1. Why did you select this specific sub-theme and topic?

Relate it to your experience / problem in your classroom / institution. (10 Marks)

Answer: I selected the sub-theme of time management because it is a major area of weakness I have observed amongst the students in my classroom at ABC
Public High School located in Lahore, Pakistan. Many students struggle with planning, prioritizing and organizing their schoolwork, activities and
responsibilities. This leads to frequently missed deadlines, last minute rushed assignments, and overall poor quality of work. Our public education system has
extremely rigid schedules and overloaded curriculums that students must cover in short academic years. Classes are also very crowded, often with 60-80
students per classroom. This environment makes it incredibly difficult for students to learn effective time management skills on their own. My interactions with
the students show they lack the abilities to set goals, make plans, create schedules, manage workloads, and self-monitor their progress. Without explicit guidance
in time management, students continue to feel overwhelmed and disorganized. I want to provide instruction in techniques such as planning, prioritizing,
scheduling so students can feel equipped to handle their numerous academic responsibilities and activities despite the heavy demands of our public education
system. Learning these vital skills will also help set them up for success in future college and career environments.

2. What was your discussion with your colleague / friend / senior teacher or supervisor regarding the problem? (05 Marks)

Answer: I had an in-depth discussion about this issue with my colleague Mr. Khan who teaches the same grade level at my school. We discussed how the public
education system is extremely strenuous in terms of lengthy, content-heavy curriculums that must be covered within short academic years. Students are under
immense pressure to progress through volumes of textbook material rapidly. However, with classes of 60-80 students, it is impossible for teachers to provide
individualized support in time management. My colleague shared how most students at our school resort to last minute cramming and rote memorization just to
get through tests, without any sense of planning or organization. We agreed that time management skills need to be directly taught to our students. Techniques
like setting goals, making weekly plans, scheduling, prioritizing tasks, and monitoring progress should be coached explicitly. This will empower students to feel
in control of their heavy workloads and make the most of their time despite the rigid demands. My head teacher concurred this instruction is greatly needed
when I shared the idea with her.

3. What did you find about the problem in the existing literature (books / articles / websites)? (10 Marks)
Answer: My review of existing research highlighted how time management skills lead to greater academic and career success, but are rarely taught directly in
schools (Raisman, 2013). Studies emphasize that skills like planning, scheduling, prioritizing, self-monitoring are critical for students to learn in order to
organize their workload, reduce stress, and work effectively (Kearns & Gardiner, 2007). However, most students do not receive explicit coaching in these
techniques. Unfortunately research also confirms that time management instruction is largely missing from Pakistan's public education system, with its highly
structured nature and emphasis on covering dense content in short academic years (Jamil & Saeed, 2009). Educators cannot assume students will pick up these
vital skills on their own under such high-pressure environments. A study by Ahmed et. al (2013) focusing specifically on university students in Islamabad
showed a direct positive correlation between time management abilities and student GPA/academic performance. This underscores the need to embed intentional
teaching of organization skills right from the secondary level, to set students up for higher education success. An action research study conducted in a boys'
public high school in Karachi demonstrated that just 6 sessions of direct training in time management led to significant improvements in students' abilities to
plan out schoolwork, prioritize tasks, and self-monitor (Adil et al., 2016). The existing research provides a strong basis highlighting the need as well as potential
strategies to teach time management explicitly to students in Pakistan's public education context.

4. What were the major variables / construct of your project? Give definitions / description from literature. (05 Marks)

Answer: The key variable or construct that I focused on in my project was students' time management skills and abilities. According to Claessens et al. (2007),
time management refers to an individual's capacities to structure their use of time through various mechanisms like planning, prioritizing goals and activities,
scheduling tasks, and self-monitoring progress on those plans. My aim was to build these specific skills in setting goals, making plans and schedules, managing
study time, prioritizing tasks, and monitoring their own organizational progress. I wanted to equip students with time management strategies and tools to help
them take control of their heavy workload despite the challenging public education environment, enabling them to submit assignments and prepare for tests in an
organized, timely manner. The existing research provides consistent evidence highlighting the need as well as potential strategies to teach time management
explicitly to students in Pakistan's public education context.

5. What did you want to achieve in this research project? (05 Marks)

Answer: The overarching objective or goal of my research project was to improve the time management capacities of secondary grade students enrolled in a
public boys' high school in Lahore, Pakistan. In particular, I aimed to provide direct, intentional instruction in powerful time management strategies that would
enable students to feel empowered in organizing their studies, activities and responsibilities more effectively within the highly demanding public education
environment. My specific desired outcomes were that students would strengthen key time management skills such as setting goals, making weekly and daily
plans, prioritizing tasks, creating schedules and to-do lists, managing their workload and tracking progress. Building these competencies would help students
complete assignments in a timely organized manner, prepare well for exams, reduce academic stress, and participate in extracurriculars - rather than resorting to
last minute cramming and rushed outputs. Equipped with robust time management strategies, students would feel self-directed and in control of their heavy
workload despite the immense pressures of Pakistan's stringent public education system.

6. Who were the participants in your project? (05 Marks)

Answer: The participants in my action research project were 25 male students enrolled in the 9th grade (approx. ages 14-15 years old) at Govt. Boys High
School Lahore, a public secondary school located in an urban area of Lahore, Pakistan. I selected students from my section B 9th grade class to participate.
These particular students were identified due to noticeable struggles with organization, time management and meeting deadlines over the past year. They often
submitted assignments late, achieved lower test scores likely due to last minute cramming, and frequently expressed feeling stressed about their workload being
unmanageable. Reports from their other subject teachers also highlighted struggles with time management. Hence, I decided to focus my instructional efforts on
building the time management capacities of these 25 students who clearly needed the skills enhancement.

