Balancing academics and social time
SINCE THE start of 2018, the Information and Communications Unit of the Jamaica Productivity Centre (JPC) has been visiting schools for the purpose of discussing with students topics relating to productivity concepts and tools.
From our rap sessions with students at primary and secondary schools, it became obvious to our team that our youngsters are not familiar with how to become more productive in their academic and non-academic pursuits (sports, social clubs, religious endeavours, and personal time for quiet reflection). It was also observed that they showed limited understanding of the importance of becoming more productive, as they fail to make the connection between productivity and their quality of lives (today or in the future).
Students appear to have a basic idea of how productivity is defined, but need more guidance on what it has to do with them or how and why it is important to incorporate it in their day-to-day existence.
Through conversations with a sample of students across the schools visited, the youngsters expressed the belief that they have a natural talent or gift for specific subjects – leading them to obtain ‘good grades’. In contrast, the subjects for which they do not have a natural inclination, they obtain ‘poor grades’.
CLICHÉD EXAMPLE
One clichéd example of this is, students who have an appreciation for mathematics automatically believe they will not do well in English language and English literature. In other words, for these students it is either mathematics or English. However, in real life both are necessary and must be mastered.
The JPC team also explored the study patterns of each student to ascertain if this could influence improvement in the subjects that they tend to like or dislike. We found that the students spend most of their study time on the subjects they love and the remaining time on the subjects that they dislike and frequently ‘fail’. Thus, their study patterns lead to further mastery of their favourite subjects and further deterioration in the subjects they disliked, eventually leading to fear for, and a mental block against, specific subjects.