Ways to stay focused on classwork
Physical factors (low energy, dehydration, etc.).There are many reasons why students can have trouble focusing, including… (Canales et al, 2009 Karpinski & Duberstein, 2009) Sending text messages while studying has also been associated with lower grades in college. Studies have shown that college students who spend more time on Facebook tend to spend less time studying, and have lower GPAs, than their peers. (Again, that’s an optimistic estimate!) All this extra time spent on homework can cause students to stay up late and lose sleep…which makes it even more difficult for them to stay focused and avoid distractions the following day.įrequent distractions also have a quantifiable effect on students’ grades. Rosen’s study), they will need at least 3 hours to complete the same amount of work. If a student has 2 hours of homework to complete, but only spends 10 out every 15 minutes actively working on his or her assignments (the average from Dr. Working while distracted can dramatically increase the amount of time students spend on their homework. This lack of focus can have major costs for students.
2013) And this was for students who knew they were participating in a study! Larry Rosen found that when sitting down to study, students generally lost focus after about 3 minutes! (Rosen et al. Many high school and college students struggle with maintaining focus – especially on assignments that require sustained attention, like writing papers or reading textbooks.Ī study conducted by psychology professor Dr. However, this problem isn’t limited to students with diagnosed attention difficulties. Students with ADHD can have an especially difficult time avoiding distractions and staying focused on their work. If so, then you can relate to what students often experience on a daily basis when they sit down to work on their homework. Do you ever wish you could ignore all of the distractions around you and just focus …but find that, no matter how hard you try to stay on task, you keep getting sidetracked?