Nadine has an important deadline in five weeks. The subject does not quite hold her interest. She got a failing grade for this section before. That is not exactly a motivating experience. Nadine has started late and feels a slight stress rising. She realises she will probably fail this time too. Yet she just can’t seem to get going. The feeling that she is a bad student grows like this every day.
What is procrastination?
Procrastination behaviour is putting off an intended and necessary activity, despite the fact that the disadvantages of procrastination outweigh the benefits. Lack of motivation plays a major role, but procrastination behaviour encompasses more. It occurs when a student struggles with self-regulation, or regulating behaviour to achieve a goal. Motivation (wanting) is important, in addition to cognitive regulation (thinking), experiencing the situation (feeling), and implementing strategies (acting). Here we specifically address procrastination behaviour in students. The mechanisms and solutions often apply in work as well. Thus, learning to cope with procrastination is a skill that helps a student during studies, but also afterwards. Over three quarters of students suffer from procrastination. So they often underperform. Students also experience negative consequences due to procrastination. They would like support. The corona pandemic made procrastination behaviour even more visible. This was due to:
- The lack of contact with teachers and fellow students
- Removing external pressure by delaying the BSA
- Habituation to external regulation rather than self-regulation
Result? A drastic increase in learning disadvantages.
As a counsellor, how can you support procrastination?
Look at each of the four causes of procrastination: wanting, thinking, feeling and acting. In consultation, you can address one or more causes with the student.
Thinking
The basis for a change in procrastination behaviour is think On what opportunities the student has to regulate their own study behaviour. Discuss learning as a skill. This allows the student to start experimenting with new understandings from the other domains: feeling, wanting, acting. It can help to discuss learning as a process, similar to a PDCA cycle. Put this cycle at the centre of the conversation. Then the student will learn to apply it more and more.
Feel
This cause of procrastination is strongly related to past experiences. Negative thoughts are the driving force behind procrastination. The good news? These behaviours are impressionable and changeable. By acknowledging negative thoughts and putting a positive story next to them, you work on balancing the two. Insights from the growth mindset theory can help with this. There are no good or bad students: only good or bad strategies (behaviour). These can be chosen every day! A third insight are the two misconceptions about happiness and success: happiness is not engineerable, there is also such a thing as bad luck, and there are no guarantees of success (there is no success formula).
Will
Will Changing procrastination behaviour can also be supported. Encouragement and motivation are particularly helpful. Helpful are the insights from the Self-determination theory From Decy&Ryan. You can support a student with the abc of the Self-determination theory: autonomy, bining and competence. Set personal goals together with the student. Help him/her become aware of his/her own identity and/or successes achieved.
Trading
At act is all about building effective learning methods. Encourage the student to use these. This allows the student to make a personal selection of effective strategies. Get inspiration for this from the section on Learning Learning Or the pathways described below.
Note!
Let the student apply these pathways as much as possible in their own context, and in combination with habit formation. Also discuss scientific research that has proven new learning methods to be effective, and talk about successful experiences of other students.
What do you refer the HU student to?
The HU offers workshops and pathways through Student Support Centre (SSC). These allow students to become proficient in Learning Learning with a special focus on procrastination. In the course Learning How to Learn-training, five sessions of one hour each are offered over five weeks. The following will be covered under experienced guidance and with fellow students:
- Understanding their learning process
- Development points
- Learning strategy and attitude
- Effective learning strategies using 40 videos
- Step-by-step protocols for implementation
- Procrastination, concentration, focus, brain and learning, speed reading, planning and exam strategies
What does the HU offer counsellors about Procrastination?
HU offers teachers and tutors the opportunity to become proficient in the field of procrastination:
- How do you guide a student to get a grip on their study behaviour?
- How do you teach a student to experiment with ways to motivate, regulate themselves and thus get everything out of themselves?
- How do you coach a student towards lasting change in his/her learning?
- So what exactly are those ways that prompt you to start rather than stop.
For more information check out the teams of Hu Begeleidt
Scientific literature
- VU et al (2022) Motivation-Achievement Cycles in Learning: a Literature Review and Research Agenda. Educational Psychology Review (2022) 34:39-71
- Visser, L. (2020). Academic Procrastination among First-Year Student Teachers (doctoral dissertation). Free University, Amsterdam.
- Visser, L., Korthagen, F & Nuijten, E. (2020). The student at the helm: Self-management in learning. Th&ma Higher Education, 20(3), 54-60.
Tips for popular science literature
- Book on Procrastination: Eat the Frog (Brain Tracy)
- Book on Motivation: Enticing Students to Learn (Alard Joosten)
- Book on success: Even smarter! Studying successfully at college (Mirjam Pol)
- Book on Growth Mindset: Mindset Change the way you think to achieve your goals (Carol Dweck)
- TedEx video on Procrastination: Tim Urban – Inside the mind of a master procrastinator
- Information about the Study Home Room at HU