Your College Experience: Study Skills Edition : Strategies for Success

by Gardner, John N.; Barefoot, Betsy O.

• ISBN13: 9781457625749
• ISBN10: 1457625741
• Edition: 10th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-12-14
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

Designed specifically for first-year study skills courses, Your College Experience, Study Skills Edition, teaches students the essentials of academic success through ample in-text exercises. The newest edition to the best-selling first-year franchise by John N. Gardner and Betsy O. Barefoot, this text is designed to help students both engage in the course material and to apply the skills learned to their other academic courses. This text will help students with managing time preparing for class, developing critical textbook reading strategies, improving note taking, and preparing for and taking tests. Look to this affordable text to guide students through the first year and beyond. A full package of instructional support materials including an Instructor's Annotated Edition, an Instructor's Manual, PowerPoint slides, videos, and a Test Bank provides new and experienced instructors all the tools they will need to engage students in this course and increase student retention.

Author Biography

John N. Gardner brings unparalleled experience to students as an author. The recipient of his institution's highest award for teaching excellence, John has over forty years of experience directing and teaching in the most widely emulated first-year seminar in the country, the University 101 course at the University of South Carolina (USC), Columbia. John is universally recognized as one of the country's leading educators for his role in initiating and orchestrating an international reform movement to improve the beginning college experience, a concept he coined as "the first-year experience." He is the founding executive director of the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at USC, as well as the Policy Center on the First Year of College and the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education (www.jngi.org), both based in Brevard, N.C.

 

Betsy O. Barefoot is a writer, researcher, and teacher whose special area of scholarship is the first-year seminar. During her tenure at USC from 1988 to 1999, she served as codirector for research and publications at the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. She also taught University 101 and graduate courses on the first-year experience and the principles of college teaching. She conducts first-year seminar faculty training workshops around the world and is frequently called on to evaluate first-year seminar outcomes. Betsy is codirector and senior scholar in the Policy Center on the First Year of College and Vice President of the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education both in Brevard, N.C. In her Policy Center role she led a major national research project to identify institutions of excellence in the first college year. She currently works with both two- and four-year campuses in evaluating all components of the first year.

 

Table of Contents

1. Exploring Your Purpose for Attending College
The College Experience
Setting Goals for Your College Experience and Beyond
Tech Tip: Plug In
Aligning Your Sense of Purpose and Your Career
Outcomes of College
Making the Transition
What Is Your Purpose in College?
Apply It!
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

2. Managing Your Time
Taking Control of Your Time
Getting Organized
Making Sure Your Schedule Works for You
Tech Tip: Get Organized
Respecting Others' Time
Apply It!
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

 

3. Understanding Emotional Intelligence
What Is Emotional Intelligence?
Assessing Your Emotional Intelligence
Identifying Competencies
Tech Tip: Stay Connected
How Emotions Affect Success
How to Improve Your Emotional Intelligence
Apply It!
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

4. Discovering How You Learn
The VARK Learning Styles Inventory
The Kolb Inventory of Learning Styles
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Multiple Intelligences
When Learning Styles and Teaching Styles Conflict
Tech Tip: Branch Out
Learning with a Disability
Apply It!
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

5. Thinking Critically: The Basis of a College Education
What Is Critical Thinking, and Why Is It Important?
Becoming a Critical Thinker
How Collaboration Fosters Critical Thinking
Thinking Critically about Arguments
Tech Tip: Research Wisely
Critical Thinking in College and Everyday Life
Apply It!
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

6. Being Engaged in Learning: Listening, Taking Notes, and Participating in Class
Using Your Senses in the Learning Process
Preparing for Class
Participating in Class
Taking Effective Notes
Tech Tip: Take Notes like a Rock Star
Reviewing Your Notes
Becoming Engaged in Learning
Apply It!
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

 

7. Reading to Learn from College Textbooks
A Plan for Active Reading  
Strategies for Reading Textbooks
Tech Tip: Embrace the E-Book
Monitoring Your Reading 
Improving Your Reading
Apply It!
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

8: Learning to Study, Comprehend, and Remember
Studying to Understand and Remember
Tech Tip: Don't Be a Virtual Wallflower
How Memory Works
Improving Your Memory
Apply It!
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

9. Improving Your Performance on Exams and Tests
Getting Prepared for Tests and Exams
Taking Tests and Exams
Types of Tests
Tech Tip: Fear Not the Online Test
Overcoming Test Anxiety
Academic Honesty and Misconduct
Apply It!
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

10. Writing and Speaking Effectively
WRITING
Using Freewriting to Discover What You Want to Say
Tech Tip: Blog for Brilliance
The Writing Process
Box: Avoiding Plagiarism
Choosing the Best Way to Communicate with Your Audience
SPEAKING
Preparing a Speech
Using Your Voice and Body Language
The GUIDE Checklist
Speaking on the Spot
Apply It!
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

11. Developing Library, Research, and Information Literacy Skills
Information Literacy
Choosing, Narrowing, and Researching a Topic
Using the Library
Electronic Resources
Tech Tip: Check Your Engine
Evaluating Sources
Making Use of What You Find
Apply It!
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

 

Epilogue: Taking the Next Steps to Success