Dear Shahid, you wrote:
“This summer, I studied urban ethnography. My cohort analysis focused on how inner city youth used time. I find in my research that every identified variable was relative: economics, resources, environment, even intelligence. However, regardless of zip code and titles, everyone is given 24 hours per day. My question how and why do people choose to utilize “their” time differently and its impact? From your perspective, how does the use of time impact a person’s achievement?”
My thoughts:
It seems natural that a number of variables would be associated with use of time (as time becomes allocated to any number of life moments/projects), but that doesn’t necessarily define causality and I’m still not sure how you are measuring, “use of time?” Is it time on task? Is it structured vs. unstructured time?
There are many ways to quantify use of time, and these may have varied impacts on a person’s achievement, which also needs to be defined: What is achievement? Is it grades and test scores? Is it happiness and well-being?
All of these things matter.
That said, I will offer a couple of ideas relevant to this topic that I’ve come across in my own work with urban youth and urban classrooms:
Children, particularly those of low-income or otherwise challenging environments, must be taught essential executive functioning skills—including that of time management. I found that my students used to waste time on tasks, simply because they didn’t know where to begin—they struggled navigate a textbook, identify what was important, or map out a plan of action for a longer assignment. When I was a social studies teacher in Washington, DC, instead of focusing on history content, I would dedicate time specifically to making them more efficient learners.
People often overlook these important aspects of teaching, but the importance of self-regulation and self-management becomes obvious when you encounter that nightmare boss who can’t plan or find yourself gravitating to adult self-help books to help you organize.
That National Center for Learning Disabilities does a good job identifying critical areas that executive functioning impacts: making plans, finishing work on time, keeping track of multiple items,
(and adults) use time. I would argue that these things impact ANY definition of achievement.
But another topic of interest to me is how schools and educational professionals use time effectively with students, particularly in urban, low-income environments where students may fall below grade level. One meaningful organization focused on this topic is that National Center on Time and Learning. Their report, “Time Well Spent” highlights promising practices for using time effectively within educational settings:
- Make Every Minute Count
- Prioritize Time
- Individualize Learning Time
- Time to Build School Culture
- Time for a Well-Rounded Education
- College & Career Success
- Continuously Strengthen Instruction
- Assess, Analyze & Respond to Data
Hope you find these thoughts interesting as you continue your research! Will look forward to hearing more about what you discover.
