Keys to Success: Building Analytical, Creative, and Practical Skills: International Edition (7e)

For courses in Student Success, Freshman Seminar/Orientation.

Keys to Success unlocks every student's potential to succeed in college, career, and life by challenging them to realize, "It’s not just what you know…it’s what you know how to do."  Students will develop their goal-setting abilities by personalizing “best practice” tools and strategies for all topics covered. Keys’  focuses on building analytical, creative, and practical thinking skills. This “thinking skills” framework challenges students of all levels to question, evaluate, innovate, relate, and follow through - which is critical in class AND highly valued in a competitive 21^st century workplace where one must maximize strengths and bolster weaknesses. When students build the skills that will help them get where they want to go in college and beyond, they will be more motivated to retain and APPLY what they learn.  Revision highlights include an Annotated Instructor's Edition, Social Media integration, 21st Century Skills coverage, and much more.

Students and Faculty are encouraged to visit the website for all Keys franchise materials, www.carterkeys.com, to correspond with the author team, view their speaking calendar, benefit from current articles, and more! 

TECHNOLOGY OFFERING: MyStudentSuccessLab is available with this book upon request. It is an online solution designed to help students ‘Start strong, Finish stronger’ by building skills for ongoing personal and professional development. Go to http://mystudentsuccesslab.com/mssl3 for a Point and Click DEMO of the Time Management module.  

Quick Start to College: Helpful Information and Advice as You Begin

I. DEFINING YOURSELF AND YOUR GOALS.

1. Welcome to College: Growing Toward Success

2. Values, Goals, and Time: Managing Yourself

3. Learning How You Learn: Making the Most of Your Abilities

II. DEVELOPING ACADEMIC SKILLS.

4. Critical, Creative, and Practical Thinking: Solving Problems and Making Decisions

5. Reading and Information Literacy: Learning from Print and Online Materials

6. Listening and Note Taking: Taking In and Recording Information

7.  Memory and Studying: Retaining What You Learn

8.  Test Taking: Showing What You Know

III. CREATING LIFE SUCCESS.

9. Diversity and Communication: Making Relationships Work

10. Wellness and Stress Management: Staying Healthy in Body and Mind

11. Managing Money: Living Within Your Means

12. Careers and More: Building a Successful Future

Since its’ publication, Keys to Success has set the standard for helping students understand how to be successful in College, Career, and Life.  This edition presents Keys’ tried-and-true system, revised for even greater efficacy, for building students’ ability to think analytically, creatively, and practically. These three 'thinking' skills increase students’ power to choose and to act as they progress through college and the world of work.

NEW! Updated text-wide theme of successful intelligence–Based on Robert Sternberg’s concept of successful intelligence to maximize learning and life success, the way to achieve College, Career, and Life success is through building analytical, creative, and practical thinking skills.

·    Get Analytical, Get Creative, and Get Practical exercises–Each geared toward building its respective skill.

·    SI Wrap-Up—Summarizes how students have built their thinking skills in the context of the chapter topics and exercises.

·    Steps to Success: Boost Your Brain Power exercise–Students build thinking skills at three levels of challenge starting with recall and moving to application and analysis (easy to adjust what is assigned to accommodate students’ abilities).

·    The theme introduced in Chapter 1, has been retained and strengthened with the latest research and a stronger link to motivation, mindset, and future success.

·    Pre- and Post-course assessments found in Chapters 1 and 12 help students assess their progress in building these thinking skills and their motivation to persist in achieving their goals. 

NEW! Annotated Instructor’s Edition offers quick access to icebreakers, extra activities, “fast facts,” resource links to instructor materials such as PowerPoints or MyStudentSuccessLab, coaching tips, use of social networking, and real-world work/life benefits.

NEW! Compelling case stories and activities.  Case stories open each chapter and are revisited throughout the chapter. Through others’ experiences, students learn to question, spot issues, problem solve, evaluate their own choices, and plan for similar situations in the future. Mid-chapter and end-of-chapter Case activities (Change the Conversation and Revisit the Case) encourage critical, creative, and practical thinking about personal, local, and global issues.

