehension and retention.
Main Body
a. Role of building comprehension and retention in improving quality of learning and academic
achievement of the students
Presence of skills in student is important to carry on studies in prominent manner. The
different kind of common skills that builds the song base for the students includes learning,
reading, retaining and understanding. These all have their different role and contribution in
growth of the student. Learning skill help in creation of ability among the students to focus over
new concepts every time. This will further contributes in gaining knowledge which is new an
different in all sense (Assiter, 2017). Reading skill help in effective presentation of the concept
along with the retention of matter for longer period of time. So, attainment of reading skill help
to grab the retention skill too. The integrated contribution has huge advantage behind the
creation of critical thinker. In last, understanding is the main aspect. This can be done in actual
sense in the situation when have good reading and retention skill. This is the reason that it comes
at last in place. The effective development of understanding skill aid in transformation of
perspectives along with the construction of meanings.
The man two that must have by the students is reading comprehension and retention as
this will have most optimum impact over quality of learning and achievements of students. In the
current scenario, many college students have marginal skill related to reading comprehension
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(Wilson, 2018). This resultants into poor retention power of the material and concepts.
Remembering (retention) is lower order skill in comparison to understanding which is higher in
skills order. The main reason is that understanding involves the two aspects i.e. analysing and
evaluating. The determinants which are needed to adhere or adopt for building effective reading
skill includes ascertaining background knowledge, questioning, analysis of the text structure and
visualization. For ex, questioning includes framing of questions before and after of reading to
increase comprehension (Carpenter, Dearlove and Marland, 2015). The three different questions
upon which requires to provide focus includes right now, analytical and research. Right now
question help to grab the knowledge in respect to essence of material read and the facts which
are mentioned. Analytical question help the student to ponder over their learning and focus over
understanding that author wants to tell. Research question help the students to get the knowledge
beyond to the concept written in text. The overall benefit of its development is ascertained by
student in development of learning where easy to find meanings and frame perspectives (The
Goal of Reading, 2019). It improves quality of the presentation that enables to grab the
opportunities present in public speakings. In terms of increment in academic achievement's help
the student to win different competitions related to reading comprehensions, debates, curricular
programmes etc.
Low presence of reading skill in college students as determined above, contributes in
weaker retention power too. This will hinder the students to remember the concepts. To develop
or build this among the students requires to focus over long term deep readings, adherence or
fulfilment of reading strategies, avoidance of cramming, structuring & organising, Read out
Loud etc. The contribution of this ascertained in the manner that this will aid in building lower
order skill that improves quality of learning perspectives along with attainment of academic
achievement's. In regards to this, quality is attained in the form of retention of matter and
concepts for longer period of time (Cottrell, 2019). As an academic achievement, grab
improvement in overall personality that help to be upcoming critical reader and thinker.
Attainment of the both Reading comprehension and retention skill by the student help to
achieve the higher order skills too. The last skill which is highest in order is understanding. The
contribution of this skill over the quality learning of student is understood from the point that it
help in overall analysis and evaluation of the concept along with the creation of attributes of
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critical reader and thinker. In future, presence of this skill contributes in own research and
development of profession too (King and Boyatt, 2015).
b. Obstacles pertaining to building comprehension and retention
Development of the any skill is not easy in nature for the student. They have to go
through many hurdles. The two skills which are developed by the students above are reading and
retention. In the process of development, many obstacles are faced which are defined below:
Obstacles pertaining to building reading comprehension
Vocabulary: The one obstacle faced by the student is related to power vocabulary. For
effective reading student must needed to understand the meaning of word and its relationship
with other word (Rayner and Papakonstantinou, 2015). Inability in performance of this function
diminishes the ability to develop this skill.
Fluency: This is also one of the determinant that have negative impact over reading skill.
Inability of student in reading with fluency disallows the student to retain the information with
accuracy, expression and increased speed. This diminishes the ability of the student to
understand the actual meaning of sentences.
Active reading: This is also the obstacle that faced by the students in the process of
developing effective reading skill. Ineffectiveness in active reading create the problems in front
of the students in respect to recalling of what they read, asking questions or evaluating texts.
Presence of this hinders the ability of student to gain or attain good reading skills (Shukla and
Dungsungnoen, 2016).
Critical thinking: This is the major obstacle that negatively impacts in the development
of reading comprehension skills in the students. Due to the lack of the critical thinking skill
students are not able to determine the main idea, supporting details, sequence of events and
overall structure of the text. So, overall this disallows the student to get the actual meaning of the
text and diminishes reading comprehension skill.
Obstacles pertaining to building retention skill
Lack in setting goal: This the obstacle that negatively impacts the ability of the student
in retention of information. Students are not able to stick to the one aspect till it is understood in
proper manner and focus over another. This will creates the confusion and diminishes the ability
to retain the matter for longer period of time (Thompson, 2017).
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Non repetitive behaviour: This is the obstacle which is very common due to which
students are not able to retain the things for longer period of time. Without repetition and re
learning of the concept not possible to remember for long days. So, presence of this nature
become one of the general obstacle that diminishes the ability of student to retain information
(Van Hees, Moyson and Roeyers, 2015).
Not ascertain the use of multisensory approach: Generally, students uses single
approach to retain the information which is not effective in nature and that results into loose of
information after some days. Use of multiple approaches like visual, kinetic, tactile and auditory
help to maximise effective in retention of information. So, use of single approach diminishes the
ability to retain information for longer period of time.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that there is huge contribution of skills study
in the development of the learning and academic career of students. Ascertainment of the
knowledge in respect to the new skills provides an opportunity to perform work properly in
accordance to the demand of lecturers. Building reading comprehension skill not only help in
improvement of the presentation but also contributes in log term retention of the matter and
concepts. The integrated impact of both is direct over the overall learning and capabilities.
Number of obstacles are faced in that process includes lack of information, unsupportive
behaviour of peers, shortage of time, complexities etc. Adherence of effective process not only
help to overcome from these issues but further contributes in the development of reading
comprehension skill along with the retention power.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Asonitou, S., 2015. Employability skills in higher education and the case of Greece. Procedia-
Social and Behavioral Sciences. 175. pp.283-290.
Assiter, A., 2017. Transferable skills in higher education. Routledge.
Carpenter, J., Dearlove, J. and Marland, J., 2015. Student skills and the Bradley agenda in
Australia. Higher Education Research & Development. 34(2). pp.284-297.
Cottrell, S., 2019. The study skills handbook. Macmillan International Higher Education.
King, E. and Boyatt, R., 2015. Exploring factors that influence adoption of e‐learning within
higher education. British Journal of Educational Technology. 46(6). pp.1272-1280.
Rayner, G. and Papakonstantinou, T., 2015. Employer perspectives of the current and future
value of STEM graduate skills and attributes: An Australian study. Journal of Teaching
and Learning for Graduate Employability.6(1). pp.100-115.
Shukla, D. and Dungsungnoen, A.P., 2016. Student's Perceived Level and Teachers' Teaching
Strategies of Higher Order Thinking Skills: A Study on Higher Educational Institutions
in Thailand. Journal of Education and Practice. 7(12). pp.211-219.
Thompson, P., 2017. Communication technology use and study skills. Active learning in higher
education.18(3). pp.257-270.
Van Hees, V., Moyson, T. and Roeyers, H., 2015. Higher education experiences of students with
autism spectrum disorder: Challenges, benefits and support needs. Journal of autism and
developmental disorders. 45(6). pp.1673-1688.
Wilson, J.D., 2018. Student learning in higher education. Routledge.
Online
The Goal of Reading. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.readnaturally.com/research/5-components-of-reading/comprehension>
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