Lesson 4: How to be a Successful College Student Attention Keeping Calm might be the most difficult part! There is a LOT to this lesson, be sure to read all the material. Learning Outcomes Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to:
Teaching Three Expectations of a Good Student There are lots of resources out there related to what it takes to be a "good student" or a "successful student", but in truth, it is rather simple. This very short list comes from a speech by the President of Worcester Polytechnical Institute (WPI) to the incoming Freshman class. What do you need to do to be a successful student (at KVCC)?
That's it! Let's not make it any more complicated than this! Of course these three things imply a lot of other skills and behaviors as well. Let's see if we can add some additional behaviors that help you understand what each of these imply. Go to Class Regardless if the class is Face-to-Face or Online, you need to "go to class." This implies a lot.
Do your Homework While a lot happens in the actual classroom, you are expected to do MORE work outside the classroom. A good formula to keep in mind is that for every ONE HOUR that you have IN CLASS, you probably need at least TWO HOURS of dedicated work OUTSIDE of class (for reading, assignments, etc.) This implies a lot too.
Ask Questions Asking questions is also part of "Going to Class" but it is worthy of its own category! Sometimes the information you are expected to know or the assignments that you are expected to complete are confusing. (Now, this is MOSTLY addressed by you "Going to Class" and "Doing your Homework"...if you have not done these first two, then you need to do those first!) But there is more to this than just asking questions in class.
Below you will find resources that may help you a bit with the above mentioned behaviors in order to be a successful college student.
NOTE TAKING
Knowing what and how much to write down is sometimes difficult. Rely on some of the following tips for what to include in your notes.
TIME MANAGEMENT
Seven Suggestions for Effectively Managing Your Time 1. Be organized READING Different people learn in different ways...or better said, many people PREFER to learn in certain ways. The most common ways are VISUAL, AUDITORY, and KINESTHETIC. In the Social Sciences MOST of what you learn will be learned through reading (which emphasizes the VISUAL and AUDITORY learning styles...i.e. not a whole lot of HANDS ON type work - though it does occur!) To that end, this program requires that you develop strong reading skills. You not only need to be able to read accurately and comprehend what you are reading, but you have to develop what I call "academic reading persistence and stamina." The short definition of this concept is as follows: Academic reading persistence and stamina is your ability to read COMPLEX, sometimes BORING, material for LONG periods of time, and still COMPREHEND and APPLY what you are reading. When we touch on the Research R in this lesson you will encounter a type of article you will have to absorb (peer reviewed articles) that are NOT written for YOU...they are written for other professionals in the field. Click HERE to read an article on how to TEACH reading persistence! WRITING Another skill that is actually vital in the field of Social Sciences is writing. Many people come to KVCC with a variety of writing skills, but the kind of writing that is expected in the workplace and in high school is very different than the kind of writing we require in the program. In this lesson I want to introduce you to a writing style that is represented by the professional writing requirements of the American Psychological Association (APA). The style is simply known as APA Style. Click on this image to visit the APA Style guides posted on Purdue University's Online Writing Lab website! The details of this style are beyond the scope of this class and will be covered in EACH of the classes in your program that require writing. Suffice to say that APA Style mandates that you format your papers in a particular manner. Details of APA Style that you will become familiar with include:
Click HERE to visit the KVCC Department of Social Sciences "Writing Across the Social Sciences" website. The resources in this website should help you get around the technical and stylistic requirements of writing in the program. RESEARCH The final area we want to cover in this lesson is Research. There are essentially two types of research that you will do in this program:
MOST of what you will do with be Type 1 Research. Visit that same "Writing Across the Social Sciences" website and focus on the following topics to learn more about research. Developing Good Research Questions What is a Peer Reviewed Article? STUDENT SERVICES (GETTING HELP)
Click here to view the Schedule for Student Services on the Alfond Campus for the Fall of 2016 Assessment Lesson 4 Quiz Please answer all of the questions in this quiz. They relate to the Lesson and any links within the Lesson. Lesson 4 Discussion Review the different resources that are listed in this Lesson. Based on your past scholastic experience, which resources/services do you feel you might need some help in or need to work on? Be specific by including the contact information you might use to access these services.
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