Helping students to understand their own study methods

Improving students' studying often consists of giving advice or training in new techniques. This directive approach tends to embody conceptions of learning which are far removed from what students are willing or able to take on, and can misorient students towards inappropriate goals and interfere with natural abilities to learn. It is often claimed that this kind of approach is rooted in the psychology of learning, though its experimental basis renders its relevance to academic study doubtful. By contrast, a student-centred approach allows the nature of study tasks to be explored from the students' existing standpoints — emphasising the purposes of study tasks rather than their mechanics, and utilising people's capacity to develop their own learning strategies. Such an approach is illustrated with a practical application.