Beyond the classroom: How did secondary school students manage their time during COVID-19 school suspensions in Hong Kong?

The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the learning mode from regular schooling to online learning in many places. Academically, many studies on the impact of online learning and the resulting change in teaching strategies already exist. Yet, there seems to be no research on the time management practices of Hong Kong students in remote learning. It is therefore, of research interest to know: 1) Hong Kong students’ time management behaviour for learning during COVID-19, and 2) factors that determined students’ behaviours to manage their time. The present study reports new findings under this topic and fills in the gap in the existing literature; it also provides some clues to prepare our students to become self-regulated learners.

Thirty-six students from Secondary Three/Grade Nine in a local secondary school were selected to participate in the study. A questionnaire was used to understand students’ time management practices, followed by focus group discussions (FGD) with six selected students. The study revealed that 50% of the students used more than half of their time spontaneously without planning in advance, 44.4% of the students worked without planning for less than half of their work time, and 5.6% of the students planned clearly before they work. The factors that were reported to influence the students’ time management include lack of motivation, parents and teachers, mood, and social/leisure activities. As time management is one of the important techniques in self-regulated learning, the findings of this study draw attention to Hong Kong students’ apparent general lack of skills in self-regulated learning. Copyright © 2021 HKERA-APERA International Conference.