The Study Strategies of Successful and Unsuccessful High School Students

Abstract

I examined the study strategies of successful and unsuccessful learners to determine if successful learners would differ in the quality of their information processing from unsuccessful learners. It was expected that good learners would use studying techniques requiring greater cognitive effort, such as notetaking, summarizing, and outlining. Three high school students in Grade 11 were studied as successful students; three unsuccessful students were studied as well. Each of the six participants was interviewed individually for a single, 1-hour session. During the session, students read and studied an article. A videotaped interview with the researcher followed reading and studying. The successful students were more active, purposeful, and flexible in their strategy use. Although the unsuccessful students were generally less efficient in their use of learning strategies, they were satisfied with their academic performance. That is, the unsuccessful students perceived themselves as successful learners, lacking self-knowledge of their inefficient strategy use.Since a great deal of an adolescent's school life is devoted to studying texts, I am concerned as an educator about how students use strategies as they read and study. There has been a long history of interest in how students study and the strategies they use, such as notetaking, underlining, outlining, summarizing, question-generating, and so on. (Anderson & Armbruster, 1984;Baker & Brown, 1984;Brown & Day, 1983;Devine, 1987;Loranger, 1988;Pressley, Goodchild, Fleet, Zajchowski, & Evans, 1989). Study strategies, specific processes which students may use alone or in combination to learn content of the curriculum (Graham & Robinson, 1987), have been identified by groups such as the College Board as key 347 348Journal of Reading Behavior in learning how to learn (Marshak, 1979). A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform (1983), also identified study strategies as essential throughout a student's school career, beginning in the early grades and continuing through high school.Although in the past learners were seen as passive participants in the act of learning (Durkin, 1978(Durkin, -1979Norman, 1980), effective learners are now seen as active information processors and synthesizers who use strategies to fit their needs and goals (Weinstein, Butterfield, Schmidt, & Poythress, 1982). Consistent with this current emphasis on process, the "how to" of learning, good teaching should include not only teaching students how to learn, but also teaching them how to remember, how to think, and how to motivate themselves (Weinstein & Mayer, 1985). Studying as an Interactive ProcessStudying is defined as a special form of reading. The way that studying differs from "ordinary reading" is that studying requires attentive, thoughtful examination of a subject or a problem. The learner is expected to perform a cognitive or procedural task in order to gain knowledge or skill. If a learner is to be successful at a task, he/she must be aware of the demands o...

Estratégias de aprendizagem e desempenho acadêmico: evidências de validade

“…As evidências obtidas na presente pesquisa corroboram os dados obtidos por Loranger (1994), Moura (1992), OnatsuArvilommi e cols., (2002) e Purdie e Hattie (1996), uma vez que apontam que o bom desempenho acadêmico dos estudantes se relaciona com o uso de estratégias de aprendizagem no momento de estudo. Lamenta-se, contudo, que apesar de se verificar que o uso de estratégias de aprendizagem favorece o bom desempenho acadêmico, há uma carência de estudos de âmbito nacional que visem a construir e validar escalas de estratégias de aprendizagem.…”

“…Alguns estudos foram realizados com a finalidade de se investigar as possíveis relações entre o uso das estratégias de aprendizagem e o bom desempenho acadêmico dos estudantes (Loranger, 1994;Moura, 1992;Onatsu-Arvilommi, Nurmi & Aunola, 2002;Purdie & Harttie, 1996). Esses estudos eram do tipo descritivo com delineamento de levantamento e correlacional, e todos evidenciaram que os estudantes que faziam uso de um repertório diversificado de estratégias de aprendizagem eram aqueles que também apresentavam um bom desempenho acadêmico.…”

Habilidades sociais, estratégias de aprendizagem e desempenho acadêmico de alunos participantes e não participante do PIBID

“…Uma avaliação diagnóstica do uso de estratégias de aprendizagem poderia viabilizar programas interventivos que focariam o seu emprego e a sua utilização diversificada [1,2,11].…”

Stratégies d’apprentissage par la lecture rapportées par des élèves en difficulté d’apprentissage de première secondaire en classe de cheminement particulier de formation

“…Les résultats obtenus sur les stratégies d'autorégulation vont dans le même sens que ceux obtenus dans le cadre d'autres recherches. Ils ont montré que les élèves en diffi culté d'apprentissage, en milieu populaire ou dans des écoles de raccrocheurs, rapportent utiliser un nombre restreint de stratégies d'autorégulation dans différentes situations, lesquelles ne sont pas suffi santes pour apprendre de façon effi cace (Cartier, 2003 ;Cartier et Théorêt, 2001 ;Cartier et Langevin, 2005 ;Loranger, 1994 ;Pintrich et Garcia, 1994 ;Zimmerman, 2000 ;Zimmerman et Martinez Pons, 1986).…”