Supporting Research Sources

This page is a collection of research sources we frequently (or not-so-frequently) cite.

Study Skills

• Study skills improve student success by more than 600%! – OR – Proven to raise college graduate rates by a factor of 7X! (Ohio State University)
• South Australian high schoolers are struggling to develop study skills. 
• A research synthesis of over 70 studies on special education found the teaching of learning strategies to be associated with “very large” gains for special education and RTI students! Many studies resulted in students with learning disabilities outperforming “traditional” students. Researchers concluded “efforts to teach students strategies for processing and studying information are largely successful.” – Using Study Skills to Become Independent Learners in Secondary Content Classes
• Mastering the skills for studying and learning increases their self-efficacy and empowers them to change their approach and try different strategies if one fails.
• Study skills are processes of metacognition, which is self-awareness or one’s thinking and learning. Learners who are able to step back and monitor their thinking and learning are able to use strategies for finding out or figuring out what they need to do. 
• Research shows that students are strategic learners—
  • Know there are multiple ways to do things
  • Have increased self-esteem
  • Become more responsible
  • Improve completion and accuracy of their work
  • Are more engaged in learning
  • Improve performance 
• What Happens to Students When They Become Strategic? The following outcomes can be expected:
  • Students trust their minds.
  • Students know there’s more than one right way to do things.
  • They acknowledge their mistakes and try to rectify them. They evaluate their products and behavior.
  • Memories are enhanced.
  • Learning increases.
  • Self-esteem increases.
  • Students feel a sense of power.
  • Students become more responsible.
  • Work completion and accuracy improve.
  • Students develop and use a personal study process.
  • They know how to “try.”
  • On-task time increases; students are more “engaged.” 
• In general, teachers are not aware of the importance of these skills. The fact that there is such little data leads to the assumption that strategy instruction is not a general classroom practice. Following are a few possible explanations for this:
  • How students learn takes a back seat to what is learned. Teachers assume students will “get it” on their own, or with more teacher-directed instruction or practice.
  • The idea of focusing on the learner is still in its infancy.
  • “Educator overload” is a factor.
• Study skills can be applied to any learning situation—their usefulness is not limited to the classroom. As adults, we use our organization and listening skills every day to manage our jobs, households, and finances. Our ability to retain information is tapped just as often. This ability helps us remember deadlines at work so we can meet them; it reminds us to put fuel in our cars so we don’t run out of gas.
• More researchers agree that study skills are necessary for success in school, but teachers, under pressure to meet curriculum standards and requirements, tend to focus on content rather than on teaching student’s skills to help them absorb that content.
• Study skills instruction involves teaching students to utilize a process for thinking about thinking. 
• What Obstacles Have Kept Study Skills from Being Taught Explicitly? Ironically, middle school teachers face their own time-management challenges when they wish to fit instruction regarding study skills or learning strategies into their already busy schedules. Often teachers are pressed to meet state and district curriculum standards and objectives, which may not include study skills instruction. Understandably, many focus on teaching content rather than strategies, hoping or believing that their students have either already acquired such skills, or that they will somehow learn them as they go along. This is rarely the case.  Many teachers and parents assume that students acquire effective study skills either on their own, or through schooling. Unfortunately, while most researchers agree that study skills are prerequisites to school success, they are incorporated into a formalized, structures curriculum infrequently.