NEW! Social Media Coverage is integrated in the text, in a Social Media Appendix, and as a segment of the Career Portfolio activity, where students use social media to build a profile on an effective career and internship networking site step-by-step.

NEW! Coverage of 21st Century Skills findings from a partnership of educators and business people who have discovered skills that recent graduates lack but employers require and reward. Keys develops those skills-including teamwork, communication, innovation, and personal accountability.

NEW! Student profiles that connect the skill in the chapter to the world of work.

NEW! Stronger Study and Life Skills Organization:  To reflect current educational best practices and better address student concerns, these five chapters were revised as follows:

1.        Revised Chapter 5: Reading and Information Literacy: Now focuses on reading, text annotating and notes, and information literacy. .

2.        Revised Chapter 6: Listening and Note Taking: A more streamlined chapter that focuses on the listening process and taking notes in class.

3.        New Chapter 7: Memory/Studying: A brand new chapter that includes the latest information on brain-based learning, how to lock information into memory, and how to study effectively. 

4.        Expanded Chapter 11: Money Management: An entire chapter is now devoted to financial literacy, a key issue for students living in today’s economy. Includes information including new credit and student loan regulations.

5.       Expanded Chapter 12: Career Management: Now more material on this crucial topic.

NEW! Updated and Expanded content across all chapters, but these topics deserve special mention: chapter opening self-assessments (all chapters), motivation (Chapter 1), emotional intelligence (Ch 1 and in every chapter’s end-of-chapter “emotional intelligence” journal activity), information literacy (Ch. 5), and brain-based learning (Ch 7).

TECHNOLOGY AND PEARSON CHOICES

MyStudentSuccessLab (www.mystudentsuccesslab.com) is an online solution designed to help students ‘Start strong, Finish stronger’ by building skills for ongoing personal and professional development. This Learning Outcome based technology promotes student engagement through:

·          The Learning Path Diagnostic offers for the course, 83 Full Course Pre- and Post-Diagnostic (Bloom’s Taxonomy Levels I-VI) questions, and for each topic, 20 Pre- and Post-Test (Bloom’s Taxonomy Levels I-VI) questions.

·          The Overview provides learning objectives to build vocabulary and repetition.

·          Video interviews on key issues ‘by students, for students’.

·          The Practice exercises improve class preparation and learning. 

·          Graded Activities build critical thinking skills and develop problem-solving abilities (includes Essays and Journaling).

·          Instructors benefit from an Implementation Guide to easily assign and assess progress. 

·          Students have access to relevant FinishStronger247 YouTube videos, the Pearson student Facebook page chock full of tips, MySearchLab use for doing effective research, and more.

PearsonChoices - CourseSmart and Custom Publishing.  Having choices for how to deliver course content is important.

·    CourseSmart Textbooks Online is an exciting new choice for students looking to save money. As an alternative to purchasing the print textbook, students can subscribe to the same content online and save up to 50% off the suggested list price of the print text. With a CourseSmart e-textbook, students can search the text, make notes online, print out reading assignments that incorporate lecture notes, and bookmark important passages for later review. For more information, or to subscribe, visit www.coursesmart.com.  

·    Pearson Custom Publishing allows professors to create their own professionally produced customized textbooks and media products to best complement their course. We offer high-quality content, professional design, quick production, and reliable on-time delivery. The result is a valuable textbook that students will use, cover to cover, tailored to meet exactly the needs of the professor, students, and course.  Visit www.pearsoncustom.com.

Instructor Support - An array of teaching materials to feel confident and prepared for class - and save time!

·    Teaching—Resources such as Instructor's Manual, Test Bank, PowerPoint, Sample Syllabi, and more www.pearsonhighered.com/irc.

·    Training—Options to meet every need, including Online Webinars, First Day of Class sessions, MyStudentSuccessLab Webexs, etc.

