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:

• Identify the role and responsibility of being a college student.
• Demonstrate time management strategies.
• Identify strategies for learning related to personal learning styles.
• Identify various student services resources at KVCC and when their use is warranted.

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)?

1. Go to class
2. Do your homework
3. Ask questions

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.

• Class must be a PRIORITY in your life.
• You need to work your LIFE around your SCHOOL...not the other way around.
• You need to get REST, and SLEEP, and be HEALTHY so that when you are IN CLASS you are actually IN CLASS!
• You need to ACTIVELY ENGAGE in the class (taking notes, participating in discussions, asking questions, etc.)

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.

• You need to MANAGE YOUR TIME so that you get your homework done when it is DUE.
• You need to create SPACE and TIME in your life for homework.
• If you need HELP, you need to seek that help BEFORE the homework is due so you can still hand it in on time!
• You need to READ everything that is assigned...even the boring stuff!

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.

• Yes...ask questions in class about what is being talked about and discussed.
• If you are confused by a topic or an assignment, try your best to understand it on your own and THEN ask your INSTRUCTOR (Do not ask your friend or another student...they may be confused as well and lead you astray!)
• KVCC has a LOT of Student Services to help with understanding class material. Part of "asking questions" is seeking extra help if you are still struggling.
• STUDENT SERVICES (tutoring, remedial classes, TRiO, etc.) are NEVER a substitute to talking with your INSTRUCTOR.

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
• Time Management
• Learning Styles
• Writing
• Research
• Student Services

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.

• Details, facts, or explanations that expand or explain the main points that are mentioned
• Don’t forget examples
• Definitions, word for word
• Lists of things that are discussed
• Material written on the board, including drawings or charts
• Information that is repeated or spelled out

TIME MANAGEMENT

Seven Suggestions for Effectively Managing Your Time

1. Be organized
2. Plan ahead (Schedule it and it will happen!)
3. Prioritize your tasks
4. Avoid overload
5. Practice effective study techniques
6. Be able to be flexible
7. Have a vision (why are you doing all of this?)

LEARNING STYLES

You have probably heard about Learning Styles and you may even have taken a test or two to determine what your Learning Style is. Here is the problem. It is not really a very well research-supported idea!

Yes, you heard it here! Despite the hype, there is no consistent evidence that students learn any better when material is presented (or converted into a format) consistent with their learning style. In fact, there is very little evidence that the "tests" we take (such as the one below) are actually measuring a construct like "Learning Style" in a valid or reliable way!

So, just like the concept of Birth Order personalities, Learning Styles are largely a myth. (Yes, you got that too...birth order effects are not supported in the research!)

Types of Learning Styles: The Three Main Types

There are three main types of learning styles: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. People are capable of learning information in a number of ways and some information lends itself to be taught in a certain way.

So why talk about Learning Styles?

The first thing to keep in mind is that EVERYONE can learning things in ALL the styles...unless a particular style is inhibited by a disability. Having a PREFERRED STYLE does not mean that you need to have all your learning information in that style...it is your PREFERENCE....it is what comes most easily for you.

What is wrong with this cartoon? Assume that the person who is saying "Blah, Blah, Blah..." is the teacher

It is NOT the responsibility of the TEACHER to remember that the STUDENT is a kinesthetic learner!

(Now, many teachers will strive to teach in a way that that addresses all learning styles, but sometimes this is not possible to do)

As a student you will be exposed to a number of TEACHING STYLES that most likely correspond to your teacher's learning style or it may be the nature of the material you are trying to learn. Either way, your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to translate the information into as many different styles as you can! The more ways in which material is presented, the better your chances of learning it!

Adapting Material to Different Styles

In the chart below, you will find suggestions on ways to adapt learning materials to different learning styles

Before you take the assessment below, can you identify with any of these categories of learning style?

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:

• Formatting a title page.
• Essay writing.
• Expressing numerical data.
• Citing sources in your paper (in text citations).
• Creating a References page.

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:

• Type I Research - Research that looks at our current "fund of knowledge" in the field and reports on what we ALREADY know about a research question.
• Type II Research - Research that tests an hypothesis on real people and reports on the data that is collected from that process to answer a research question.

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

Using Google and other Search Engines for Research

Using your Textbook and Online Databases for Research

What is a Peer Reviewed Article?

STUDENT SERVICES (GETTING HELP)

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 A

OK, just for the fun of it, please visit the Education Planner.org through the link provided below and take a brief twenty question survey that will give you an indication of you "preferred learning style"

http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles-quiz.shtml

Now I want you to be a critical thinker. Does this actually equate to a "preferred style" of yours? Can you provide examples as to when you learned material in this style? What about other styles?

Review the techniques of adapting material to each of the styles, list the ones you have used that have been most effective in your learning.

Lesson 4 Discussion B

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.