How Parents Can Support Study Skills
Jonathan Firth's Memory & Metacognition Updates #54
I frequently speak to school teachers who are interested in supporting their students to study more effectively. One recently asked me how parental support can be part of this process.
I often say that it is ineffective for parents (or carers, grandparents, or anyone else in a student’s life) to say, “Study hard”. It’s not just about wanting to do it. Students already know that studying is important. They need to learn how to do it.
Parents may also succumb to some of the myths and misconceptions about learning that I spoke about last time. We know that across the general population, regardless of education level, most people think that memory works like a video camera, and that new memories never change, even though these are flawed ways to view learning.
In my opinion, schools are well-placed to guide and advise parents and carers on study skills.
So, what should we tell them?
Here are my top tips for discussing these issues with parents:
Emphasise that learning is a skill. It takes time to develop, and is not just a matter of effort. Likewise, emphasise that effective study can make a genuine difference to academic success.
Use metaphors for learning to learn, for example, by comparing it to learning to drive a car. This will help to make it clear that the skills take time, practice and feedback, but that nearly anyone can master them with the right help.
Promote one effective study habit per year, or at most, one per term. Great places to start would be the spacing effect and retrieval practice.
Don’t sweat the small stuff. We need to get students to study effectively, and not worry overly about a few flawed habits that persist. If kids really want to use multi-coloured highlighters, it’s not a problem.
Tackle myths head-on. Parents have probably heard about learning styles and so forth, and it’s worth highlighting that these ideas are a distraction, and not based on evidence.
Linked to the above, advise parents that intuitions about how much we know are unreliable. Students should check their knowledge after a delay. When speaking to their young people, a better question than “How confident are you about topic X?” would be, “Tell me what you know about topic X.”
I hope that helps. And if you’d like further detail on what this might look like practice, you’re in luck. Next week, I will elaborate on how these principles can be implemented as a school-wide approach.
All the best,
Jonathan
Last week: Metacognitive Illusions
Website: www.jonathanfirth.co.uk
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