·    Tools-SSCD4Success portal is a one-stop shop for training, support, and resources www.pearsonhighered.com/sscd4success.  

Keys Seminars and Services for Faculty and Students

·    Course Consulting Service—Provides professors with author written course advice based on their classroom teaching and learning experiences. Authors are also available to answer questions via their email addresses: Dr. Joyce Bishop - jbishop@gwc.cccd.edu or Carol J. Carter - caroljcarter@lifebound.com, or toll free at 877-737-8510.  Please give your local representative your syllabus and class objectives and we will have the advice plan back to you quickly!  Helps with text transition and new ways to get the message across to students.

·    Seminars for Students—In-school presentations for students are offered through LifeBound Seminars. Please visit the website at www.LifeBound.com.  Provides hands-on help for students. 

Since its’ publication, this Keys to Success has set the standard for helping students understand how to be successful in College, Career, and Life.  This edition presents Keys’ tried-and-true system, revised for even greater efficacy, for building students’ ability to think analytically, creatively, and practically. These three 'thinking' skills increase students’ power to choose and to act in college and in the world of work.

The text-wide theme of successful intelligence–Based on Robert Sternberg’s concept of successful intelligence to maximize learning and achievement in College, Career, and Life is through building analytical, creative, and practical thinking skills. Every chapter features:

·    Get Analytical, Get Creative, and Get Practical exercises–Each geared toward building its respective skill.

·    SI Wrap-Up—Summarizes how students have built their thinking skills in the context of the chapter topics and exercises.

·    Steps to Success: Boost Your Brain Power exercise–Students build thinking skills at three levels of challenge starting with recall and moving to application and analysis (easy to adjust what is assigned to accommodate students’ abilities).

What Would You Do? chapter opening cases –Present a situation related to the chapter topic to show how people think through and overcome problems using successful intelligence. The cases are revisited in the chapter and at the end with related activities, so they become an engaging teaching tool.

·    Inspires students and motivates them to step up their personal efforts to succeed.

·    Stories address the challenges today’s student faces–such as, balancing school with work, returning to school as an adult learner, dealing with financial needs, supporting various lifestyles and schedules, etc.

Student Profiles–Real peer stories bring each chapter topic to life, connecting with how a real student handles a situation.

·    Personalizes topics with a real-life perspective from different types of students so they learn from a broad range of peers.

Learning Styles and Personality Styles coverage–Thoroughly integrated in each chapter, includes in-depth coverage of Multiple Intelligences and Myers-Briggs based Personality Spectrum plus a discussion of VAK. 

·    Offers two complete assessments and discusses ways students can use what they learn about their abilities and talents (Gardner's Multiple-Intelligences-based assessment) and how they interact with others (Myers-Briggs-based assessment).  Provides specific strategies to play to strengths, compensate for weaknesses, and build study skills.

Values, goal setting, time management, planning, prioritization, and basic stress management strategies –Early placement of the content (first and second chapters).

·    Facilitates early-in-the-term coverage of these all-important topics that students are eager to master early on in school.

Multiple Intelligence Strategies Grids–One in each chapter, beginning with Ch. 5. Each chapter’s grid focuses on a particular chapter-related topic, such as reading, and also how to apply the strategies to a specific discipline, such as sociology.

·    Provides students with a concrete way to use the skills they have just learned and builds their ability to apply their Multiple Intelligences knowledge to the chapter topic and across disciplines

A Quick Start to College–A resource guide at the beginning of the text. Covers essential need-to-know-first topics, such as getting oriented, resources (human and other), financial aid, registration, computer services, getting involved with extracurricular activities, and more.

·    Provides a convenient mini-handbook with helpful information that helps them feel connected right at the start of school.

Updated coverage of common freshman pitfalls and ways to avoid or deal with them–Academic integrity, planning time effectively, juggling work and school, stress management, credit card debt, and more are discussed in the text as well as personalized through case studies and student profiles.

