Summer Afternoon on Johnston Green Winegard Panarama Reading on Johnston Green
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Introduction – Key Skills

What, then, must students know and be able to do in order to succeed in university courses?

An attempt to answer this question was made in 2003 by the Pew Foundation in the US, which did a major two-year study called "Understanding University Success." More than 400 faculty and staff at research universities participated in the study to identify what students must do to succeed in entry-level courses.

One of the key themes which emerged from the study is the importance of the "habits of mind" or the learning and thinking skills that students bring with them to university. These were considered by many faculty in the study to be more important than specific content knowledge. The habits of mind identified by the study include:

  • critical thinking
  • analytical thinking and problem solving
  • the ability to "express one's self in writing . . . in a clear and convincing fashion" and to "discern the relative importance and credibility of various sources of information"
  • the ability to cope with unclear or ambiguous learning tasks
  • the ability "to use technology as a tool to assist the learning process rather than as a crutch."

— Pew Report, page 8

The Learning Commons plays a critical role in supporting the development of the habits of mind necessary for academic excellence in learning, writing, research, and technology. We engage students through a broad range of programs and services which nurture the development of university-level learning and writing skills; assist students to expand their skills in conducting research, fine-tune their repertoire of time management strategies; hone their use of technology as an academic tool; and help new students to discover what learning at university is all about.

In fact, we've developed an online workshop to help you do just that, before you even arrive on campus. iU: An Introduction to University Learning was designed specifically for entering students, and is intended to address many of the academic issues entering students face in making the transition from high school to university learning. iU will introduce many of the learning strategies and approaches you'll need to succeed at university before you arrive on campus in the fall.

We encourage you to invest in excellence in these ways...

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