22 Nov Strategic Steps in Academics

Merriam-Webster defines strategy as a “careful plan and method to achieve a specific goal.” But why do we need a strategy? In fact to create strategies, one ought to invest time in planning, take other factors into consideration like commitments, obstacles, priorities and break down the plan into smaller steps. But you might ask, “Why not just go with the flow? Why do I need a strategy for academic success in the first place?” You may answer promptly, “Well, to achieve the goal!”

Once you are clear with why you want to achieve this goal that you are working towards, you will become serious to achieve the goal for a deeper purpose.

Having a strategy provides one with a sense of direction and coupled with actionable steps, it enables one to have right priorities.  One will then allocate resources accordingly. Most importantly, it leaves no room for ambiguity and gives the person a sense of clarity and the drive and guidance to accomplish the goal. (Chirgwin, 2016)

Now for the “how” i.e. various strategies in academics for fruitful learning. One of them is incorporating study techniques like active learning, summarization, spaced repetition, mind mapping, mnemonics, flashcards, pomodoro technique and so on.

Active learning is primarily defined as instructional activities assigned by the teacher who acts as a guide, engaging students in doing interactive tasks rather than passively listening to the expert and taking down notes. This culminates in not just learning per se but rather a nuanced understanding of the subject or topic of study. It involves participation through group discussions, reviewing research studies in class, group projects to conduct workshops, presentation, self-reflection and moreover thinking critically about those tasks (Bonwell & Eison, 1991).

Summarization is another technique that helps students identify essential ideas that are relevant, focus on key words and phrases and consolidate key details. (Classroom strategies).

Spaced repetition is a scientifically proven method that involves reviewing information at closer intervals, boosting your memory, and making it less likely that you will forget everything. Studies show it can significantly improve learning and reduce the time spent studying. The 2357 method, precisely talks about doing the revision not on a daily basis but with few days of break in between which is technically known as spaced repetition. (Birmingham City University).

Pomodoro technique is quite popular as it gives the student the liberty to choose the number of hours one wants to study and later that duration is broken down into each session for example 25 minutes session coupled with five minutes break. It helps one to stay focused without getting distracted as it gives breaks in completion of a 25 minutes session which acts as a reward for staying consistent in each session which motivates oneself.

The other component in achieving academic success is to put the available resources to use such as libraries, online tools, tutoring, workshops, seminars, professors, online websites like coursera, udemy, and experts on the campus, etc.

Visiting libraries as a student ought to be part of the academic journey as it is very helpful in building new knowledge and it is cost-effective too. For assignments, libraries are a great place to finish them on time and layer them with secondary critical material apart from the primary material as reference. It helps in staying away from the screen and focus meaningfully on the work if one seriously struggles with screen time.

Online spaces too facilitate an enhanced academic learning through online tools such as Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science which are three popular academic research databases that have wide access to scholarly articles, journals, theses, books, conference papers and full texts that support as good secondary material after the primary materials like the text books and original theories. It is important that students source their knowledge from research papers as it is supported by credible, evidence-based, experts in the field, making sure the knowledge is accurate and reliable, unlike information from less scholarly sources. When we use AI tools as ChatGpt to get the work done swiftly without much work but just with one click of the finger to derive the knowledge, we acquire half- baked knowledge that lacks depth and the nuances.

Building a college network starts from being active on the campus by being a part of societies, clubs, events, planning, event management teams, workshops, academic seminars and later you may want to go and attend college events, seminars at different campuses for a diverse perspective and broad network.  It requires the student to invest time in interacting with experts like the faculty members, field experts who come to college, supervisors from the internships, alumni, fellow classmates and even find people relevant to one’s field from linkedln. It provides with growth opportunities, learning new skills, acquiring knowledge from them and most importantly   staying updated about the job market — requirements, reality check and the present scenario therefore helping to prepare oneself accordingly. (Indeed, 2024)

Possessing knowledge itself is not enough if one does not know the art of sharing it. There are two types of skills associated with effectively sharing knowledge. Core skills encompass critical thinking skills, communication skills and technical skills. “Critical thinking is the practice of solving problems, among other qualities … a term used by educators to describe forms of learning, thought, and analysis that go beyond the memorization and recalling of information and facts. Critical thinking occurs when students are analysing, evaluating, interpreting, or synthesising information and applying creative thought to form an argument, solve a problem, or reach a conclusion”. Master (2022)

Communication is the art of articulating the given piece of information or rather the critical opinion, effectively, coherently and with clarity, refined language and terminologies relevant to the subject and moreover being able to convince the listeners or readers. (Master, 2022)

Technical skills are relevant to each field of study and that must be acquired like the style of writing — MLA, APA, Chicago, building a resume, CV, statistical tools like JAMOVI, NVIVO, SPSS, software skills like MSWORD, MSEXCEL, PPT, coding languages like JAVA, PYTHON and so on.

Soft skills include emotional intelligence, adaptability and teamwork.  The Cambridge dictionary refers to it as, “People’s abilities to communicate with each other and work well together”.

Emotional intelligence is an important skill of managing one’s own emotions and understanding the emotions of others. This intelligence requires five key elements: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. This is cultivated over time to effectively handle conflicts with the superiors, classmates, be emotionally self-regulated and helps to develop good interpersonal relationships. As college students, it helps a lot while working with team members in a group assignment, in managing one’s own emotions, managing exam stress and enables one to better focus and concentrate. Carolyn MacCann, Yixin Jiang and Luke E. R. Brown

Team work is a great skill to possess because through collaboration with different minds, new ideas and perspectives emerge which is better than having one idea. It also broadens one’s horizon as one can learn through critical thinking and by allowing one’s point of view to be challenged thereby learning new ideas. Team work results in an effective work because many people are joining hands working towards a shared goal.

Having acquired the knowledge, skillset, exposure, network, experience, achievements and so on, it is essential to consolidate them all in a portfolio which is a compilation of academic and professional materials that will highlight the skills, qualifications, education, training and experiences.

In a nutshell, there is a plethora of strategies and techniques for excelling in academics, but having a clear explanation to the ‘why’ for what you are intending to do as a disciple of Christ will position your heart in the right posture, set the priorities straight and motivate you to develop strategies that will help you give your best for God because Eccl 9:10 says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, verily, do it with all your might.” So whether you eat or drink, or whatever(study) you do, do everything for the glory of God, 1 Cor 10:31.

S. Wiselyn Amy is pursuing MSc in Wellness Counselling
Psychology at Jyoti Nivas College, Bangalore. She unwinds by
reading, writing and music, loves socializing and listening to
thought-provoking discussions. She leads the Bible studies at her
college EU cell group and she is a student member of BCSE ICEU,
Bangalore. She can be reached at amy98spencer@gmail.com