In this role, I have had the chance to introduce flash cards as a study skill tool for learning and review. Students and teachers responded positively to the brief introduction. At the end, we handed out blank cards to everyone. Who can resist the colours and the simplicity of index cards?
From there, the Lighthouse group has decided to make study skills in general a regular feature of the Lighthouse. Study skills presentations will be made available. A study skills cove is being constructed. With all of this momentum, I have taken time to reflect on my encounters with study skills.
Over a decade ago, I was working as instructional assistant in a learning centre in a diploma challenge program I was hired to tutor adult students in math and language arts in course blocks between their classes. It became apparent that most of these students did not have practice studying and had developed few learning strategies. I approached an instructor in the program, Roger Moore, who would become a mentor, about this dilemma and he introduced me to learning strategies. He introduced me to flash cards, the very study skill I first presented in the Lighthouse. And having returned to the same college after a decade elsewhere, he and I both are in the Lighthouse discussing learning strategies.
The reception in the diploma challenge learning centre was astronomical. Students started making and exchanging flash cards, replete with colours and doodles. Teachers came to speak to Roger and I to incorporate flash cards in their courses. I remember vividly standing in the learning centre just watching flash card junkies teaching other students how to make and use them. At that moment, I knew that flash cards and the process they entail works, making students competent and confident.
I want to stress the importance of confidence. For many adult students returning to school, confidence may be hard to dig up. Many have had difficult experiences. Many did not complete or have the option to attend. For many, funding or the chance to find a better job was based on successful completion of these courses. They were studying while working and tending to families.
They were my heroes fighting what seemed daunting. A mark of 40% on an exam brought this one lady to tears. Being much younger, having successfully completed school, with all supports in place, I did not immediately understand. She explained that she was doing this coursework to support her two children, that she was hiding from an abusive husband, that she was working two jobs, and that she was studying whenever and wherever she could. It was the truth. She did not think she could continue. I coached her as best as I could to continue. I made it my mission to teach her learning strategies while teaching her subject-matter in the learning centre. I remember distinctly her holding her flash cards celebrating her passing science mark in the learning centre.
This confidence boost is what study skills do. They allow students to see that learning, despite its challenges can be done. They see other students doing it. They have a success using them. I am not suggesting that flash cards or other study skills are some magical solution, but they are often the perfect ingredient to add to this learning mix. Many of these students are motivated and capable. Consider what many of them accomplish in a day. They just need that first step. And then they start to do it on their own. Lastly, they start doing it with others.
Knowing this, as a co-lead for study skills with Roger, I have proposed flash cards, mind maps, and cornell study notes as the big three study skills tools to make available to students. They match learning theory principles. They are visual. They require speaking and listening to maximize effectiveness. They work best when shared or presented. For adult students, they are easy and affordable. Paper, cards, markers and coloured pencils are common student tools and can be provided easily by schools. Teachers can adopt them in their courses to give this study skills push propulsion. Moreover, research, examples and support for these learning strategies is widely available. Moreover, learners and teachers use them extensively all over the world. At the same time, they require chunking and promote overlearning, techniques essential for encoding, recognition and recall. These tools allow students to construct their own meaning. Their mind maps, cards and notes make the deepest sense to them. In short, they work the way learners and teachers work.
Most importantly, they are fun and engaging. They provide opportunities to be creative, to share and to collaborate.
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