Beginning

1 Starting off

2 What do I do in the lecture?

3 Mottoes

4 Concentrating

5 Understanding and remembering

6 Keeping organized

7 Self-help groups

1 Starting off

Students starting a new course are full of anxieties: they are unsure what is expected of them; they are uncertain about how to behave in this strange new environment and they are afraid they won't be able to cope.

Tutors can be helpful by encouraging students to express these anxieties and allowing time for questions and answers about the course.

The varied experience of students arriving to start their new course is such that what may be commonplace to some will be dramatically new to others. A simple way of identifying where the individual difficulties lie is to use a checklist. An example of a checklist follows; you may, however, wish to devise a new one to fit your own situation.

When they have done the exercise, your students may find it useful to keep the checklist for future reference. They could complete it again after a few months to have a visible confirmation of the progress they will certainly have made.

How to run the exercise

a Hand round copies of 'Exercise: Starting off' and 'Checklist: Starting off'.

b Keep an eye on the time. Tell the students when to begin and when it is time to move on to each new stage.

c When they reach stage 4, you will need to chair the question and answer session. Ask each group in turn what their questions are and either answer them yourself or invite other students to suggest answers.

Exercise STARTING OFF

a Spend a few minutes on your own completing the checklist, 'Starting off'.

b Show your completed checklist to your neighbour and spend a couple of minutes each talking about it.

c Join up with another pair to make a group of four. Go through the list, allocating about three minutes to each item. Anyone in the four who has ticked an item can say why. Anyone who hasn't ticked the item can offer help to those who have. In the last five minutes, note down any questions you would like to ask the tutor or any other member of the class.

d This will be a question and answer session arising from the 'fours' activity above.

e In your own time, after the session, make a note of any matters which are particular to you and which you still need to clear up with your tutor.

Checklist STARTING OFF

This is a list of things which often worry students when they start a new course.

Read the list of statements and tick those which you feel may apply to you. If you wish to add a comment about any item please do so. If you feel any aspects have been omitted, please add them at the end.

1 I'm not sure how much work I'll have to do on this course. []

2 I'm afraid I'll get behind in my work. []

3 I'm worried that I won't know what to write down in lectures. []

4 I'm dreading the prospect of writing essays again. []

5 I think that I probably won't be a very good student. []

6 I don't know how much I'll be expected to read for each subject. []

7 I'm not really sure what a seminar is. []

8 I hope no-one asks me to speak out in class. []

9 I don't want other people to think I'm stupid. []

10 I'm not sure what to do if I get into difficulty on the course. []

11 ______________________________________________ []

12 ______________________________________________ []

2 What do I do in the lecture?

For students starting a new course in further or higher education lecturing is an unfamiliar teaching method. When these students were at school they may have been subjected to dictated notes or uninterrupted talk from their teachers but they have probably never before been in the situation of being expected to listen to the teacher talking for up to an hour, make their own selection of the essential points and note them down coherently without any system for checking that they are doing it right. As well as developing these new skills they will need to adapt them according to the variation in their lecturer or tutors' lecturing styles. Students with unconventional entry qualifications may have particular problems. This exercise gives students the opportunity to admit to their difficulties in adjusting to the lecture method and to discuss solutions in a supportive group.

How to run the exercise

a Hand out copies of 'Checklist: What do I do in the lecture?'

b Give students four or five minutes to work on the statements printed on the sheet and, if they want to, to add their own statements in the spaces provided.

c Students then spend about ten minutes discussing their comments, either in pairs or in fours, sharing their knowledge and experience. This models good behaviour for any future collaborative activities they may enter into.

d At the end of the group discussion, move quickly through the statements, commenting from your own perspective on any outstanding issues. This can take as long as is needed to provide the information and to allay any remaining apprehensions.

e Recommend that students keep their copies of the checklist so that they can look back at them in a few months' time and see how much progress they have made.

Checklist WHAT DO I DO IN THE LECTURE?

Read the list of statements below and tick those which you feel may apply to you. If you wish to add a comment about any item please do so. If you feel any aspects have been omitted, please add them at the end.

1 I'm not sure what I have to do in the lecture. []

2 I'll probably try to write down everything the lecturer says. []

3 I'm not sure that I'll know what's important. []

4 I don't know how to make sure if I've fully understood what the lecturer has said. []

5 I'm not sure if it's better to get down as much as I can or just make short notes. []

6 I don't know what a set of lecture notes looks like. []

7 I'm expecting the lecturers to be pretty much the same in the way they go about their lecturing. []

8 I might join a note-taking 'co-operative' with other students. []

9 ______________________________________________ []

10 ______________________________________________ []

3 Mottoes

If you ask students to identify the problems which they are meeting or expect to meet on their course, you will find that only some of these difficulties can be solved by the acquisition of study skills: other problems, such as lack of confidence, divided attention or family hostility, require different treatment. This 'mottoes' exercise is based on the two assumptions that students have different problems from each other and that the best person to find the solution is the one who has the problem. This...