Students Should Spend Less Time Studying and Practice More Deliberately. Students in schools today work under much pressure to perform and succeed in their education, goals, and careers. Many students spend most of their time studying and are occupied with schoolwork in a bid to meet their achievements. Some deny themselves sufficient rest and spending time with family and friends. However, Alex Soojung Kim Pang believes that students should spend less time studying and practice more deliberately to increase their chances of success. Soojung Kim (a) provides a list of successful people such as Charles Darwin who used less time to work and still became one of the world’s most successful scientists. Therefore, studying more does not necessarily lead to better performance, dissimilar to deliberate practice.
The Importance of Work and Rest for Thinking and Inspiration
In the article 'Darwin Was a Slacker, and You Should Be Too' Soojung Kim (a) argues that most of the great scientists in the world spent few hours at their work, which turned out to be the best and most important work of their lives. Today many students spend most of their time at school studying and conducting experiments. They rarely spare time for leisure activities or take a few hours of rest since it will mean they are wasting quality study time. In spite of their hard work and dedication, most students get over exhaustion and poor performances. Soojung Kim (a) asserts that Charles Dickens and Henry Poincare are among the famous scientists who had a relaxed working schedule that contributed immensely to their success. Soojung Kim (a) believes that the scientist spent half of their time taking naps, walking with friends, hiking, and sometimes doing their hobbies (Soojung Kim a). Charles Darwin is a prominent scientist whose work program consisted of three 90-minute periods. During the breaks, Charles spent time with his family and took nature walks to ensure that he gave his mind enough time to relax before embarking on serious work. Additionally, John Lubbock, an amateur scientist, believed in resting that he championed the Early Closing Bill that sought to reduce the number of hours people worked in a week. The bill proposed that people under 18 years should work for 74 hours per week (Soojung Kim a).
The Quantity vs. Quality of Work
Charles Darwin and John Lubbock demonstrate that work and rest played an important role in thinking and increased inspiration levels of an individual. Raymon Van Zelst and Wilfred Kerr, professors at the Illinois Institute of Technology, conducted a study on their colleagues on their working hours and the number of articles they produced (Soojung Kim a). The results indicated that scientists who worked for 25 hours a week had the same production as those that worked for five hours a week. In addition, the scientists that worked for 20 hours a week were half more productive than those that worked for 35 hours a week (Soojung Kim a). The study illustrates that it is not the hours an individual puts into work that makes them productive, rather it is their input in the few hours they work that determines their success. Working for long hours on the same project results in exhaustion and boredom, which reduces the concentration and productivity of an individual.
The Power of Deliberate Practice
According to Soojung-Kim (a), average-performing students practice while better-performing students practice deliberately on their studies. In deliberate practice, most students use their full concentration on particular activities with the aim of improving their performance. Deliberate practice is a method that operates on clear goals, focused structure, and feedback (Soojung Kim a). Brabeck, Jeffrey, and Fry posit that deliberate practice is a method that occurs when a person intentionally does an activity frequently with the aim of improving his or her performance. The premise of deliberate practice affirms that behavior is a critical component when an individual aspires to achieve high-level performance. As much as deliberate practice is an activity that guarantees students' high productivity, the students can only sustain the method for a limited time. Deliberate practice is a study method that seeks to reduce the exhaustion intensity in students. The method allows students to limit their study hours to a short period that will ensure their recovery faster (Soojung Kim a).
The Role of Rest, Sleep, and Deliberate Rest
Soojung Kim (a) asserts that students who aspire to become great create a distinctive practice schedule. Their hours of study consist of frequent shorter sessions that may last for 80-90 minutes incorporated with breaks. The short periods allow students to focus on their study, and the breaks allow the student to relax their brains. While students learn to study in shorter periods, they fully utilize their concentration levels, thus ensuring that they retain the information they read. Moreover, the article confirms that sleep is a critical component for students as part of their rest schedule. Students who have better grades and success in school spend an hour or more sleeping than the learners who have an average performance. Sleep rejuvenates the mind and energizes the body, thus reducing exhaustion and promoting concentration in studies.
