Creating New Habits for Learning

Habits

Habits are defined as a routine automatic behaviour that is repeated regularly by situational cues. They are part of an individuals practice or regular tendency and are a learned response. There is a mental context-behaviour component assuming the extent the context triggers an impulse to perform the habitual behaviour without awareness, cognitive effort or intention. Habits become self-sustained with context-consistent performance as habits guide action efficiently and rapidly. Habit formation reduces demand on memory and attention and behaviour is regulated more by habit than conscious intention.

Habits are very difficult to "give up" as they occur as an automatic reaction to a particular situation. Since habits have a behavioural component, there is a direct relationship with self-control behaviour. Those who rely on good habits generally have better successes at self-control. In contrast, those who are less successful in controlling their behaviours tend to revert to effortless, habitual behaviour frequently bad habits. In general, those who have established good habits have an increased chance to succeed in various aspects of their life.

Goals vs. Habit

Many people mistake goals and habits as interchangeable entities. Goal-directed activities are quickly acquired and modulated by their outcome. Habitual actions are reflexive in nature instigated by previous stimuli versus consequences.

Goals are desired future state coupled with activities that will encourage the attainment of that outcome. Goals are typically something an individual wants but finds difficulty achieving even if it is possible. In the pursuit of a goal, an individual will perform something different than they have before.In order to achieve the goal, the individual can rely on a variety of responses and flexibility in their action to target the outcome.

Habits, on the other hand rely on repeated experiences that form with practice and develop gradually. Habits may act on goals or be completely independent from current goals. Habits are not goal dependent.A habit my be originally triggered by a goal, however, eventually that goal becomes less necessary and the habit becomes automatic. Goal-directed behaviours practiced on a routine basis can form habits.

Habit Formation

Habit formation critically depends on repeated behavioural performance that is in sync with an individuals long-term goal.

Research shows that behaviour is likely to more habitual (habit formation) when it is consistently and frequently performed in the same example or context. When the frequency co-occurence of behaviour and context initiates an association behaviour is more likely to guided in the future. Therefore, when one confronts a context that is associated with a certain behaviour, this context will automatically prompt an associated behaviour. This desired behaviour will be effortless when the habit is formed. The process of habit formation is variable in the amount of effort required. Some individuals can create new habits as soon as 18 days while others may need 6 months. With habit formation, habit strength increases steeply at first and then begins to level off. Habits formation tends to be stronger with the following factors:

• frequency and consistency of desired behaviour
• inherent nature of the behaviour
• comfortable environment
• easier behaviours

self control

In addition to the factors above, self-control is another variation that explains the required time to form a new habit. In habit formation, repeated performance of a behaviour needs to be in sync with an individual's long-term goal. Inhibition of short-term temptations along with initiating new behaviour towards a long-term goal takes effortful self-control especially early on in habit formation.

Three Kinds of Habits

There are three classifications of habits:

1. motor habits: an individuals muscular activities; walking, running, sitting, standing, particular postures
2. intellectual/cognitive: psychological process needing intellectual capabilities such as logical thinking, good observation, reasoning
3. character: different traits such as time management, hardworking, trusting others; also referred to as emotional habits as they express feelings and emotions

Habit loop

This habit loop consists of three elements:

1. cuing environment ( place, time, people, or incidents)
2. routine (repetitive pattern of activities)
3. harmony (an outcome of activating the habit)

Cuing Environment

The cuing environment (place, people, etc) can serve as the trigger to a habit or automatic behaviour. When this environmental trigger and habit are linked, the individual has the urge to perform the automatic behaviour perhaps even unconsciously. An example of of a cuing environment would be waking up in the morning and brushing your teeth. This behaviour could be so ingrained to the environment that you may forget you even did it. Two types of cuing can be found within the environment:

1. direct cuing: repeated associated between environment and routine (i.e. reading in the same room at the same time)
2. motivated cuing: rewarding experiences in the past whereby previous successful experiences may be motivator to do the same thing

Routine

The next part of the loop is the behavioural patterns that we repeat most often are etched into our neural pathways which are essentially are routines. New mechanisms can be formed through repetition and practice. Forming a new habit is easier when it is a simple behaviour versus a complex one. The complexity of the task will require higher number of repetitions required to form a habit.

Harmony

The result of habit activation is the individual's inner feeling of harmony. Needs get fulfilled through routine behaviours and action. This inner reward instigates people to continue the habit to have this feeling of inner strength and serenity.

