PREOPTEREĆENOST UČENIKA ŠKOLSKIM OBAVEZAMA / STUDENTS OVERLOAD WITH SCHOOL DUTIES

Abstract

School in the modern society should provide an environment for students to feel safe and motivated for learning. There should be an optimal student workload with the schoolwork as well as with the homework. Unfortunately, student overload at all levels of education has been evident. Their overloaded schedule presents a significant challenge and may cause fatigue, exhaustion, distraction, mope, high levels of stress, apathy, superficially and campaign learning, and general lack of motivation. Due to the topicality of the issue, the authors of this paper have tried to offer a review of the sources of the student overload. Different sources, as well as negative consequences of student overload have been determined based on a significant number of empirical works so far. The article also suggests measures to relieve students. Psychologists, in cooperation with the students’ parents and experts from other branches of the education sector, can contribute in finding a way to prevent and reduce consequences of the overload. Empirical studies about sources of student overload are also necessary to determine evidence based guidelines for the education reform.