Edu-Snippets
Combatting procrastination using the Pomodoro Technique, the value of practice tests, and the effect of classroom interruptions
Highlights:
Early research suggests that the Pomodoro Technique is effective at helping students (and others) work more productively and combat procrastination.
No-stakes or low-stakes practice tests have been shown to reduce student test anxiety. Practice tests have also been shown to be effective at improving student retention and recall of course material.
A recent study of unscheduled classroom interruptions (e.g., intercom announcements, calls on the classroom phones, visitors at the door) suggests that a typical United States classroom experiences around 2000 interruptions per year. Reducing the frequency of classroom interruptions is positively associated with student achievement.
Combat distractions and procrastination with the Pomodoro Technique
If you or your students struggle with distractions and/or procrastination while working or studying, you may want to consider the Pomodoro Technique. The Pomodoro Technique was developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. Cirillo was a university student who struggled with staying focused and managing his study time. He needed a way to structure his work and combat the urge to procrastinate. Inspired by a tomato-shaped kitchen timer (pomodoro means "tomato" in Italian), Cirillo devised a simple time management strategy. According to the Pomodoro Technique, you work on a task for a short, focused period (usually 25 minutes), followed by a brief break. During this period, you must turn off your phone, email and anything else that might distract you. It is suggested that you should complete four such rounds, also known “pomodoros”, before taking a slightly longer break lasting 15 – 30 minutes.
Many people hear about this technique from friends and colleagues. It is claimed that the Pomodoro Technique helps improve productivity by breaking work into manageable chunks and minimizing distractions. Given its popularity, we decided to explore this technique further.
Surprisingly, there is limited research on the Pomodoro Technique. Much of the available research explores its effectiveness in combatting procrastination. Almalki et al. (2020) conducted a three-stage diary research study1 involving 15 graduate students. Their analysis suggests that the Pomodoro Technique was successful in reducing procrastination behaviour among 71.4% participants. In another study, Dizon et al.(2021) compared the effects of Pomodoro Technique to the Flowtime Technique2 on the motivation and procrastination behaviour of 26 nursing students. Data revealed that the application of the Pomodoro Technique slightly reduced participants’ procrastination behaviour, but the differences were not statistically significant. Both the Almalki et al. (2020) and Dizon et al.(2021) studies are promising, but they are limited by their small size. More studies are needed.
Despite the lack of studies, the Pomodoro Technique is extremely popular. What makes this technique so appealing? Many people seem to like its simplicity and practicality. Sometimes a task feels so onerous or overwhelming that we avoid working on it. We find ourselves procrastinating, easily distracted by new emails, texts, or social media. One of the strengths of the Pomodoro approach is that it refocuses the learner on achieving a manageable subgoal: 25 minutes of distraction-free work.
Barbara Oakley, a Professor of Engineering, observes that the Pomodoro approach is consistent with principles of cognitive science psychology and neuroscience. She teaches one of the world’s largest massive open online courses called Learning How to Learn, which has been taken by millions of people. Dr. Oakley reports that the Pomodoro Technique is one of the more popular topics. She suggests that the Pomodoro Technique, in combination with other evidence-informed study techniques, can make working sessions more effective and productive.
The Pomodoro Technique is a simple time management method that you may want to try yourself, or share with your students. It can be easily integrated with other effective study techniques. Check out this great list of top ten ideas to help your learning by Barbara Oakley. The list includes the Pomodoro Technique along with evidence-informed study practices like spaced learning, interleaving and self-testing.
Practice tests reduce student test anxiety
A recent meta-analytic study by Yang, Li, Zhao, Luo and Shanks (2023) found that practice tests significantly reduce students’ experience of test anxiety.
Their meta-analysis systematically reviewed and synthesized data from 24 separate studies on the impact of practice tests. The results suggest that practice tests significantly reduce test anxiety in students. Moreover, there was evidence that easy practice tests do a better job of reducing anxiety than difficult ones. The authors speculate that some of the reduced anxiety may be due to the normalizing of quiz-taking. They also suggest that students may become less nervous because practice tests help them solidify their learning. A large body of research has shown that low-stakes or no-stakes quizzes have a positive impact on student learning and deepen their understanding of the material.
In other words, practice tests appear to satisfy two instructional goals simultaneously: they promote learning and they reduce test anxiety.
Interestingly, practice tests are reported to provide students with another subtle advantage: they appear to help students perform better during tests, even in conditions where they are experiencing stress. An article by Smith, Floerke and Thomas (2016) describes an experiment in which participants studied some content and then were divided into two groups. One group simply restudied the material. The other group took a practice-test. Twenty-four hours later, both groups were tested on their recall of the material. Here’s the fun part: Just before administering the test, the researchers intentionally induced stress on half of the students in the restudy condition and half of the students in the practice-test condition!3 They did this to see how stress affected test-taking performance.
The stressed participants in the restudy condition did worse on the test than the non-stressed people in the restudy condition. That was expected. Students under stress typically have more trouble recalling content.
