The Components of Educational Guidance

The component of educational guidance includes study skills, time tabling, note taking,
sitting for examinations and academic counseling.
1. Study Skills
A number of students fail their examinations, or fail to deal with educational
activities, because they lack effective study skills and habits. They spend a
considerable amount of time playing and only a small fraction of their time on
productive or school activities. This makes the provision of effective study skills and
habits one of the most important components of education.
i) How to start a Study Session
Before settling down to serious study, you should obtain a copy of your
syllabus at the beggining of your course and be guided by it. This should
enable you to gauge the scope of the material you are expected to know, and
the skills you are supposed to acquire. It should also enable you to realize the
need to reorganize and draw up your own personal study timetable, and
collect supplementary reading materials.

You should also find a suitable place where noise and distractions such as passers by are reduced
to a minimum. If you intend to study in a room, check whether there is adequate light and air, as
these will affect your health and study. Remember even your body posture, when you are
studying affects your health.

It is important to note that motivation is a major factor in the process of learning. If it is absent,
if you are indifferent, or have no wish to study, little information will be retained in your
memory. Therefore, you should be motivated to study, or create an interest in the subjects you
are studying.

ii) How to develop an Interest in a Subject

You can generate motivation in a subject by:
a) Devoting more and special time to the subject you wish to study. However
course should be taken not to devote all your time and energy to one subject at
the expense of the others.
b) Try to understand the elements or our basics of the subject. An
understanding of the formulas, definitions, the rules of the subject should give
you confidence in applying them whenever necessary.
c) Set yourself simple tasks or problems that you are likely to meet before
working on difficult ones. This success should motivate you to deal with the
difficult problems.
d) Start by taking textbooks, notes, or other reading materials and studying
them. Remember that no problem is solved by wishful thinking, action on our
part is needed. Try to avoid procrastination.
e) Most subjects are best learnt by constant practice. Therefore, you should
work out the examples again, and check whether you have understood their
principles. Then do an exercise that involves those principles.
f) Bear in mind the rewards that accompany successful study, such as having
a career, passing examinations, the satisfaction of parents and teachers who
take pride in your success, and the personal satisfaction when you have made
the best of your talents. Those rewards should motivate you to study harder,
so that you can achieve your goals.
iii) How to concentrate on your study material
In order to cope with distractions, take the following measures
a) Focus your attention on one object at a time.
b) If you have something on your mind, such as a message you have to send
to someone, you should send it, and get it off our mind, before you start
studying. Similarly, if you have social problems, try to solve them so that you
have no problems.
c) Set yourself definite goals and compete with yourself by setting deadlines
for reaching them.
d) Study in a place or room where noise and distractions are reduced to a
minimum. Check that the room is well ventilated.
iv) Remembering or Memory Skills
You can combat forgetfulness by applying the principle of;
a) Motivated interest
 Be interested in a subject so that it becomes interesting to you.
b) Selectivity
Decide which facts to learn and which to ignore.
c) Intention to remember
Remember the material you wish to study.
d) Meaning Organisation
When reading and taking notes, first gather your ideas. Then decide how
to organize them.
e) Recitation
After reading a paragraph in your text book, test yourself on what you
have read by repeating the key ideas aloud. These ideas then have a
chance to stay in your memory.
f) Distribution Practice
With relatively short study, sessions followed by short rest periods you
can prevent physical and emotional fatigue, motivation is usually high
when you work for short periods of time.
g) Imaginary
The visualisation or mental pictures can help you to remember. Creating a
picture in your mind, or sketching the idea you are trying to remember,
can help you to recall the idea when needed ,you may wish to elaborate
the picture so it leaves an impression on your mind.
h) Association
Trying new information on to old can help. You may link it to something
you know or remember.
i) Mnemonic Devices
Mnemonic devices are powerful tools for enhancing memory. usually an
individual finds it difficult to encode huge amounts of information in his/
her memory. A way has to be found to retain this information.
A learner may, for instance use ACRONYMS i.e. when the first letter of
the most important facts are coded in a single word for example,
ROYGBIV = Red, Orange, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, as a sentence.
You may also code important facts in a sentence for example, in order to
remember the order of the reactivity of certain elements a student may use
the sentence;
Possibly Scientists Can Make a zoo in the low Countryside.
Potassium Possibility, Sodium Scientists, Calcium Can, Manganese Make,
Aluminum A, Zinc Zoo, Iron In, Tin The, Lead Low, Copper Countryside,

To remember the order of the planets around the sun a student may use -
Men Very Easily, Make Jugs Serve Useful Nightly Purposes OR My Very
Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets .Mercury My, Venus
Very, Earth Educated ,Mars Mother, Jupiter Just, Satan Showed ,Uranus
Us, Neptune Nine, Pluto Planets .

v. The SQ3Rs Study Techniques

Initials in the SQ3Rs study technique stand for Survey, Question, Read,
Recite, Review.
a) Survey
First, you should make a survey of the main ideas in order to have a
general impression of what the chapter or book is about.
Therefore when surveying the materials, you should:
 Read quickly through the book.
 Reading the aims and purpose of the book.
 Read the title, headings and sub-headings.
 Read the authors preface.
 Read the table of contents and possibly the index.
 Read the first sentence of the text.
 Read the last sentence of the text.
 Read the introduction and conclusion.
 Look for keywords.
 Look for key sentences.
 You should try to get a bird’s-eye view of the chapter or book. This is
known as skimming
b) Question
The second step is to question yourself about the ideas you have read
about. On each topic, form a question on what you have read which
requires an answer. Ask yourself questions on what you don’t fully
understand. The question will provoke you to think about the ideas you
have just read. They can also help you to pin -point the ideas, which
you have not understood properly.
c) Read
The third step is the act of reading. You should read the study material
with concentration, in order to obtain answers to the questions raised
during the second step.
This step demands that you
 Read the text or relevant section
 Look for unknown words or unknown key words in the
dictionary.
 Write out in your own words the main points of the topic you
have read or tell yourself what you have read.
 As you read discuss with yourself whatever you are studying.
 In the course of your reading, you will

memorise certain things, read carefully, the same material several times and make summaries
and notes of the work studied.

In analytical reading, when you find material that is completely new to

you, as when studying a foreign language, concepts and formulas, you
have to analyse words, structures and context for example, what is the
meaning of the word “monocotyledon”.
d) Recitation

The fourth step consists of repeating the information obtained in your

own words. You may do this after each paragraph or chapter.

 Recitation demands that you should

 Answer your own question as far as possible

 After reading each major section or chapter, lay the book aside
and try to recall what you have read. You may shut the book
and write down what you remember.
 Memorise such things as a multiplication table, formulas, and
the alphabet. However, you should understand them if they are
to be remembered easily.
e) Review
The fifth and final step demands that you thoroughly revise the
information obtained in the previous steps. You can do this by looking
over your notes and recalling the main points. You can check your
knowledge by putting your notes away, and then trying to recall the
facts.
You need to:-
 Read the text a second time
 Summarise the text
 Evaluate the text
 Outline the ideas
 Attempt to answer past examination questions
 Discuss the piece of work with others, or apply the knowledge
in some practical exercises.

The revision of your work should be done regularly so that you do not

easily forget what you have learnt. It helps to refresh your memory.