Reflection on Role of Study Skills in Graduate-Level Educational Research Courses

Reflection on Role of Study Skills in Graduate-Level Educational Research Courses

The Onwuegbuzie and Schwartz (2001) study, Role of Study Skills in Graduate-Level Educational Research Courses sought to find the reason many students of graduate programs in the social and behavioral sciences perceive their required research methodology courses to be extremely hard and, in turn, perform more poorly in those courses than in the other courses required for their major (Onwuegbuzie and Schwartz, 238).The team hoped that the findings from the study would identify the study skills that would have a potential negative impact on the students’ achievement in the research methods courses. The findings would help to identify changes that should be made to the curriculum that would aid in the success of the students in those courses (239).

It appears to me that Onwuegbuzie and Schwartz (2001) had two research questions. Firstly, I think they asked if there is relationship between specific study skills and achievement in a research methodology course (239). Then, they furthered their inquiry by asking what study skills place students at risk for underachievement in the research methodology courses (239).

Onwuegbuzie and Schwartz (2001) used a sample consisting of 122 graduate students, which ranged from 21-51 years of age, 93.4% of whom were women (239-40). Data was collected on the study skills of graduate students. The variables studied included: note-taking, motivation, time-management, techniques and reading skills (240). The participants were administered the Study Habits Inventory (SHI). The SHI consisted of questions that would evaluate the study behaviors the participants. The scores ranged from 0 to 63 and high scores were indicative of good study habits (240).

The analysis of the data collected by the SHI study identified five variables that “significantly predicted” course achievement (242).They found that the students with the highest achievement were more likely to “attend class regularly… to concentrate while studying, to use an advanced organizer when taking notes, to not rely on rote memorization, and to avoid consumption of alcoholic beverages” (242).

Based on the study’s conclusion, I believe that a simple treatment to the problems associated with research methodology courses would be to require that students in graduate programs in the social and behavioral sciences take a study skills class prior to their enrollment in a research methodology class. The study skills class would reinforce the behaviors that this study identified as the best indicators of achievement in the research methods course.

In addition to the study conducted by Onwuegbuzie and Schwartz (2001) I find the study Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement of Senior Biology Students, by C. C. Patterson, to be extremely interesting. Patterson’s study attempted to find out how achievement scores of a senior biology class would change if students were to self-regulate a larger portion of their learning (Patterson, 2).The results of the study indicate that, after the implementation of class-room based, self-regulated learning, to the treatment group, there was a heightened level of academic achievement (6).

I believe that these students, or subjects in Patterson’s study, who succeeded when given the opportunity to self-regulate would most likely exhibit the five indicators of course achievement identified in Onwuegbuzie and Schwartz (2001) study.

Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Slate, J. R., & Schwartz, R. A. (2001). Role of Study Skills in Graduate-

Level Educational Research Courses. Journal of Educational Research, 94(4), 238.

Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Paterson, C. C. (1996). Self-regulated learning and academic achievement of senior biology

students. Australian Science Teachers Journal, 42(2), 48. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.