‘Study skills’ is a term referring to all the strategies researchers of any age use when finding out about a topic. As well as learning how to use the library, and usually the Dewey system of cataloguing, children need to be taught how to find the information they want by using the retrieval devices – the contents pages and index of books – and how to access material from databases and sites on the Internet. Children need also to learn to make useful notes and summaries of key passages. These will be the basis of their own writing. The acquisition of study skills was built into The Framework for Teaching (DfEE, 1998) and is part of teaching non-fiction kinds of literacy in the renewed Framework, 2006.
In shared reading and writing teachers ‘model’ for example how to find one’s way round a reference book or CD-ROM. Acquiring study skills helps make a young learner independent. We need to teach them, but too many decontextualised exercises can risk making the ‘finding out’ process seem dull. Learning to research is satisfying if it is linked to finding out what we need and if we want to take our knowledge and understandng of a topic further (Mallett, 1999, 2007).
If you seek detailed guidance on researching for essays and dissertations and on referencing you would find Chapters 6 and 7 in Herne et al. (2000) helpful.
Herne, Steve, Jessel, John and Griffiths, Jenny (2000) Study to Teach: A guide to studying in teacher education London: Routledge.
Mallett, Margaret (1999) Young Researchers: Informational Reading in the Early and Primary Years London: Routledge.
Mallett, M. (2007) Active Encounters: Inspiring Young Readers and Writers of non-fiction UKLA minibook.
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