The Influence Of Extracurricular Activities On Students’ Academic Performance

To what extent does extracurricular activities influence students’ academic performance?

Alternative Hypothesis: Students who have lower QPI scores are more active in extracurricular activities than students who have higher QPI scores. Null Hypothesis: There will be no correlation between students’ yearly QPI and extracurricular activities scores. What is known about the topic? / Annotated Bibliography: "About LIONS", http://lionshub.org/about.html.

The League of Independence Organisation (LIONS) is an alternative organisation in the Ateneo. Unlike COA where it is the head of the 52 accredited organisations, the LIONS does not establish that power of authority to its 30 independent organisations. Also, the main difference between COA and the LIONS is the latter emphasises on independence. Hence, the LIONS is not affiliated with COA. LIONS also have the primary goal of equality and justice for the 30 independent organisations in the Ateneo. I am mentioning this in my paper to acknowledge that there is an alternative platform to develop the Atenean’s growth or affect his/her academic ability. Ciccarelli S. K., & White, J. N. (2012).

Psychology (3rd ed.). New Jersey: Pearson-Prentice Hall, 2011 This is a Psychology textbook that covers the 13 fields of Psychology. Ciccarelli discusses important Psychologists, concepts, and theories for each field. Moreover, learning objectives and assessment questions are provided to monitor the student’s learning. One special feature this book has is the Psychology: An Exploration section that applies psychological theories to real-life. For example in Chapter 10 which covers sexuality and gender, one social theory - Social Learning Theory - is used to explain gender-role development. In Bandura’s Social Learning Theory that emphasizes learning is learned through observations imitation and motivation. Children will adopt their gender role by observing and modeling the behaviour of the same-sex parents.

This imitation requires motivation from the same-sex role model to reinforce the gender-role behaviour. Of course, gender-roles influences are not limited to parents, but the general point is children are more likely to model the same-sex role model. Thus, adopting and maintaining the traditional roles of men and women. It is this portion that I can integrate to my paper to explain the possible gender differences. "Council Of Organizations Of The Ateneo (COA)". Ateneo De Manila University, 2018, http://www.ateneo.edu/council-organizations-ateneo-coa. This website describes the role, vision, and mission of the Council of Organisation of the Ateneo (COA). COA’s practice of developing and honing one’s leadership skill is based on exercising the Ignatian value of service. This is done by offering 52 accredited organisations that are divided into 9 clusters, catering to different fields and interests - for example, the Business or the Intercultural Relations. This link is useful for my paper because I can contextualise one of the factors that are affecting a student’s academic performances.

Farooq, Muhammad, et al. “Factors affecting students' quality of academic performance: A case of secondary school level.” Journal of Quality and Technology Management, vol. 7, issue 2, 2011, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284150574_Factors_affecting_students'_quality_of_academic_performance_A_case_of_secondary_school_level This study follows a similar approach to my paper idea but it is done by measuring the other factors. Moreover, the study was done in the context of secondary students living in a metropolitan city in Pakistan. After the researchers distributed a survey to 600 respondents of 10th-grade students, they found that socioeconomic status and parents’ education have an influential role in students’ academic achievement. When I read this paper, it made me more aware that there is not one dominant influence, rather there can be multiple of forces that can be measured. Another interesting finding they found is the girls perform better than the male students. Referring back to the meta-analysis source, gender differences seems to be a global trend.

Feldman, Amy F., and Jennifer L. Matjasko. “The Role of School-Based Extracurricular Activities in Adolescent Development: A Comprehensive Review and Future Directions.” Review of Educational Research, vol. 75, no. 2, 2005, pp. 159–210. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3516048. Feldman provided a comprehensive review of the social activities (for example, psychological adjustment, extracurricular activities, academic attainment) that influences an adolescent's development. Most of these social activities provided positive effects on an adolescent’s development. From there, Feldman wanted to dig deeper, and so she explored the mediator and moderator variables like gender based on a compilation of studies. Feldman’s work helped me to realise to not treat extracurricular activity as an isolated component. Instead, I have to be mindful and explore the other possible agents of influences like peers, families, etc.