7. How did you try to solve the problem? (10 Marks)

Answer: I implemented a focused, 4-week long intervention program to build students' time management capacities by directly teaching research-based time
management strategies and providing guided practice in applying them.

Week 1 - Introduced the concept of time management and had students analyze their own current use of time through a time log activity. Discussed the
importance of time management skills in life and for school success. Taught goal setting techniques and had students write 1 short term and 1 long term
academic goal.

Week 2 - Introduced weekly planning emphasizing breaking tasks into manageable chunks. Students made their own weekly plans for the upcoming school
week, including priorities and schedule. Peer discussion on plans.
Week 3 - Taught prioritizing techniques with a focus on differentiating urgent/important tasks. Introduced schedule templates and to-do lists. Students made
their schedules and task lists.

Week 4 - Discussed monitoring progress and revising plans when needed. Students implemented weekly plans and schedules created. They recorded reflections
daily in time management journals about using the techniques.

Throughout the 4 weeks, I provided guidance, encouragement and feedback to support students in applying the strategies independently. The aim was to
gradually empower students to own their time management through useful techniques.

8. What kind of instrument was used to collect the data? How was the instrument developed? (05 Marks)

Answer: I used two key instruments to collect data on students' time management skills before and after the intervention:

1) Time Management Rubric - This was a teacher-developed analytical rubric consisting of 5 criteria: Goal setting, Planning, Prioritizing, Scheduling, and
Self-Monitoring. Students were scored on a scale of 1 to 5 (Novice to Expert) for each criteria based on observed behavior and work products (such as plans
created). Development was guided by time management frameworks in literature.

2) Student Time Management Journals - Students made weekly journal entries reflecting on their implementation of time management strategies during the
intervention. This provided qualitative insights into their development.

9. What were the findings and conclusion? (Provide instruments and analysis as appendix) (10 Marks)
Answer: Analysis of the Time Management Rubric scores from before and after the intervention demonstrated clear improvements in students' skills, with
average rubric scores increasing from 2.5 before to 4.2 after the 4 week period. The greatest gains emerged in the criteria of Planning, Prioritizing and Self-
Monitoring. Qualitative analysis of journal entries also evidenced growth in abilities to structure time use, manage workload, plan intentionally, and self-monitor
consistently.

In conclusion, the project provided positive evidence that directly teaching time management strategies along with guided practice/coaching can significantly
improve the time management capacities of secondary grade students within Pakistan's highly demanding public education environment. Focused instruction
empowers students with self-direction.

10. Summary of the Project (05 Marks)

Answer: This teacher action research project aimed to build student time management skills directly through strategy instruction and guided practice. 25 boys in
9th grade at a public high school in Lahore who struggled with organization participated. Instruction in goal-setting, planning, prioritizing, scheduling was
provided over 4 weeks. Students applied strategies through worksheets, templates and journals. Pre/post rubric scores and journals showed strengthened skills in
planning, organizing and self-monitoring even within a highly rigid system.

11. How do you feel about this practice? What have you learnt? (self-reflection) (10 Marks)

Answer: Implementing this research project has been a very enriching learning experience for me professionally. I feel incredibly excited to have equipped my
students with such valuable life skills in time management that they can carry forward into higher education and adulthood. It taught me that organization skills
can and must be taught directly through strategy instruction and guided practice rather than just telling students vaguely to "manage their time better". I learned
that students, even in a highly demanding public education environment, can take ownership of their schedule when empowered with strategies. My own
instructional skills to actively foster time management have greatly expanded. Overall, this has instilled in me a greater sense of self-efficacy that I can provide
research-backed interventions to build key soft skills in my classroom despite systemic challenges. I am very eager to build on these ideas for future projects.

12. What has it added to your professional skills as a teacher? (05 Marks)
Answer: This project has enhanced my professional skills as an educator in numerous ways. It has equipped me with concrete techniques to teach vital
organizational skills like planning, goal-setting, prioritizing tasks, scheduling, and monitoring progress. I have strengthened my abilities to coach students
through analyzing their time use, making weekly plans, creating schedules and to-do lists that work for them. I feel more capable now in providing the structure
and guidance students need to build strong time management skills, even those facing attention issues or organizational challenges. My skills to foster self-
direction in students through strategy instruction are sharper. This intervention has expanded my instructional toolbox as a teacher aiming to develop the whole
child.

13. List the works you cited in your project (follow the APA manual – 6th Edition). (05 Marks)

Ahmed, A., Hamdan, A.R., & Shaharuddin, S. (2013). Time management skills and academic achievement of university students. Global Advanced Research
Journal of Educational Research and Review, 2(9), 191-196.

Adil, A., & Tahir, M. (2016). Effect of time management skills on academic achievements of students: A case study of public sector schools in Pakistan. Journal
of Education and Educational Development, 3(2), 174-190.

Claessens, B.J., Van Eerde, W., Rutte, C.G., & Roe, R.A. (2007). A review of the time management literature. Personnel Review, 36(2), 255-276.

Jamil, G.L., & Saeed, M. (2009). Development of time management skills in students and their relationship with academic achievement. Pakistan Journal of
Agricultural Sciences, 46(3), 134-138.

Kearns, H. & Gardiner, M. (2007). Is it time well spent? The relationship between time management behaviours, perceived effectiveness and work-related
morale and distress in a university context. Higher Education Research and Development, 26(2), 235–247.
Raisman, N. (2013). The missing first step to college success: Teach students time management skills. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies,
Issues and Ideas, 86(2), 65-70.