Stella Cottrell

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[4]

The book featured activities and self-evaluations as well as cartoons intended to appeal to visual learners. Customised editions of The Study Skills Handbook have been published for Queen's University Belfast, The University of East London, Middlesex University and Coventry University.

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.[4] The current, fifth, edition of The Study Skills Handbook was published in 2019.

According to 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 makes sense to the student if it is contextualised. Lecturers can encourage critical thought through the careful structuring of information and set exercises.[7]

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.[8] In 2011, Victor Glynn reviewed it as "one of the best texts for general critical thinking around at the moment" in Education Bookseller.[3] The current, third, edition of Critical Thinking Skills, published in 2017.

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".[9]

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.[10]

Stella sees reflection as a central component of study skills. Since Higher Education 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.[11] 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?[12]

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.[13]

Cottrell sees personal development planning (PDP) as a confluence of personal improvement, greater academic performance, and planning to achieve goals, "whether academic, personal or professional".[14] 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."[15]

In 2003, Cottrell 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.[16] The textbook design featured reflective exercises and self-evaluations, as well as cartoons similar to those seen in The Study Skills Handbook. The third edition was published in 2015.

The benefits and importance of social inclusion within the higher education 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." [17]

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.[10]