Study Skills

Due to the constant human need, to discover always more, we had the opportunity
to learn, after numerous scientific studies, that humans may be the species with the
greatest capacity of learning, that at birth, man already possesses a minimum of reactions
and reflexes able to adapt to the action of stimuli. Our ability to learn is included in the
human genetic program, so that learning becomes an objective necessity, a law of human
evolution and development. However, as opposed to features or hereditary
predispositions, learning is an individual acquisition, the accumulation of information
cannot be a passive process, as it requires permanent transformation activity.

Even if our genetic predisposition guides us all, as species, towards evolution, each
human being is unique, each individual develops their own way of acquiring and adapting
all necessary skills to the environment in which he lives. Differences between individuals
are also found both in their cognitive structure and in the ways of learning and
accommodation to the external factors or the inner patterns they use in learning.
Uniqueness of each person also refers to the fact that everyone builds their own learning
strategies, pathways and particular training trajectories and objectives.
For various reasons, people continue to learn new things, which is why, study skills turn
out to be more important than previously considered. Nowadays, thanks to the Internet,
the free press, the world is completely exposed to all kinds of information. Due to the large
amount of data available, it becomes increasingly difficult for individuals to cope with the
avalanche of novelty and to filter or assimilate accordingly. Therefore, individuals develop
different study skills to help them ascertain and gain new knowledge.

Knowledge, as representations, notions, definitions, laws, theories, conceptions that

reflect objective reality, is obtained from the earliest periods of life, but as students, they
materialize on the basis of mental processes of analysis, synthesis, comparison,
abstraction, generalization, classification in an organized, systematic way, in close
connection with each other. Various studies show that there are many different definitions
of study skills, but these are generally classified into categories such as: ability to
organize, active listening, attending lectures, synthesizing, the ability to note essential
information, effective written explanations, active participation in the lesson, performing
homework, preparing for exams and participation in exams, remembering and using
information and the ability to work in groups. [ CITATION Cro65 \l 1033 ][CITATION Dod94 \l 1033 ].
According to Gersten’s guide, students with learning difficulties, due to different
reasons, for instance language barriers, may have just not been introduced to the proper
studying skills and techniques that are suitable for them, that could help them enhance
their learning abilities. The guide also states that it becomes the teacher’s responsibility to
discover and apply with these students the study skills linked to their past experience, to
their cultural background, to facilitate the consolidation of information in a comprehensible
manner. [ CITATION Rus98 \l 1033 ]

In order to better understand how people develop their study skills, how they define
their learning process and what approach they have to it, it is best to first understand how
human brain works and what are its main functions, that help drawing adaptability patterns
throughout the life cycle.
Numerous scholars and brain researchers such as [CITATION Heb02 \l 1033 ], [ CITATION
McC00 \l 1033 ]have conducted studies and issued conclusions and documentation about
students' learning styles in connection with the hemispheres of the brain, among which
there is no hierarchy report, none is superior to the other, but both right and left
hemispheres engage different techniques, when receiving and processing information. The

2
left hemisphere is the one in charge with the logical, non-emotional context, while the right
hemisphere is the one dealing with the non-logical, emotional connections.
Executive functions, that include working memory (the ability to temporarily handle
information), inhibition (impulse control), cognitive flexibility (the ability to provide several
solutions to a problem) and planning (elaborating strategies to reach a goal) are
fundamental for development, for literacy, as the basis of learning. [ CITATION Zel12 \l 1033 ].
These studies conclude that individuals learn in non-identical ways, so multidimensional
teaching patterns should be applied and that, focusing on the proper use of the executive
functions of the brains, could improve academic performance, as an indicator of the
efficiency and quality of an educational process, carried out in different styles.
Studies on the social context of learning have suggested that peer involvement in
the process can impact both academic achievements, as well as students' response in a
different situation. Early studies on cooperative learning in the classroom environment
emphasize that peer association may have positive effects on academic success, covering
different areas. Compared to individual study, group cooperation appears to be more
effective for problem solving, because collaboration stimulates students to explain their
way of thinking, to enunciate it, so that everyone understands, and involve in a shared
operation of finding common denominator [ CITATION Ber94 \l 1033 ]. However, collaboration
is only effective, when a set of conditions is met. All participants must have a common
group goal that they consider important, the success must depend on each individual and
each individual has to be equally responsible. [CITATION Sla88 \l 1033 ]
Social theorists tend to believe that the achievements of the group and the positive
results on the academic performance of the students are strongly related to the social
cohesion between the groupmates and can be reached by building cohesiveness among
members, through teambuilding alone. As opposed to social theorist, cognitive theorists
claim that cooperative learning will improve the student’s results for reasons that have to
do with their own mental processing of the information, rather than external motivation,
such as group interaction-for example, some people retain information better, by
explaining it to a peer, others might acquire more data by actively listening, this being
another way of how collaborative learning can work. As Slavin mentions, even if the
reasons behind the effects of collaborative learning are still be discovered, studied and
argued much deeper and thoroughly through practice, research and documentation, it is
undeniable that this technique has shown its success in improving academic
achievements, in any educational stage, especially at more early ages [ CITATION Sla14 \l
1033 ]

