Undergraduate Study Habits

​This week, we completed our 12th Course Design Studio with a diverse group of educators and one of the articles we referenced in this experience was the recent (2017) paper published by Matthew Hora and Amanda Koleson entitled, Examining Study Habits in Undergraduate STEM courses from a Situative Perspective. The author’s note that there is limited descriptive research on how undergraduate students study in real world settings and in turn they draw upon situated cognitive theory to address student behavior when studying and contextual factors that influence studying behavior.

Findings were coded from 22 focus groups with 61 students and the results revealed that studying is a multi-faceted process that is initiated by instructor or self generated cues, marshaling resources, and managing distractions. This data encourages faculty to provide students with a variety of learning tools, including technology, in their instructional design process.