When a young Briton is studying for his history lesson, he is going through his notes, marking information in his text book and encyclopaedias and surfing on the internet to look up additional information on the topic. The Czech pupil has it “easier”: while listening to a radio or glancing at television he mostly crams word for word from the notes that he made at school.
And the result? The British pupil knows a topic in its context, the Czech one soon forgets the crammed subject matter. Czech pupils consequently know much less than their peers in the developed European states, according to international surveys.
For that reason, as of September selected schools will probably employ specialist teachers, who will teach children how to study well. They will advise them on suitable study environment and how to look up information on a topic, so that they remember the subject matter more easily.
Do not study in bed
“We are currently dealing with the Ministry of Education so that specialist teachers and pedagogues can start explaining to children at selected schools how to prepare for their lessons. It’s quite essentials for pupils,” said Tomáš Zdechovský, communication specialist from Commservis.com agency.
He wants to support his effort with the newest sociological survey of the agency conducted at 53 primary and secondary schools between 2004 and 2009, in which 739 pupils were polled by experts. The study has concluded that 80% of primary and secondary school students in the Czech Republic have problems with studying, which is quite exceptional among developed European states.
The Education Ministry welcomes the idea with specialist teachers. “We’ll see what the project looks like. It will also depend on finances, so that we could pay the teachers,” the ministry’s spokeswoman Kateřina Böhmová said. The result of the survey is clear: the worst bad habit of Czech students is that they memorize things.
The survey also revealed that up to 78% of pupils are able to reproduce the content of a textbook article without any other context. But they are unable to provide interpretation.
Schoolchildren also have bad study habits. Up to two thirds of them do not study at a table, but lie in bed, for example, or on the floor.
“I study in bed. But I often fall asleep,” the 18-year-old Pavel said in the survey. Jana, who is one year younger, has a different “method”. “I study in front of television, I can concentrate well like this,” she said.
“The tests showed that when students study in bed, their attention starts dropping as early as ten minutes afterwards, while they can concentrate for forty minutes when seated at a table. Moreover, if they have textbooks and notebooks sorted out on the table, they work better and are more organized,” Tomáš Zdechovský said.
The majority of schoolchildren are not also able to study from multiple sources: notes in notebooks, textbooks, encyclopaedias and internet. Despite the fact that this way of studying can help students remember the subject matter for a longer period of time. However, schools have already started putting emphasis on these study methods.
“We want children to start finding connections and details in textbooks and on the internet. That’s the only way they can better remember the subject matter. However, I know that sometimes it’s parents who force children to memorize from their notes,” said Dana Hudečková, the principal of Prague’s T. G. Masaryk primary school.
The primary school Jablůnka is recommending a different method to its pupils. “They underline words and paragraphs in the text that they don’t understand. We try to teach them to ask themselves questions after they finish reading,” the teacher Ivan Šošolík said.
Common practice abroad
While basically no one is dealing with study methods in the Czech Republic, in developed European countries specialist teachers are teaching pupils how to study.
“When a student enters a secondary school or collage abroad, for example in Britain, Germany or Italy, it’s quite common that they undergo a course at the beginning of the year that will teach them how to study effectively. There are, unfortunately, no such introductory courses in the Czech Republic,” said Tomáš Zdechovský.
Survey
Primary and secondary school students have big problems with studying.
Cramming
Almost 80% of pupils do not know how to study effectively. The majority of pupils, 78%, can only retell a text from a textbook without providing the particular context.
Eighty-one percent of children do not understand at all selected articles from daily press. In case pupils do not understand something from a topic they are covering at school, they are trying to memorise and then repeat the text word for word. Only 27% of pupils were able to render an article into a logical synopsis.
Bad study habits
Over two thirds of students have bad or insufficient study habits – they do not study at a table, do not know what the priorities are, do not know how to study and where to look for information, if necessary. Pupils do not know how to study from multiple sources (notes, textbooks, encyclopaedias, internet).
Missing motivation
Pupils are not able to have presentations in front of their peers and to defend their opinions. They lack motivation to deal with a subject matter they do not understand – if they are motivated by a reward or orally, their interest in the subject rises.
