Assessment of Study Habits and their Implications on Student Academic Performance: A case study of Ngumbe Community Day Secondary

School

Presented by:

Lickson Mchepa

On6th July, 2015

At

DOMASI COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

ACTION RESEARCH REPORT

Overview

1. INTRODUCTION• Background to the

Study• Statement of the

Problem• Objectives and

Research Questions 2. LITERATURE REVIEW• Study habits• Study Skills• Academic

Performance

3. RESEARCHMETHODOLOGY

• Research Design• Research Setting• Sample Size and

Sampling Technique• Data analysis

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study• Acheaw, (2004) defines study habits as well-planned

and deliberate patterns of study which has attained a form of consistency on the part of students towards understanding academic subjects and passing examinations.

• A good study habit is a prerequisite for good academic performance(Jato et. al., 2014).

• Children with poor study habits receive poor grades in school, get easily distracted and frustrated.

• Success as the name implies is wished for by everybody but it is not easily come by on a mere platter of gold; one must work for it through hard work and diligence.

Statement of the Problem

• Due to the increasing nature of poor academic performance of Ngumbe CDSS students in internal as well as MANEB examinations, many questions had been raised by teachers, parents and students as to why students perform so poorly.

• But for an excellent performance, there is need for the student to form good study habits (Acheaw, 2004).

• It is clear from all indications that most secondary school students have poor study habit which might lead to poor academic performance.

• As true as this might sound, it is yet to gather adequate research evidence to prove that it is a key factor on why students fail.

• Therefore, the researcher wanted to investigate the study habits and their implications on student performance at Ngumbe CDSS.

Objectives of the Study

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY– To assess the study habits of students and how they affect their

performance.

SPECIFIC OBEJCTIVES– To examine the study habits practiced by students at Ngumbe

CDSS.– To determine the frequency to which student of Ngumbe use the

library.– To ascertain the relationship between study habit and academic

performance at Ngumbe CDSS students.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS– What are the study habits among students at Ngumbe CDSS?– How often do students use the library?– Is there a relationship between (Students’) study habits and

academic performance?

Significance of the Study

The following will benefit from the findings of this study

School Administrators Students Teachers Future researchers

LITERATURE REVIEW

Literature review focused mainly on study habits, study skills and study habits vs academic performance.

Study Habits• Most students do not know how to study

probably because they are not aware of what techniques to apply in the study situation.

• Good and effective study habits, according to Hills and Ballow (2000) include test preparation, note-taking, time consideration, library use, organizing material in a study and choosing a good study environment among others.

LITERATURE REVIEW cont.

Study Skills• There is little doubt that no two people study the same way,

and it is a near certainty that what works for one person may not work for another.

• However, there are some general techniques that seem to produce good results. These include:o The SQ3Rs method (Jato, et. al., 2014), o PQRST Method of Studying (User, 2015),o KWL studying method (Mansfield, 1996).,o The Human Memory Graph (Ali, 2014), ando The Human Attention Span (Ali, 2014).

Human Memory Graph

Source: CASA at: http://casa.tamucc.edu

Human Attention Span

Source: Savage (2011)

LITERATURE REVIEW cont.

Academic Performance• Good study habits lead to good academic

performance but bad and defective study habits result to poor academic performance (Moghadam and Cheraghian 2008) .

• Jato et. al. (2014) argued that study habits are particularly important for students, whose needs include time management, note taking, the elimination of distractions, and assigning high priority to study.

• De Escobar (2011) observes that if learners earn high grades it is concluded that they may also have effectively studied hard while low grades indicate lesser and poorer study habits.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design • This study used the quantitative approach to allow the

reporting of summary results in numerical terms across many repetitions of answers.

Research Setting• Ngumbe CDSS which partnered with Bearsden

Academy is located in Chileka, Blantyre Rural.• The school has twelve classrooms, library, science

laboratory and computer laboratory. Each classroom can accommodate fifty to eighty (50 - 80) students depending on the form level.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY cont.

Sample Size and Sampling Technique• The population size of one hundred and five (105) students was

drawn from Ngumbe CDSS. This represents a (10.2 %) of the entire Ngumbe CDSS student population of 1030.

• The sample size is supported by Babbie, (2005). He was of the opinion that for a population of 1000 and above, a sample size of 10-20% was acceptable.

• The population was sampled through a simple random sampling procedure to avoid biasness.

• Form one and three contributed thirty four (34) each while form four contributed thirty seven (37) respondents.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY cont.

Data Collection and Instrument Procedure• Data was collected using a self developed survey

questionnaire. • The research questionnaire was described in terms

of time management, note taking, test preparation, study environment, student examination performance and library use.

• The researcher personally administered the questionnaires to the respondents and retrieved them on the same day.

• To improve the reliability and validity of the research instrument, the questionnaire was pilot-tested.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY cont.

Data Analysis • Data that was extracted from the

questionnaires was classified, organized and tabulated accordingly.

• Microsoft excel was used for analysis and interpretation of data.

