Category: Reflections

After transcribing my interviews on Otter, I was able to conduct a thematic analysis of interviews using a wordcloud generator.

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I also filtered each interview for specific words and phrases relating to my original objectives for the project:

1. Establish what my participants believe procrastination is and how it affects them.
2. Gain a better understanding of how procrastination manifests in creative students.
3. Help students who experience EF to reframe their ideas of themselves and their procrastination behaviours and feel supported. 
4. Provide ESI tools to tutors with students experiencing EF.

Results

• 60% associate procrastination with shame
• 20% see procrastination as positive/useful
• 20% feel they were given appropriate ESI tools while learning
• All agree that procrastination and laziness are not the same
• 90% admit that procrastination is part of their creative process in some way
• 100% associate the term ‘Executive Function’ with “a man in a suit”
• 80% said that they procrastinate because they need processing time
• 40% related their mental health to the amount they procrastinate
• 60% feel they are easily distracted (phones, emails, children)
• 90% open to attending workshops on EDF/procrastination in the future

Conclusions

There appears to be a loose link between EDF and creative practice. While there is plenty of theory to corroborate this, for the purposes of this research project there needs further research to gain more conclusive data. I am curious about the statistics on disabled students in the UAL Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Report 2018. According to the report, 16% of students at UAL declared a disability, 84% did not. Given the links between EDF, neurodivergence and disability (Meltzer 2007), I would be curious to know the percentage of students attending UAL who procrastinate or experience EDF in another form. Further to this, I am also curious about what role ableism and lack of knowledge around diagnosis and disability have played in these statistics. I believe accurate reporting on the issue of EDF in Higher Education is the key to getting students and staff the support they need.

My decision to use the terms EF/EDF in this project needs to be revised moving forward. I decided to use these terms interchangeably instead of procrastination because I found that procrastination is part of EDF during my research process. However, my participants all associated the term ‘Executive Function’ with “a man in a suit” and considered it a corporate term. Additionally, EF & EDF are colloquial and ableist terms that centre neuro-typical ways of approaching projects and privilege the Western concepts of time = money and productivity = worth. Decolonising and reframing these terms is another important aspect of supporting students and staff who procrastinate.

ESI is an effective tool for students only when they are aware they are being given tools for the how of learning. Although my participants stated that they were not aware of receiving ESI during their learning careers, I have seen tutors on the PGCERT utilise ESI techniques while teaching. However, the ‘explicit’ element of ESI has been very soft, leaving students unaware that it is happening. If students are unaware that they are being taught a technique that will assist them with the ‘how’ of learning, they are less likely to pay attention to it. Particularly as the strategic elements of the lesson usually come at the end of the class when students are already saturated with information. 

Both tutors and students need more effective tools to manage EDF in the classroom than what is presently available. Upon investigation, the Academic Support website at UAL has no articles or workshops available that are explicitly about procrastination. Therefore, a student searching for support on this topic might miss it because the resource does not contain the word they are searching for, even if the resource addresses procrastination by another name. Students are aware that procrastination is an issue for them and want to address it but do not know how. This supports the research I did prior to conducting these interviews and I have spoken a little more about this in my blog on procrastination. Learners are very receptive to attending workshops and receiving additional support around procrastination so that they can learn how to work around it, or potentially stop altogether. Although procrastination can be a useful tool, particularly for creativity, the majority of my participants consider it as a negative trait that adversely affects their mental health. As I mentioned earlier, reframing and decolonising EDF is a key element of empowering students and staff in this regard. However, this is a long term process, which does not do much in the ways of practical support for students and staff in the present.

Bibliography

Meltzer, L. (2018). Executive Function In Education: From Theory To Practice. 2nd ed. New York, London: The Guilford Press.

Grooms, E. C, ‘The Race for Time: Experiences in the Temporality of Blackness’ (2020). Senior Projects Spring. 241. https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2020/241

UAL Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Report 2018 https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/144474/190206_EDI-Report-2018.pdf

After reading The Science of Asking Questions (Schaeffer & Presser 2003), I have decided to do one round of interviews with fellow students on the PGCERT course, and if I have time, one round of interviews with Academic Support lecturers/tutors. Following that, I will evaluate the interview responses using thematic analysis, to determine what kind of intervention(s) I should create.

