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40% White/Caucasian

30% Hispanic/Latin

20% Black/African American

10% Asian/Pacific Islander

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90% have credits in higher education

10% High School

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Wide range of skills in technology from limited to highly comfortable.

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Wide range of ages from 24-58 years old.

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Most prefer visual but the rest prefer hands on or reading/writing.

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#2 in the list: The Three Ps. Students will share a fact about themselves that are personal, professional, or peculiar.

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6 Ice Breakers for College Students That Professors Can Use to Kick Off the New Semester | Study.com

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Are you a college professor thinking of using an ice-breaker activity to get your course started off on the right note this semester? This blog…

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Students can use this link to come up with ideas for their own study techniques.

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Explicit instruction on studying is invaluable for students, who often choose ineffective methods of reviewing material.

As students progress through their schooling, they are exposed to concepts that vary significantly in the content and skills needed for comprehension. A student first learning fractions, another in middle school English language arts, and an AP Biology student are all undergoing quite different educational experiences. While these classes will ask different things of the students, they all require the development of study skills. Unfortunately, while all teachers recognize the importance of these skills, they are rarely, if ever, explicitly taught.

This is something that I have taken more seriously in recent years, and I have explicitly worked to teach all of my students better ways to study. In order to properly teach this, I think it's helpful to understand why certain strategies work. If you want to learn the basics of the neuroscience of learning and memory, you might take a look at an article I wrote on that for my students. In essence, there are two general types of thinking: System 1 (which uses long-term memory and is easier) and System 2 (which uses working memory and requires more effort). Strategies that center on using System 2 thinking result in stronger neuron ensemble formation, meaning better recall and learning.

Active studying is the name of practices that involve more System 2 thinking. A lot of people think of studying as simply reading over one's notes, which is a passive form and results in minimal learning. Active studying includes retrieval, synthesis, and analysis of the material. As these methods take longer, students are often resistant to using or attempting them. However, research has shown that these techniques result in greater recall of the studied material. As such, I believe that, along with teaching strategies for active studying, you should design lessons around their incorporation.

5 Active Studying Practices

1. Teaching others: It's as simple as it sounds. When students work to teach others, they are coming up with information from memory (rather than just reading it), and they often need to think of new ways to explain something. This not only helps students figure out what they do or don't know but strengthens and reinforces the memories.

2. Pure retrieval practice: This is when students retrieve the information from their memory. It can be something simple like using flash cards, but my personal favorite method is when students use a whiteboard, a piece of paper, or a tablet to write out and draw everything they can about the topic. They should then check their notes to see what they missed or got wrong before trying again later.

I like to combine the above two in class by having students work in small groups. Students take turns, with one student having a small whiteboard and teaching the others a topic, while the other students use their notes to correct their classmate or ask clarifying questions about missed aspects. We call these "whiteboard days," and students have reported finding these days to be very helpful as a review before tests, and many use these strategies at home now.

3. Study guides: Study guides are a common form of studying and a lot of times are given to students by their teachers. Students often fall into a pit of copying definitions word-for-word from their notes, which might aid in memorization of certain terms or facts but limits understanding and the ability to apply the information.

I teach my students how to make a good study guide, where they synthesize and summarize the information into their own words. I don't require these every unit, but once students have developed the skill, they are able to apply it to any course, and some choose to make them even if not required because they find them helpful.

4. Concept maps: These are visual representations of the connections and relationships between concepts. Although not as helpful for some subjects or topics, these cause students to think more deeply about the material and strengthen their memory of the topics, as they have to think more deeply to come up with connections they may not have otherwise thought of.

While you can assign specific words and require everyone to form maps with the same list as an in-class or homework assignment, my personal favorite way to do this is to gamify it-students draw random cards with vocabulary words on them and compete to develop the most connections.

5. Practice questions: Practice questions are a tried-and-true and very helpful way to study, especially in certain classes. The most helpful practice questions are application-based and allow students to test how well they truly understand the material, as opposed to having just memorized certain facts or definitions. I like to have students study sometimes by making their own and then trading those questions and trying to answer each other's. By developing their own application-style questions, the students are thinking about the material in a deeper manner to put it into new contexts. They can study both by developing their own questions, attempting to answer another's, and explaining the right answer for the other students.
Do you teach your students strategies for active studying? Let us know what they are in the comments!
There are a variety of ways to work these methods into your course, with some of my ways mentioned above. Whichever you choose, make sure you also emphasize the importance of getting enough sleep and having shorter but more frequent study sessions, as these both are necessary for maximizing retainment of concepts. By teaching these techniques, and also requiring their use, you will help to reinforce and build good study habits within students that can help them in all their future academic endeavors.

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5 Ways to Teach Students the Skill of Active Studying

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Explicit teaching on how to study that includes an explanation of the importance of active studying is key for older students.

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Use this idea for a scavenger hunt but create different questions for them to look for.