• The researcher used excel to easily enter and create graphical or visual representation of data. It is also simple to make inferences.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONSThe researcher’s final respondents were lowered into one hundred and five (105) from the expected number of one hundred and ten (110) due to the absence of some respondents upon data gathering.

FINDINGS

study habits of the respondents

Figure 1.1 Figure 1.2

FINDINGS cont.

Figure 1.3 Figure 1.4

FINDINGS cont.

Frequency to which student of Ngumbe use the library.

Figure 2.1

FINDINGS cont.The relationship between study habits and

academic performance of Ngumbe CDSS students.

Score

Subject Less than 40 40-59 60-69 70-79 80 & above Total

F % F % F % F % F % F %

Biology 9 37.14 40 38.10 11 10.48 7 6.67 8 7.62 105 100

Mathematics 54 51.43 23 21.90 13 14.29 8 7.62 7 6.67 105 100

P/Science 36 34.29 35 33.33 16 15.24 11 10.48 7 6.67 105 100

Chichewa 12 11.43 36 34.29 29 27.62 19 18.10 9 8.57 105 100

English 36 34.29 35 33.33 20 19.04 7 6.67 7 6.67 105 100

Social & Dev. 37 35.24 35 33.33 14 13.33 10 9.52 9 8.57 105 100

FINDINGS cont.

Figure 3.1 Figure 3.2

FINDINGS cont.

Figure 3.3 Figure 3.4

FINDINGS cont.

Figure 3.5

DISCUSSION

Study habits in terms of study environment, time management, note taking and test preparation.

• The result on the first four figures (figure 1.1 – 1.4) show poor study habits among students of Ngumbe secondary School in terms of time management, test preparation, note taking and study environment.

• The results agreed with many authors such as Nouhi et al. (2008), Aquino (2011), Nagaragu (2004) and Sarwar et al. (2009).

DISCUSSION cont.

Study habits in terms of library use

• The results in figure 1.6 revealed that there was poor use of the library.

• Dent (2006) reported that a study conducted by Lance (2000) showed that students that used school library regularly had 18 percent higher achievement tests scores than their counterparts without a school library.

• The findings of Acido (2010) also revealed that two students who scored above average in reasoning skills studied regularly.

DISCUSSION cont.

Impact of study habits on student academic performance

• The academic performance of the respondents as shown in table 3.1 was poor. • The poor academic performance of the students could be attributed to:

– the failure of the students to manage time (figure 1.1).– students studied in places where there were distractions and

disturbances (Figure 1.2). – most students studied hard a day before the actual day of writing

examinations– students did not use the school library regularly • This is also in agreement with the findings of Koko, (1999), that

poor academic achievement or failure is a consequence of poor study habits.

• Demola (2012) reported that Facebook; Yahoo; Twitter; MySpace; English Premier League; European Football Leagues among other things have taken over the time students could have used for reading and studying.

DISCUSSION cont.

• A discrepancy in study habits between high and low-achieving students was also noted in figures 3.1 – 3.5 which showed that high achievers have excellent study habits while low-achieving students has average to poor study habits.

• This is in agreement to Yu (2010) who found out that high-achieving students had a more positive attitude toward study in that they detected and reacted positively to the favorable aspects of the situation they found themselves in, while the low-achieving students tended to be fault-finders, reacting to the negative aspects of study.

• However, both high-achieving and low-achieving students seem to have same level of study habits in study environment and library use. This might be that the school does not provide best conditions necessary for students to do well in these areas.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

CONCLUSIONS

• Based on the findings, the researcher concluded that students of Ngumbe CDSS had poor study habits in terms of time management, note taking and test preparation.

• He also found out that the school has no conducive environment for study.

• The study also found that there were no library periods in the school time table. The school library also opens irregularly and the school library is too small to accommodate students who would like to study in the library.

• Many students never study outside of the class each day, and never know what was covered/to be covered in the examinations.

• Thus poor study habits invariably led to poor performance among the students.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings and conclusions gathered, the researcher would like to recommend the following:

 • The researcher recommends use of study system

"SQ3R"• The researcher recommends that students must use

the human memory graph, KWL, mapping or charting method to condense and synthesize reading, lessons and discussions.

• There should be a library study hour on the school time table

RECOMMENDATIONS cont.d

• Students should find suitable and comfortable places to study outside the class each day, especially at home to compliment the study at school.

• There is need for the students to study and cover the syllabus on each subject in order to know what will be covered in each examination.

• The amount of time used in studying must increase in order to devote more time to quality study both at school library and at home to prevent poor academic performance currently being experienced in the CDSSs.

• Lastly, the researcher recommends that students must learn to manage time effectively. Make study schedules or plans and stick to them, make list of things to do and less cramming. These will help to have good time management.

Area of Further Research

The researcher is of the view that the topic of study habit is very wide and dynamic. Areas of study of students’ study habits are inexhaustible, It is therefore of paramount interest that another study be carried out on relationship between study habits and attitude of students towards their school.

I THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION