A Correlation Study on Study Hours and Academic Performance of Students

The Academic Performances of the Student

Academic performance is very important in any school especially on academia since the grades of the student is significantly resembled their intelligent or skills whether social, logical, and critical. It is an essential thing and because of that we decided to make a research on it. Our research entitled “A correlational study on the effects of study hours on the academic performances of selected Senior and Junior High School students; Basis for Seminar student program” aims to see if there is indeed a significant relation between the students study hours and the students academic performance and majority of the studies that we find seems to suggest it so with different methodologies on doing so we can create a set of hypothesis and assumption. Now what exactly do we mean when we say the “Academic Performance”? According to Michael Morral, (1987) Academic Performance can be defined by 2 words, Academic is of course simply one very well versed or specialized in knowledge, education, and research, Performance is how one performs in doing something. In this study we define Academic performance on academic achievement of students base on their grades and how well they do in classes.

According to Siew Foen Ng, Razimi Zakaria, See May Lai & Gary J. Confessore (2014) entitled “A study of time use and academic achievement among secondary-school students in the state Kelantan, Malaysia” Suggest that the study time use is significantly related to the academic achievement of the student. The study of course focuses on how long the student study that is to say a measure of how hard working in some sense a student is the study is conducted in a way that is fair since the study was stratified to eliminate the unbalance of gender, school type and grade level they also use correlation analysis to arrive on their research and to determine the connections among the attributes identified in the study. This study is indeed was meant to study the whole secondary-school student of Malaysia on 2013. Since we’re living in a time where the media is everywhere and having full access to it they stated, “Today’s youth are confronted with a media environment that is rapidly changing. The time spent on media, whether for purpose of school-related or non-school related learning has influence youths more than before” which is completely true in todays society as we are in the generation where technological advancement has been pledge revolutionary. They also show us that studies all other the world shows that out of 32.6 hours we basically spent almost half of the day using the internet or the media approximately 11 hours and we barely watch TV’s anymore just about 2.5 hours during their research which is a important part of their study back then since 2013 is where ultimately the use of cellphones were slowly becoming the norms of society.

You may then ask how is it so that study hours is almost makes a causal chain to the Academic Performance of the student, it seems pretty obvious and intuitive to conclude let a lone predict or presume that to be the case let me then add one of the most well known theories of psychology the first would be Maslow’s theory on hierarchical structure of needs Maslow (1954). He states that there are 5 stages of a person each represent a need. Maslow uses a triangular model for this from bottom going to the top, bottom being the physiological needs of a person, which are the need for food and drinks health or anything that his physical body needs the second one would be the safety needs or the need for feeling secure like safety the third is belonging and love their need for a company to fulfill their emotional, sexual desires. The forth one is his need of self esteem, confidence and finally when you have all of that you only need the feeling of being fulfilled in life which as Maslow would put it “the need for self-actualization”. So why is this important to understand the high academic performance of the student you ask it’s because people’s needs influence their motivation to achieve such needs, in other words the person has a subconscious desire to fulfill each needs until he achieve self actualization. Maslow’s theory is directly similar to the Cognitive viewpoint (goal oriented theory) in S K Mangal book “General psychology” (2010) where Mangal states “Unlike the mechanistic and instinctive approaches adopted by other psychologist, the Cognitive school of psychology the limelight the role of cognitive factors in producing human motivation”. According the views of cognitive psychologist the behavior of people is purposely with a certain end or in another sense goal in view. That is a person who wants to reach a goal is supported by the persons cognitive factors. So if we were to combine the two theories I showcase it’s basic premise would be first to achieve the subconscious desires of a person second is in doing so your cognitive factors would help you to achieve such goals. An analogy would be simply “The person wants high grades, the person uses his brain to have a high grade, the he works hard to get the high grades (meaning the person could also extend the study hours) then he got a high grade.

Another study related to ours is by D. E. Ukpong & I. N. George (2013) their study entitled “Length of Study-Time Behaviour and Academic Achievement of Social Studies Education Students in the University of Uyo” acknowledge that there are many key factors that influence the academic performance of the student such as IQs, social statues, age, study time and etc… essentially their study is all about finding a significant correlation between the students study hours and the students academic performance rather than asserting a significant level of causality. Their research nonetheless ended in a result that their null hypothesis has been rejected meaning there is in fact a significant level of correlation between a person’s study hours and the persons academic performance which supported our study overall they have a participants of 120 social studies students of the University of Uyo. Recommending because of the result of the study that as much as you have the time you should study at least 1-2 hours a day if one wants to increase their chances on having high grades it is for the benefit of all.