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College Educator Workshops & Conferences

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INTRODUCTION: Historically, our college's three-credit Beginning Algebra course (Math 092) has had a pass rate in the range of 45-55%. In an effort to improve this pass rate, the Counseling Division introduced a one credit "Math Study Skills" course. This course, open to anyone enrolled in Math 092, meets twice a week for one hour for the first 8 weeks of the semester. In the Spring, 2002, semester, Beginning Algebra students who did not take the study skills course passed at a rate of 55%, while Beginning Algebra students who did take the study skills course passed at a rate of 79%, an improvement of 24%. In working with these students, we quickly discovered that one reason they have difficulty with math is that they don't use college resources. A recent study by our tutoring center, for example, showed that of all students taking a math course, the students in developmental math are the *least* likely to use the tutoring center. Instead of just telling these students about the resources available to them on campus, I decided to use a scavenger hunt adapted to math. Although I used this activity in a Study Skills for Math course, it could be easily adapted for use by any educators who want their students to make better use of college resources. The total time for the activity was a 50-minute class period.

to raise students' awareness about and use of campus resources for supporting math success

to improve the pass rate of Math 092: Beginning Algebra

to help students get to know one another (create Intedependence)

*Handout for the scavenger hunt (see Resources below). Note: I put the questions in a different order for each group in the class so that they didn't all go to the same place at the same time.

*Prizes for the group that finished first. Note: I use $100 Grand candy bars since the name has numbers in it.

I informed employees in each area ahead of time that students would be on a scavenger hunt and what questions they would be asking. I also had each area stamp the paper to make sure that the students actually went to each site.

1. Put students in groups of 3 to 5 and give one list of questions to each group.

2. Tell them, "The first group to return with *all* correct answers will win a prize. Each group must go to the places on the list in order. To be accepted, your answer sheet must have *all* correct answers and be stamped by each of the five locations. Any questions?"

3. "If everyone is ready, let the hunt begin."

4. Upon students' return, go over each of the resources and discuss how the students might use it. This step is where much of the students' learning about resources will take place. For example, ask, "How many of you have signed up for a study group with a tutor in the Learning Support Center (LSC)? For those of you who aren't in a study group yet, would it help you to be in one?"

Students really seem to enjoy this activity. It gets them connecting with one another, and they often comment that they are surprised so many resources exist on campus to help them. Many say they were unaware of the resources before the activity and that they will use these resources in the future. In follow up classes, I have observed that they actually are using many of the resources. One resource in particular is a set of videotapes for teaching each chapter in the math textbook. Prior to the scavenger hunt, almost none of the students knew about these tapes and that they could get a free copy just by bringing a blank videotape to our Media Department. In one class, all of the students got copies of those tapes and used them for supplemental instruction. Another resource is the tutoring center. After I did the scavenger hunt, every student in the class either joined a study group with a tutor or hooked up with an individual tutor. At our college, if you have 5 people you can get a free tutor to meet with your group and you also get a private room in the LSC.

I learned that students learn more when an activity is fun and relevant. I learned another way to help students connect with one another and thus, be more successful. I will definitely do this activity again because it was effective in teaching the students all of the math resources available on campus. The first time I did this I did not have them get the paper stamped and I found out that the students were getting the answers without actually going to the locations. I made that change the second time I did the activity and it worked well. I cannot think of anything I would change next time.

RESOURCES: Handout for the Scavenger Hunt:

1. Go to the college library.

*Books that can help students succeed in math have a QA11 prefix. Find this section and write down the name and call number of a book that deals with succeeding in math.

*The circulation desk has videotapes for each chapter in your textbook. If you check out one of these tapes, how long can you keep it?

*The Media office is in the back of the library. If you bring in a blank tape, they will make you your own copy of a math videotape. How much does this service cost?

2. Go to the Learning Support Center (LSC).

*What is the name of one of the drop-in tutors for math?

*How many people do you need in a math study group in order to get your own private room and a tutor?

*List two resources you could check out to help you with math?

3. Go to the Testing Center.

*What two things do students need in order to make up an exam in the testing center?

*What are the hours that the testing center is open?

*Counselors can help you with personal problems that are getting in the way of your success in math. Have one of the counselors sign this paper (with legible handwriting!)

*What is the difference between counseling and advising?

5. Go to G Building. Find your math instructor's office.

*What is your math instructor's name and office number? (Each group has students from two different instructors; list them both with office numbers.)

*Your instructor has a mailbox on his/her door. There is a hot pink piece of paper in the mailbox with your instructor's name, office hours, phone number, and email address on it. Each student in your group must bring back the paper from his/her own instructor.
-Marianne Auten, Counselor, Paradise Valley Community College, AZ

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Scavenger Hunt for Academic Resources | On Course

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Historically, our college's three-credit Beginning Algebra course (Math 092) has had a pass rate in the range of 45-55%. In an effort to improve this pass rate, the Counseling Division introduced a one credit "Math Study Skills" course.

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From androgagy to transformative learning, adult learning theories focus on the knowledge and backgrounds of the students(Merriam & Baumgartner, 2020). These foster a sense of belonging by using their lives as teaching tools and showing them that everything that happens in their life is valuable. When students access these memories and experiences, they can learn that they are worth something greater than they thought before.

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The lessons should show that the information is valuable and worthwhile so students can understand how it will be relevant (Mackh, 2025). When students feel like their time is being honored and the assignments and activities being held aren't inherently wasteful, then they can build another sense of belonging. The students can feel like they are important to the instructors.

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It is important to have get to know you activities so students can think deeper into their own life and sense of belonging (Grand Canyon University, 2020). The students can see where they fit into a classroom and who they can make quickest connections with. They can also learn a little more about themselves as they think about what they want to share.