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General Management Skills - Helping Students To Manage Their Learning
Self-assessment of the study skills
Needs analysis
Adult learners often complain that they can't manage their learning because of a lack of useful learning skills and the ability to learn effectively,so they need to be supported to assess and develop their learning/studying skills.
Study skills development includes the following five components:
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Self-awareness and self-evaluation |
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Awareness of what is required |
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Methods, organisation, strategies |
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Self-confidence |
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Awareness of your study practice and habits |
The learners' success during the teaching/learning process depends on their abilities to assess their current short-term and long-term learning needs and skills. At the start of the course the educator should pay attention to:
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identification of their current skills level |
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identification of the evidences of their abilities |
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identification of what they need to improve |
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identification of support or resources available |
As an educator you can suggest learners look at the following sheet to help them create their own self-evaluation strategy.
Skills |
Where do I use this skill? |
What am I good at? |
What do I need to develop? |
What can I do? |
| Note taking |
Taking notes in lectures, from films, videos or other visual materials; from books or other written materials |
I am good at: selecting information from written materials and summarizing main points |
I need to develop abilities in: clarifying initial ideas, giving enough details, making the source of my notes clear, improving the speed of making notes |
to go to an induction course (module "Note taking"); to ask colleagues, educators for help, to exercise more actively in note taking |
| Essay writing |
term exam; competitions (for grants, projects) |
I am good at: planning my time; identifying the main topic; structuring; drafting |
I need to develop abilities in: better structuring; editing and presenting the final version |
To read specific (methodological) information about essay writing; to exercise more actively in essay writing; to ask somebody to check some of my essays |
| Gathering and using information |
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| Report writing |
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| Oral presentation |
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| Solving problems |
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| Group work |
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| Revising and examination techniques |
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| Visual communication |
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| Using IT |
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| Time management: |
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| Working independently |
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| Evaluating personal work |
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| Setting goals |
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When the learners have completed the self-evaluation process they should be able to:
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identify and select possible strategies for self-evaluation |
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identify their own strengths and areas to improve |
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identify possible sources of evidence to illustrate strengths and skills to improve |
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plan actions to build on strengths and improve skills with targets, timescales and resources/support needed |
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identify factors which might affect their plans |
The learner should now be able to make and update her/his own personal profile. A profile is simply a snapshot of herself/himself as she/he is - skills, qualities, attributes, and achievements. The most important uses of the personal profile are:
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making a personal development plan |
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developing habits of reflection and self-analysis |
Successful development of learners' study skills depends on a good system for monitoring progress. You can prepare for your learners a checklist which can include the good study skills they have already developed and evidence or examples of their availability. You can organise a discussion with learners about their ways of learning.
To do this you can use the following tips:
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Ask learners to think of something they are good at |
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Ask them to write down a few words explaining how they became good at whatever it was |
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Help them to compare their responses to the previous two questions |
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Comment on how rarely people declare that they became good at something through being taught or being shown how, and so on |
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Ask learners to think of some learning experience that went wrong and to write down a few words about what happened to make it an unsuccessful learning experience |
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Help them to compare the causes of poor learning experiences |
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