Img. 2: Components of Collaborative Learning/ Source: https://www.subpng.com/

3
 Between psychic processes and learning is an interdependence relationship,
because on one hand, learning activity stimulates and involves all brain processes and
functions, on the other hand learning contributes to the shaping and structuring of psychic
processes. Studying engages cognitive activities, to ease acquiring and retaining
information, as well as self-management activities, to sustain attention, effort, and time
dedicated to studying, therefore, the learning style each individual develops becomes the
bidimensional concept that entails both psychological and active dimensions.
N. Entwistle states that the variable of approach to learning must be reported to the to the
content and context of learning, describing an orientation towards meaning and
reproducing. [ CITATION Ent88 \l 1033 ] .
The most common classification of learning styles is the one based on the sensory style,
known as the VAK model. This technique defines learning styles of those who learn as
being visual, aural and kinaesthetic. People with a visual learning style acquire the
information that comes in a visual form and remember presentation materials better, if
there is visual support, such as pictures, charts, diagrams or video sequences; people with
an aural learning style understand better the information, with audio aid; people with a
kinaesthetic learning style remember and learn better by touching or handling different
materials or machinery related to their field, context or purpose of learning. [ CITATION
Dum11 \l 1033 ]

Connections are created in the human brain, starting from birth, when the baby first
starts associating the environment with words and, subsequently, learning how to speak.
As Tony Buzan mentions in his book, “The mind map book”, the first word uttered by most
of the children is “Mama”, her being the centre of their universe. Being the focal point of
his life at that moment, a baby automatically relates his mother with love, nourishment,
warmth, protection, so involuntarily the baby’s brain creates what may be the first mind
maps of his early life, with the mom as starting point. [CITATION Buz94 \l 1033 ].
While people have discovered over the time different other study skills that can help
the learning process, given the fact that these are essential for academic development at
any level, which is directly linked with the concept of knowledge and proper use of efficient
study skills, mind mapping has only been developed as a learning technique in the last
decades. Even though, initially, in the 1960s, Allan M. Collins and M. Ross Quillian
developed this technique as a “semantic network”, in an attempt to prove that it can help
minimize the space people need for memorizing [CITATION Col \l 1033 ], twenty years later,
Tony Buzan started developing the idea that mind mapping can be both an excellent tool
for teaching, as well as an ground-breaking learning aid, that can be used in any aspect of
one’s life to improve human performance and unveil the hidden potential of the brain. It
can help people to associate ideas, think in a more creative manner and make
connections that might not otherwise make [CITATION Buz94 \l 1033 ].
Mind mapping as a learning technique implies creating diagrams for visual
representation of different concepts or ideas, making it actually a combination of a visual
learning style and a written learning style. The diagram is focused around a main concept
that is situated in the centre, from which certain words, ideas, or phrases related to the
central word can derive.
Academic performance can be enhanced with the help of mind mapping as support
for developing writing skills, as it is used to decide on the purpose of the writing, on the
target public, to draft and generate ideas, to synthetize and evaluate the quality of the
written work, whether it might be an essay, research study or exams. [ CITATION Put12 \l
1033 ]
An example of how mind mapping works can be seen in the below image.

