Stella Cottrell
Encyclopedia
Stella Cottrell is the Director for Lifelong Learning at the University of Leeds, UK. Prior to her current position, she was Director for Lifelong Learning at the University of Luton and before that worked for ten years in educational development at the University of East London. Throughout her career she has maintained an interest in supporting students from diverse backgrounds, such as those with dyslexia
and mature, international and disabled students.
Since publishing the first edition of The Study Skills Handbook in 1999, Stella Cottrell has authored a number of study skills
textbooks as part of the Palgrave Study Skills series, published by Palgrave Macmillan
. In the June 2011 edition of Education Bookseller, Victor Glynn
characterised Cottrell's books as "concise, clearly laid out and covering a wide range of subjects".
* First published as the Palgrave Student Planner 2005-6 and every year subsequently.
with the right strategies, attitudes and pacing to suit their circumstances and previous educational background. Whether they were successful at study in the past or not, Stella contends that all students benefit from taking an individualised approach that suits them, as they are now, and looking with fresh eyes at each new challenge.
Critical self-reflection and active solution-seeking are emphasised throughout the book. Cottrell's aim is for students to personalise and contextualise strategies, rather than taking advice wholesale.
The book featured activities and self-evaluations as well as cartoons intended to appeal to visual learners. Several customised editions of The Study Skills Handbook have been published for Queen's University Belfast, The University of East London
, and Middlesex University
.
The objective of the centre is to deliver programmes and services that:
Cottrell argues that critical thinking
makes sense to the student if it is contextualised. Lecturers can encourage critical thought through the careful structuring of information and set exercises.
In 2005, Critical Thinking Skills: developing effective analysis and argument was published. The book aimed to help readers "develop an understanding of what is meant by critical thinking, and to develop their own reasoning skills". Cottrell grounds critical thinking
as an everyday activity, such as deciding whether we believe something that we're told. Within an academic context, she presents the challenge of thinking critically as rigorous verification and, if justified by the evidence, having the confidence to argue for an alternative view. The current, second edition of Critical Thinking Skills, was published in 2011. Victor Glynn reviewed it as "one of the best texts for general critical thinking around at the moment" in Education Bookseller.
Her books take the position that each student is unique in the particular details of:
involves more autonomous learning than students may have experienced previously, they need to become responsible for reflecting on their own progress, strengths and areas in need of development. Examples of reflective questions include:
Cottrell believes that accurate self-reflection is difficult and so includes brief structured reflective models throughout her books to help students. One such example is the Core Model for reflection, that appears in Skills for Success.
(PDP) as a confluence of personal improvement, greater academic performance, and planning to achieve goals, "whether academic, personal or professional". For Cottrell, it is important that all students regularly reflect on how their course and extracurricular activities relate to their future ambitions: "Linking PDP, the programme of study and the student’s future is especially important for younger students, who are less likely to have thought about careers."
In 2003, Stella published Skills for Success: the personal development planning handbook. The book was structured to represent a journey from defining a personal vision of success, to developing the academic and personal skills needed, and finally bringing all this together in an effective job application. The textbook design featured reflective exercises and self-evaluations, as well as cartoons similar to those seen in The Study Skills Handbook. An updated edition was published in 2010.
system is a common theme in Stella Cottrell's writing. In an article written for Times Higher Education, she argued that "A variety of needs has been made manifest by larger class sizes, working students, broader social and international participation, the requirements of students with disabilities and better understanding of individual learning preferences."
Cottrell's writing assumes that students are different in how they learn and what they need to learn. The aim is to encourage students to take charge of their learning and find strategies that suit them best.
resource based on Stella Cottrell's 2008 edition of The Study Skills Handbook. Stella was involved in the planning of skills4studycampus and the process of adapting The Study Skills Handbook to an interactive environment.
skills4studycampus is divided into seven areas:
."
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...
and mature, international and disabled students.
Since publishing the first edition of The Study Skills Handbook in 1999, Stella Cottrell has authored a number of study skills
Study Skills
Study skills or study strategies are approaches applied to learning. They are generally critical to success in school, are considered essential for acquiring good grades, and are useful for learning throughout one's life....
textbooks as part of the Palgrave Study Skills series, published by Palgrave Macmillan
Palgrave Macmillan
Palgrave Macmillan is an international academic and trade publishing company, headquartered in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom and with offices in New York, Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong, Delhi, Johannesburg. It was created in 2000 when St...