Though this study like majority of academic and psychological thesis limits itself only to say that it is only in correlation to the academic performance of the student it seems to suggest that an increase of study hours cause a person to excel his/her academic skills. We have one Malaysian study presumably conducted for the government shows that it is the case that there is a significant level of correlation between the two that is to say a country level study and this second study which is not as big as the early study but also brings the same conclusion. It seems that it is highly normal for a typical person to engage a increase of learning to have a stable grade that seems to be lined up and as for the exceptional which are a rather eccentric person on intelligible they do not necessarily need to study after school to begin with just so their grades would be stable. They also include the study conducted by (Graven 2008) which basically shows that the correlation indicated no dramatically relationship on the performance of the student and study time while a person is studying under anxiety. Which then gives room for the objection with regards to the causality between study hours and academic performance that just because you study a lot does not mean you will perform well which limits it. We may say that there may be other key factors or traits that influence a high academic performance and a regression of it like anxiety and stress a increase of study consumption nonetheless is a major part to it

Another study entitled “Learning approaches, study time and academic performance” by David Kembert, Qun Wang Jamieson, and Mike Pomfret, Eric T.T. Wong (1995) uses the Biggs’ Study Process Questionaire (SPQ) explicitly it’s a very reliable questionaire that is been an instrument for evaluating students learning in higher education things like study planning, organisation etc. A Questionaire made by John Biggs the questionaire since it was being used all over the globe was revise so that the accuracy and reliability of the questionaire is viable and trustworthy. The study result was that there is a positive corelation between study time and academic performance. For all this types of study all the study has this desire to get some sort of a behavioral pattern to an individual studies like Graven (2008) from anxiety and academic performance D. E Ukpong Alt (2013) and Siew Foen Alt (2014) on Leanings/study time and academic performance always aims to get a pattern on a group behavior making it more sociological than pure psychological hence the causality of the majority is making it like more important than the causal chain of the minority or the whole so in a sense quantitative research like this regardless of saying merely a significant level of correlation in another view to look at it as another perspective they are getting the causal influence of the many rather than the least. This is of course just an insight of my having to read a lot of quantitative and qualitative research ragarding other topics and this topic however I think it is by far a reasonable assumption to arrive. So if the study assumes and derrive itself on the behavioral patterns but with measurability it is indeed inline with the behavioralist school of psychology.

Before Sigmund Frueds Theory of Conciousness Behavioralism was made by a psychologist named John B. Watson has he disagree with the study of the individual by many psychologist back then he wants to really make the subject in a pure scientific way capable of producing results and accurate experimentation. In his book however Psychology as the Behavioralist views it (1913) he seems to not like the traditional way on concluding conciousness back then or the whole idea of conciousness completely as he asserted in his book that the whole idea of conciousness is absurd that conciousness he said cannot be prove by any scientific test and therefore if we want to make psychology a science of behavior we should only study what is measurable and observable that we need to discard all the theories that only gives mere speculation. His insight towards this positively influence the researchers till this very day likewise people were relying more on quantitative research and meta analysis.

This give a very decent case for my insight earlier. To futher explain why I think such insight is nessesary to be pointed out it would have something to do with Raymond B. Cattell in his book and thesis theories on personality (1970) he base his structure of personality bese on traits there are four traits first is the comman traits found widely distributed in the general population on his first traits which is common trait examples traits like honesty, aggression and cooperation the second is unique traits which are traits unique to the person as a tempermental trait, emotional reactions the third one is surface traits it is recognize through the manifestation of behavior like curiousity, dependability and tactfulness and lastly is source traits it is the underlying structure that determines the behaviors that is dominance, submission, emotionality etc… which supports that statement I made on the causality of the majority as a focus and the minority as it’s unique results.

In summary we have showcase a ton of studies such as to Siew Foen Ng, Razimi Zakaria, See May Lai & Gary J. Confessore (2014) entitled “A study of time use and academic achievement among secondary-school students in the state Kelantan, Malaysia”. D. E. Ukpong & I. N. George (2013) their study entitled “Length of Study-Time Behaviour and Academic Achievement of Social Studies Education Students in the University of Uyo” and “Learning approaches, study time and academic performance” by David Kembert, Qun Wang Jamieson, and Mike Pomfret, Eric T.T. Wong (1995) a study on anxiety, stress in relation with academic achievements by Graven (2008) We also gives theories that has been use in psychology until now such as Maslow’s theory on hierarchical structure of needs Maslow (1954), Cognitive viewpoint (goal-oriented theory) in S K Mangal book “General psychology” (2010) Psychology as the Behavioralist views it John B. Watson (1913) and lastly Raymond B. Cattell in his book and thesis theories on personality (1970). This studies widens our horizon and gives support towards our study.

