STUDENTS’ FACTORS AS CORRELATE OF ACADEMIC …

African Journal of Pure and Applied Science Education Volume 18, Number 1, pp 87 - 96, July 2020 www.ajopase.com, [email protected] ISSN 11187670

Orintunsin, T.K., Ali, I.A., Oddiah, A.O., Oloko, G. A., Hammed, O.S AJOPASE, Vol. 18, No 1, July 2020

STUDENTS’ FACTORS AS CORRELATE OF ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG POLYTECHNIC

ENGINEERING STUDENTS: A STUDY OF YABA COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY, LAGOS

1Orintunsin, T. K.; 2Ali, I. A; 3Oddiah, A. O; 4Oloko, G. A. &5Hammed, O.S. 1,2Mechanical Engineering Dept., 3Industrial Maintenance Engineering Dept. &4,5Welding and Fabrication

Engineering Dept. Yaba College of Technology, Yaba, Lagos State

[email protected] Abstract A number of factors such as demographic characteristics (age and gender), parents socio-economic status (education, income & occupation), parenting style (authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive) and students characteristics (study and learning styles) have been established to interplay in students’ academic performance and achievement in schools. The research explore the students factors ( regular class attendance, use of learning aids and consumption of breakfast) as correlates of academic performance among Polytechnic Engineering students. The research adopted a descriptive-correlational design and ex post facto design method and was guided by three research questions and three hypotheses. 120 students across eleven Engineering Departments of Yaba College of Technology, Lagos were selected by random sampling method. Both a validated questionnaire and (CGPA) Cumulative Grade Point Average of students at the end of session constituted the data for the study, and were analyzed with percentage, mean score and Correlation statistics. The findings revealed that lecture attendance, use of relevant learning materials such as textbooks and consumption of nutritionally beneficial foods have positive significant correlation with the students doing well academically. The study thus concludes that parents and other students care givers must be fully on ground to give their support through proper counseling and guidance and necessary financial support to help their children maximize their academic potentials. It was recommended that government and non-governmental organizations saddled with the responsibilities of formulating educational policies should be more pro-active in their responsibilities at ensuring that Nigeria educational system is working towards progress and that more ICT tools should be provided to schools across all educational levels in Nigeria to encourage students learn personally and better. Keywords: Students’ Factors, Academic Performance, Polytechnic and Engineering Students

Introduction

For effective growth and development of any nation, education is a crucial instrument. Education is also

generally agreed worldwide to play a major role in the development of human capital and that it is

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connected with an individual’s well-being and opportunity for improved and a fulfilled way of life.

Qualitative education guarantees gathering of knowledge and skills that gives individual opportunity to

increase productivity and improve their overall quality of life (Akanle 2007). In order to make education

effective, both teachers and students factors must combine effectively. The ultimate aim of teaching is to

bring about learning. Therefore, a teaching process that does not result in learning is of no use. Without

quality teaching, only a limited form of learning is possible. This fact was corroborated in the document

of the National Policy on Education (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2013) that says “No education system

can rise above the quality of its teachers”. An important aspect of education is academic performance of

the learners. Students’ is an important aspect for promotion to other level.

Students’ performance according to Rothstein (2000) and Jeynes (2002) comes as a result of some factors

like home factors, school-related factors, student behaviors and teacher’s attitude. These researchers

however group the factors majorly into four factors namely:

- Demographic characteristics, which includes age and gender

- Parents’ commitment, which includes their level of education, income and occupation

- Students’ study and learning style; and

- Parent’s approach.

