The Diary of a Needy Mind

How time changed our question

Our question is, “What are the most effective learning techniques that UTRGV English 1302 students should use when they are studying to be successful?” In our data, we saw how both of us had different ways to learn; even though, we have the same majors. For example, my partner, Robert, learns better by studying in small of groups. While, I learn by reviewing by myself. We were able to find a pattern between our studying habits and our grades. The goal is to help other students who are not successful on their classes because they are not using the learning technique they actually need. We would like to change that pattern in campus in order to improve students’ learning and academic achievement.

However to develop our final question, we had to go through a long process. At first, we were going to discuss how does a student’s household affects their learning, but we realized that it was going to be difficult to track the results so we change our focus to how first year college students adjust on their transition from high school. Our reasoning on focusing in how first year college students adjust from their transition from high school was that in most cases students who are taking English 1302 courses are first year college students because these courses are the basics for any major provided. so we decided to focus on how we could help students identify their learning techniques to understand the material. For the research, my partner and I decided to use our experiences as data because at times students may be not be honest or aware about how they learn.

The issue: NO UTRGV STUDENTS

In all five articles, the issue was that all five articles focused on different groups of students that have no connection to UTRGV students so UTRGV students can not relate simply because the area they we live in has a completely different culture. We want to solve this issue by focusing on UTRGV data in order for other students connect more with our findings. The way we organized our articles was in a way to show how students are not prepared to study with proper studying strategies to a point where people who developed the their strategies and have fun with them have a positive correlation with their grades.

The first article we read was, “The Investigation of Study Strategies That Maximize Learning for Underprepared Students” by Grace Cukras published in winter 2006. Grace explains how students who use wrong studying strategies tend to perform poorly and how they need to developed better strategies in order to become better self regulated learners. In Cukras’ words, “Self-regulated learners must be able to select and plan appropriate strategies, as well as a monitor and evaluate how their learning is proceeding.” (pg.195). The issue we found on this article was that it was done over 10 years ago and it focused on 19 community college students from the Bronx(NY). Unlike the idea that Grace Cukras shared, we will conduct a self evaluation with the purpose to represent UTRGV students since we are first year college UTRGV students taking 1302 courses. In order to find an answer for our question, we introduced our strategies we found out to be effective, and the way we measure the success of the strategies was by the grades we got on the assignments.

In the summer 2015 Simon Lei shared “Variation In Study Patterns Among College Students: A Review Of Literature”. In which he expressed his idea that students who do not have a study plan, tend to procrastinate. Procrastination lead students to have low rates of success and retention, along with academic standards. For students to avoid these issues, we students need to understand the importance of study skills. Using study skills is important, but the type of study skill used is the most important since Simon claimed that, “Study skills cover a variety of activities including setting realistic goals, employing appropriate note-taking and test-taking strategies, self-testing, managing time and anxiety, as well as selecting appropriate study habits and environments”(pg.197) Knowing that there is a variety of study skills can be beneficial because this helps us prove that setting a routine strategy can benefit in an academic career. This can be whether setting a pattern of meeting with a group of friends before day of an exam or studying daily for a short amount of time. Even though the Simon shared his ideas recently, the problem with this idea was that he focused only on ITT Technical Institute in Missouri students who performed academically well.

“Learning Strategies and Learning Environments” by Virginia Locastro published in the summer of 1994. In one of our resources the idea that “Values and beliefs of a learning context influence every aspect of educational practice, including the aims of the learners, the methods, and consequently the strategies used to achieve what that setting perceives to be a high level of competence in an L2(second language learner).”(pg.413) In our area, the way students learn differs from how other students learn on northern states because of the valley’s location. The valley is located near the border of Mexico and the United States so both cultures are being mixed. In other words, The culture that is in the valley is a new breed where at times Spanish is the primary language for some students. By students spanish is their primary language, students tend to learn different because they need to learn a new language and connect what they are learning to their primary language so they can learn what is being taught in class.

Courtney West and Mark Sadoski authors of “Do study strategies predict performance in medical school?” examined 106 medical students from Texas A&M in order to find out if study strategies such as time management and self-testing have a correlation with academic achievement. “Improving Time management skills should yield academic performance[...]”(pg.701) and for self-testing “[...] it appears that testing in some type of formative manner increases the acquisition and retention of knowledge.”(pg.701) However, our thoughts on West and Sadoski’s ideas is that other strategies help improve learning academically and not just only in the medical field but across all fields of learning. We have two strategies where one is based on teamwork while the other is based on individual work.

In a partnership Nancy Neef, Christopher Perrin, Alayna Haberlin, and Lilian Rodrigues helped us understand how to increase the positive results when using learning strategies on “STUDYING AS FUN AND GAMES: EFFECTS ON COLLEGE STUDENTS’ QUIZ PERFORMANCE.” They used 11 participants from Ohio State University to find out the effects of game activities would on the grades of the participants. I liked this design because it showed us that making strategies interesting will have end up with positive results, and in our investigation we are trying to find out ways to improve those results that affect learning and grades. By changing the original pattern of studying, we are able to obtain the attention of the students and help them understand what they are learning. In other words, a game can help students make the connection between lecture and real life because they are are starting to make the realization on how what they are learning in class is used on their careers.

