A Change of Scenery Might be Just the Study Skill Your Student Needs to Excel:
There was an interesting article in The New York Times recently about study skills and misconceptions on what kind of study habits works best. Bottom line is, what we all thought we knew about what works best, really doesn’t.
Didn’t we all think that finding that nice, quiet spot to study, with no distractions, day after day, was the best way to effectively study? Well, research has shown just the opposite. In one experiment, college students who studied a list of 40 vocabulary words in two different rooms, one windowless and messy and the other, modern with a view of the outside courtyard, did far better on tests than students who studied the words twice in the same room. Later studies on this same topic mimicked the same results.
It seems that when the outside context is varied, the information is enriched and it slows down the brain from forgetting the information.
So, the bottom line is, change it up for your student. A different room or location is a good thing when it comes to study skills.
Tell us what you think of the article. There are a number of misconceptions about study skills that are debunked!