4 essential study skills to teach students for future success

Education is undergoing a significant shake-up, with attention turning to the study skills students will need to thrive instead of falter in a changing landscape. Consider the number of technology-driven and societal forces converging in education, including digital transformation and AI integration, and how they might impact teaching and learning. It’s safe to say the priority for every institution is to future-proof their education offering and produce job-ready graduates.

You may be familiar with the concept of ‘Education 4.0’, a holistic approach to education aligned to the fourth phase of the industrial revolution that utilizes advanced technology and innovative teaching methods to prepare students for the future workforce. But what bearing does this have on student study skills and what does it mean in practical terms?

Intrinsic to this strategy is positioning learners to adopt greater responsibility for skill-building, with educators serving as facilitators to enable it. There is an opportunity and responsibility for education institutions to lay the foundation for independent, confident learners who can enter the workplace and skills economy with a strong footing.

In this blog post, we aim to unpack the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of in-demand study skills to equip students for lifelong success.

1. Integrity to support ethical decision-making

Academic integrity and ethical guidelines have always underpinned a quality education and will command even more influence in the digital and AI-enabled era. As much as integrity is a moral code, it is also a study skill and habit to be developed. It means the difference between taking the high road in academic pursuits to maximize learning and scholarly output, versus taking shortcuts or outright cheating to bypass the learning process and gain reward without merit.

A student’s commitment to integrity is a huge advantage amidst generative AI and its impact on practices such as originality and authenticity. Against a backdrop of layered machine and human contributions, integrity measures build trust in the genesis and attribution of ideas while promoting students’ true achievement.

In their research study on algorithmically-driven writing tools and academic integrity, Gustilo et al. (2024) stress: “AI in education, particularly ADWTs, demands critical awareness of ethical protocols and entails collaboration and empowerment of all stakeholders by introducing innovations that showcase human intelligence over AI or partnership with AI.”

Although there’s plenty to unpack in the responsible use of AI writing, integrity sits at the core in motivating students to adopt best practices that do justice to their academic record and will later uphold reputation in their professional lives. For all the promise that technologies including AI bring, when used unethically or negligently, they can induce complacency. Students who willingly acknowledge AI assistance, build on AI output to elevate the content for their reader, review and fact-check generated text, and address any bias, recognize the significance of integrity to their future success and a healthy society.

Integrity precedes accountability, and the earlier a culture of integrity can take root in students, the more likely it becomes a predictor of positive future workplace behavior. Such students are proactive rather than reactive in the face of change or ambiguity. And it points to how well they will handle ethical decision-making as new technology emerges and do so within the parameters of an organization that are usually not as prescriptive as academic guidelines. How can educators and institutions at large ensure integrity and ethics are front and center in the teaching and learning workflow?

1. Make integrity a part of students’ daily workflow with activities and lesson plans.
2. Cultivate students’ authorial voice through writing instruction and responsible AI use.
3. Involve students in co-creation of academic integrity benchmarks to encourage buy-in.
4. Utilize best-in-class integrity tools to identify and deter integrity breaches at scale.
5. Foster independence in the research and writing process with Turnitin's Draft Coach tool.

2. Critical thinking for problem-solving and creativity

It may come as no surprise that in the World Economic Forum’s The Future of Jobs Report (2023), cognitive skills rank as growing in importance most quickly, reflecting the demand for complex problem-solving and creativity in the workplace. Critical thinking to interrogate claims of accuracy and truth is a cornerstone of study skills, and one strengthened when educators task students with evaluating the credibility of an argument or source material, developing their own perspective backed by evidence, or analyzing information to solve a problem.

There is now greater urgency to nurture critical thinking so that it is not just task-dependent but an automatic reflex as students develop mastery of their discipline and navigate pitfalls including misinformation across the internet, AI bias and hallucinations, and an over-reliance on technology as a substitute for learning. Educators are seeking ways to stimulate critical thinking and draw on uniquely human capabilities in lesson plans, feedback, and the broader curriculum.

One such educator, Kate Mills, describes the concept of “normalizing trouble” in her classroom, positioning students and their peers to work through problems without the teacher providing an answer, naming and describing the steps taken and charting the process used to solve the problem. She observes that “After a few weeks, most of the class understands that the teachers aren’t there to solve problems for the students, but to support them in solving the problems themselves.”

We can apply this lesson to technology adoption, too, teaching students that AI won’t automate entire solutions to a given problem, but it will assist them in reaching the solution by harnessing the information, analysis, and labor that AI provides. After all, AI algorithms cannot address problems outside of what is already programmed, meaning they are unable to solve unknown problems that rely on ingenuity.

In their study on challenges in AI-assisted decision-making, Steyvers & Kumar (2023) assert that optimum outcomes rely on humans possessing a good understanding of the AI’s capabilities and constraints—human-AI complementarity—and balancing human agency in the workflow, whereby “humans retain high-level control with respect to defining the types of problems that are addressed by the AI.” Therefore, an in-demand study skill of enormous potential for students is problem-finding, which leverages the cognitive diversity only humans can bring to uncover and articulate gaps, while humanizing and enhancing systems.

1. Make room for student-led inquiry to encourage curiosity and build student agency.
2. Consult critical thinking frameworks for structured methods to drive critical thinking.
3. Teach how to mobilize analysis and evidence through activities such as class debates.
4. Develop strong prompt-writing skills for AI tools and capacity to interrogate their output.
5. Teach digital and media literacy to avoid falling prey to digital deception and deepfakes.

