Study Skills for Higher Education: Comprehension and Retention

This report, prepared for the London School of Commerce in association with the University of Suffolk, delves into the crucial aspects of study skills within higher education, emphasizing the significance of comprehension and retention. The report begins by defining reading comprehension and strategies, differentiating between deep reading and learning, and highlighting the role of high-order thinking skills. It then explores various methods for information retention, including the role of memory and memorization techniques like memory devices, rote learning, and spaced repetition. The core of the report discusses the impact of comprehension and retention on learning quality, identifying techniques for building these skills, such as storytelling and incorporating quizzes. Furthermore, the report evaluates the difficulties students face in building comprehension and retention, including goal setting, reading challenges, and memorization issues. It concludes with recommendations for overcoming these obstacles, such as connecting learning to real-life scenarios and engaging in frequent questioning. The report aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of study skills, offering practical strategies for students to enhance their academic performance and achieve success in higher education.

STUDY SKILLS FOR
HIGHER EDUCATION

Executive Summary
This study mainly explains about the concept of comprehension and retention and their
importance for making students competent. Comprehension and retention are the two pillars
which helps students to achieve success in their academic life. In order to do this, there are
various learning and memorization techniques which they need to adopt for increasing their
coverall challenge. Building comprehension and retention seem easy but students in real life
faces wide range of problems which makes them stronger and improves their learning skills.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Reading comprehension can be defined as that ability in which individual can process
text, have the power to properly understand text and to combine with aspects what readers
already know. It has been analysed that individual can develop reading skills with the help of
education or any senior can also give them instructions. They can also take learning from any
education institution. Present report will lay emphasis on Discussing the role of building
comprehension and retention in improving the quality of learning and increasing success in
academic life. It will also provide an overview of difficulties which can be faced during building
comprehension and retention.
MAIN BODY
Reading comprehension and reading strategies
As per the view of (Assiter, 2017) reading comprehension can be understood as that level
in which person has full capability to understand text or a message. Author has also described
that reading skill and vocabulary are merged together. A person’s ability to pronounce words
properly, and capability to decode summarises that the student have a good reading
comprehension skill. On the other hand, there are wide range of reading strategies which help the
students to grab knowledge about various aspects and thus helps them to take effective decisions.
This makes them acquainted with the topic which they are going to read.
Deep learning & Deep reading
Deep reading is basically the active process which mainly includes deliberate reading as
well as thinking to a great level in order to enhance the comprehension as well as learning skills
of an individual. Deep learning on the other hand is the function of artificial intelligence which
imitates and duplicates working of human brain within processing data as well as creating
patterns in effective decision-making. Thus, for a student in order to achieve the success in life
and give a direction to the career. High order thinking skills plays an important role. The high
order thinking skills like comprehension, analysis helps the student to not only learn the different
concepts but also assist them to apply knowledge beyond classroom. It plays the role of raising
awareness among students for different concepts and theories. It mainly helps the students to
move their knowledge level from low to high and thus evaluate things from different
perspectives.

Methods for attaining information retention
There are numerous ways for attaining the information retention and these are
Focus the attention
This is one of the most important method which helps students to retain information for
long period of time. For moving the information from short-term memory to long-term, it is
highly essential that the students actively focus on the given subject and thus avoid any
distraction.
Structuring and organize
According to Cottrell (2019)This is the another proven method which helps in retaining
data for extended period. When the information is structurally organized in form of clusters
according to priority then the students are able to focus and concentrate more deeply on that
subject. This eventually grab the information in their minds for long time.
Role of memory
Memory plays an important role in retaining the information within mind of an
individual. There are basically two compartments in brain short term as well as long term. When
the information is retained within mind for long period that means it has been transferred from
short term to long term. Short-term memory is mainly concerned with storing information for
brief time while long term memory is concerned with storing information for long time
sometimes even for lifetime. Thus, their role in information retention is imperative as some
information is retained for short time while some are retained for long time.
Memorisation techniques
There are various memorization techniques which helps students to memorize various
learning concepts.
Memory devices
As illustrated by Wilson (2018)These are predominately the devices which helps the
students to memorise and learn different concepts and gather information electronically. These
are devices like acoustics, chinking, flash cards which in their own way assist students to easily
memorize the various subjects.
Rote learning
This is one of the most important memorization technique which mainly focuses on
memorization through repeating words rather than understanding them. In this technique,

