IntroductionProcessResourcesEvaluation1 A Draft of a WebQuest Study Skill Improvement Introduction Congratulations!! You have just been hired as the new Dean of Students. The community is very excited about your appointment and everyone has full confidence in your ability to improve students’ study skills, build student self-esteem, thereby increasing student retention rates. Although we know you are new to southwest Alabama, the President’s Council would like for you to organize an action plan for student success for the mentioned areas. Task Since you are new to the area and the school, you will need assistance to create your action plan for student success. To create to the best possible plan of action you will want participation from a variety of sectors. Consider the following as a minimum: Coordinator of Student Support Services, Dean of Curriculum and Design, Director of Developmental Studies, President of Student Government, Registrar, and an instructor from the Humanities, one from Math/Science, and one from a technical program. Your task is to investigate what services are being provided throughout the institution to help develop better study skills. In your search, you will want to explore other institutions and or programs to determine which techniques work the best. You will then want to develop a plan of action for our institution. Your final analysis will offer the following to the President’s Council for its consideration. A. What are some of the causes of poor study skills? B. What techniques can faculty and staff implement that will help students develop better study skills? C. What techniques can students implement that will improve study skills? D. What process would the institution use to make these types of changes? E. Explore the financial burden of developing such programs and services. Process Each member of the committee will be responsible for providing information from his or her realm of expertise and for collecting additional resources that will measure local ideas and suggestions with state, regional, and national trends. Listed below is a useful guide to completing this task. A. Collect and discuss as a group your own responses and opinions to the above questions based on you area of expertise. People who are in the field usually have an excellent instinct for identifying problems and creating possible solutions.2 B. Call your counterpart at another institution to find out if their students are plagued with the same problems and if so, what is being done. C. Conduct a survey among faculty to determine if there is any type pattern to this weakness. For example, do you find that this tends to be more of a problem in the field of mathematics, English, etc.? Also in this survey explore what instructors are already doing to assist students in this area. D. Research educational strategies to improving study skills. E. List all recommendations that have been discussed and agreed upon as necessary by the committee. F. Prepare a timeline with specific recommendations for implementation. G. Make your recommendations in the form of a presentation to the President’s Council and be prepared to answer any questions from the group. For example, the Council may need to see a demonstration of a specific technique. Resources You and the committee are encouraged to use as many resources as possible to prepare your report and presentation; however, the following are worth a visit. 1. Reduce Math Anxiety- this site provides recommendations for math teachers, suggestions for taking notes in math class, how to reduce test anxiety, http://www.mathpower.com/reduce.htm 2. Dealing with Test Anxiety- this site provides suggestions for avoiding and or relieving general test anxiety. http://www.iss.stthomas.edu/studyguides/tstprp8.htm 3. Learning to Learn: The Multiple Intelligence Inventory – This learning styles inventory is taken from the ideas of Howard Gardner. Students can take this assessment, determine their preferred learning style, and students and teachers alike can use that information to present educational information in a manner more conducive for student retention. http://www.snow.utoronto.ca/Learn2/mod3/miniinventory.html 4. Critical Thinking- If you are interested in thinking more critically about material cover then explore this site for strategies. This site includes questions students should ask themselves while reading and they will find characteristics of critical thinkers. http://www.iss.stthomas.edu/studyguides/crtthn.htm 5. Taking Notes in Lectures http://www.iss.stthomas.edu/studyguides/Lcturnote.htm 6. Organizing and Presenting Classroom Projects http://www.iss.stthomas.edu/studyguides/orgstr3.htm3 7. Taking Notes From a Textbook http://www.iss.stthomas.edu/studyguides/booknote.htm 8. Reading Comprehension- Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review http://www.stthomas.edu/studyguides/texred2.htm 9. Strategies and Techniques for Improving Reading and Writing in the Social Studies Content Aic.cc.geneseco.edu/%7emuc97/readingstrategies.htm&pskip=60%nskip=70%se=0,7,0,80%index=56 10. Study Tips From a Teen Who’s Been There http://www.aboutteensnow.com/homework_help/study_tips/from_teen.html 11. Math Forum: K-12 Math Problems, Puzzles, Tips &Tricks http://www.forum.swarthmore.edu/k12/mathtips 12. Presentations: Strategies for Writing Papers and Giving Speeches http://www.glencoe.com/ps/peak/studyskills/presentations/writing.html 13.Memory Skills http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/remember.html 13. Critical Thinking and Decision Making as a Team http://content.monster.com/tools/quizzes/teamplayer 14. Critical Thinking Strategies Teachers can use in Class http://www.criticalthinking.org/University/univclass/trc.nclk 15. Timelines: Timeless Teaching Tool http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson044.shtml Evaluation The team will be assigned one grade and it will be based on the following criteria for a total of 100 points. Quality of written survey 10 points Research of educational strategies 30 points Finding from phone interviews 5 points (List questions and responses) Soundness of Recommendations and Plausible Timelines 20 points Quality of presentation and ability4 to correctly answer questions 30 points Quality participation of all members 5 points Conclusion At the conclusion of this project, you should have a better
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