How to get the most out of study time

What should be the correct way for children to study to learn?

Ideally? Forgetting about grades and enjoying learning. The problem is that this is not always possible, since the educational system itself leads them to become obsessed with passing instead of learning.

It would also be helpful if teachers and professors could make children find a meaning in what they study (which I am not saying it does not have, but it must be explained and explained well), and that they do not place the burden of evaluation on memorizing content, which is precisely what children understand by studying. For them, studying is not learning, but memorizing, when it should not be so. I am not saying that exercising memory is not important, but giving it so much weight simply does not make sense, just as it does not make sense to give so much emphasis to the results obtained instead of giving it to the processes.

I do not blame the teaching staff for this situation. The school system itself pushes for it, in that urgency to finish the syllabus on time, especially in Secondary school. Apart from this, the correct way to study involves dedicating time. Studying the day before is only useful for trying to pass a test (an exam). What is stored in those cases is soon forgotten. The subject matter must be worked on. The student himself must try to find meaning in what he is asked to learn. If he finds meaning in it, if it is significant to him, he will feel motivated to carry it out. All of this implies effort, but I insist: not everything depends on the child. The system should also facilitate this process.

What study techniques or methodologies can be implemented to achieve this?

There are many, but of course it depends on the age of the child. A good strategy is to anticipate the lessons, reading them and trying to understand them before they are discussed in the classroom. In some way, one can take advantage of the fact that there are textbooks and that these are usually used in a linear way, which makes it easily predictable what the next step that the professor or teacher wants to take is. If you have already read about a topic, it will be easier for you to follow it when it is explained in the classroom. It is true that this requires organization. In fact, as the educational system is set up, it is precisely this ability to organize and distribute time that makes the difference between some students and others (among other things, of course).

Being organized implies knowing how to make summaries or outlines that can help to understand what you have to study, knowing how to underline the main ideas, knowing how to distinguish what is important from what is not, knowing how to manage time and not moving on to the next step before having understood everything before, reviewing from time to time what has been learned so as not to forget it… There are many techniques, but without organization, everything is reduced to nothing.

How are new technologies changing this part of learning at home?

Many others have said it before me, such as Professor Fernández Enguita. School has ceased to be the only window to the world. These new technologies lead us to the implications of having the Internet at home, and if the Internet has anything in abundance, it is information on any topic. This is something that, by the way, should be seen as an opportunity and not as an enemy or an element of distraction.

Here, the important thing is to guide the child to know how to filter, to know how to distinguish that information that is really reliable and worthwhile from that which is not. Developing this capacity empowers them, makes them strong, makes them intelligent and prevents them from being deceived.

All the reliable information they can access will be transformed into knowledge to the extent that they integrate it, find meaning in it and make it useful. All of this should benefit their time at school, and in fact schools should promote these tools, especially in a world as changing as this, in which knowledge soon becomes obsolete.

What needs to be done is to give weapons to future generations, encourage their curiosity, make them see that they do not know everything, that they ask themselves questions and know how to answer them, even if those answers never become definitive or absolute, and new technologies, well managed, play a crucial role in this process.

What amount of homework is most appropriate for each educational stage?

Anything I said about it would attract criticism from one side or the other. It is a controversial issue without consensus. I believe that this should not be a question of quantity, but of quality. At the same time, sometimes less is more, when what is asked is really effective and in this case helps to assimilate concepts and procedures. I am also concerned about the feedback that the teacher can give to each student and to what extent he makes sure that everyone follows the explanations after an exercise before moving on to the next step.

Homework is not a bad thing, as long as it does not take up time that should be dedicated to rest, to being with their family, to socializing… There should be time for everything throughout the day.

Homework helps in a certain way to:

• instill certain work habits
• develop certain autonomy, to the extent that they are done without help
• consolidate and retain what has been learned in the classroom…

But it is also true that not all children can receive the same support or the same help from their parents at home, just as not all children have the possibility of going to tutoring classes, for example, all of which contributes to generating inequality. In addition, what guarantees does the teacher have that the tasks done at home have really been carried out by the child and not by their parents, for example?  

The amount of homework most appropriate in each educational stage should be that which allows not to neglect the development of aspects that have to do with the emotional and relational intelligence of the child

These are aspects that are taken for granted, as if they developed on their own in a natural way. The problem is that nothing develops if it is not practiced, and to practice, time is needed. An overload of homework plays against the development of aspects as basic as these.

What should be the role of parents when it comes to studying?

Parents should be a support, especially in the early years. We must not forget that, for children, they (the parents) represent the adult world. Teachers and professors also represent it, of course, but the usual thing is that parents are the references for their children (I am talking about the years before entering Secondary school, since afterwards things usually change and their peer group becomes their reference). That is why it helps a lot in the process if there are, for example, reading habits at home. If reading is a leisure option valued at home, it is more likely that it will also be for the child, with how beneficial that can be in their time at school.

We have an educational system that, in many cases, unfortunately, kills creativity, as Ken Robinson said. It is the task of teachers to prevent this from happening, but it is also the task of families. Let’s not forget it. If we feed that curiosity, that eagerness to learn and that taste for studying, the grades will come on their own.

It is also important that families know that there are tools that can help them detect possible learning or development difficulties in their sons and daughters and know their needs in order to develop their potential, tools that also allow them to be in coordination with the school, with their educational counselor and teachers. The team to which I belong (Grupo VS) and I myself have dedicated the last years to solving this lack of tools of this type (dide) that educational centers have to detect the needs of their students.

Families play a great role, since they contribute to detecting in time and as soon as possible possible obstacles that can lead the child to situations of school failure: dyslexia, dyscalculia, an addiction to new technologies –which is far, of course, from what was said previously in relation to the benefits of new technologies–, a situation of bullying, bad eating habits… and many others of very diverse nature. Just as with the teaching staff, families play a crucial role in all this.

Parents should help their children learn to organize themselves, to understand and comprehend what they are asked to learn in school, but, above all, they should contribute to making the child feel curious about things.

Interview for the newspaper “El Correo” (Grupo Vocento)