students normally recall the things by repeating its name or any aspect associated with that in
order to derive its meaning.
Spaced repetition
This is another most significant memorization technique which is performed with the
help of flashcards. This is newly introduced technique wherein the difficult flashcard are shown
frequently whereas less difficult ones are shown at less rate and less frequently. This induces a
series of learning and memorization within minds of students.
Role of comprehension and retention in enhancing learning quality
According to Rodriguez and Armellini (2017)The role of comprehension as well as
retention is imperative in improving the quality of learning and increasing success of students in
their academic life. Retention as well as comprehension helps the students to increase their
effectiveness in learning and reading and thus not only help them to grow academically but also
increases their personal experience. When students have good comprehension skills then they are
able to understand meaning behind the subject more intellectually which helps in their academic
life. Besides this, increased retention power help students to easily relate the various concept to
the real life and thus increases their knowledge about various aspects.
Techniques for building comprehension and retention
The various techniques for improving and building retention and comprehension are
Storytelling
The great route to bump the knowledge retention and comprehension within students is to
encourage them to make an emotional connection with subject being learned. This is the most
important technique which for building retention and comprehension in students. When teachers
will narrate a story, scenario or characters related to the topic then students will understand the
subject and concepts more deeply and hence will build emotional connection.
Ask, Ask and Ask
As per the view of Ryan and Zuber-Skerritt (2017)The simplest and apparent technique
for building comprehension as well as retention in students is to incorporate a series of quiz in
their learning content. The teacher can make to go through various rounds of quiz related to their
subject which will enable them to apply brainstorming and think deliberately. It will also help
learners or students to track their performance and oversee as to what they have retained or
learned.

Difficulties in building comprehension and retention
Although there are various strategies for building retention as well as comprehension
within students but there are also some challenges and problems which teacher face while
building these.
Setting goal
This is the most common difficulty which is being faced by students while building
retention and comprehension. Most of the students are unaware of their goals and thus does not
understand what they need to achieve in their life due to which they are not able to set a clear
goal in their life. This eventually leads to reduced learning and their retention power decreases as
they are not aware what they have to learn. For achieving success in life, each and every
individual needs to have a clear goal in life which leads to final destination thus sometimes
students fails to do so due to which their learning is hindered.
Reading
According to Hung and Chen (2018)Sometimes students face difficulty in reading the
text and deriving meaning from it. Some of the students who due to improper attention are not
able to comprehend what they are reading and thus does not remember lines or text which
eventually affects their learning capability. This in turn affects their retention power because
when they are not able to comprehend meaning from text, the information does not pass to their
long-term memory and hence is not retained for long period of time. This also affects their
comprehension skills as due to improper reading students are unable to derive meaning from
text.
Memorizing the things
Many students who suffers from some form of mental disability lost their power to
memorize things. They are not able to memorize the text even after reading it a thousand times
due to which they began to feel frustrated and demotivated. This emergence of demotivation
reduces their comprehension and retention ability and they are not able to recall subject or things
which they has read. Therefore, poor memorizing ability is the biggest difficulty in building
comprehension and retention.
Recommendations

According to Vaughn and et.al.,(2015)The students in order to overcome the various
difficulties in comprehension and reading should adopt various strategies like connecting with
story. Students should while learning any topic should try their best to relate that topic which
some scenario, story or case in their real life. Having this connection will help them to
understand the background of that topic and will increase their retention power. When students
relate any topic with their real life then there are more than 85% possibility that they retain that
knowledge for long time. Besides this, for overcoming these obstacle's student should
continuously engage themselves in asking questions related to topic or subject. When they will
frequently ask questions from teacher or other than their learning capacity will increase as they
will think deliberately about the topic. This deliberate thinking will eventually increase their
comprehension and retention power. Thus, students should continuously undergo quiz and ask
questions.
CONCLUSION
It has been summarized that comprehension and retention plays an important role within
life of the students and thus helps in building their academic life. There are various strategies in
comprehension and reading which helps students to gain an in-depth knowledge of topic. Besides
this, in order to achieve retention brains plays an important role where information is transferred
from short-term to long-term memory and thus stay in minds of students for long period.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Assiter, A., 2017. Transferable skills in higher education. Routledge.
Cottrell, S., 2019. The study skills handbook. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Hung, I.C. and Chen, N.S., 2018. Embodied interactive video lectures for improving learning
comprehension and retention. Computers & Education.117.pp.116-131.
Rodriguez, B.P. and Armellini, A., 2017. Developing self-efficacy through a massive open online
course on study skills. Open Praxis.9(3). pp.335-343.
Ryan, Y. and Zuber-Skerritt, O., 2017. Quality in postgraduate education. Routledge.
Vaughn, S and et.al.,2015. Improving reading comprehension for high school students with
disabilities: Effects for comprehension and school retention. Exceptional Children.82(1).
pp.117-131.
Wilson, J.D., 2018. Student learning in higher education. Routledge.