4
 Img.2/ Source: MindMeister: https://www.mindmeister.com/blog/why-mind-mapping/

Mind mapping is being used as a helpful tool in organization of the memory as it

helps us correlate past experiences with sensorial reflexes, such as a perfume can remind
you of someone in particular. It also acts as support for brainstorming activities. “A mind
map is considered a great way to brainstorm and generate more ideas. It helps create a
number of small ideas from one big idea, see how different ideas could be connected
together (…)” [ CITATION Sim12 \l 1033 ]
Sim and Pop also mention the fact that using visual methods of learning, especially
a foreign language, is a sign of evolution, compared to the traditional repetition techniques
of learning new words of vocabulary. Considering that the mind mapping is a strategy that
combines visual representation with traditional noting, it proves to be an attractive
technique for students of all ages, all levels and of all linguistic abilities, as it allows them
to notice the similarities, or any other type of connection between words and concepts, by
organizing their memory in its specific way of functioning on long or short term, by creating
analogies that can aid storage and retrieval of information

During the time, along with the development of societies, the evolution of science
and technology, continuous studies have emerged to uncover more about the brain, its
functions, its development in correlation with external factors during the life cycle, to
discover more about the impact that the genetic ancestry, as well as the environment
have on the developing of an individual at intellectual, psychological and social levels. All
these studies, although being conducted in different areas, with different amount and types
of data available, when talking about the way human learn and study, even if the process
is similar in terms of approach, exactly as a mind map, it all revolves around one common
concept: uniqueness.

5
References
Berg, K. F., 1994. Scripted Cooperation in High School Mathematics: Peer Interaction and Achievement..
Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (New Orleans,
LA, April 4-8, 1994)., Speeches/Meeting Papers; Reports - Research.

Buzan, T. & Buzan, B., 1994. The Mind Map Book. How to use radiant thinking, to maximize your brain's
untapped potential. New York: Dutton.

Collins, A. M. & Quillian, M. R., 1969. Retrieval Time for Semantic Memory. 8.1. Print ed. s.l.:Journal of
Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior.

Crow, A., 1965. An outline on educational psychology. s.l.:A Littlefield, Adams & Co..

Dodge, J., 1994. The study skills handbook: More than 75 strategies for better learning. New York: Scholastic
Inc..

Dumitru, A. & Dogaru, M., 2011. Inovaţie şi performanţă în dezvoltarea profesională a cadrelor didactice
din mediul urban. Bucharest: Modulul 6 “Calitate în educaţie"

Entwistle, N., 1988. Styles of Learning and Teaching. An Integrated Outline of Educational Psychology for
Students, Teachers, and Lectures,. London: David Fulton Publishers.

Gersten, R., Baker, S. K. & Marks, S. U., 1998. Teaching English-Language Learners with Learning Difficulties:
Guiding Principles and Examples from Research-Based Practice.. Reston, VA: Council for Exceptional
Children.

Hebb, D. O., 1949. The organization of behavior: A neuropsychological theory.. London: John Wiley & Sons,
Inc..

Kolb, D., 2015. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Upper Saddle
River, New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc..

McCarthy, B., 2000. About Teaching: 4MAT in the Classroom, s.l.: About Learning, Inc..

Putra, P. P., 2012. The Use of Mind Mapping Strategy in the Teaching of Writing. International Journal of
Humanities and Social Science, Bengkulu, Indonesia, Vol. 2 No. 21; November, pp. 60-68.

Sim, M.-A. & Pop, A.-M., 2012. Mind mapping and brainstorming as methods of teaching business concepts
in English as a foreign language. Academica Science Journal, Psychologica Series; Dimitrie Cantemir
University of Targu Mures.

Slavin, R. E., 1988. Cooperative learning and student achievement.. Anales de psicología, ISSN 0212-9728,
ISSN-e 1695-2294, Vol. 30, Nº. 3, 2014, pp. 785-791.

Slavin, R. E., Revised in 2014. Cooperative Learning in Elementary Schools. Johns Hopkins University -and-
University of York.

Zelazo, P. D. & Carlson, S. M., 2012. Hot and Cool Executive Function in Childhood and Adolescence:
Development and Plasticity. Child Development Perspectives, 07 June, pp. 354-360.