Healthy habits: Strategies to get students into the routine of practising

The healthy habits we have in adulthood are born during our school years. That’s why it’s important that while your students are young, you help instill the habit of practice in their daily and weekly routines.

Research shows that practice is essential for developing skills – whether for academic study, improving at a sport, or learning to play a musical instrument. The difficulty though, is that for young learners, developing practice can be tedious. It requires intrinsic motivation and sustainable routines that go beyond the classroom.

Nevertheless, if you’re looking for how to teach your students healthy study habits, practice has to be part of your approach. Here’s how you can support them in developing behaviours and patterns of practice that are beneficial now, and later on in life.

Build consistency with routines and rituals

One key way to make practice come more smoothly for learners is to use routines and rituals.

The SMART framework for setting goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) make students’ aims to practise more concrete. For example, instead of ‘practise reading’, their goal could be ‘read five pages of your novel every day and write a 100-word summary of what happened’.

You can also help students break down large skills into micro-goals. Instead of an overwhelming goal like ‘practise French to become fluent’, you can work with students to scaffold this skill into smaller steps. ‘Learn 20 new words by the end of this week’ or ‘test yourself with five phrase flashcards daily’, are more realistic goals to nurture practising.

Another good strategy is to use practice anchors, where students learn to add a new habit onto an existing one. For example, ‘practise a new guitar chord for five minutes after dinner’ combines a new experience with a familiar one, and so makes practising the new skill less daunting.

Remember that consistency is king when encouraging practice. A few minutes of practice can accumulate to a lot of practice over time, and prevents students from feeling overwhelmed early on.

Connect practice to personal meaning

Students are more likely to practise a new skill or activity if they can connect it to their own interests. When you’re talking to students about the thing they want to practise, ask them why it’s important to them and what they feel it will bring to their life. Vocalising their personal motivation can be something they come back to as they start to commit to practice.

If a student struggles to express why the skill or activity is important, remind them of the possible benefits. For example, if a student’s goal is to get better at a team sport, you might share how physical activity keeps you fit and strong, that working as a team helps build closer friendships, and that there’s a sense of accomplishment from winning games.

You might also share stories about previous students who have persevered at something and were able to reach their goals: such as being selected to play for a local sports team or being awarded a trophy in a particular game.

Regularly revisit students’ personal connections to their skill or activity to maintain their motivation. If they ever reach a point of frustration with their practice, you can gently remind them why it matters to them and keep them moving forward.

You should also remind students of their agency in the process of practice. If a student wants to develop their public speaking skills, let them choose what topics they want to practise, or let them choose the events they want to speak at.

The combination of personal meaning and autonomy helps students build intrinsic motivation, which is a crucial component of learning and positive development.

Implement supportive accountability and feedback

In addition to intrinsic motivation, extrinsic factors such as accountability and feedback help students build the habit of practice.

In pairs or groups, have students be one another’s ‘practice partners’. They then have weekly or fortnightly chats to keep each other accountable for their practice. They could ask questions like “When/how long did you practice for this week?”, “What helps you get in the mood to practice?” and “Are you feeling more confident as you practice more?”.

Students also need feedback throughout their practice to prevent repeating any mistakes or getting bored. Self-assessment checklists can help students review what worked and didn’t work immediately after each practice session. You, as the teacher, should also check in periodically with students as they practise at school, to listen, correct, and guide them in their process.

Naturally, you need to celebrate students’ success in their practice as well! The praise you offer should be tailored to the student’s preferences – some may like class shoutouts or having their work displayed publicly, while others might want a more discreet badge or one-on-one feedback. However you celebrate, try to integrate the role of practice in the achievement: you could say “All that dedicated hard work really paid off!”.

Remember that practice is a process

Practice is a marathon, not a sprint. It absolutely requires patience and perseverance, but it doesn’t have to be a slog!

Talk to your students about deliberate practice, explaining that it’s better to focus on one or a few specific elements of their chosen skill or activity during practice. For a student learning a language, that could mean practising a particular grammar rule one practice session. For a student learning an instrument, that could mean practising certain chords one practice session.

Encourage students to go slowly through their practice, and to take pauses to reflect on how they’re doing and make adjustments. Reassure them that setbacks are to be expected but are part of creating a realistic, achievable practise routine. You could hold practice discussions in class for students to share what they’re finding tricky and get suggestions from their peers to overcome it.

‘If then’ plans are also a fantastic tool to support students who are having repeated difficulties with practice. These are statements that recognise the issue, and provide a constructive follow-up action. For example:

• I keep forgetting to practise: If I get home without having done it, then I will open my practice app for three minutes before doing anything else.
• I don’t have enough time: If I only have five minutes on the bus, then I will review one flashcard.
• I feel unmotivated: If I don’t want to practise, then I’ll read a story about someone who used this skill and remind myself of my goal.

Learning habits for life

Practice is a healthy habit that prepares students for learning at school and much of their adult lives. By developing practice earlier, students have a foundation to develop a range of skills – making them even brighter and brilliant people in the world.

Further reading

Discover more healthy habits and ways to build them. Read How to get students into the rhythm of reading, How art and creativity in the classroom support student health and wellbeing, and Social learning: What it is, and how to encourage students to participate.