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This article by journalist K a t h e r i n e D o n n e l l y appeared in the Irish Independent on 30 January 2017
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Students who do Transition Year ( TY ) engage better with their studies for the Leaving Certificate than those who do not .
They spend significantly more time on homework in fifth and sixth year , and are more likely to persist with difficult questions , according to new research .
The research , into the study habits of teenagers , from third to sixth year , has a particular focus on whether the fifth and sixth years participated in TY .
Ave . no . of hours study per week
14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0
5th year 6th year
Students who do their studies for
The findings may help to explain why teens who do TY tend to perform better in the Leaving Cert .
But they also highlight a class divide in education , with schools in disadvantaged areas , or students from less-well off backgrounds least likely to participate in TY .
About 90pc of schools now offer TY and about 65pc of students in these schools participate in the " gap " year between the Junior and Leaving Cert .
The new study , conducted by Aidan Clerkin of the Educational Research Centre , Drumcondra , Dublin , involved about 5,500 students , in 20 schools , over three years . It is published in the current edition of the ' Irish Journal of Education '.
Mr Clerkin found substantial variations between students , at each grade level , in relation to homework , with some reporting no , or a negligible amount , of
Students who did not complete TY
Students who completed in TY
TY UPDATE MARCH 2017 time devoted to it each week , and others reporting putting in several hours a night .
On average , the time students say they spend on homework every week is :
• Third and fifth years - 8.8 hours and 8.3 hours , respectively ;
• Sixth years - nearly 13 hours ;
• TY students - about 2.3 hours .
When account is taken of whether fifth or sixth-year students had done TY , big variations emerge in both time spent on homework and their general approach to study .
Fifth years who skipped TY were more likely to say they rarely , or never , engaged in selfdirected study behaviours , such as revising with bullet points , practising exam questions or doing extra study .
This group also reported giving up on difficult questions and not doing their assigned homework on a more frequent basis than classmates who opted for TY .
When it came to the time spent on homework , fifth years who had done TY reported putting in about 8.9 hours a week , compared with six hours for those who had not .
In sixth year , both TY and non- TY participants put in substantially more study time , but a gap remains : 13.3 hours for the former compared with 10.5 hours for the latter
The report refers to other factors that come into play in relation to how Leaving Cert students approach homework