Academic Coaching Program Coordinator Teresa Harrison talks to Kamila Vargas and Theresa Hodgson in the Center for Academic Support and Advisement. Photo by Angela Foster.
University students often discover that some of the study habits they formed years ago in high school or at the beginning of college do not work as well as they used to. Forming good study habits is an essential way students find success.
Taking upper-level courses and being an upperclassman often requires a deeper understanding of what it means to study and learn well. At the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the Center for Academic Support and Advisement (CASA) helps students identify what might not be working for them and ways to adjust their study strategies through academic coaching.
Teresa Harrison, the academic coaching program coordinator at CASA, focuses on the academic support side of the center.
“I run the peer academic coaching program where I employ upperclassmen to work with other students on campus, helping them teach academic skills to students in one-on-one appointments,” Harrison said.
Unlike tutoring, which focuses on specific subjects, academic coaching emphasizes transferable learning strategies that are applicable to all subjects and courses.
Harrison also teaches academic success courses: one for first-time freshmen and another for students with a 2.75 GPA or lower. These courses pair students with peer coaches and focus on developing effective academic habits for each individual.
Harrison explained that many students who seek academic coaching are first-year students, given CASA’s close connection with the freshman advising office. However, she emphasized that academic coaching is available to all UTC students.
One of the most common challenges students bring to CASA is not knowing how to study effectively.
“A lot of students were able to get through high school without really learning how to study,” Harrison said. “They think of studying as rereading notes or typing up everything a professor says in class. Those are all passive activities that aren’t really requiring any effort on the student’s part.”
Harrison explained that rather than expecting the classroom material to be absorbed automatically, students must actively engage with it.
“Students have to make that mind shift of, instead of the material just being fed to me, I have a responsibility to go and learn the material,” she said.
As students move into upper-level coursework, this shift becomes increasingly important. Harrison referenced Bloom’s Taxonomy, a learning theory that outlines different levels of learning.
“A lot of students can take a formula and plug in the numbers,” Harrison said. “But they’re not able to analyze that formula or create with it, and that’s what’s required in college.”
She encouraged students to move away from passive studying. Instead of rereading the material, she recommended that students rewrite the information in their own words, taking a more active approach.
“If you take a large reading assignment and rewrite each paragraph in one or two sentences in your own words, you’ve comprehended the information,” she said.
Harrison also talked about retrieval practice, which involves recalling information from memory rather than repeatedly reviewing notes. “Every time you pull information from long-term memory to short-term memory, you’re strengthening those neural pathways,” she said.
This approach can be useful for those balancing regular coursework with jobs or internships, as it allows them to study in shorter, more effective sessions. Harrison also mentioned it is helpful not to rely too much on notes when completing homework. “If you can’t do your homework without your notes, you’re not prepared for the exam,” she said.
Harrison shared what she believes is the best advice for students who feel stuck academically.
“There are very few students who are highly successful in college who do it by themselves; students with a 3.0 or higher GPA are regularly using resources,” Harrison said. “They have study groups, they go to office hours and they seek help throughout the semester.”
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UTC Center for Academic Support and Advisement
Camdyn Tollett meets with Abigail Maynard in the Center for Academic Support and Advisement