The Importance of Deliberate Practice in Cognitive Development
Brabeck, Jeffrey, and Fry state that when students practice Deliberate Practice, they reap many benefits that contribute to better performance. Deliberate practice is not just an act of task repetition; it also involves intense attention and rehearsals of study activities. When practiced right, Deliberate Practice ascertains that students acquire new skills and knowledge that later leads to the development of complex abilities and comprehension that increases motivation and intelligence. Brabeck, Jeffrey, and Fry use human memory to explain the importance of deliberate practice. The human memory has three components that include the Short-term Memory, Long-term Memory, and Sensory Memory. Deliberate Practice entails storing information in the short-term memory and later moving the information to the long-term memory. The short-term memory controls an individual's awareness of information since it processes the motor, visual, and auditory information (Brabeck, Jeffrey, and Fry). Thus, when a tutor teaches students, they should provide the information in all modalities to stimulate comprehension. When students spend most of their time studying, their short-term memory takes in much information, leading to overstimulation and overworking of the brain. Too much information affects the short-term memory, making students forget and have difficulty in concentration. When short-term memory fails to process the overflow of information, it becomes easy to lose the individual information studied (Brabeck, Jeffrey, and Fry). Students need to practice the deliberate practice method, which will increase their ability to automatically and rapidly retrieve information in the memory process. Continuous and spatial practice in reading increases reasoning, comprehension, and attentiveness of a person and makes learning an enjoyable and easier practice. The short-term memory holds information for a short time and later transfers it to the long-term memory. Extensive and deliberate practice allows students to apply and retrieve information promptly without thinking too much. Repetition of information, space in between practice sessions enhance the distribution process of information in the long-term memory, which creates automatic comprehension and retention of information.
The Role of Deliberate Rest in Promoting Creative Thinking
Soojung Kim (b) delves further into the human brain in his article, 'Use Deliberate Rest To Promote Creative Thinking'. He argues that the human brain has a set of regions for imaging known as the Default Mode Network. Different people carry a varied set of DMNs. For example, the Default Mode Networks of creative thinkers integrate the regions of the brain responsible for creativity, visual skill, and verbal perception (Soojung Kim b). Furthermore, the DMNs disconnect the region of the brain that critiques ideas in creative thinkers. The Default Mode Network of an individual still processes information even when they stop working on that particular subject. That is why many scientists learned to work for short periods to allow the subconscious part of their brains to work on the particular subjects even when they had stopped working or focusing on a precise problem. Soojung Kim (b) suggests that creative people design shorter working periods for their activities to increase their concentration. Soojung Kim (a) affirms that the most creative work of individuals occurs when one takes a break from study. The break allows the unconscious part of the brain to re-evaluate the information, boosting creativity and comprehension. Soojung Kim (b) says that close to 60% of workers in America do not fully use their vacation days. When employers encourage their employees to take regular short breaks out of the work premises, they increase their job satisfaction, reduce boredom, and maximize productivity. However, when individuals overwork their brain, they rarely retain any information or stay productive. Information overload leads to fatigue, poor brain response in efforts to access and apply information. Many people who take in much information do not allow time for processing. Thus, they make poor decisions and respond poorly to problems when they arise. Soojung Kim (b) insists that a person achieves productivity when they deliberately alternate from rest to working more frequently. The shift allows the brain to relax, process, and store information that sharpens an individual's focus, understanding, knowledge, and skills (Soojung Kim a).
