Purpose Statement
The purpose of this
activity is to help students assess their study habits and adequacy of time
management. Students are often unaware of how they are really spending their
time. They claim they don’t have enough time but the problem is really wise
management of time. This activity helps students uncover problem areas and
assists them in planning better time management as well as in improving their
study habits.
Description of Activity
This is a written
assignment done outside of class. I wanted to assess the worthiness of offering
this activity on a regular basis to students. I have never previously done a
time management assignment before. Students were given a packet with
instructions, a study habits inventory, and two copies of a daily schedule
chart to be filled out. Students were asked to fill out the study habits
inventory and then do an assessment of their study habits and how they manage
their time, identifying their strengths and what needs improvement. Then they
were asked to keep track of how they spent their time for an entire week,
filling out the schedule on a daily basis. After the week, they were asked to
do an analysis of how they used their time including time spent wisely and time
wasted. After this analysis, they were asked to make a new weekly schedule and
try it for a week to see if they could manage their time more effectively.
After that week, they were asked to write an analysis of how they fared on the
revised schedule. In their conclusion students were required to evaluate the
benefits of doing this activity, i.e. if it was worthwhile and helpful and if
they would recommend this activity as part of class assignments. Students
submitted a 3-5 page paper for extra credit.
Materials Needed
A handout packet with
instruction page, a study habits inventory (obtained from the book LEARNING TO
LEARN by Gloria Frender), and two daily schedule charts.
Application
Even though the packet
contains instructions, it is important to take some class time to explain the
activity to the students and answer questions. Five to ten minutes of class
time should be adequate. It is also important to offer some kind of credit for
the assignment . Most students just wouldn’t be motivated to do this without
some incentive, especially the ones that really need the most help. What I
learned from the project is that many students are not allowing enough time for
studying and some are taking too many units for the number of hours per week
that they work. They really under anticipate how much time college classes
take, even though I tell them at the beginning of the semester that they should
allow 1-3 hours outside of class for every hour in class. Doing this project
really helped them realize this. I received very positive feedback from most of
the students. Some suggested that this project be given out earlier in the
semester to maximize its benefits. It takes an activity like this to make
students really see how they are managing their time and how much time is
actually being used ineffectively.
this web page was created
on 11/24/99 at 8:25:38 AM
and modified on 11/24/99 at 8:25:38 AM