A Significant insight on Age

Age (adj.) the length of time that a person has lived or a thing has existed. The age is one of the independent variables of our study called “A correlational study on the effects of study hours on the academic performances of selected Senior and Junior High School students; Basis for Seminar student program”. Age has been a tool for a lot of research studies, and this study is no exception. The profile of the respondents in age is very important for this is where we vary their understanding, views on particular problems in life, for their ages indicate the level of maturity each individuals in the sense of it, comes to their different perceptions and approach to life phasing problems, that very important to examine in researches.

In correlation of age in our study in the study hours and how it affects their academic performance, the attention gap of students around the age requires a lot of assistance from their parents from age five to ten, in varies of studying, and since it is only on the phase where they are developing and still needs guidance, their study hours in their academic performance. From the ages of ten to fifteen, is the age where students learned to be all by themselves and complete the task without much guidance from the elderly, and knows how to handle particular problems. Learning and experiencing scenario where it requires a lot of realizations that accompanies their learning experiences that can be applied to their basic and daily life, especially in the terms of their study hours that can affect their academic performances, in which they are now responsible. This also applies from the ages sixteen and above, where they learn how and still continue to know how to manage their time, assess their current academic studies and be responsible of its outcome, be the reason of the results of their academic performances. From the theory of Professor Palm Beach, the Palm-Beach-Study-Time-Theory, it is stated that the amount of time the students use for studying results to their academic performance.

The more time students lend on their studying hours, the more knowledge they gain and the more it affects their academic performances, present in every academic stand there is. Their maturity that comes with age comes with the decisions they make, and how they will be able to manage their time, especially when their academic studies are in a such a chaotic schedule that no kid can handle, but with age and maturity, they’ll be able to handle their schedule, time management in wondering ways, that it is extremely important. Their age also affects their ways of thinking, by their experiences as they grow old blooms their righteous to determine the wrongs and rights, how to handle problems that is settled in front of them, the number of ways how to make things more easier and better, and the understanding they’ll be having to various situations, especially when it comes to themselves and their perceptions about things, how they’ll be able to handle the way they think and see the outcome of it. Study hours requires a lot when it comes to age where we will be able to see if their age is an important role that can affect their academic performances, their study hours if they can all handle it all by themselves with or without the guidance of the elderly, how they manage their time in studying among all things. When they don’t spend enough time to study, this can be a huge impact to their academic performance, not spending too much time in studying that the knowledge inside their heads would be rotten, the level of information wouldn’t be useful. But when they do lend some time on their study hours more, then the academic performance would be magnificent. The information inside their heads is fresh to be orally voiced or written, that would lead to great academic performances.

Although they are very hard it will take a lot of time management and experiences, once the student gets used to it, it will all be handy and useful. When they do not, this leads to lack of time from studying or their experience in handling the academic performances and their time management about their own studying hours. There are people who struggles between all of these, in which includes student that aren’t more paying attention to their studying hours or are not lending more time studying doing a lot of things that does not relate to their academic roles. It is also proven that the students who lends a lot of time studying are more present in terms of their academic performances, including the students who acknowledge it and study thoroughly about their own studies, who cherishes it more. Meanwhile, for those who don’t spend too much time doing their studies has a low academic performance all throughout. This action requires a lot of effort and time, a lot of hard work and attention to make things a lot better, such as the studying hours and academic performances, their time management and how they all be able to handle things all at once. Their passion for learning and discovering things are one of the most important aspects as well as their needs to learn, that is vaguely needed for the future. It is an important phase in life that we all learn how to value our study, how to manage our time and how to balance the things that is happening that would or would not lead us to a brighter or secured place to be. People should be independent and in awe of what might come out of their passion and determination, to be able to achieve the fullness of life, seeing it through many perceptions that expands mind in terms of understanding and value.

A Significant insight on Time

Time is a priceless thing, all people know that time cannot be changed and cannot be taken back (Ekinci, 2017). Poor time management skills are another reason for stress and stress may lead such people to follow bad habits. Having a poor time management skills can be a reason for students to cram and will lose some focus on how they handle things and everything that they will be able to do, especially when they grow and starting to be in the stage of adolescence, where school will be a loads of work to do. But it is also the stage where students will be able to learn how to manage their time and the work that has to be done in time, which leads to academic success. Time management is important for students to do the study with focus and managing the time is important for students to get high marks in their classes.