Each of the authors’ claims helped us understand that the effects that learning techniques have on students depend on which technique they are using, on what course he is using it, and in what manner they are using it. However, their claims did not helped us understand how these learning techniques affect students who take courses at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley because the location on which students are located at affects their learning. In other words, The Rio Grande Valley has a different culture than any other states especially if is a northern state. Due to the Valley is located near the border, as we mentioned earlier, the majority of the students are hispanics where most of them their first language was spanish so they need to learn a whole new language in order to understand what is being talked about and then they have to connect what is being taught into the real life. In order to show that process, we decided to do a self-evaluation since we both have been raised in the valley.

Welcome to our life

These images are examples of our data. We first wrote about the strategies we found to be most successful for us, then analyze them to obtain our primary data.

Last semester Robert was taking calculus 2, and being a freshman he knew he would need all the help he could get. Robert decided to organize a “Group study” strategy to prepare for the exams he would have through the semester. Robert invited 3 people to the group in order to keep the group small and easy to work with. The group would prepare themselves before meeting as a group by doing the problems they were able to do from a study guide the professor provided before the exams. Later they would group the day before the exam and work from the beginning of the study guide and would stop wherever somebody had a problem. This strategy is time consuming but it helps retain most of the information needed for the test. This strategy was successful for everybody in the study group because all of group members got an “A” at the end of the semester. I remember when one of the group members thanked me for inviting her to the group study because she said “ I would not been able to pass that test without us working together yesterday and you guys clarifying the questions I had”.

I, Perla, was able to notice my experiences differ from my partner’s. I spent most of my time studying individually and weeks before the exam was given. Even though in some assignments I did not receive an A, I felt my technique was successful because I felt that I was not memorizing information, but learning it because I was able to connect the lecture to real life. I realized that my partner and I took the same class with the same professor, but at different times. We both handle it differently since he got A’s on all of his exams, while I received B’s because we both approached this class differently. I wanted to feel I had total control over my grade rather than have people affect. In my mind, I felt that if I worked in a group study, then I had a risk of getting incorrect information. At the end, by getting wrong information I was going to blame another student rather than myself, and by working alone I had no one to blame if I did something incorrectly.

This image is proof of the academic performance I obtain while using the “Group study” strategy for each of the exams in Calculus 2

Overall, my partner scored above and A when he studied in groups; however, I perform better when I was able to put the concepts into practice. For example, I received an A on a civil laboratory report because I was able to put in practice what I learned on the lecture. To my surprise, we had different techniques on how we prepared for an exam; even though, we are both taking similar classes because we are both civil engineering majors. We came to a deduction that students should implement more often study groups if that is the way they can connect what they learned on lecture to the outside world. This is an effective learning technique UTRGV students should implement more to increase learning and academic achievement. In our situation, working on groups help us understand the lecture because engineers never work alone; in the contrary, we rely on our teammates. However, in order for a study group to work we highly recommend keeping it small and simple that way all of the participants can meet together and study with minimal complications. The study groups can be implemented for multiple academic areas, whether if it's for a Calculus exam, or Chemistry laboratory, preparing yourself always has its positive results such as increase in academic performance and retaining information from lecture. However, do not try to learn a whole semester worth of information on an overnight study session. Try to spread the sessions where you are practicing one topic at the time or areas that you did not fully understand.

Overall, we wanted students to understand if they used a certain technique and it doesn’t work then change it until they start getting the results they want to see on their performance. In other words, understanding if a person learns visually or practically is not enough, but they have to have look further into the strategies they are going to use. For example, how much time they are going to use and how is going to be spent. In our experience, a UTRGV student should use strategies we have use that have been proven to be successful. The students can try both strategies Robert and Perla tried to figure out what works best for them. Starting off with something new will be hard, especially since they are not comfortable with the change, but at the end it will be worth. Students will see improvement in academic performance and learning.

Citations:

• Cukras, Grace-Ann Gorga. “The Investigation of Study Strategies That Maximize Learning for Underprepared Students”. College Teaching 54.1 (2006): 194–197. Web…

• LEI, SIMON A. "Variation In Study Patterns Among College Students: A Review Of Literature." College Student Journal 49.2 (2015): 195-198. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Mar. 2016.

• Locastro, Virginia. “Learning Strategies and Learning Environments”. TESOL Quarterly 28.2 (1994): 409–414. Web…

• West, Courtney, and Mark Sadoski. "Do Study Strategies Predict Academic Performance In Medical School?." Medical Education 45.7 (2011): 696-703. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.

• Neef, Nancy A., et al. "Studying As Fun And Games: Effects On College Students' Quiz Performance." Journal Of Applied Behavior Analysis 44.4 (2011): 897-901. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Mar. 2016