A hard habit to break? The power of independent study behaviours in the Sixth Form

Perspective Article

Published on: May 9, 2022

8 min read

Katie Cork, Head of Sixth Form, St Mary’s School, Gerrards Cross Study habits and academic achievement In post-16 education, a student studying for three A-levels has 10 or more hours of undirected time a week within their timetable; this is around half the time recommended for students to spend on independent study (Oakes and Griffin, 2016). What do students do in this self-directed time? How do they make decisions about whether to study or not to study? Almost half of student behaviours are driven by habits and performed without conscious thought: Wood et al. (2002) asked students to write down what they were doing once every hour for several days, finding that around 45 per cent of behaviours recorded were repeated at around the same time, in the same place, every day. Habits are clearly powerful drivers of behaviour. Study habits can be defined as the methods of study used by students and their ability to manage their time for the successful accomplishment of academic task

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