5 Reasons to Teach Study Skills
1. No student can be college-ready without good study skills
College and career readiness is about more than what students know — it’s about how they learn. Both ACT and Achieve confirm that work habits and study skills top the area in which students are least prepared for the demands of postsecondary work. The Gates Foundation reports that almost 50 percent of college students surveyed felt overwhelmed by the amount of material to study and lack the skills needed for academic success.
It’s not just about students struggling. When students have to repeat a college course or take a course they ought to have mastered in high school, they incur additional tuition in an already expensive venture. The lack of college readiness costs students a staggering $1.3 billion per year!
Good study skills dramatically lower the risk of failure in college.
2. Developing a new habit requires consistency, time, and support.
Consistency: According to James Clear, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Atomic Habits, the most important part of building a new habit is staying consistent. Sustained effort makes the difference. By teaching and enforcing the same skills and strategies year after year, schools can provide the consistency needed to develop a new habit.
Time. According to a study at University College London, it takes anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit. Schools have several years to ensure that students develop and habituate these skills.
Support: Students won’t learn study skills at home. However, parents are perfect partners for reinforcing skills students learn at school. When study skills and strategies are taught in the classroom and supported at home, our students are guaranteed to have the habits they need to succeed in college.
3. Good study skills help to diagnose why a student is underperforming.
.Students’ behaviors and strategies “affects learning probably as much as, if not more than, the classroom skills of the lecturer.”
Entwistle, N. J., & Tait, H. (1990).
What’s wrong with this student? What’s getting in the way of their learning? When students struggle, it can be for a variety of reasons. A good teacher is like a learning detective, investigating a student’s academic underperformance to identify and address the problem. Does this student truly not understand the content, or does this student lack effective study habits?
For students to learn successfully, good study skills must first be in place. When students have good study habits, the reason for academic underperformance is far easier to diagnose and correct. Moreover, students with good study skills are often able to self-diagnose and seek meaningful assistance from their teacher.
4. Study skills reduce the dropout rate.
In 2013, a study by Doll, Eslami, and Walters compiled data from multiple nationally representative studies spanning more than 50 years asking the simple question:
Why did you drop out of high school?
Sadly, one of the primary reasons students drop out of high school is that they never experienced academic success and believed they never would. The researchers found that inappropriate, ineffective study skills and learning habits lead to wasted study time and energy, confusion, anxiety, and lack of academic self-confidence. As a student’s self-confidence spirals downward, the risk of dropping out rises. Students must experience some measure of success to believe in themselves. Good study skills help students gain confidence in their ability to learn and achieve.
5. Study skills are life skills.
The need for good study skills doesn’t disappear as soon as a student is out of school. We want students to be lifelong learners and achievers. Good study skills help students advance their career goals by improving their ability to job train, master their craft, study for and pass professional licensing exams, certifications, and continuing education courses. As students move into the adult world, they will be responsible for reading and understanding such things as insurance policies, employee benefits materials, and loan documents. A strong foundation in good study skills is a lifelong benefit.