How to get your students studying efficiently
While you’ve probably spent your entire teaching career recommending to parents that their kids get in the habit of studying from a young age, there’s much debate about how young is too young.
It’s not easy to convince students that study is super important. It’s on par with trying to convince them that cleaning up the classroom is a great idea, sleep is essential, sugar rots your teeth and, if you stare at a screen for too long, your eyes will turn square.
While you’ve probably spent your entire teaching career recommending to parents that their kids get in the habit of studying from a young age, there’s much debate about how young is too young.
It was a question asked within a recent study by Stanford University in the US, which revealed that it is better for kids if they started studying later, rather than earlier. The study, which focused on Danish school children (who start school at the age of six), showed that kids starting their studies at the age of seven showed lower levels of inattention and hyperactivity.
Yet the digital age has turned everything upside down – in good ways and in disturbing ways too.
Social media is filled with advice about how to get young people to stop staring at endless YouTube clips of skateboard tricks, cats behaving badly and Godzilla vs. King Kong – but how do you get your students to focus on technology when they need it most: study time?
Put simply: if technology and screen time is here to stay, how can students use it to their greatest advantage (for studying purposes) instead of purely for mindless entertainment? The answer might be a simple one.
More than 500 Australian high school and tertiary students were surveyed recently, with a finding that using the pen/pencil/paper combination from the ‘olden days’ is one way to get kids into good study habits. Why? For the simple reason, it takes them away from the distractions of the digital world… They’re not going to be tempted to google ‘weird rubbish left behind on Mount Everest’ if they’re not staring at an iPad in the first place.
One striking revelation is that four in five Australian students print out their work as a study aid.
The survey found 68 per cent of students find colour coding important, 62 per cent print their course notes, 45 per cent underline important information, 42 per cent hand write notes in the margin to remember important facts, and 31 per cent print images.
The overwhelming factor here is all about printing – students find it a lot easier to understand something if they can print it, scribble notes on it and make great use of the ubiquitous yellow fluoro textas in your classroom.
So, what's the simple answer?
You might think you’ve already lost the battle against technology. But all is not lost. Once your students find the information they want on their laptop/iPad – and let’s face it, there’s usually plenty in the lead up to assignments, tests and exams, encourage them to print it.
In doing so, they can use the paper in ways that are not possible with technology – physically hold it in their hands, make use of notes, scribbles and highlighting. Study notes can be printed, you can check them to make sure your students are on track and then they can be taken home to blue-tack onto bedroom walls and enhance the learning process.
The possibilities are endless and all roads lead to one solution: print the information first, get the kids to use the papers for note taking, helpful hints in the margins and highlighting… and watch your students’ learning outcomes improve.
EOFY isn’t only about getting your financials in order. It’s a great time for small businesses to review and plan.
The first in a series of blogs on AI by Dr Jeroen Vendrig, from Canon Information Systems Research Australia (CISRA)
When you’re working with students and their families, and interfacing with the government, data security is paramount.
Schools revolve around data and information. Unfortunately this information isn't always well managed, which often means that it can be difficult or impossible to find. What are the challenges facing today's schools around timely access to a schools information?
Innovation can be emotional — don’t let it get your employees down.
The prospect of asking the boss for a raise might strike fear into your heart, but you’ve to to be in it to win it…
To survive and remain profitable, organisations need to find new ways to improve efficiencies.
Protecting your patient data is increasingly complex with threats of cyber-attacks and data breaches coming from both inside and outside your practice.
How to settle on the right practice management software for your business
Alexa, Siri and co. may soon be just as helpful in the office as they are around your home
Australian business leaders see the value in innovation but more needs to be done if we’re to arrest the slide in our national competitiveness.