Teaching procrastination - A way of helping students to improve their study habits
- 1. Teaching Procrastination - A Way of Helping Students to Improve their Study Habits 2012-08-30 • Björn Hedin • KTH Royal Institute of Technology • Media Technology • Stockholm, Sweden • [email protected]
- 2. What is Procrastination • “Defer action, especially without good reason” (Oxford English Reference Dictionary, 1996). • “When one delays beginning or completing an intended course of action” (Beswick & Mann, 1994; Ferrari, 1993a; Lay & Silverman, 1996; Milgram, 1991; Silver & Sabini, 1981) • “To voluntarily delay an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay” (Steel 2007) • Extremely common among students
- 3. Why we initiated a project to “teach (about) procrastination” • Reflection course - Consistently and over several years seen student reflections on their on studies where they say ”I started to study too late this period, but next period I will start earlier”. - This leads to cramming strategies rather than spacing learning more evenly over time -> reduced learning • Own experience of similar behaviour
- 4. Procrastination and College Students • 80%–95% of college students engage in procrastination • 75% consider themselves procrastinators • 50% procrastinate consistently and problematically • over 95% of procrastinators wish to reduce it • students reporting that it typically occupies over one third of their daily activities • The figures above appear to be on the rise. Various studies referenced by Steel (2007)
- 5. Causes and Correlates of Procrastination (Steel 2007) • Task aversiveness • Task delay – temporal discounting • Timing of rewards and punishments • Self-efficacy • Impulsiveness • Self-control • Distractibility • Organization • Achievement motivation
- 7. What we have done • In the same reflection course - Study how widespread the use of new media is when procrastinating. • E-procrastination • M-procrastination - Make students • Aware of the problem • Know about its causes and effects • Discuss anti-procrastination strategies - Do a follow-up of the outcome
- 8. Structure of the Procrastination Module • October 2011: - Introduction to procrastination and cramming using relatively non-academic texts - Write reflection documents on their own procrastination and discuss with peers and teachers in small groups - Questionnaires about procrastination habits related to new media and mobile phones - Standardized procrastination procrastination questionnaire - Optionally make a ”promise” about changing behaviour
- 9. March 2012 • First follow-up • Read and discuss research on procrastination (Steel) • TED video by Matt Cutts on ”Try something new for 30 days” - And find one habit they would like to add to their lives and one they would like to remove • “Is Google Making us Stupid - What the Internet is doing to our brains” by Nicholas Carr • May 2012 – Final follow-up
- 10. Results from the questionnaires • 218 of (about) 227 students answered the questionnaires - 40% women - Evenly spread out over year 1, 2 and 3. • One standardised procrastination questionnaire • One questionnaire about procrastination and ”new media”
- 11. Irrational Postponing of Actions 50% 45% 40% Very Seldom or 35% Never 30% Seldom 25% Sometimes 20% 15% Often 10% 5% Very Often or 0% Always There are aspects of my life I postpone even though I know I shouldn't
- 12. Regretting not starting activities earlier 50% 45% 40% Very Seldom or 35% Never 30% Seldom 25% Sometimes 20% 15% Often 10% 5% Very Often or 0% Always I often regret that I don't start tasks earlier
- 13. Facebook on computers 35% Very Often 30% 25% Often 20% Now and Then 15% Seldom 10% 5% Very Seldom or Never 0% Don't use Facebook When I really ought to study I on computer instead use Facebook on a computer
- 14. Facebook on mobile phones 25% Very Often 20% Often 15% Now and Then 10% Seldom 5% Very Seldom or 0% Never When I really ought to study I Don't use Facebook instead use Facebook on a mobile on mobile phones phones
- 15. ”Other” surfing on computers 45% 40% Very Often 35% Often 30% 25% Now and Then 20% 15% Seldom 10% Very Seldom or 5% Never 0% Don't surf When I really ought to study I instead surf on "other" on computers
- 16. Email on computers 40% 35% Very Often 30% Often 25% 20% Now and Then 15% Seldom 10% 5% Very Seldom or Never 0% Don't use Email on When I really ought to study I instead computers use email on a computer
- 17. Email on mobile phones 30% Very Often 25% Often 20% 15% Now and Then 10% Seldom 5% Very Seldom or Never 0% Don't use email on When I really ought to study I instead mobile phones use email on mobile phones
- 18. SMS on mobile phones 30% Very Often 25% Often 20% 15% Now and Then 10% Seldom 5% Very Seldom or Never 0% Don't use SMS on When I really ought to study I instead mobile phones use SMS on mobile phones
- 19. Summary of e-procrastination and m- procrastination • The three top e-procrastination activities, where students often or very often, against better judgement, engage in other activities on computers - 54.6% Other surfing on computers - 54.1% Film/TV/DVD etc on computer - 52.3% Facebook on computers • Top m-procrastination activities - 50.4% SMS on mobile phones - 28.9% Email on mobile phones - 24.8% Facebook on mobile phones • 88% engage in at least one e-procrastination category often or very often, with an average of 4.7 categories.
- 20. Some thoughs about this • Most activities listed was hardly a problem 10 years ago - Facebook, Youtube didn’t exist - Few had computers constantly connected to Internet - Smartphones didn’t exist • Notification ”features” on smartphones allows students to be distracted and start procrastinating anywhere, anytime • Computers are used extensively for learning, and Facebook is but one click away
- 21. Follow-up at the end of the course module • 38% saw procrastination as a big or very big problem. • The effect of the course module was followed up more closely for this groups. - About 1/3 had not changed their habits as a result of the course module - About 1/3 had changed their habits in some positive way, but not to the extent they had wanted - About 1/3 had changed their habits much in a positive way.
- 22. Some comments from students • Increased awareness of procrastination. - They now identify when they procrastinate which makes it easier to stop procrastinating - But also increased stress if they don’t stop • ”I am not alone!” - Knowing it is a common problem made them feel better. • Some of the anti-procrastination strategies discussed worked well, but they soon forgot about them and fell into old habits
- 23. Some anti-procrastination strategies used/developed by students • Organisational - Eat the frog: Do your most unpleasant task first - Time-boxing - Don’t break the chain • Technical - Turn of notifications on their iPhones - Start using non-distraction software such as Anti-Social, Freedom, Self-Restraint, StayFocusd - Make special ”parent-mode” accounts for themselves on their computers with features turned off - Study in places with no wi-fi - One student sold his smart-phone and bought a dumb- phone instead!
- 24. Conclusions and advice • Many student improved their study habits! • Skills useful not only for learning but for life gained. As a teacher • Frequent deadlines in courses • Think about policies about allowing laptop/mobiles on lectures?
- 25. Student responsibility and reminders
Editor's Notes
- #4: Anektdot om att jag fick begära förlängd deadline på pappret samt avslutade presentationen på morgonenBörjade undersökai ämnet, hittade mycket forskning!