Interview Round 1: Questions for PGCERT colleagues/Students
NB: These people are currently both teaching on courses throughout UAL and learning on the PGCERT course.

1. What do you think of when you hear the word “procrastination”?
2. What do you think of when you think of the term “lazy”?
3. Are procrastination and laziness the same thing?
4. Would you consider yourself to be a procrastinator or lazy?
5. Do you think procrastination can be useful?
6. Tell me the story of your procrastination – what usually happens, what do you feel?
7. Were you ever given tools that helped you to understand how to learn by teachers or other education figures in your life?
8. Have you ever heard the term Executive Function?
9. What do you think educators can do to help students who procrastinate?
10. What do you think is misunderstood about people who procrastinate?

Round 1 interview questions are split into 4 sections:

• Questions 1 – 3 = defining terms and “warm up” questions. Before I ask my interviewees anything more personal, I need to have an understanding of what their personal understandings/definitions are on these terms. I also need to help them feel comfortable and safe in the interview space by asking them relatively ‘low-key’ questions.
• Questions 4 – 6 = delving deeper into personal experiences. Encouraging more personal reflection on the topic and how it affects them directly.
• Questions 7 – 9 = reframing the issue. Gaining an understanding of their ideas around procrastination in education and are they aware of industry terms around this issue? How would they approach the issue of procrastination in their students knowing that they also procrastinate? Were they ever given any ESI in their own learning careers?
• Question 10 = plenary.

Interview Round 2: Questions for Lecturers

1. What do you think when you hear the word “procrastination”
2. Are procrastination and laziness the same thing?
3. When you think about students procrastinating, what comes up for you?
4. How would you respond to a student that you felt was procrastinating?
5. What academic support tools would you give a student that you felt was procrastinating?
6. Why do you think students procrastinate?
7. Have you ever heard the term Executive Function?
8. Have you ever heard the term Executive Dysfunction?
9. Have you ever heard the term Explicit Strategy Instruction?
10. Were you ever given tools as a student that helped you to understand how to learn?
11. What do you think is missing from university curricula that could help students who procrastinate?

Round 2 interview questions are split into 5 sections:

• Questions 1& 2 = defining terms and “warm-up” questions. Before I ask my interviewees anything more personal, I need to have an understanding of what their personal understandings/definitions are on these terms. I also need to help them feel comfortable and safe in the interview space by asking them relatively ‘low-key’ questions.
• Questions 3 – 6 = delving deeper into personal experiences and teaching methods they would use to help procrastinating students. Do they think that procrastinators are lazy?
• Questions 7 – 9 = gaining an understanding of their ideas around procrastination in education, are they aware of industry terms around this issue?
• Question 10 = reframing the topic, what is their personal experience of ESI, if any?
• Question 11 = plenary.

Interview times

I estimate that these interviews will take around 30 minutes each. I think that 30 minutes is enough time to create a sense of intimacy and safety with my participants, without taking up too much time from their busy lives or feeling too longwinded. I also don’t want the interviews to feel rushed, I want my participants to leave feeling like they have been heard and understood. Procrastinators already have so much shame around this issue, I don’t want to compound it.

Quizzes

I have thought for quite a while about whether or not to ask my participants to take Piers Steel’s procrastination quiz before the interview so that I can assess what kind of procrastinator they are. I have decided against it for the following reasons:

1. Although the quiz isn’t particularly harsh and it didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know, seeing myself defined as a “master procrastinator” did very little for my self-esteem. I don’t necessarily want to expose my participants to that.
2. Taking a quiz and having their procrastination defined by an external authority might make my participants feel judged or that I am trying to shame them.
3. I am intending to ask them questions that could potentially feel quite personal. I want them to come into the interview space feeling open and ready to share their personal experiences with me. Asking them to take a quiz might make them shut down before we have even begun.
4. As procrastinators, they are very likely to procrastinate taking the quiz!

