Is Self-Study Possible?
By Jieun Woo
Work vs. Fun. This is a dilemma that floats around in the minds of current students as school has become online. Say a student woke up to start the day having decided with a mindset of “today, I will finish my work without giving into any distractions and only once I have finished all my assignments for today will I play any games or watch any YouTube”. And while achieving this goal may seem easy just by looking at the words, in reality, it is very easy to be swayed by the distraction of entertainment that is just one click away.
This is the exact situation that Andy, an 8th grade student faces. He says, “[While I’m doing my online work,] the thing that I want to do is just one click away and so I just click thinking that I’ll just watch just a few minutes of the show and then return to my work, but then those few minutes turn into hours, and before I knew it, I hadn’t studied”.
Andy is not the only student facing this problem. Throughout the world, we became aware of a change in everyone as COVID-19 appeared. Many students went from studying in an environment surrounded by interactions with teachers and their peers to one where they studied alone in their room, facing the computer with whether they study becoming mainly up to them. We could see that as the environment changed, so did the behaviors of the students. Kids who had seemed like model students became those not being able to finish their day’s work, just like Andy. On the other hand, kids who used to have grades rising and dropping, became the ones that diligently finished their daily workload before starting any fun. What happened? Why would there be this drastic change in behavior? Why can’t some kids self-study? And how can we fix the problems to succeed in self-study?
Well, in answer to the first and second questions, what changed wasn’t the students’ behaviors, but rather our perception: we became more aware of behaviors. Before, it seemed like the kids had been self-studying, but that was just the surface. If we had looked closely, we would have seen that the students weren’t studying because they wanted to learn, but more so because they cared about the environment around them and what people thought. At school, they are constantly surrounded by their people in an environment where they are supposed to learn, so the surrounding ambiance is what influenced those students' decisions to study.
To answer the third question of “Why can’t some kids self-study?”, we can look at five abilities of the frontal lobe of the brain: managing time, persisting with the plan, thinking you should do something and doing it (spontaneity), controlling impulses, and controlling emotions. The problems that students have with self-studying will most likely fall into one of these categories. And since self-study is a skill that is a must to be able to succeed in university, these five abilities are also the main ones that are constantly seen in the top students at top universities.
To be able to succeed in self-study, students have to be able to control the abilities that they lack, and this can be seen in the study habits of those top college students as they use simple solutions. The first study habit is from a current student in medical school. She says, “I use a lot of planners where I mark what I’m going to do today, and after I finish, I make sure to check not only what I studied, but I also review all the questions that I got wrong”. This method of planners is an example of supporting the ability of time management.
Another college student talks about his own method in studying, “Because I knew that I was bad at controlling my impulses, I got rid of the impulses by recording myself while I study”. This example shows the student being able to remove the distractions around him by himself simply by setting up a monitor system. This monitor system can be many things, including live broadcasts and another person. This strategy is to help both impulse control and work persistence.
Spontaneity is also important for a student. Another college student says, “When students solve questions, many just move past the questions even when they get it wrong. But in reality, it’s important to spontaneously collect all the questions that you got wrong and then repeat those questions again”. A student also mentions emotional motivation. “I study like I’m teaching my crush”. These various examples all show that there are ways to help control the problems students have with studying.
If this is the case for these college students, then what solutions can there be for Andy? After being tested on the five abilities, the result was that Andy was lacking in time management and the ability to do the actions he thought he should do. According to these problems, solutions were created. First, in order to support time management, Andy should make a study plan everyday marking the amount of work that he is going to do. Second, Andy should divide between work and play firmly. Third, Andy should divide the space and device where he worked and played. These solutions will help create a mindset where Andy realizes that by dividing between the two, he creates a time where he can just have fun without guilt once he finishes his work.
Self-study is a needed skill to be able to succeed in university, and while it may seem like easy common sense, it is harder when put into action. When analyzed, it was found that to achieve self-study, a student must have these five main abilities: time management, persistence, spontaneity, impulse control, and emotional control. Which means that a lack of some of these traits is the problem that a student has with studying. So, by supporting the weak traits, students should be able to succeed in self-study. Yes, self-study is possible.