3. Collaboration for unity and innovation

We know that learning is an intrinsically social process, and extending collaboration as a core study skill will mimic the nature of work and equip students with job-ready skills while supporting healthy partnerships. Owing to online and tech-enabled settings, opportunities for student collaboration have expanded, however more work is needed to prime students to engage productively with their human peers or AI assistants.

In a 2020 survey conducted by the Association of American Colleges & Universities, employers ranked “work effectively in teams” as their most in-demand skill, yet only 48 percent believe recent graduates are “very well prepared” with respect to team collaboration. It’s this sentiment helping fuel authentic assessment and project-based learning approaches where students can make the connection between academic study skills and preparation for professional practice, in addition to understanding how their actions and performance impacts those around them.

Predicting the importance of collaboration in Education 4.0, the World Economic Forum cites being ‘influential with and influenced by good data’, ‘building relationships with anyone’, and ‘lowering tension and resolving conflicts’ as key study skills for students to cultivate. Applying them to a group project setting, the expectation is that peers with different backgrounds and perspectives are able to converge and lean on evidence-based information to reach better outcomes, in anticipation of increasing cross-functionality in the future of work.

Students must also learn to break through the ‘noise’ of on-demand content in the colossal and ever-growing AI repository and make informed judgments of proposed answers to collective challenges. In their work on metacognition in human social interaction, Frith (2012) states: “explicit metacognition allows us to discuss aspects of our perceptual and decision-making processes with others and thereby improve our decisions”. Discerning the value and shortcomings of idea output or analysis—whether human or machine-generated—is important, but so too is possessing the confidence and emotional intelligence to communicate it effectively in peer settings, which together, maximize learners’ value in the classroom and workforce.

But what does this look like from an instructional point of view? In a Pearson Education and Partnership for 21st Century Learning research collaboration, they recommend integrating three elements of collaboration into everyday classroom activities: interpersonal communication, conflict resolution, and task management.

1. Set team problem-solving tasks requiring negotiation and mediation to achieve the goal.
2. Teach how to deliver constructive feedback and implement mechanisms for regular peer feedback such as PeerMark.
3. Establish project-based learning and assessment to mimic real-world collaboration.
4. Model active listening to nurture soft skills and avoid misunderstandings with peers.
5. Develop students’ cultural competencies to support global perspective sharing.

4. Adaptability to navigate change

Adapting to change is a core element of the human experience, and adaptability can be seen as a measure of both skill and attitude. It was put to the test within the education community when navigating the shift to remote learning, and again, in this era of mainstream generative AI use. Resilience to change has been an ongoing theme for both educators and students in recent years, and it’s set to continue as we navigate opportunities and challenges in the Education 4.0 transformation.

In their large-scale survey on future-proofing citizens’ skills for the world of work, McKinsey identified 56 Distinct Elements of Talent (DELTAs) and noted increased chances of employment for two DELTAs in particular—adaptability and coping with uncertainty—nested under the broader skill category of ‘self-leadership’. In a similar vein, the WEF cites ‘welcomes opportunities to learn new topics and master new skills’ as an intrinsic study skill for success in education and beyond.

But let’s face it; attitudes or mindsets can be challenging to teach or modify, and they’re part of the ‘hidden curriculum’ where educators are but one influence in a broader psychosocial network that impacts students’ beliefs, values and behaviors. Further still, studies and procedures typically focus on child learners perceived as most receptive to mindset change, with less emphasis on self-regulation among young adults.

As we ask more of students in their readiness for reskilling, a growth mindset and the self-regulation that underpins it is especially relevant for empowering them to view success as within their reach and developing the resilience to adapt to change and aspire to greatness.

In their study of growth mindset amongst undergraduate chemistry students, Limeri et al. (2020) found overall evidence of mindset as a dynamic rather than stable trait among this group. In response to the variable success of ‘mindset interventions’ historically, they shed light on the potential of designing more persuasive interventions to make the growth mindset stick. Similarly, Claire Chuter, writing for The Education Hub, points to the body of research validating the crucial role of the educator in promoting self-regulated learning, and points to the series of steps—set goals, exercise control, monitor progress, reflect and respond—to influence a student’s propensity to persist with a task, or alternatively, to give up.

1. Break down key milestones into incremental goals that recognize learning as a journey.
2. Create a supportive, inclusive classroom where students can fail safely and mistakes become opportunities for growth.
3. Deliver ‘Where to next?’ formative feedback that scaffolds student progress.
4. Praise persistence, not only results, as a fixation on grades may lower self-esteem.
5. Embed regular self-reflection activities to foster self-regulation and a growth mindset.

Overview: study skills essential to students’ success

As we enter Education 4.0 and attention turns to institutions preparing students for the skills economy, four study skills in particular are emerging as essential for students and educators to nurture.

Integrity, critical thinking, collaboration, and adaptability are skills aligned to the future of work that leverage human’s unique capabilities and serve to mediate our partnership with technology and navigate the benefits and shortcomings it brings. They’re also key to achieving the human-AI complementarity that can propel educational outcomes and societal innovation.

The task at hand is for institutions and teaching staff to strengthen these study skills with practical, future-facing lessons and feedback that prompt students to think metacognitively and take ownership of their learning and its application.