Improving Learning by Enhancing Study Skills of

Community College Students

Kathryn H. Sorensen, Biology

American River College, Sacramento CA

American River College

34,000+ students 2 year community college Transfer, remedial, 2-year degree,

certificate programs

Science Skills Center

Developed in response to student needs Based on Supplemental Instruction (SI)

model from UM- Kansas City ½ unit transferable course Meet with students for 20 minutes a week for

6-8 weeks Taught by faculty, Instructional Assistants,

and student tutors

Curriculum/ Schedule

Week One– Time management/ Learning Styles/

Previewing of text • Number of hours of work, school, and study

time. Calculate numbers of hours of study time.• What is the student doing in class and out of

class?• You can’t read a science text like a novel.

Curriculum/ Schedule

Week Two– Annotation of text/ Paraphrasing

• Yes, it’s ok to write in your book.• Practice, practice, practice

Week Three– Note-taking/ Graphics

• RAD notes format• Diagrams are not optional reading

Curriculum/ Schedule

Week Four– Concept Mapping

• This is hard and takes time, but only if you’re doing it right.

Week Five– Test-taking strategies/ Analysis

• These are only helpful if you are using the information from the other modules.

Week Six– Evaluation

Key to Curriculum

Co-requisite with a science course (majors and non-majors)

All homework given from that science course

Metacognitive journal by students Accountable to someone outside of

class

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Science Skills 34.7 32.2 16.9 5.5 2.7 8.0 0.1 83.7

Non-Science Skills 22.6 27.1 18.8 5.7 7.2 18.3 0.3 68.4

A B C/CR D F/NC WT I Success

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Science Skills 84.4 80.9

Non-Science Skills 71.3 63.4

Female Male

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Science Skills 75.0 86.5 67.1 86.6 81.4 88.4

Non-Science Skills 66.4 65.9 52.7 72.1 61.9 68.6

Amer Ind/Alaskan

AsianAfrican

AmericanWhite Hispanic Pac Isl/Filipino

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Science Skills 85.7 77.7 84.2 85.9 88.5 84.2

Non-Science Skills 64.6 63.3 67.9 72.6 76.7 75.5

<18 18-20 21-24 25-29 30-39 40+

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Science Skills 83.3 83.7

Non-Science Skills 52.4 69.4

Freshmen Not Freshmen

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Science Skills 89.7 83.0

Non-Science Skills 72.9 68.2

ESL Student Non-ESL Student

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Science Skills 83.1 82.5 83.3 86.9 92.7

Non-Science Skills 67.4 69.8 74.1 74.8 66.7

Transfer Degree Certificate Other Goal Undecided

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Science Skills 81.9 82.4 100.0 100.0 100.0 90.3

Non-Science Skills 68.7 65.3 68.6 63.8 75.7 74.4

Biology Chemistry GIS Geography Geology Physics

Student Responses Percentage of students who responded

Very or Somewhat Helpful– Time Management- 85%– Text-reading- 86.4%– Paraphrasing- 87.3%– Note-taking- 84.6%– Concept Mapping- 81.3%– Graphics Reading- 83.6%– Test Preparation- 87.8%

Student Reponses

Did the SSC help raise your grade?– 70.5% said yes

Of the students who responded yes…– 48.2% raised by half a grade point– 51.8% raised by a full grade point or more

Comments

I think [the] SSC is fine. I have a BS degree, so came in with some sets well developed. Even still, I found new information.

They introduced me to concepts that I would never have thought of. These concepts were more helpful than my usual way of studying

I thought the SSC was helpful and I did and will encourage other people to take this course. I learned new ways to help me study and reminded me of things I learned in the past that were helpful.

So far I have increased my overall class grade from a 68% to a 77%

Comments- Test-taking

Having the test taking strategy more early on in the program. I really liked the test preparation and I would think it would be

helpful to move it in the beginning, because it really helped me with the test taking skills. I just tested it recently, but it would have been awesome if I could have used it in the beginning of the biology class.

Test-taking strategies should be done earlier in the process The test strategies really helped. I wish I had taken it earlier. Give test preparation at the beginning Everything was quite good but emphasizing test techniques

would be great