The Importance of Intention and Deliberate Practice
Unclear goals make studying a waste of time rather than a process of gaining knowledge. Many students in school study with the aim of making progress in their life, studies, and careers instead of making study the primary source of gaining knowledge. As Clear demonstrates, the problem lies in the mode of study where many students choose to learn as a substitute for practicing. When practicing an activity, an individual deliberately repeats the process with a specific aim of getting a definite goal as the result of the practice (Clear). The words "intention" and "deliberate" are significant as they create a big difference between people who passively and actively practice an activity. Several differences exist between active practice and passive practice. First, passive learning breeds procrastination, and individuals fail to take necessary actions to reach their goals (Clear). For example, when an individual wants to know how to bake a cake, in passive learning, he or she will read a book and procedures, which allows people to feel as they are making progress. Contrarily, in active practice, an individual will do a trial bake session following the instructions which make them more prone to achieve their goals than the person who just read the instructions. Inactive practice, an individual makes mistakes that reveal critical insights about the process of giving knowledge. As opposed to active learning, in passive learning, an individual reads much information, making it hard to ascertain if they have grasped the information or not. Developing skills and applying knowledge in passive learning become hard since individuals cannot apply the information they read in a particular situation. Second, active learning entails a change of behavior to fit the goals and desires of an individual. Clear states that active learning involves the process of deliberately directing a person's focus in daily habitual practicing habits. A habit guarantees that an individual will see continual progress in the process of achieving their dreams.
The Benefits of Deliberate Practice in Academic Achievement
Macnamara, Hambrick, and Oswald affirm that a well-designed deliberate practice has immense positive results for students across all schools. Apart from helping students to achieve their personal goals and objectives, deliberate practice reduces the gaps that exist between the different levels of achievements that exist among students. Students in school have different achievement levels due to a lack of equal opportunities in proper deliberate practices. For example, in a study conducted on children with problems processing language, states that these students do not have the inability to learn but face challenges in sensory perception (Macnamara, Hambrick, and Oswald). These students face the difficulties since they have an impairment in their spatial discrimination and phonemic recognition.
Conversely, the students thrive when their teachers use short related activities that reinforce their skills. The study confirms that regular deliberate practice activities are a critical factor in the academic, skill, and knowledge achievement among all students (Macnamara, Hambrick, and Oswald). Teachers should encourage and assist students in designing deliberate practice plans that will enhance their attention span and memory.
The Importance of Short and Regular Practice Activities
In conclusion, short and regular practice activities are vital in learning and teaching. For many students, the practice increases the chance of student retaining the information they read during their personal and class studies. Students develop the ability to automatically retrieve information and successfully apply the information to solve problems without too much reflection. Deliberate practice develops the student's knowledge and skills on particular subjects as they develop skills to analyze, critique, and apply the information they read. Deliberate practice reduces exhaustion, fatigue, and boredom among students by boosting their motivation levels, encouraging them to learn and practice what they read. The regular and short learning practices help students across all ages, including students with learning disabilities. As most studies utilize most of the time reading with no resting intervals, Soojung Kim (a) reveals that they need to reevaluate their study methods. Success is not defined by the number of hours a person dedicates to reading. Success and efficiency are a result of smart reading that includes rest and an individual's ability to learn and concentrate in a short span of time. The short span provides people with the platform of maximizing their input in studies, gives time to relax and process the information, thus increasing the productivity and success levels. Soojung Kim's argument about the efficiency of workaholics holds water as studying more does not lead to better performance. Less study and more practice are the secret to success, even for famous scientists such as Charles Darwin.
Works Cited
Brabeck, M., J. Jeffrey, and S. Fry. "Practice for knowledge acquisition (not drill and kill): Designing activities with the goal of transferring knowledge. American Psychological Association." (2014).
Clear, James. "Stop Thinking and Start Doing: The Power of Practicing More." James Clear, 14 June 2018, jamesclear.com/learning-vs-practicing.
Soojung Kim Alex P. (a) "Use Deliberate Rest to Promote Creative Thinking." Main, 16 June 2017, www.td.org/magazines/td-magazine/use-deliberate-rest-to-promote-creative-thinking.
Macnamara, Brooke N., David Z. Hambrick, and Frederick L. Oswald. "Deliberate practice and performance in music, games, sports, education, and professions: A meta-analysis." Psychological science 25.8 (2014): 1608-1618.
Soojung Kim, Alex P. (b)"Darwin Was a Slacker, and You Should Be Too - Issue 46: Balance." Nautilus, 30 Mar. 2017, nautil.us/issue/46/balance/darwin-was-a-slacker-and-you-should-be-too.