·    Provides a more in-depth look at problems students face, helping students avoid or cope with common pitfalls.

Activity based exercises.

·    Mid-chapter “Change the Conversation” activity encourages students to explore their thinking, attitudes, and emotions as well as connect with other students and hear their ideas.  

·    Teamwork: Create Solutions Together exercises, Writing: Build Intrapersonal and Communication Skills exercises, and Career Portfolio: Prepare for 21^st Century Success exercises — this consistent series of three exercises appears at the end of each chapter and are designed to get students actively working with others, writing to express feelings as well as to accomplish goals, and planning for their future in the workplace, respectively.

Carol Carter was a C student in high school. During her senior year, she got a wake-up call when her brother told her that she had intelligence, but she wouldn’t go far in life unless she believed in herself enough to work hard. She began college knowing she was “behind the eight ball” in terms of her skills. What she lacked in experience, she made up for with elbow grease and persistence. She maximized her strength as an interpersonal and intrapersonal learner. The work paid off and she graduated college with honors and a desire to help other students.

            Carol is committed to helping students turn on their brains, get motivated, and discover their abilities. As President of her own company, LifeBound, she teaches study, interpersonal, and career skills to middle school and high school students in order to help them become competitive in today’s global world. She trains and certifies coaches in academic coaching skills, and focuses on at-risk students with her volunteer teaching at the federal prison and her LifeBound work in the Denver housing projects. “All students are at-risk for something whether it is academic, emotional, social, or economic,” says Carol. “If each of us is allowed to be human and accept our flaws, we can overcome our limitations and be the best for ourselves and others.” 

            Carol also speaks on educational topics nationally and internationally, and is pictured here with some students at the Aziza Schoolhouse in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  Her first book, Majoring in the Rest of Your Life, launched her writing career and opened the door to her work on the Keys to Success series.

Joyce Bishop has taught college students for more than 22 years.  After struggling with a learning disability as a student, she focused on her visual and logical-mathematical learning abilities and went on to earn a PhD in psychology. Right now, she is in her dream job as staff development coordinator at Golden West College while still teaching three classes.  She enjoys training other faculty in effective teaching and learning strategies and also in how to teach online.  For 5 years Joyce was voted “favorite teacher,” she was Teacher of the Year for 1995 and 2000, and in 2008 received the Hayward Award, a state teaching award.

Joyce co-founded a program 19 years ago for poor young women from abusive backgrounds. Since that time, the Pathways to Independence nonprofit foundation has sent 255 young women to college, and 195 have graduated into gainful employment.  For these young women coming from challenging backgrounds such as prison, extreme poverty, abuse, or psychological disorders, Joyce has been their champion. This photo is of Joyce with one of the Pathways graduates, Valerie, who obtained her degree in nursing and is now working at a major university hospital as a pediatric nurse.  “It is so inspiring to see what these young women do with their lives,” says Joyce, “once they know that they can do anything.”

Sarah Lyman Kravits lives the strategies for success she writes about. As an author and mother of three children ages 11, 9, and 5, she faces the challenges of managing time and fulfilling responsibilities (not to mention eating right and getting enough sleep).  In her writing and research, she works to stay creative and keep up with technology and the growth of knowledge.  In her work with colleagues all over the country, she strives for integrity, effective communication, productive teamwork, and flexibility. Finally, in her current role as a breast cancer patient, she uses goal achievement and stress management strategies every day to get through a host of new and unexpected challenges.           

            Unlike Carol and Joyce, Sarah thrived in school from an early age based on her strength in verbal-linguistic and logical-mathematical learning. A few years after graduating from the University of Virginia as a Jefferson Scholar, she worked as program director for LifeSkills, Inc., a nonprofit organization that aims to further the career and personal development of high school students.  This work led her into co-authoring her first student success text and the realization she was driven to empower students to reach their goals.  “Lifelong learning is the essential success skill,” says Sarah. “Learning gives you a chance to go beyond just thinking about your dreams so that you can make them happen.”