Mary Beth Haydon, Coordinator for The Learning Center

Teaching Activities:

Raising Metacognitive Awareness:

• Use a workshop approach for individual or group presentations. Students can keep a reflective journal of what they are doing, have conferences with you to discuss ideas and presentation content, and participate in structured discussion groups with their peers regarding their progress on the assignments (Arredondo & Rucinski, 1994).
  
• Teaching is one of the best ways to learn. Have students research a concept, idea, historical event, theory, etc. and teach it to the class. Require them to use resources other than the text (Hamlin, 2001).
  
• Students can keep a journal of their academic achievement in the class. Ask students to track the amount of time they spend studying and the amount of time they spend feeling guilty about studying, how they study, what types of grades their studying produces, other techniques they can try, topics that are difficult for them, teaching methods they really like, etc. Reflecting on how their learning occurs will raise their metacognitive awareness.
  
• Ask students to develop a written study strategy for the first exam. They can decide what their study environment will be, how they are going to prepare for the test, ways of studying they have found ineffective, and target days and times they are going to study. Students could also anticipate a reasonable grade for the exam. The plan may change, but the purpose of the activity is to encourage students to reflect on the preparation required to be a successful student. After the exams have been scored, go over them with students. Discuss which questions or types of questions they had the most difficulty with and what changes they can make next time they study (Thompson & Geren, 2002).
  
• Going over exams with students without the written study strategy is also great idea. Ask the students to think about whether they felt they should have gotten a higher grade, what they could do differently to prepare for the next exam, and/or what parts of the exam caused them the most difficulty. Too often students look at their tests only to see what grade they made and do not relate it to their study strategies.
  
• Use self talk. Teach students to reflect on what they have done, why they did it, how they can use it, what they know as a result, what the steps in solving the problem were, and how it relates to other things they have studied. Students should ask themselves questions that encourage them to think about what they have learned. For example, “And now I know . . . Which will help me with . . .If ___ is true, then ___ may also be true . . . I will remember . . .”

Reading:

• Instruct students to preview the chapter before reading. Skimming the headings, summary and introduction, and reading the first sentence of the chapters can help students predict what they will be reading.
  
• Students should generate questions before reading and look for answers to the questions to help them focus on what they are reading. If they can’t find the answer to a question in their reading, they should be encouraged to ask it in class.
  
• Remind students that what they are reading relates to what they have already learned. Making connections is very important for long-term memory. They can use self-talk at the end of a section to think about what they have learned. They can also use self-talk to reflect on what they read (e.g. “How does this relate to what I already know?” “What did I learn that I didn’t know before reading the section?”).
  
• Often students underestimate the importance of bold face words, pictures, tables and graphs. Tell students to look at these things before they begin reading. They are great sources of information and will help them better understand the text.
  
• Ask students to try out different reading strategies and decide what works best for them. For example, do they better remember the text if they read out loud, take notes on their reading, highlight or underline? Some students may find it helpful to read with a partner. As the two progress through the chapter they can stop to discuss what they read, or summarize it or explain it to each other.
  
• Require students to come to class prepared to ask a question about the day’s lecture. This question must be carefully thought through and students must have derived the question from reading the text and/or the use of outside resources.
  
• PQ4R is also a strategy that is helpful for students’ reading comprehension. This method requires students to preview the chapter before reading, create questions, read, reflect, recite, and review.
  
• A final note about textbook reading: make sure you are using information in the text in your lectures or on tests if you request students to read. If students do not see the value in reading or do not find that the text is critical to their understanding of course content, it is likely that there will not be much you can do to get them to read anything but their class notes.

Other Techniques:

• Administer frequent quizzes. It doesn’t matter whether or not they are pop quizzes. Students just need to be given an incentive to frequently review the material. The more students review the more likely they are to remember the information. Frequent quizzes can also help catch students who are having a difficult time with the content.
  
• Call on individual students to answer questions in class. Don’t ask students to raise their hand, and make sure you do not ask the same students each week. If students think that they will have to answer a question in front of their peers, they will want to come to class prepared.
  
• Ask students the same question twice. If students know that a question will be asked more than once, they will begin thinking about it the first time.
  
• Students that are more organized tend to perform better (Entwistle, Hanley, & Hounsel, 1979; Young, 2002). Students should keep a calendar, make to do lists, and block off specific times for study. Require students to use a three-ring binder or a folder with metal clasps in the middle, enabling them to put handouts by the corresponding lecture or insert missed class notes in to the proper location.
  
• Teach new terms and ask students to develop their own examples or definitions based on what they already now. Students can use the Vocabulary Matrix to gain a better understanding of key terms. (Vocabulary Matrix - Word Document)
  
• Similarly, a Concept Matrix can be used to help students understand how different concepts relate. It may be best to complete the first matrix with the class, and then suggest students complete them on their own. (Concept Matrix - Word Document)
  
• Teach students note taking techniques such as the Cornell Note-Taking Method and Concept Mapping, and require them to try out the technique for at least one test. It takes time for students to adjust to new note taking methods, so encourage your students to try it for at least a month or two.
  
• Some of you may want to offer extra credit for students that make an effort to improve their study habits. Extra credit could be offered if students use concept mapping, keep journals of their academic progress, create flashcards, set up weekly schedules that include study time, or anything else that promotes academic success.
  
• “Vocabulary Instruction and Reading Comprehension,” Eric Digest number ED412506, offers many teaching strategies for vocabulary (Smith, 1997).
  
• The Learning Center’s website (www.wku.edu/tlc) under “Learning Resource Links” lists a collection of study skills sites that are beneficial to all disciplines.
  
• Howtostudy.Org and Academic Resource Core are great sites for discipline specific study and writing techniques.
  
• “Student Success Strategies” on the On Course website offers many more tips on developing self-regulated learners in your classroom.
  
• A list of “Active Learning Techniques In the College Classroom” can be found at http://www.calstatela.edu/dept/chem/chem2/Active/, with explanations of 29 active learning strategies. This is an excellent site for generating ideas when planning class activities for each semester.