Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. Abraham Lincoln
Study habits and time on task are two student behaviors that are at the top of most lists for student success. Planning and reflecting on long-term goals can significantly improve studying and grades. Effort alone is not enough; students need to work smarter, not harder. We know too that interaction with faculty and the perception of faculty support can create more engagement and motivation.[i] I’ve created a general study strategy template that is designed to support both. The theory and process are from my forthcoming book (Teaching Change: How to Develop Independent Thinkers using Relationships, Resilience and Reflection, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021)
Covid-19 is further going to increase the importance of being able to self-manage study time, so I have also created a free Study Smarter template for this fall that anticipates students spending more time in isolation, working more online and needing more faculty support and guidance.
Students study more effectively (and more!) if they have both scaffolding and feedback (even if that feedback is generated through self-reflection). Students need to know what support is available and that there are different ways to spend study time. You can guide this process of student self-awareness of how to structure and evaluate how they use their limited study time. I urge you to customize these templates for your courses and projects: students will get both specific study guidance but will also see you as more supportive. Your scaffolding the choices about how to study will improve learning, student self-reflection and the perception of care and support.
Initial data is from experiments starting this process ten days before an assignment was due. Regardless of race, gender, class, or performance level on previous exams, students using a brief planning and reflective process received, on average, one-third of a letter grade higher at the end of the course. Students who reflected in this way also reported considerably less stress and a greater sense of control over their own performance.[ii]
The templates (Part 1 and Part 2) each consists of 3 short sections that a student should be able to complete in 5-10 minutes. Students are first asked what grade they want, how likely they think this is, and how much preparation might be required to achieve this goal. They are then asked to choose from a list of study strategies how they think they should spend their time studying. The list of study techniques in the template is too long (and designed as a template for a wide variety of disciplines and exercises): customize for your students and make sure to suggest discipline-specific resources or techniques, but no more than 15. Since this is different for every class and discipline, I have created a template that you should customize.
Finally, students are asked to identify what they will do (which study technique) and when and where they will study. There is strong experimental evidence that we can close the human “implementation gap” by asking people to articulate a plan. Even just being asked if you intend to do something increases the odds that you will. Research from the 1984 election found that simply asking people if they intended to vote increased voter turnout by 23%. Similar studies have found that you are also more likely to recycle, visit a health club, buy a new car, or refrain from cheating if you are asked in advance to predict your behavior.[iii]
Getting people to plan is even more effective. In 1965, Yale researchers had no trouble convincing a group of seniors that they should get a tetanus shot, but only 3% showed up to get the shot. When the information was combined with a map and a request for an action plan—look at their weekly schedule and determine when they could actually go—there was a nine-fold (!) increase (to 28%) in students getting the shot.[iv] Similarly, asking people in a phone call to articulate their logistical plan increased voter turnout by 4.1% (vs. just encouraging them to vote, which had no effect). While figuring out how and when you are going to get to the polling station may seem trivial to regular voters (or studiers) it is just enough cognitive effort that if you put it off, you are less likely to follow through.[v] The specificity of the plan also seems to matter, so it is better to get people to identify their polling place, when they will vote and how they will get there. These “implementation intentions” have been widely studied for a variety of behaviors (eating more fruit, taking your medicine or making a will) and demonstrate that humans are more likely to do the activity if they have already visualized doing it.[vi]
The point of step one is both to make a plan, but also to help students think about the different types of study techniques. I pair this with the “Cognitive Wrappers” which Eddie Watson and I describe in Teaching Naked Techniques[vii] and which also have a free template you can download and customize. Again, I have created a special “Study Smarter” Part 2 of the cognitive wrapper technique.
This Study Smarter Part 2-Reflection begins by asking students how many hours of actual studying they did and to reflect on which study techniques were the most effective. (This works best when students are asked to interpret your feedback about their work, as it appears on the original template, but still provides some value even as self-reflection.) The two lists of study techniques are the same and your customized version should also use the same list for each. Students are then asked to determine which types of study were most effective and to plan for the next time.
Again, I’ve provided two versions of each exercise. One to be done before and after an assignment, and another as a weekly study structure (which might be especially useful for students during this fall semester.) I would probably mix the Study Smarter Part 1 and Part 2 with the Assignment-Based Study Skills and Cognitive Wrappers). In other words, I’d ask students to do a plan for most weeks, but also before and after assignments where they will get feedback.
Customization for your discipline should be quick and easy as the templates are in MSWord. Just make sure the lists of study/practice/writing/lab techniques match in both the before and after version.
TEMPLATES
Study Smarter Pt1 PLAN Template (download)
Study Smarter Pt2 REFLECTION Template (download)
TN Study Strategy TEMPLATE (download)
TN Cognitive Wrappers TEMPLATE (download)
[i] Chen, P., Chavez, O., Ong, D. C., & Gunderson, B. (2017). Strategic Resource Use for Learning: A Self-Administered Intervention That Guides Self-Reflection on Effective Resource Use Enhances Academic Performance. Psychological Science, 28(6), 774–785. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617696456
[ii] Greenwald, A.G., Carnot, C.G., Beach, R., & Young, B. (1987). Increasing voting-behavior by asking people if they expect to vote. Journal of Applied Psychology, 72, 315–318. Note that Smith, J.K., Gerber, A.S., & Orlich, A. (2003). Self-prophecy effects and voter turnout: An experimental replication. Political Psychology, 24, 593–604 were unable to replicate the results of Greenwald et al for voter turnout.
Morwitz, V. G., Johnson, E., & Schmittlein, D. (1993). Does measuring intent change behavior? Journal of Consumer Research, 20(1), 46-61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/209332
Spangenberg, Eric R. (1997), “Increasing Health Club Atten- dance through Self-Prophecy,” Marketing Letters, 8 (1), 23- 31.
Spangenberg, Eric R. and Carl Obermiller (1996), “To Cheat or Not to Cheat: Reducing Cheating by Requesting Self- Prophecy,” Marketing Education Review, 6, 95-103.
Dholakia, U.M., & Bagozzi, R.P. (2003). As time goes by: How goal and implementation intentions influence enactment of short-fuse behaviors. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 889–922.
[iii] Leventhal, H., Singer, R., & Jones, S. (1965). Effects of fear and specificity of recommendation upon attitudes and behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2(1), 20-29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0022089
[iv] Nickerson, D. W., & Rogers, T. (2010). Do You Have a Voting Plan?: Implementation Intentions, Voter Turnout, and Organic Plan Making. Psychological Science, 21 (2), 194-199. DOI: 10.1177/0956797609359326
[v] Rogers, T., Milkman, K. L., John, Leslie, K., & Norton, M. I. (2015). Beyond good intentions: Prompting people to make plans improves follow-through on important tasks. Behavioral Science & Policy. 1. 33-41. 10.1353/bsp.2015.0011.
Achtziger, A., Gollwitzer, P.M., & Sheeran, P. (2008). Implementation intentions and shielding goal striving from unwanted thoughts and feelings. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 381-392.
[vi] Bowen, J. A. & Watson, C. E. (2017). Teaching Naked Techniques: A Practical Guide to Designing Better Classes. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.