Owning the Clock: How Time Management Fuels Independent Learning for High Schoolers in College
Sharon Percival-Calder, Medgar Evers College
Bio
I’m an Adjunct Lecturer with the Biology Department at Medgar Evers college where I teach an introductory 3 credit Biology 101 course for the College Now program. I have over 25 years teaching experience with New York City Public Schools and have taught a variety of science courses, including Living Environment, AP Biology, AP Environmental Science, Environmental Science, Forensic Science, Ecology, Health and Health Careers, Pre-Nursing, Health Science and Anatomy & Physiology to a diverse student population in Brooklyn. The population at the High School I currently teach at is primarily of Caribbean, Haitian and Asian descent which are both first and second generation. My goal as an educator is to prepare my students for the real world with essential skills and tools that will help them navigate society independently while fostering them to be life long learners and well grounded individuals.
Course Setting
Medgar Evers College is a diverse CUNY campus that offers many programs to students. As an Adjunct lecturer I teach Bio 101 an introductory Biology for the College Now program. The College Now student population is vastly diverse and stem from various schools around New York City due to its accessibility as a synchronous class on zoom. The students I presently teach in the College Now program are primarily seniors with a few juniors. They are of Nigerian, Asian, Hispanic, Caucasian and a few Caribbean-American descendants. Some of these students are highly motivated and engage during class discussion which make the class engaging and lively despite being on Zoom. Despite being engaged in class discussion some students tend to submit their assignments late due to extra curricula activities, finalizing their college acceptance or the major contributing factor such as lack of time management skills.
Problem of Practice
A major challenge in my Zoom College Now classroom is inconsistent attendance and late assignments. Open-ended written labs require planning, synthesis, and focus—skills many dual-enrollment students lack. This deficit causes procrastination, delayed submissions, and reduced academic quality .To improve performance, I focused on: "How can I increase assignment completion and on-time submission through effective time management strategies?" By fostering independent learning, students will build metacognition, study skills, and college self-awarenessI will scaffold the virtual labs by chunking the tasks into smaller manageable tasks. For each lab, students will use a checklist with a reflection question to plan their time and monitor their own progress. Finally, I will track weekly submission rates to evaluate the success of these interventions. This structured approach provides the necessary framework to help transition high school students into successful, self-regulated college learners.
Strategy
My strategy for increasing the rate of student completion and on-time submission of assignments is to focus on execution strategies through the lenses of self-monitoring checklists and chunking of assignments. Through the metacognition and self-regulation approach I developed and implemented a detailed step-by-step checklist for students to use during their virtual labs. This strategy will support students with simplified, clear and detailed step-by step instructions to the lab to reduce cognitive overload. They were given explicit instructions on how to complete their assignments and use the strategy during every laboratory activity. They self-monitor themselves as they check off the checklist as they perform the lab to see if they follow and complete each step as instructed before submission. These checklists were analyzed to see if students follow all instructions and submit their assignment on time on Brightspace.
These time management strategies will help students stay on task when doing the activity and will improve and enhance the number of students who complete and submit their work on time. I find that these strategies hold students accountable for submitting all required documents and tasks for the assignment. While at the same time helping students monitor and assess their learning and performance, to improve their efficiency in completing their assignments on time.
Laboratory simulation and worksheet students will use with the checklist to assess and manage their time. Students completed a checklist with comments/feedback demonstrating the different parts of the lab that they used to assess themselves to see if they complete every aspect of the lab and if they submit all required parts of the lab on Brightspace.
Figure #1: Diffusion Lab
Metacognitive/Execution Lab Checklist
This is a checklist that will help students stay on task and check to see if they follow and complete their lab as instructed. This checklist will assist students in assessing whether they completed and uploaded all required documents for the assignment on Brightspace. They will write comments and reflection on each area of the laboratory activity as they find necessary.
Figure #2: Metacognitive/Execution Lab Checklist
Student Feedback Checklist
This is a checklist that will help students stay on task and check to see if they follow and complete their lab as instructed. This checklist will assist students in assessing whether they completed and uploaded all required documents for the assignment on Brightspace. They will write comments and reflection on each area of the laboratory activity as they find necessary.
Figure #3: Student Feedback Checklist
Measuring Impact
Pre Submission rate: Data Table
The submission rate of the lab before the implementation of the checklist. Tally showing the number of students who submitted their laboratory report on time on Brightspace.
Figure #4: Pre Submission rate: Data Table
Data Table of Submission Rate
Student’s submission rate before and after the implementation of the check list throughout the cycles. The data was collected on Brightspace and checked to determine the submission rate and time to see if students submit their assignment on time or not. The checklist was reviewed and assessed based on students' feedback.
The submission rate was checked, tally and the percentage was determined for on-time, late, total submission and those who never submitted their work. The data was compared with the previous assignment especially before the implementation of the checklist. According to the data these checklists help students monitor and assess their learning, improve performance, and efficiency in completing their assignments on time.
Figure #5: Submission Rate
Impact of Checklist
Graph showing students' submission rate increases with the implementation of checklists. Overall student rate of submission improved as the semester progressed despite a slight drop in on time submission rate during lab 3. This was mainly impacted due to Spring Break because many students forgot to submit their labs before the break despite they were finished..
Figure #6: Impact of checklist
Analysis
This strategy was very effective in promoting independent learning and time management skills. The efficiency and rate of on time submission and completion increases with the usage of checklists and chunking of assignments despite the level of difficulty increases as the semester progresses. In looking at the strategies for execution during the initiation of the assignment the task for the lab was broken down into a detailed checklist.
As the semester progresses and students become more comfortable with the checklist, their rate of submission and overall performance increases. There was a great improvement in the class Final exam results. Students comment about the conceptualization of the labs and how beneficial the checklist was in helping them understand the content and time management.
Some challenges I still face is getting all my students to complete the checklist and turn in their assignments on time. However, when I chunk the assignments there was a greater improvement in students overall grade and submission rate.
Recommendation
To effectively improve students' overall progress and promote independent learning one should focus on execution strategy of time management. This is an effective strategy with the usage of self-monitoring checklists and chunking of assignments as it helps to improve students' rate of submission and completion . There was a significant increase in students' performance on the final exam. This strategy supports students with simplified, clear and detailed step-by step instructions helps to reduce cognitive overload. Checklist and chunking of assignments should be done with all assignments, especially those that are complicated or long. Once broken down into smaller manageable segments students are more likely to complete and submit their assignments on time.
Resources
Cook, K. B., & Sayeski, K. L. (2022). Self-monitoring with secondary students: Using a smartphone app to increase attention to tasks. Beyond Behavior, 31(2), 92-102.
