THE NEED FOR STUDY STRATEGY TRAINING

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses why students need training in study strategies. Education is frequently directed in ways that provide students with opportunities to carry out elaboration, self-monitoring, or other strategies but seldom is any explicit attention given to helping students become aware that they have a choice in types of learning strategies that may be employed. In general, educational activities are teacher-directed and students learn to conform to the teacher's directions without any conscious thought about why the teacher directs them to carry out certain activities. Moreover, teachers themselves do not think teaching involves the development of more effective repertoires of learning strategies. Students are directed to carry out certain learning activities, but grades and other feedback to the students are primarily directed to the correctness of the outcome rather than to the strategy used to achieve the result. Students seldom get directed training and practice in developing study strategies. Rather, they stumble upon effective strategies only when, by chance, they vary their approach and find that one method works better than others.