Are you

READY

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rastro/2622126183/

to be an independent learner?

Starting university can be both

In whatever discipline you are studying, you need to make considerable adjustments in coping with the new environment. How you learn in secondary school may no longer be applicable at tertiary level in university.

and

Students whom are successful academically could learn independently:

They can apply specific strategies as they learn, monitor how well these strategies are working, and then modify their strategies according to their success.

They self-regulate motivation, emotions, behavior, time management, cognition, and context to optimize their learning.

They share a feeling of competence in learning and are relative independence from teachers.

on self-regulating your university learning

Below are some self-management skills that help promoting your academic achievement:

1. Establish and AttainPersonal Goals:

With specific goals, you are motivated to achievement, attentive to lectures in class and are willing to exerting greater effort to preview and review.

2. Proper use of Verbal Encouragement:

Verbal reinforcement can be used to compliment your desired behavior. You simply tell yourself things like:

According to reference, students who control their motivation by rewarding themselves outperform those who don’t use them.

“Yes! I did it!”“I’m doing great in contributing the group project!”

3. Having good Time Management:

Educators have found a relation between time management and academic achievement. Students with better time-management skills tend to have a higher grade-point average as they can spend time on thorough planning to consider the importance of different academic tasks and how they can best be completed.

4. Having favorable Study Environment & Seek for Resources:High achievers are reported greater use of environmental factors for study and were more likely to seek help. Be able to determine when to work alone and with others; or when it is the time to seek help from instructors, peers or electronic resources reflect one’s ability to good self management.

5. Practise Active Learning Approach:

all these strategies help you activate your prior knowledge, identify the key information, check your understanding of it, and form connections within the materials that definitely help in your independent learning.

Previewing, highlighting, predicting

questions, thinking critically about the materials, writing

summaries, developing concept maps, making word and

question cards, developing study sheets

To conclude…

Reference: • Dembo & Seli (2008). Motivation and

Learning Strategies for College Success. New York: Colgems-EMI Music Inc.

• Marshall & Rowland (1993). A Guide to Learning Independently. Melbourne: Longman Cheshire Pty Ltd.

• Raahiem, Wankowski & Radford (1991). Helping Students to Learn: Teaching, Counselling, Research. Bristol: Open University Press.