Surviving the world of academia: a brief commentary on strategies for success

Academia is an environment in which teaching, research, and the pursuit of scholarship are characterized.1 It is routinely described as embodying an atmosphere of isolation, yet is highly competitive. Extreme sacrifices seem to be forefront and centre. Individuals are routinely asked to take on increasingly heavy teaching workloads, while at the same time are expected to produce a significant number of publications, in unison with obtaining external funding. The nature of academia has not always faired well for new scholars. This paper presents a discussion of various strategies new academics or those considering pursuing this arena can use to assist in not only the transition to working in this environment, but also thriving in it. It will provide an awareness of the lessons learned and an anticipation of the future from a scholar who has overcome the initial barriers and is optimistically looking forward to future challenges.

Surviving the world of academia: a brief commentary on strategies for success

Academia is an environment in which teaching, research, and the pursuit of scholarship are characterized.1 It is routinely described as embodying an atmosphere of isolation, yet is highly competitive. Extreme sacrifices seem to be forefront and centre. Individuals are routinely asked to take on increasingly heavy teaching workloads, while at the same time are expected to produce a significant number of publications, in unison with obtaining external funding. The nature of academia has not always faired well for new scholars. This paper presents a discussion of various strategies new academics or those considering pursuing this arena can use to assist in not only the transition to working in this environment, but also thriving in it. It will provide an awareness of the lessons learned and an anticipation of the future from a scholar who has overcome the initial barriers and is optimistically looking forward to future challenges.

Challenges of Shaping Student Study Strategies for Success

This paper reports results from a mixed-methods intervention conducted in partnership between a faculty member and an undergraduate to shape student study strategies for success in an introductory course. The instructor provided students with information on the effectiveness of the successive relearning study strategy, conducted an in-class demonstration of the strategy, and explained how students could apply the strategy to their study plan for the first exam. Students were asked about their planned study behaviors for the first exam before the intervention and exam and about their actual study behaviors for the exam after the intervention and exam. Students were asked before the intervention what an instructor could do to convince them to try a new strategy, and again after the intervention whether or not they adopted the new strategy and why. Quantitative results indicated that the intervention had no effect on students’ study behaviors, contrary to the predictions of the prior literature. Qualitative analyses suggested that students were open to learning more effective ways to study and thought that interventions like the one used in this investigation would convince them to try a new strategy. However, students were unable to use successive relearning because of procrastination and time management issues.

Challenges of Shaping Student Study Strategies for Success

This paper reports results from a mixed-methods intervention conducted in partnership between a faculty member and an undergraduate to shape student study strategies for success in an introductory course. The instructor provided students with information on the effectiveness of the successive relearning study strategy, conducted an in-class demonstration of the strategy, and explained how students could apply the strategy to their study plan for the first exam. Students were asked about their planned study behaviors for the first exam before the intervention and exam and about their actual study behaviors for the exam after the intervention and exam. Students were asked before the intervention what an instructor could do to convince them to try a new strategy, and again after the intervention whether or not they adopted the new strategy and why. Quantitative results indicated that the intervention had no effect on students’ study behaviors, contrary to the predictions of the prior literature. Qualitative analyses suggested that students were open to learning more effective ways to study and thought that interventions like the one used in this investigation would convince them to try a new strategy. However, students were unable to use successive relearning because of procrastination and time management issues.