A parents' guide to supporting their children
Sick of nagging at your kids To do their homework? Is it an everyday battle and a constant power struggle?
The Benefits
Observing our children cramming the night before exams, having all-nighters to get that assignment done, feeling overcome with stress and losing sleep is both frustrating and challenging. As parents and educators, we have the life experience to understand the long-term benefits of study and developing good study skills. Students often engage in procrastination and prioritising time with friends and preferred activities over homework, assignments and studying for tests.
Study skills are important for reducing anxiety, improving focus, increasing motivation, and experiencing success at school. Considering that most students are unlikely to be self-motivated to prioritise studying over friendships and fun, realistically what can we do to support them?.
7 Evidence Based Strategies For
improving study behaviours:
- Understand their learning style and check for understanding
Children may approach and engage effectively in learning in different ways. Metacognitive skills involve thinking about thinking. These skills include planning how to approach learning tasks, identifying appropriate strategies to complete a task, evaluating progress, and monitoring comprehension. Children may learn best utilising varying styles including auditory (using music, sounds or both), kinesthetic (using the body, sense of touch and hands, logical (using reasoning, logic, and systems), verbal (using words in writing and speech), social (learning with other people or in groups), solitary (learn best when alone).
- Encourage a healthy and helpful study mindset
Positive thinking and growth mindset has been shown to be linked to achievement and better outcomes. Encouraging our children to practice a growth mindset involves facilitating the belief that they can improve outcomes with perseverance and effort. Helping our children attempt tasks independently, be constructive, and embrace failure moves them towards confidence and success.
- Develop a realistic study schedule and make it a priority
Setting a study schedule and sticking to a routine will encourage consistency and reduce procrastination and avoidance. Set reminders and establish a schedule that incorporates study before leisure activities. Choose a dedicated and effective study location.
- Choose a dedicated and effective study location
Allocate a dedicated area or space for study that is to be used each day. Ensure that this space is comfortable and free of distractions including social media, emails, and preferred activities. Consider environmental factors like reducing visual stimuli, providing a space that is quiet, and has the right and required study materials including equipment and task outlines/instructions. Set up the study materials that can be permanently left in this space to reduce the time it takes to gather items needed.
- Set achievable goals and focus on quality not quantity
When needed, help your children set specific study goals to give direction to a study session and create goals that are achievable to provide a sense of mastery and accomplishment. This will motivate our children to continue study behaviours. It is more effective to keep study sessions short so that our children can maintain focus and on task and feel success. Consider the attention span of your child and set study periods to be shorter than this.
- Teach time management and organisational skills
In addition to setting a schedule, the use of timers and reminders can assist in dedicating concrete amounts of time to varying study tasks. Visual timers like the Time Timer are helpful for kids that struggle to focus and/or misunderstand the flow of time. They also help kids manage transitions.
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” ― Robert Collier
- Network with peers
Look for study groups or peers that are model positive study habits and encourage studying together at times. Setting study schedules that align can be motivating and provide set times that students can network regarding their learning or approach to tasks.