. In the June 2011 edition of Education Bookseller, Victor Glynn
Victor Glynn
Victor Glynn, an award winning film and television producer and writer, was born in Balham, London on 11 October 1956. He married Lorna Gillian Glynn in 1982. She died in 1999. He has four children. His daughter Harriet is a film producer...
characterised Cottrell's books as "concise, clearly laid out and covering a wide range of subjects".
List of publications
| Title | Edition number | Format | ISBN | Publication date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Study Skills Handbook | 1 | Paperback | 9780333751893 | 12/08/1999 |
| Teaching Study Skills and Supporting Learning | 1 | Paperback | 9780333921241 | 07/09/2001 |
| The Study Skills Handbook | 2 | Paperback | 9781403911353 | 25/04/2003 |
| Skills for Success | 1 | Paperback | 9781403911322 | 02/05/2003 |
| Critical Thinking Skills | 1 | Paperback | 9781403996855 | 09/09/2005 |
| The Study Stick | 1 | USB Flash drive | 9780230516595 | 08/09/2006 |
| The Exam Skills Handbook | 1 | Paperback | 9780230506534 | 03/11/2006 |
| The Study Skills Handbook | 3 | Paperback | 9780230573055 | 22/02/2008 |
| Skills for Success | 2 | Paperback | 9780230250185 | 19/05/2010 |
| Critical Thinking Skills | 2 | Paperback | 9780230285293 | 11/05/2011 |
| The Palgrave Student Planner 2011-12* | 1 | Spiral-bound | 9780230298262 | 11/05/2011 |
* First published as the Palgrave Student Planner 2005-6 and every year subsequently.
The Study Skills Handbook
The Study Skills Handbook was first published on the 12th of August, 1999. The philosophy behind the book can be summarised as saying that most students could perform well in higher educationHigher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
with the right strategies, attitudes and pacing to suit their circumstances and previous educational background. Whether they were successful at study in the past or not, Stella contends that all students benefit from taking an individualised approach that suits them, as they are now, and looking with fresh eyes at each new challenge.
Critical self-reflection and active solution-seeking are emphasised throughout the book. Cottrell's aim is for students to personalise and contextualise strategies, rather than taking advice wholesale.
Themes
Prominent themes in The Study Skills Handbook include:- Critical thinking
- Active, participatory learning
- Self-evaluation
- Personal reflection
- Personalised learning
- The importance of knowing how learning, intelligence and memory work
- Self-management and personal effectiveness
- Identifying your learning style
- Applying personal skills to academia and vice versa
- Shaping your degree for personal development and future employability
The book featured activities and self-evaluations as well as cartoons intended to appeal to visual learners. Several customised editions of The Study Skills Handbook have been published for Queen's University Belfast, The University of East London
University of East London
The University of East London is a university located in the London Borough of Newham, East London, England, based at two campuses in Stratford and Docklands areas...
, and Middlesex University
Middlesex University
Middlesex University is a university in north London, England. It is located in the historic county boundaries of Middlesex from which it takes its name. It is one of the post-1992 universities and is a member of Million+ working group...
.
Subsequent development
The Study Skills Handbook was developed out of Stella Cottrell's experience of working with students. Subsequent editions have been developed using feedback from students and lecturers who have used the book. The current, third edition of The Study Skills Handbook was published in 2008.The Lifelong Learning Centre
Stella Cottrell was appointed as Director of the Lifelong Learning Centre (LLC) in July 2005. On her appointment the University of Leeds reported her as saying, "This is absolutely the right time for the University to be looking at its social inclusion agenda, and to build on its current innovatory work with adult learners."The objective of the centre is to deliver programmes and services that:
- Promote and support the development of part-time and mature undergraduate study at Leeds
- Support progression onto University of Leeds programmes for adults from groups under-represented in HE
- Ensure that part-time and mature students achieve and flourish at the University of Leeds.
Critical thinking
According to Stella Cottrell, students are likely to have difficulty engaging in critical analysis if:- they lack adequate knowledge of the subject
- they have poor reading skills, or vocabulary
- they are unsure of the purpose of their analysis
- they are unsure of the level of discourse expected from them
Cottrell argues that critical thinking
Critical thinking
Critical thinking is the process or method of thinking that questions assumptions. It is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false, or sometimes true and sometimes false, or partly true and partly false. The origins of critical thinking can be traced in Western thought to the Socratic...
makes sense to the student if it is contextualised. Lecturers can encourage critical thought through the careful structuring of information and set exercises.