Workforce & Skills Development

• Studies by Stanford Research Institute and the Carnegie Mellon Foundation among Fortune 500 CEOs found that 75% of long term job success depended on soft skills and only 25% on technical skills. Abbas, Kadir, & Azmie. “Integrating Soft Skills Assessment Through Soft Skills Workshop Program for Engineering Students at University of Pahang: An Analysis.” International Journal of Research In Social Sciences  Vol. 2, No.1  (2013): P. 1.
• Dozens of employer surveys consistently confirm that the most “in-demand” skills needed in the workplace are “soft skills.” 
• International PISA scores 
• International PIAAC scores 
• Most needed skills in the workplace  
• 60% of today’s working millennial’s will exit their job within the first three years! 
• According to SEMCOG, “Soft skills provide workers with the ability to respond to new opportunities.” (filename=LifelongSoftSkillsFrameworkApril2012.pdf)
• Soft skills are radically in demand by employers, comprising 95% of the top skills most needed by local (11) and national (12) employers.  (11)  (12) Skills Assessments (National)
• American Millenials Are the Least-Skilled
• WIA makes study skills instruction one of the 10 required elements of youth programs. These skills are important not just for academic learning, but also for everyday life. They can help individuals be organized and successful lifelong learners and manage their jobs, households, and finances.
• Research shows that learners whose skills or knowledge bases are weak in a particular area tend to overestimate their ability in that area. In other words, they don’t know enough to recognize that they lack sufficient knowledge for accurate self-assessment. In contrast, learners whose knowledge or skills are strong may underestimate their ability. These high-ability learners don’t recognize the extent of their knowledge or skills. Kruger and Dunning’s research also shows that it is possible to teach learners at all ability levels to assess their own performance more accurately. In addition, their research showed that for tasks involving logic and grammar; improved self-assessment corresponded with improvement in the skills being assessed. Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessment. Journal or Personality and Social Psychology.

Education

• Teachers are burning out faster than ever! 
• Teacher turnover data
• Data from the National High School Center suggests that ninth grade is the most important year in high school for determining drop-out rates.  A joint report from Princeton University  and the Brookings Institution found “in 1970, there were 3 percent fewer tenth graders than ninth graders; by 2000, that share had risen to 11 percent.”
• 30% = number of students dropping out of high school in the US.
• 40% = number of college students who have to take at least one remedial course in college.
• 50% = number of college students who never complete a degree.
• 66% = number of high school honor students who fall behind in college.
• The U.S. performs at the bottom of all industrialized nations, but spends 40% more per student than our international peers!
• Motivation Matters: 40% Of High School Students Chronically Disengaged From School!
• Special education students have risen by nearly 40%.

Motivation & Grit

• Student motivation is at an all-time low!
• Student Motivation Is an Overlooked Piece of Education Reform. (Center on Education Policy, Graduate School of Education and Human Development The George Washington University, Student Motivation: An Overlooked Piece of School Reform.)
• Research proves that study skills improves motivation by a factor of 3x! (Carol Dweck’s research)
• When students attribute failure to internal factors, such as lack of ability, or external factors, such as bad luck, their self-confidence suffers and they see effort as futile.

Special Education & Learning Disabilities

• Study skills can be especially critical for youth with learning disabilities, who may have difficulty staying focused and becoming discouraged by lack of success.
• For students with learning disabilities, two aspects of metacognition are key; executive processes (such as selection of appropriate strategies) and attributional beliefs (such as the belief that effort will improve performance. Borkowski, J. G., Estrada, M.T., Milstead, M. & Hale, C.A. (1989). General problem-solving skills: Relations between metacognition and strategic processes. Learning Disability Quarterly, 12, 57-70.

Autism

• Neural connectivity abnormalities in autism
• Inadequate myelination of neurons tied to autism
• Neuron disruption
• Deficits in electrical activity

Detroit

• Detroit is the worst-performing school district in the U.S. The Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren –
• Detroit’s unemployment rate is more than 2x the national average. 
• “Work-readiness skills, also known as “soft skills,” are the most influential factor in hiring decisions by local employers, even above technical skills and credentials.” 
• Detroit has more children living in extreme poverty than any of the nation’s 50 largest cities. 

SOAR^® Statistics

• • Proven to raise average GPAs by more than 1 full point!
  • The best-selling study skills book in the world!
  • Declared “98% effective” by teachers!
  • Recipient of the international “Innovative Programs Award”

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