Student’s success in studies depends much on managing time efficiently. The habits and morals they acquire during schools time and home will stick with them throughout the future. Students tend to complain about not having enough time to do their homework, projects, reading and doing their assignments, exams etc. But are just too lazy or to procrastinate to do the time needed, and the time that is lend to the studying hours than the things that are none efficient. Every year students are growing and should be learning to manage their time responsibly but as time goes by students are getting lazier and lazier and tend to procrastinate more and end up cramming when time comes and complains about the school works that are given to them but if they managed their time properly they wouldn’t have a problem and it wouldn’t cause them stress.

Students are given one year to be able to pass their paper works, home works, and lastly pass their exams. If students tend to start studying when the year starts and manage their time and start having study hours it will help them to accomplish more throughout the school year and reduce their stress when a lot is given to their plate because they will know how to manage their time. It is said that the study hours of having a short time to study, review and things that are related to academic are more efficient than having a longer time to study and would overwork the brain of students, that causes them to forget the things that they have learned. And having a regular study sessions would help students to remember rather than reviewing it all at once that made them forget all the small details and important details because of how everything is handled all at once. And studying more regularly helps you to expand and keep your brain healthy for the lesson you just had, and this keeps the students more understanding and it will became an exercise for the brain, and to keep your mind going. The repetition of it will make you have a better understanding of the material, and if students do need any help, it is a great way to seek out for other people as well. Breaking it into parts can also make your brain take all the information taken lightly and in small bits if the students understanding can be a problem. The mindset of the student can also affect the study hours that they will be having all throughout the whole school year.

If the student’s mindset grows on more of the procrastinating side, the effects would most likely that the student wouldn’t be able to grow or excess more on their study hours and academic side, and would most likely to fail. But if the student’s mindset is not only set on one side, and knows that he or she is excelling and knows that he or she will be able to grow, then most likely, the student will be high in in their study hours and academic performances because of how they lend a lot of time studying with their own strategy and study hours. This also means that their time management is on point, indicating that they are doing well and knowing what to do with all the academic activities they have going on in school. If the students believe in themselves, then the results would be amazing, with time management, study hours and academic performance on point. Though most students when in desperate need will tend to try and study harder but in a shorter span of time resulting on a crammed study hour schedule and a stressful environment and studying methods where they are most likely to panic and fail in actually reviewing or studying something especially on an upcoming quiz or exam. Which is why students prefer to plan and prepare themselves and find a suitable studying hour schedule in order for studying to not lead to stressing and panicking which often leads to low grades and failing scores on exams due to lack of review and information brainstormed by the student.

Proper mindset, study schedule, and good mental health will often have good results to a student in their academic, mental, and physical health. In the 24-hour life of a student more than half of it is focused on academic and schooling. A regular student will have an average of 9 to 10 hours of school and upon going home they are inclined to finish their home works and other school necessities which often takes about an average of 2 to 3 hours depending on the amount and the student’s will to finish the said works. A solid half of the 24-hour life a student is allotted to Academics, a small price to pay for the future of the student in blood, sweat, and tears. With this, students feel the stress of having to sleep an average of 5 to 8 hours due to a student most of the time studying even in the early mornings. A bad schedule and a good schedule can have a significant reaction and result to a student’s life in school whether or not they will have time to study and focus or panic because they are not really having any time to study. The time for studying is one of the main priorities of students as well as teachers. Students tend to focus on studying rather than on other useless stuffs since they always want to have a good impression and to pass their subjects and have good grades so they can get high honors and have a greater chance to land in better and a lot more prestigious. Since grade is a primary parameter of a student, if a learner earns high grades it is thought that he/she has learned well while low grades indicate poor learning outcome. However it is not always that, the time allotted by a student to learn is also a main factor as to why they have good grades. Study time refers to a specific time a student assigns himself or herself to study in order to acquire knowledge.

Conclusion

It does not really matter whether learns study at the same time each day. The amount of effort put into the amount of time the learners give to their academic performance is one of the main contributors to a student’s success. Physiological and Psychological factors which include stress, anxiety, and fatigue from other outside engagements like chores, hunger, lack of care and affection which can also have a transferred effect to a student’s grades and study hours. Many studies have been carried out on study time behavior and students’ achievements and academic performance. The recent ones include that of Logunmakin (2001), Kumar (2002) and Ghore (2006). They all share one similarity, they all agree that the studying time and attitude of a student greatly affects their mental health and academic performance in which they said that most of the time students who are stressed out on studying usually has a problem regarding their mental health while students that have good studying time tend to perform better on school and have a better mindset than most students.