By examining these, Feldman gained a different insight, and she argued that it gives you a deeper understanding of an adolescent’s successful development. Relating it to my paper, I hope to explore the mediator and moderator factors between my independent and dependent variable. And then, incorporate these factors to rationalise my results as well. Going back to Feldman’s work, she also provided useful methodological tips of using a comprehensive theoretical framework (in her work, she used the Ecological Systems Theory) to approximately pinpoint the influences. Kangethe, N.S., Lyria, K.S. and Nyamanga, A.M. (2014), “The gender socialization question in education: influence on boys’ and girls’ academic achievement”, European Scientific Journal, Vol. 10 No. 19, pp. 279-294, http://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/article/view/3802/3618. Kangethe studied the female and male perception of their gender that shapes their attitudes and behaviours in school.

The study found masculinity is perceived as apathetic and females as “marriage” material. And it is these perceptions that negatively impacts their education. Kangethe then proposed how schools can address this issue by creating gender-sensitive awareness programmes as well as counselling programmes. This source serves as extensive evidence to demonstrate the effect of socialising force (i.e., school) on gender differences in achievement. Mortimore, Peter, and Carolyn Stone. “Measuring Educational Quality.” British Journal of Educational Studies, vol. 39, no. 1, 1991, pp. 69–82. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3120871. Since education is associated with different meanings, Mortimore and Stone wanted to first understand the different interpretations from specific Philosophers like Aristotle. This part is something I can mention in my introduction as I can introduce education is socially constructed, and because of this, it will shape the methods an institution offers, affecting the quality of education a student receives. Mortimore and Stone also described, commented and suggested solutions on the different approaches of measuring education in the UK. These are 1) Her Majesty’s Inspectorate (HMI) 2) Public examinations 3) Parents’ and others providing feedback 4) Research. Although I will not rely on citing these parts, I can briefly mention the system’s flaws can affect one’s academic performance. I can also investigate this factor in the context of Ateneo.

Mushtaq, Irfan and Shabana Khan. “Factors Affecting Students’ Academic Performance.” Global Journal of Management and Business Research, vol. 12, issue 9, 2012, pp. 1-7, https://globaljournals.org/GJMBR_Volume12/3-Factors-Affecting-Students-Academic.pdf. This is another study that investigated a similar question as mine, but the research did not investigate a specific variable. The study was also carried out in two private colleges in Pakistan. The researchers made four hypothesis to investigate the effect of the different influences on students’ performances. The variables they look at was communication, learning facilities, family stress, and proper guidance. They found a negative impact on student performance and family stress. Meanwhile, the other three variables had a positive impact. I liked the researchers’ approach to writing out several hypothesis because it allows the researchers to compare which variable had an influence. Moreover, the use of statistical analysis gives greater detail on which variable had a stronger impact. Since there are so many variables that can influence the dependent variable this is a reminder for me to carefully choose what variables I want to test or include in my questionnaire.

Voyer, D. and Voyer, S.D. (2014), “Gender differences in scholastic achievement: a meta-analysis”, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 140 No. 4, pp. 1174-1204. Link: https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/bul-a0036620.pdf. Voyer conducted a meta-analysis on gender differences in academic achievement across the USA. Voyer generally found females academically performing better than males. Although meta-analysis can be hard to generalise because of the different methods used in each study, Voyer argues that the fact this finding has remained consistent from the different years of studies (1914 to 2011) is worth emphasising. Hence, mentioning this particular aspect will help me justify specific outcomes. Voyer also cited essential works that I could mention in my paper. For example, acknowledging school as a socialising agent to reinforce the societies’ norms and stereotypes.

Wentzel, Kathryn R., and Allan Wigfield. “Academic and Social Motivational Influences on Students' Academic Performance.” Educational Psychology Review, vol. 10, no. 2, 1998, pp. 155–175. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23359423. Wentzel and Wigfield considered the importance of motivation to a student’s success. Since academic motivation is socially constructed, they underscored the common constructs from different motivation theories: competence-related beliefs, control beliefs, subjective tasks values, and achievement goal orientations. Looking at these constructs such as ability beliefs provide me with a list of concrete variables that I can consider measuring in my questionnaire. Wentzel and Wigfield also considered the impact of socialisation influences, specifically the relationship between teachers and students that affect students’ academic self-efficacy. Before looking the person-environment relationship, they mentioned a specific psychological process that affects academic motivation.