Interest and habit

Interest and habit are directly related. There are two different kinds of interest:

1. situational interest: may or may not last over time; attention focused and affective reaction triggered in the moment by environmental stimulus
2. individual interest: reengage a particular stimulus overtime with an expectation of positive feelings based on past experiences; internal drive to reengage in the activity

Habits and Student Learners

Excellent performance in school or mastery of a skill is attained through good study habits. Conversely, poor study habits can cause impediments to learning and achievement ultimately leading to failure. Good habits in the classroom leading to student achievement has a cumulative effect on their future success. Students with good habits continue to increase their learning gains later in life while students with poor habits have a difficult time catching up. Prior learning performance is a good predictor of future learning. Positive feeling after a routine activity creates a habit which eventually becomes a hobby. Students will pursue the activity that provides this positive feeling whenever there is an opportunity gaining knowledge and skills in that particular area of interest.When they deepen their interest from situational interest to individual interest, they are more likely to build a habit. Therefore, interest development and habit formation are directly linked.

** A strong predictor of performance later in a course is performance on an early assessment; therefore important to use effective learning stategies early on

How to Form Good Habits in Learning

1. Setting a manageable pace
   • educators should set a manageable pace
   • focussing on one or two changes at a time
   • simple behaviour changes initially progressing into more complex activities
2. Creating a cuing environment
   • provide a cuing environment that does not make the student hesitate from the beginning
     • specific time for a fixed length period
   • clarifying the goal of the learning activity from the beginning of habit formation
   • students understanding the goal will focus on the learning and eventually will become habitual
   • educators should be role models as their behaviours/routines may be unconsciously mimicced
   • utilise resources and situational opportunities as cognitive and affective supports
     • immersive learning, large display on wall
3. Get students engaged in the behaviour on a regular basis
   • necessary for students to practice the new habit regularly until it becomes routine
   • Interrupting or postponement should be avoided because it weakens the habit formation
   • cognitive scaffolding
     • questioning, modeling, explaining, providing hints, coaching and positive affective scaffolding
   • affective scaffolding
     • prevent possible negative emotions such as information hiding or anonymity
4. Reinforce student's satisfaction
   • new behaviours that provide a sense of satisfaction help with habit formation
   • high satisfaction will increase the strength of habit formation, low satisfaction will weaken it
   • creating successful learning experiences as often as possible is the key to student's satisfaction
5. interest-driven
   • students must learn with interest or learning (curiously, immersively, or meaningfully)
   • facilitates them spending more time and energy and enjoying it.
   • with interest, students will concentrate and make sincere efforts.

Students online learning habits

Due to the pandemic, students needed to learn how to incorporate new study habits into their learning. Many of these skills were underdeveloped thus creating a negative connotation towards online learning. Students were required to assume a grater responsibility for their learning secondary to limited instructor-student interactions. To become academically succesfull in an online platform, students needed to actively monitor their performance and apply new study strategies.

The main goal in an online environment is to produce students who are self-regulated learners meaning students who can actively participate in their learning by varying their approaches, behaviours and efforts to achieve their academic goals. Typically students do not enter college with good self-regulatory skills as they prefer to re-read textbooks or lecture notes especially in the online environment. Individuals who have difficulty implementing self-regulation skills may face challenges and poor outcomes.

Enwell et al. 2022, created recommendations to develop effective study habits for online biology courses. These recommendations can be seen below:

TABLE 2

Recommendations for developing effective study habits

Recommendation	Rationale	Study habits developed
Establish content (and digital) learning objectives	Students struggle with using digital tools for academic purposes	Making diagrams Explaining concepts Self-assessment Consistent and spaced study time
Aligning learning objectives and assessments	Students struggle with constructing meaning from online content and identifying concepts to study	Self-assessment Explaining concepts
High quality feedback	Students struggle with constructing meaning from online content and identifying concepts to study	Self-assessment
Scaffolding	Students cite poor time management and inability to assess learning as barriers to online learning	Consistent and spaced study time Synthesizing notes Making diagrams Explaining concepts Self-assessment
Multiple due dates	Students frequently express issues with procrastination and turning work in on time despite having a clear due date	Consistent and spaced study time
Incorporating online formative assessments	Students struggle with constructing meaning from the lectures posted by instructors	Self-assessment
Provide resources outside of recorded lectures and textbook	Students struggle with using digital tools for academic purposes	Synthesizing notes Use of and completion of problem sets Explaining concepts Self-assessment
Facilitate student-content engagement with interactive instructional materials	Students feel that online learning is less engaging and motivating than face-to-face learning	Use of and completion of problem sets Making diagrams Explaining concepts Self-assessment

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