Avoiding procrastination and the planning fallacy : Implementing study-plans as a strategy to increase student achievement

• Within a course in academic writing, first-term students of English currently construct individualized study-plans detailing both what they should do during the term and when they should do it. Students calculate the average workload for all their courses, and include in their study-plans all the hours they should spend both in and outside the classroom on each course, totalling in 40-hour working weeks. Students also regularly evaluate their progress and revise their study-plans in peer groups. The reason why study-plans were introduced was the realization that many first-term students lack effective time-management skills and have difficulties comprehending what full-time study means. In courses where later work must build on work done at an earlier stage, the ability to plan for time is essential; the tendency among students to continuously underestimate the time each task would take created serious problems. Research shows that poor time-management skills, procrastinatory behaviour and the planning fallacy (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979) result in lower academic performance, higher dropout rates and stress (Brownshow & Reasinger, 2000; Sigall & Kruglanski, 2000). It is therefore important that such problems be addressed early. Instead of assuming that first-term students already know how to manage their time, these skills should be actively taught to them. That, in turn, can help avoid problems that affect courses with little classroom teaching and where students need to work independently and respect several deadlines. The results of our experiment with study-plans are promising: students report that they have gained a better insight into how they spend their time, in what areas they procrastinate, and how discussing their study-plans can be helpful. We also discuss how teaching students basic time-management and other skills can lead to more in-depth learning: students who can plan their studies are more focussed on course content, can foresee upcoming difficulties and know how to handle them.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

planning fallacy

procrastination

time-management skills

study skills

study plans

Publikations- och innehållstyp

kon (ämneskategori)

ref (ämneskategori)