Barbara Bassot - The Study Success Journal

The Study Success Journal

Barbara Bassot

Barbara Bassot, under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2019

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First published 2019 by

RED GLOBE PRESS

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ISBN 9781352005493 paperback

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Contents

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my sincere thanks to my family and friends for all their support in the process of bringing The Study Success Journal to fruition. In particular, I would like to thank Marc Bassot for his proof reading and constructive comments. I would also like to thank my Commissioning Editor, Helen Caunce, for her belief in the project, and to the publisher for being prepared to take a risk with another new publication.

Introduction

Welcome to The Study Success Journal. You are probably reading this because you are about to start or have recently started a course at university. You might be a first-year undergraduate, a student on a Foundation year, someone who has gone straight to university from school or college, or a mature student returning to study after some time away from education. Whatever your situation, The Study Success Journal is designed to help you to reflect on your learning (including your personal and academic development), in order to help you to gain the most from your studies. Studying at university can be described as a learning journey. Most journeys have ups and downs, highs and lows, and reaching a destination often requires patience and tenacity, especially if it is a fairly lengthy journey; your learning journey at university is no exception to this. Your journey has just begun and whilst it will undoubtedly present you with some challenges along the way, the destination of your graduation ceremony will be well worth it heres to your future success!

Who this journal is for

The Study Success Journal is designed for all students who are new to higher education. It could also be useful if you are in your second year and want to review your progress to enhance it further. Starting a university course is exciting, but it also presents many challenges; in particular, it demands that you take responsibility for your own learning in order to become a more independent learner. You will need to do this quickly because it is surprising how easy it is to fall behind in your studies. This book helps you to think through key aspects of your personal and academic development. Critical reflection lies at the heart of this process and the books journal format helps you to engage with the necessary metaprocesses (thinking about thinking) to critically evaluate your learning and development. This puts you in charge of your studies, thereby enabling you to become more independent as a learner.

How to use this journal

The Study Success Journal is designed as a tool to help you reflect critically on your learning and development, thereby enabling you to take a deeper approach to it. Many university students are asked to write essays, projects and case studies as part of the assessment for particular modules, and some are also asked to write reflective pieces. This book shows you how to start writing reflectively and gives activities that help you to develop this vital skill. It also helps you to understand more about what critical reflection is so that you can assess how reflective your work is, and work to improve it where necessary. Many university students are asked to write in a critically reflective way. Whether you are asked to do this in a traditional essay format or writing a critical evaluation after carrying out an experiment or project, reflective work gains higher marks something that all students want.

The role of writing in learning writing for understanding

The overall aim of The Study Success Journal is to enable you to gain a deeper understanding of yourself and your studies through writing. I once attended a writers seminar led by a professor who said, I have to write about things in order to understand them. At the time this really opened my eyes, as I always thought that professors wrote a lot because they already understood a lot. His words turned this on its head and showed me that the process of writing enables our knowledge and understanding to grow because it forces us to slow down and to take time to reflect. Unlike many of the books you will read at university, The Study Success Journal is one that you will be asked to write in and I encourage you to do so!

What is critical reflection and why is it important?

Critical reflection is an important key to success in higher education and it is a skill. It can be defined as the process of critically evaluating experiences in order to learn from them, thereby increasing self-awareness. There are four key aspects of critical reflection that are worth looking at in some more detail.

Process it takes time to work through and develop and is not something that happens automatically or in a rush. We should expect to devote some time to it if we want to improve in this area.

Evaluation this involves examining our strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes. We need to be prepared to change if it is in our best interest, and most of us will need to work out some effective strategies to help us to achieve this.

Self-awareness this means knowing ourselves well, which includes being honest about what we can do well and identifying those things we find difficult. Knowing what we are like as individuals and how we respond in situations is key in helping us to overcome such things as bad habits and procrastination.

Skill this is something we do and that we can improve upon. Critical reflection is not something we can expect to do automatically, but it is a skill we can all learn, and we can all develop in this area.

Challenges of studying at university level

Prior to starting your university course, many of you will have received a relatively high level of support from your school or college, so the more independent nature of university study can be somewhat daunting. Even finding where you are meant to be at a given time can be a challenge in the first few weeks. Systems and procedures are new, and being part of a much larger community of learners, whilst also being exciting, can be a very different kind of experience from anything you have previously faced. Having opportunities to reflect on these changes is important for your ongoing development as you begin to adapt to the next phase of your academic life. You may find that you also need a guide to help you with some key terms that you may not have come across so far, and this book can help you to understand them.