DR MOULAY TAHAR UNIVERSITY OF SAIDA

FACULTY OF NATURAL AND LIFE SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY

ACADEMIC YEAR 2024-2025

          The foundations and pillars of academic success:

                                                                                 Chapter 1 TD Sheet N°1

THE FOUNDATIONS AND PILLARS OF

ACADEMIC SUCCESS

أخشى ما أخشاه هو تصحر العقول واألرواح وليس زحف

الصحراء “My greatest fear is the desertification of minds and souls, not the encroachment of the desert”

                                                                         Dr Nasr-Eddine KEBIR

FOCUSING ON A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO STUDENT LEARNING BY INTEGRATING VARIOUS DIMENSIONS.

This self-assessment will not only help students recognize their strengths but also encourage them to reflect on areas for improvement. Here are a few suggestions for structuring these exercises:

• Skills Inventory: Create a list of essential skills (e.g., critical thinking, collaboration, creativity) and ask students to rate their confidence in each area.

• Reflection Questions: Pose questions that encourage deeper thinking, such as:
• What skills do you feel most confident about, and why?
• In what situations do you struggle, and what support do you need?

 Goal Setting: Have students identify one or two areas they’d like to improve and

set specific, measurable goals.

  Progress Tracking: Design a simple chart where students can track their progress over time, noting achievements and any challenges they face.

• Peer Feedback: Incorporate opportunities for students to give and receive constructive feedback, fostering a collaborative learning environment.

By implementing these strategies, you can help students not only assess their current abilities but also take actionable steps toward their personal development This exercise will allow him to measure some of his skills and clarify the type of student he is. His answers will only make sense to him.

By responding to the best of his knowledge, he must choose the proposal(s) which correspond as closely as possible to his work habits. Score 

points for each statement using the following criteria:

10 points:    always or almost always applies

 9 points:       often applies

8 points:         applies sometimes(about half the time)

5 points:          rarely applies

2 points:           never or almost never applies

Then add up your results for each part and report the total at the end of the  exercise.

Among the skills and abilities analyzed, we chose motivation, organization, memorization, reading, note-taking, attention and study. “MOMRNAS”

.Extrait de la publication

Note taking

[ ] I usually take notes in class.

• [ ] Thanks to my class notes, I easily revise the material.

[ ] In class, I follow the teacher's presentation carefully while taking notes.

• [ ] I regularly reread my notes right after class or a few hours later.

[ ] I write my course notes by summarizing what the teacher has said.

• [ ] I have learned to pick out the key sentences in the teacher's presentation.

[ ] I learned a good way to take notes.

• [ ] My notes are clear and airy. They allow me to understand and explain the concepts and content of the course.

[ ] Total

Now indicate the total score for each of the categories:

The total  obtained  in each  category  will  adequately  reflect

your  strengths  and weaknesses.

III Self-supervisionand time management

University is often a high place of solitude. Elective courses, various schedules, flexible calendar: throughout your sessions, you change buildings, administrative units, teachers, classmates several times a week, and this creates certain constraints. The university is a big institution that is not always easy to understand, but it also offers great intellectual freedom: you can work at your own pace, choose your courses according to your areas of interest, plan your schedule yourself, etc.

Finally, the university gives you access to beneficial autonomy, but which can become an obstacle to success if you do not know how to take advantage of it adequately.

The first area in which each student must set guidelines is the organization of work. Generally, during their first university semester, students have difficulty properly assessing the amount of work required for each of their courses. However, being well organized and managing your time helps avoid three main causes of failure at university: stress due to work completed at the last minute; loss of time caused by poor knowledge of one's environment (library and office hours, the configuration of buildings, etc.); late work that results in grade penalties. De De même, une bonne organisation vous permettra de concilier les différentes facettes de votre vie: la famille, le travail, les études, les sorties. Pour y parvenir, voici quelques conseils que vous auriez intérêt à mettre en pratique.

 SUCCESS FACTORS.

• Choose a long-term work rhythm

If you decide to allocate to your homework three hours two evenings a week, ask yourself this question: in three months, will it still be feasible? Use a calendar representing the entire semester and fill it in as soon as your teachers send you lesson plans with exam dates and assignments.

 Find out about the scope of work required

For each job to be done, check the following points: How many pages to submit?

What is the correction scale?

What is the degree of reflection? (A summary requires less investment than research, for example.)

How many readings are requested?

Work as a team when possible

To compare the understanding that different students have of the course taken, share your impressions with them; it is also a good way to break isolation.

• Set aside time for the unexpected and avoid procrastination Procrastination is the act of putting off until tomorrow what you can do today: rather, get into the habit of anticipating. Similarly, you are never safe from a metro breakdown, the flu... or a computer bug.

• Determine the goals and objectives you want to achieve

Would you like to enter a quota program? Or simply obtain three optional credits to complete a course that interests you? Depending on the choice you make, the work to be provided will not be of the same order.

• Prioritize

You can't do everything at once. Using an agenda, order  your tasks  and  move  forward one stepatatime.

• Optimizetheworkspace

Organization also involves the space chosen for working and studying. Whether it's the library, the house, or some other place, it's important to adopt a place where it's pleasant to work. Furnishing a friendly and inviting workspace facilitates study and academicwork.

• Stayfocusedduringworksessions Bettertospendafewhoursonaquietmissionthana wholedaydispersed betweendifferent activitiesthat aretoooftenpublicized:apieceoftheWeb,phone callandthetelevisionon.Your braincanhardlystore this excessive variety of  in formation.
• Trainyourmemory

The brain is a muscle: reading and rereading your notes regularly, training to retain the information gathered by self-assessment, this will allow you to keep your memory awake throughout your universitycareer.

• Maintain your motivation

Neverforgetthereasonsforyourpresenceatuniversity:the bestwaytosucceed in your studies will be to always keep in mind what pushed you to school, whether ritbea career change,animprovementinyourfield,aprogramthatyou arepassionateaboutetc………..

• Takeinventoryofusefulresources

These  are  the libraries as well as all the student  services  on campus: financial-aid offices, student success centres,studentcafés, international student offices, and so on.

WHICH WE NEED

Finally, our university must have a student success support center. At the level of our University we need a center for academic support and career development (CSEDC) which will be part of the Student Aid Service (SAS). In this center we offer workshops on time management , stress management, methods of intellectual work, orientation exercises or very relevant career choices.

Dans tous les cas, ces centres proposent des ateliers de gestion du temps, de gestion du stress, des méthodes de travail intellectuel, des exercices d’orientation ou de choix de carrière très pertinents.

Science is an integral part of faith, to be at its service is the continuity of the divine message.

Dr Nasr-Eddine KEBIR