In 2005, Critical Thinking Skills: developing effective analysis and argument was published. The book aimed to help readers "develop an understanding of what is meant by critical thinking, and to develop their own reasoning skills". Cottrell grounds critical thinking
Critical thinking
Critical thinking is the process or method of thinking that questions assumptions. It is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false, or sometimes true and sometimes false, or partly true and partly false. The origins of critical thinking can be traced in Western thought to the Socratic...
as an everyday activity, such as deciding whether we believe something that we're told. Within an academic context, she presents the challenge of thinking critically as rigorous verification and, if justified by the evidence, having the confidence to argue for an alternative view. The current, second edition of Critical Thinking Skills, was published in 2011. Victor Glynn reviewed it as "one of the best texts for general critical thinking around at the moment" in Education Bookseller.
Personalised learning
Cottrell encourages students to personalise their learning by reflecting on the way they learn and under what circumstances this is most effective. "If you are open, flexible and creative in trying new approaches, you will develop into a more rounded personality and a more effective learner".Her books take the position that each student is unique in the particular details of:
- how we learn
- how we respond to new tasks, circumstances, people and challenges
- what we need in order to perform at our best.
Reflection
Stella sees reflection as a central component of study skills. Since Higher EducationHigher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
involves more autonomous learning than students may have experienced previously, they need to become responsible for reflecting on their own progress, strengths and areas in need of development. Examples of reflective questions include:
- Are you sufficiently motivated to achieve your goals?
- How will your course of study affect your longer-term ambitions?
- What are the most stimulating aspects of your current learning?
- What is blocking your progress?
Cottrell believes that accurate self-reflection is difficult and so includes brief structured reflective models throughout her books to help students. One such example is the Core Model for reflection, that appears in Skills for Success.
Personal Development Planning
Cottrell sees Personal Development PlanningPersonal development planning
Personal development planning is the process of creating an action plan based on awareness, values, reflection, goal-setting and planning for personal development within the context of a career, education, relationship or for self-improvement....
(PDP) as a confluence of personal improvement, greater academic performance, and planning to achieve goals, "whether academic, personal or professional". For Cottrell, it is important that all students regularly reflect on how their course and extracurricular activities relate to their future ambitions: "Linking PDP, the programme of study and the student’s future is especially important for younger students, who are less likely to have thought about careers."
In 2003, Stella published Skills for Success: the personal development planning handbook. The book was structured to represent a journey from defining a personal vision of success, to developing the academic and personal skills needed, and finally bringing all this together in an effective job application. The textbook design featured reflective exercises and self-evaluations, as well as cartoons similar to those seen in The Study Skills Handbook. An updated edition was published in 2010.
Inclusion
The benefits and importance of social inclusion within the higher educationHigher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
system is a common theme in Stella Cottrell's writing. In an article written for Times Higher Education, she argued that "A variety of needs has been made manifest by larger class sizes, working students, broader social and international participation, the requirements of students with disabilities and better understanding of individual learning preferences."
Cottrell's writing assumes that students are different in how they learn and what they need to learn. The aim is to encourage students to take charge of their learning and find strategies that suit them best.
skills4studycampus
In 2010, Palgrave Macmillan launched skills4studycampus, an online e-learningE-learning
E-learning comprises all forms of electronically supported learning and teaching. The information and communication systems, whether networked learning or not, serve as specific media to implement the learning process...
resource based on Stella Cottrell's 2008 edition of The Study Skills Handbook. Stella was involved in the planning of skills4studycampus and the process of adapting The Study Skills Handbook to an interactive environment.
skills4studycampus is divided into seven areas:
- Getting ready for academic study
- Reading and note-making
- Critical thinking skills
- Writing skills
- Referencing and plagiarism
- Groupwork and presentations
- Exam skills
Honorary doctorate
In 2011, The University of Bedfordshire announced that an honorary doctorate is to be awarded to Stella Cottrell "in recognition of her 'outstanding contribution to lifelong learning and widening participation'". On the announcement of this award, Stella summarised her work with the Lifelong Learning Centre: "I have always worked to create good educational opportunities for those who, for whatever reason, either under-achieved in the past or didn't get a chance to study in higher educationHigher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
."