Formal training in study skills did not correct poor study habits common among college students and will likely fail to improve student retention, according to research conducted by Dr. Dharma Jairam, assistant professor in the graduate education program at Morningside College.

Formal training in study skills did not correct poor study habits common among college students and will likely fail to improve student retention, according to research conducted by Dr. Dharma Jairam, assistant professor in the graduate education program at Morningside College.

Jairam details his research findings in an article, “First-Year Seminar Focused on Study Skills: An Ill-Suited Attempt to Improve Student Retention,” that will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Further and Higher Education.

“Poor study habits continue to be common among college students and remain a significant factor in student attrition,” Jairam said. “Colleges and universities around the nation responded to the student attrition problem by rolling out first-year seminars focused on study skills. The hope was that these study skills-focused first-year seminars would teach students vital college survival skills and result in increased retention.”

In the article, Jairam reports that his research found the programs have little, if any, impact on students’ study habits. He offers specific explanations for why study-skills focused first-year seminars do not work.

Jairam joined the Morningside College faculty in 2015. He has a doctorate in cognition, learning and development from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.