Why do some children fail at school? To some, failure is a dirty word, but I believe if we are not bluntly honest about things – we can’t fix them.
That said, failure can mean different things to different students. For some, failure may be getting a D in Mathematics. For another student, it may be getting a B. It depends on your current situation and your goal.
And, of course, academic success is just one part of the picture, but it is the focus of this article.
But no matter how you and your children define success and failure at school, research shows there are common reasons why students fail to do as well as they wish at school.
#1 Distraction
The first thing hindering students’ success is not paying attention to their learning.
This is shown at the extreme level by the fact that poor attendance predicts higher rates of academic failure.
Yet, getting to class or a tutoring session is only part of the battle. You must pay attention to what you are learning.
Sadly, some students suffer from mental health conditions (anxiety, anger, depression), sometimes coupled with bullying, that pull their focus elsewhere.
But there are also common, more easily addressed reasons why students don’t pay attention:
- Distractions – friends, mobile phones
- Boredom or lack of interest in the subject
- Being able to hide in a crowd within a classroom
- Disruptions caused by other students in the classroom
Tutoring provides a personalised, supportive, one-on-one environment that helps address most of these.
#2 Not Understanding
If you leave class or a tutoring session and you don’t understand something you should, it makes it impossible for you to succeed.
Your understanding is partially influenced by things beyond your control, such as
- Your ability
- How well something is explained to you
But there are other things you have more control of. The first is point 2 #paying attention.
Yet, paying attention is not enough on its own. You must also:
- Think hard about what the topic at hand means
- Ask for help when you don’t fully understand things
You can read more about practical ways to think hard to increase understanding here.
Yet, asking for help takes more explanation, as it is more challenging than it seems.
Asking for Help
We all want to think well of ourselves to some degree. For better or worse, part of this involves considering how others view us. Students pay particular attention to how their classmates view them – or at least, how they think their classmates view them.
So, asking for help in a classroom can be daunting if you think your classmates may think of you as:
- Uncool – caring too much about schoolwork
- Dumb – even if most other students didn’t understand
Asking for help in a tutoring session often feels much safer.
#3 Forgetting
To do well at school, you need to understand what you have been taught. But you must also remember it.
Sadly, just a few moments after you understand something, you start to forget it. This happens quite rapidly but tapers off over time. German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus developed the Forgetting Curve to show this relationship.
But there are things you can do that help you remember:
- Practice
- Spacing
- Feedback
The first involves practice. It doesn’t matter whether you are answering multiple choice questions, solving mathematics problems or simply writing down everything you remember about. When you force yourself to retrieve what you have learned from your memory, you strengthen that memory. If homework involves small amounts of relevant practice, it can be very helpful.
The second way to remember what you learned is to space your practice over time. Doing all the work in one class or tutoring session is not enough. You need to practice in between.
Spaced retrieval practice will help you. But it is even more helpful when coupled with feedback. Think about:
- What you got wrong or left out
- Why you did this
- How it affects your understanding and later practice
Success at School In A Nutshell
If you want to be successful in school:
- Avoid being distracted and pay attention to what you need to learn
- Strive to make sense of what you are learning and ask for help if needed
- Remember what you have learned using spaced practice, coupled with feedback
