Becoming a Master Student: Making the Career Connection

The popular Career Connection feature at the end of each chapter suggests ways for students to transfer skills from the classroom to the workplace. Each Career Connection ends with an example that gives readers an up-close look what these transfers look like in practice.

Chapters begin with Power Processes -- short, unique motivational articles that emphasize academic success in terms of life skills and behaviors. Applying Power Process strategies empowers students in academics, work and life.

The Discovery Wheel -- the text's signature feature -- provides an activity that challenges readers to think about the kind of students they are versus the kind of students they want to become. Its 11 sections correspond to the 11 chapters in the text. Assigned at the outset of the course, this exercise helps students assess their current strengths and weaknesses. At the end of the course, students will be able to measure their progress by retaking the Discovery Wheel.

The text includes Dr. David Kolb's Learning Style Inventory to help students discover their preferred learning style. While every individual is capable of employing all four modes in the LSI, most people have a preferred way of learning. The LSI helps students become more aware of their preferred learning style as well as discover new options for achieving goals, solving problems, listening more fully, speaking more persuasively and resolving interpersonal conflicts.