However, stress didn’t have the same effect on the other group. The stressed participants in the practice-test condition performed at the same level as the unstressed students!
Why didn’t stress hurt the performance of the practice-test students? The researchers hypothesize that practice-testing gave students more experience retrieving knowledge from memory. This made it easier for them to retrieve that knowledge during the later test, even if they were stressed.
Expressed another way: Practice testing makes it less likely that stressed students will “blank out” during an exam.
Many thanks to Bradley Busch for his posts on Twitter that shared these studies.
Reduce classroom interruptions to prevent students from losing instructional time
A new paper in the AERA Open Journal provides an extensive study of classroom interruptions in American schools. Researchers Matthew Kraft and Manuel Monti-Nussbaum documented the frequency, nature and duration of external interruptions to classes in the Providence Public School District. The researchers found that a typical classroom experienced more than 2000 interruptions per year. Interruptions were slightly more frequent in middle and high schools than in elementary schools. The researchers estimate that interruptions, collectively, reduce the amount of productive instructional time by 10-20 school days per year.
The article goes into detail regarding the impact of different types of interruptions, such as intercom announcements, calls on classroom phones, visitors at the door, and students leaving or re-entering the classroom. Across schools, they identified a negative relationship between the frequency of external interruptions and student achievement. On average, schools that had more daily interruptions had lower scores on PARCC mathematics and English Language Arts assessments. Of course, a correlation of this sort is not evidence of a causal relationship, but it does seem likely that a greater number of interrupting events will adversely affect the amount of productive instructional time. To reduce interruptions, the authors offer a number of recommendations, including the suggestion that schools heavily curtail use of the school intercom announcements while classes are underway.
Many thanks to Dylan Wiliam for his post on Twitter that shared this study.
References
Agarwal, P., Nunes, L. & Blunt, J. (2021). Retrieval practice consistently benefits student learning: A systematic review of applied research in schools and classrooms. Educational Psychology Review 33, 1409-1453.
Almalki, K., Alharbi, O., Al-Ahmadi, W. A., & Aljohani, M. (2020). Anti-procrastination online tool for graduate students based on the pomodoro technique. In Learning and Collaboration Technologies. Human and Technology Ecosystems: 7th International Conference, LCT 2020, Held as Part of the 22nd HCI International Conference, HCII 2020, Copenhagen, Denmark, July 19–24, 2020, Proceedings, Part II 22 (pp. 133-144). Springer International Publishing.
Dizon, R. J., Ermitanio, H. D., Estevez, D. M., Ferrer, J., Flores, S. J., Fontanilla, K. M., & Sugay, J. (2023). The effects of pomodoro technique on academic-related tasks, procrastination behavior, and academic motivation among college students in a mixed online learning environment. Globus: Journal of Progressive Education A Refereed Research Journal.
Kraft, M. A., & Monti-Nussbaum, M. (2021). The Big Problem With Little Interruptions to Classroom Learning. AERA Open, 7.
Smith, A., Floerke, V., & Thomas, A. (2016). Retrieval practice protects memory against acute stress. Science 354(6315), 1046-1048.
Yang, C., Li, J., Zhao, W., Lou, L. & Shanks, D. (2023). Do Practice Tests (Quizzes) Reduce or Provoke Test Anxiety? A Meta-Analytic Review. Educational Psychology Review 35(87).
A diary study is a research method that involves participants recording their thoughts, experiences, activities, and emotions in a diary or journal over a period of time. It is primarily a qualitative research approach that aims to gather rich, detailed insights into the daily lives and experiences of participants.
Flowtime consists of picking a task, working on it until you get tired, and then taking a break. You repeat the process until you finish the task.
How did the researchers induce stress? Just before the test, they asked participants to stand up and give extemporaneous speeches and solve math problems in front of two judges and three peers.
Reduced Cognitive Load by Not Fearing The Unknown?
I have the following guesses:
The stress from the tests can be very uncomfortable to students. In addition, without practice tests, students may involentarily spend a lot of energy to predict what the test would look like. These predictions are usually inaccurate and rarely result in better learning immediately before the tests. However, this behavior can overload their working memories, hence the undesirable performances in the real tests.
Having practice tests can have the potential to significantly lower the portion of working memory used for prediction, which results in better test results.
Has any research been done to either reject or confirm these thoughts?
Game Theory in Education?
It feels like the Pomodoro Technique is a one-size-fits-all strategy. Since everyone has their unique attention span, the Pomodoro Technique might not be optimal. However, even military personelles doing the most dangerous jobs in the world train at the same pace. These are groups who need absolutely the best efficiencies in training. Perhaps the Game Theory applies in not only economics, but also education and training - the first best choice is unstable, and it tend to collapse even when it is achieved. In contrast, the second best choice is stable and can be sustained. The Pomodoro Technique is easy to adapt, and it is a good way to self-regulate. Although not optimal, these features make it a more stable choice.