A school group course on planning and memory didn't clearly beat no course
Who it’s about: Children, Students
- No difference
A group course on small steps, deadlines, daily plans and memory worked no better than normal school.
- Action: Split a big task into piecestested
- Action: Plan your weektested
- Rule: Give each piece its own deadlinetested
- Rule: Practise with a groupused
Small randomised trial of 30 secondary school students in Tehran · vs students who carried on with normal school · they rated themselves · ⚠ summary claims more than the results show; numbers unreliable
The study
Who took part
30 students aged 12 to 14 in Tehran, Iran, in their first year of secondary school. They put off schoolwork a moderate amount. A little over half were boys.
What they did
15 students went to eight 90-minute group sessions. These mixed memory exercises with setting goals, breaking tasks into steps with realistic deadlines, daily schedules and self-talk. The other 15 carried on with normal school.
What happened
The course group's scores fell at the end and stayed lower five months later. The other group stayed about the same. But the test comparing the two groups found no clear difference. The paper's summary claims a clear effect that its own results don't show.
Source
The Effectiveness of Deep Learning Based on the Fullan Approach on Working Memory and Academic Procrastination in First-Year Secondary School Students (2025)
DOI: 10.61838/kman.jayps.6.3.7 (opens in a new tab)
