Why do students struggle with procrastination and poor study skills?

[Moonbear]

Yes, I'm very busy teaching the nursing students...or trying to teach them, as it feels tonight after seeing their exam scores. Though, I think only one scored so badly as to be dug into a hole that may be impossible to climb out of; I need to do the math pretty quickly so I can advise if withdrawing is the most viable option; we always lose a few on the first exam when they realize that they aren't just going to coast through nursing school. The rest are going to have to work their behinds off to pull their grades up the rest of the term, but they are all still in a range where they can still get Bs. And of course, there are plenty also well in the clear for getting As. This one was a hard exam to get a fire lit under those who think they can get away with just cramming the night before the exam.

 

[GeorginaS]

Sounds as if your presentation came off well, Moonbear. And see? Another example of not just telling but showing too. And you didn't even mean to do it.

I find that's a (I want to say 'penetrating' way but I feel as if I ought to have another word) convincing way to deliver information. People get to hear about it and watch it in action too. It doubles up the times you've made the point and gives people a way to solidify the information in their mind.

A friend of mine frequently employs the storytelling or example method to put information into context for her students. We frequently brainstorm at work or write incidents down as good examples to work into lectures. Sometimes that backfires on her although one of my favourites was hard to anticipate, I think.

Not too long ago she was talking about how to negotiate a settlement to first-year college students. (Remember, I'm in Canada, and "college" here isn't the same as "college" in the US where "college" is synonymous with "university". "College" here non-academic post-secondary school that isn't trade school.)

So my friend was explaining to the young folks before her (early 20s crowd) about how you have to weigh out the consequences of accepting a possibly lower settlement on some deal but take into account that, should the issue get litigated, they might lose out entirely. She said, "A good thing to consider is: a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." She was met with blank stares. One student put up their hand and wanted to know where the birds came from all of a sudden. My friend pointed out that, surely, they must familiar with that expression. Apparently not.

As they were furiously taking notes, someone asked my friend to write the bush thing on the blackboard. She tried to explain the general concept behind the saying, she got more questions about it and the whole lecture got derailed with commentary about birds and bushes. She assured her class that it didn't matter, it wouldn't be on any exams, don't worry about, forget she ever mentioned it.

The following day, my friend walked into class and asked if there were any questions before they began that session. Someone said, "Yeah, can we go over that bird thing again? I didn't quite get it."

We laugh pretty hard about that story now. At the time, my friend was entirely flabbergasted. So we polled all of the 20-something people we know personally and asked them if they were familiar with the expression. The vote came back, "no". So. Lesson learned. I think.

 

[Borek]

In Polish it would be "sparrow in the grasp is better than pigeon on the roof". Gonna ask people if they know what that means

 

[Monique]

The following day, my friend walked into class and asked if there were any questions before they began that session. Someone said, "Yeah, can we go over that bird thing again? I didn't quite get it."

Gee, did that person have a board in front of its head? I have another variation: It's better to have one bird in the hand than 10 in the sky

 

[Moonbear]

The following day, my friend walked into class and asked if there were any questions before they began that session. Someone said, "Yeah, can we go over that bird thing again? I didn't quite get it."

We laugh pretty hard about that story now. At the time, my friend was entirely flabbergasted. So we polled all of the 20-something people we know personally and asked them if they were familiar with the expression. The vote came back, "no". So. Lesson learned. I think.

I think it all comes back to listening skills. Okay, so you've never heard the expression before, but once someone tells you "it's just an expression, it's not important and not on the exam," you move on. When they're furiously writing notes without ever letting the information even pause in their brain on the way from eyes and ears to pens and paper, they completely miss the points being made and focus on trying to memorize details.

I expect this in freshmen, who have varying high school backgrounds, and who generally could get through high school by just memorizing and regurgitating, and often without even studying much because things were repeated so many times. But, I'm still trying to figure out what's going on in freshman courses here that they have managed to get to sophomore year STILL without learning study skills, or even realizing that their study skills are lacking. I only wrote a few questions that I intended to be really hard...they were there to sort out my A and B students. They seemed to think even my easy questions were hard.