I plan to approach some of my fellows on the course this week and begin conducting interviews as soon as possible.

Bibliography

Schaeffer, C. N, & Presser, S. (2003) ‘The Science of Asking Questions’. Annual Review of Sociology 2003 29:65–88 doi: 10.1146/annurev.soc.29.110702.110112

Procrastination Personalities

In Piers Steel’s meta analysis there are 5 personality traits that have a direct correlation to people’s tendency to procrastinate: neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness (how open the person is to new experiences), intelligence/aptitude, conscientiousness.

Thinking about my own behaviour and what happens for me when I procrastinate I can say that I have traits in all of these groups. The trait I have the most commonality with it neuroticism, I identify as a procrastinating perfectionist, which doesn’t actually make sense. Although I am aware that perfection does not actually exist, I expect a lot from myself always and place a lot of internal pressure and expectation on myself before I have even started a task. The concept of ‘good enough is good enough’ is quite alien to me. According to Steel, my expectations of myself may be part of the reason I procrastinate doing certain tasks; if it feels too big and there is too much pressure, people are more likely to procrastinate.

Procrastination and the Pandemic

I also find that I am easily distracted, particularly by social media. I have definitely noticed that my procrastination, scrolling habits and screen time, in general, have increased during the pandemic. This is a predictable outcome of being stuck indoors for months at a time, particularly as a high-risk person who is shielding. I am not the only person who is experiencing this. Exhaustion, poor mental health, incidences of disability and lack of stimulation have all increased during the pandemic. These are also factors that impact procrastination behaviours and executive function in general (Johnson 20201). I find that scrolling is an activity that I can engage with far more easily than reading or even watching TV, particularly when I am feeling unwell. However, it is a time sink. Often I think that I have been scrolling for 10 minutes when really an hour will have passed. I am not entirely sure that scrolling is a total waste of time, as I have learned quite a lot from educators on social media. However, I am curious about how scrolling impacts my procrastination behaviours, particularly with reference to this project.

Picture of a Procrastinator

Steel’s website procrastinus.com offer’s a procrastination quiz that allows participants to view what kind of procrastinator they are and then offers potential solutions to help.

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According to the quiz, I am a Master Procrastinator, scoring 77.78 out of 100 for procrastination behaviours. This is something I already knew, but seeing it in black and white like this does leave me feeling a little despondent, despite all the research I have done on this topic so far. I had planned to ask my participants to take the quiz and share their results with me before the interviews, like an informal survey. I have now decided against doing that because:

• Procrastination and shame are already so interlinked, I do not want to make my participants feel worse about it.
• They may be less open to talking about procrastination after taking the quiz and receiving a label on their procrastination behaviour.
• Is it ethical or appropriate for me to categorise students this way? What purpose does it serve?

Upon reflection, I think my personal observations about my participants and where they fit into Steel’s model of procrastination personality traits should also remail private. I was planning to ask them to categorise themselves after taking the quiz, but again, this feels like it might add unneccessary pressure and cause my participants to feel judged rather than supported.

I think one way of circumventing some of the ethical concerns I have around labelling people is to interview people who either self-identify currently as procrastinators, or who previously identified as procrastinators. This way, any possible judgement felt is not coming from me, but from their own assessment of their behaviour.

Bibliography

Johnson, N. (2021). Are you procrastinating more? Blame the pandemic. [online] National Geographic. Available at: <https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/are-you-procrastinating-more-blame-the-pandemic#:~:text=Procrastination%20has%20roots%20in%20our,the%20brain%20vying%20for%20control.&text=%E2%80%9CThe%20pandemic%20has%20caused%20increased,%2C%20leading%20to%20more%20procrastination.%E2%80%9D> 

Steel, P. (2007). The Nature of Procrastination: A Meta-analytic and Theoretical Review of Quintessential Self-regulatory Failure. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 65–94.