How Professors Should Help Freshmen to Adapt?

Students who want to study strategically need to become conscious and deliberate. They need to be mindful of the weaknesses and strengths as learners. During the learning process, it’s important for them to become efficient and effective. Teachers and professors should also be able to facilitate the learning process of their students. It means that students should know how to learn and study properly. Students should have better chance of gaining success, if they can become strategic learners. Students may think that they know how to study, but it is important to be aware that learning in high school is different from learning in college. The typical and general method for studying learning materials may not be sufficient. Students should know how to make the proper transition from high school students to actual college students. Professors should be aware of this fact and they need to inform students how to study properly in college. If professors want their students to succeed, they should also be able to provide some actual example. Each major has different primary subjects that require different learning methods. Professors should suggest to students how they should study, when they should study, what they need to study and what goals that they need to achieve. After each exam, students should know what kind of progress that they have achieved by using the new college-optimized studying method. They should be able to estimate whether they are in the right path to achieve the learning goals. Professors should choose methods that are more effective for younger students.

Once the exam has been graded, it will be apparent whether students have improved performance over the years. Professors should also urge students to compare themselves, whether they have improved significantly compared to when they studied in high school. In general, students who are unable to adapt to the learning method in colleges are unable to perform well enough. Professors may provide examples of how learning methods in college should be performed based on experience. They should know how their learning material should be taught by professors and learned by students. For example, professors may show students how complex concepts and ideas should be written down to ensure better understanding. Students should also know how they should interpret specific ideas. Professors may also ask students to create small groups to discuss what they think about an idea and they will be asked to present it in front of the class. Lecturers should tell students how they should underline or highlight specific text.

College is more flexible than high school, so students should be given more flexibility in asking, commenting, answering and arguing, The textbook should only become an initial source of information and students may broaden their perspective through other methods such as interactions with other students and real life implementations. Students should be able to understand their learning materials better if they are able to make connections with their own personal experience. Professors should also manage the amount of load that students need to carry each day. Burdening students too much could demotivate them and will cause reduction in performance.