Demographic characteristics which include age and gender and their effect on students’ academic

performance have been widely studied. For instance, Okoh (2010) examined the influence of age and

gender on academic performance of undergraduate students and found that gender and age were not

significant predictors of academic performance. However, Al-Mutairi, (2011) reported a strong statistical

correlation between age and gender and academic performance. Socio-economic status of the parents

was strongly believed by Jeynes (2002) and McMillan and Western (2000) as one of the major thing

affecting the students’ performance in schools. Ogunshola & Adewale (2012) say parent’s approach is a

factor on the success of students. Kang (2014) and Huang and Mary(2015) in their separate study on

parenting style identified three major and important styles such as authoritative parenting, authoritarian

parenting and Indulgent/permissive parenting and explain how each of these can influence different

problem behaviors and consequently affect academic performance of children in school. Three important

and major parenting styles were identified and used to create focus for this study. These are summarized

in table 1 below:





Table 1: Parenting styles and consequences on children

S/N Parenting Styles Characteristics Consequences

1 Authoritative Parenting

(1) Highly demanding and responsive (2) Engage in maturity level. (3) Parents most of the time has forgiving spirit. (4) Parents teach children to know alternative

ways to solving problems. (5) Children are allowed to explore widely before

taking decision. (6) Punishment is always commensurate with

mistakes.

(7) Children raised by this style become more independent and self-reliant in life.

(8) Child grow into adult to become firm but flexible in their interaction with others

(9) As they learn to tolerate others, the spirit of team work grows and as such they are able to learn and improve their academic excellence.

2 Authoritarian Parenting

Demanding but not responsive

Parents force their children to follow them.

Parents often use corporal punishment such as shouting, flogging, spanking.

Parents teach their children to survive and excel in any society they find themselves.

Children raised with this method may be socially in- active.

The child may decide to always be on his own, though obedient but always quiet.

Children can become very rigid; tend to be wicked and unforgiving.

Consequently, they find it difficult to interact freely in most cases to the detriment of their studies

3 Indulgent/Permissive Parenting

1. Parents are generally responsive but not demanding

2. Parents are characterized as having difficulty in showing their behavior.

3. They are always very involved but place few control on their children.

4. Parents try to make friends with their children without parental role.

5. Parents try to provide for their children so as to cover what the children missed while growing up.

6. Children raised by this method may become hardened and eventually get addicted to drugs.

7. Children may become so greedy in life to an extent that cheating and stealing from others don’t bother them

8. If the cheating and stealing habit is not curbed in time, children may grow to become ardent criminal and armed robbers which easily get them distracted from academic activities

Source: Kang (2014), and Haung & Mary (2015)

Student’s attitude and learning styles were identified by Yip (2013) and Michael (2013) as other very

important criteria to improve their performance in school. Some attitudes and learning styles shown by

students which can influence their academic performance include lateness to class, not completing

assignment, Absenteeism, lack of concentration in class, failure to copy notes, non-use of appropriate





learning aids (textbooks, journal in related fields, internet facilities and other educational soft wares), poor

nutrition and diet habit etc. The focus of this research is on student’s factors as correlates of academic

performance among Polytechnic Engineering students with special focus on non-use of appropriate

learning aids, absenteeism/lateness to class, not completing assignment and poor nutrition/diet habit.

Statement of the problem

Educational programme without a desired and expected outcome is useless. The expected outcome of

educational programmes in Nigeria is development of human capital for meaningful developmental

growth and development across important sectors of the economy. Hence, teaching and learning must

be effective to get this important and expected outcome. Unfortunately, a number of teacher’s factors

and student’s factors have been criticized to cause general decline in the quality of education which have

affected academic performance and achievement of the learners. Student’s factors such as poor attitude

to learning, poor learning styles and poor nutrition/diet habit were linked by Yip (2013) and Michael

(2013) to reasons why students (especially at the tertiary education levels) continued to perform badly in

their academics.

Objectives

The objective of the research is to find out the correlation between students’ factors in relation to their

academic performance. However, the following guidelines were used:

- To determine if students absenteeism/lateness to class have positive or negative impact on

academic performance.

- To find out if use of appropriate learning aids ( textbooks, journal in related fields, internet

facilities and other educational soft wares) have any relationship with their academic

performance

- To determine whether eating breakfast before going for lectures affect students’ performance or

not.

Research Questions

These guidelines were used for the conduct of the research questions:

1. What is the relationship between student’s absenteeism/lateness to class and their academic

performance?





2. Is there any correlation between the use of appropriate study aids (textbooks, journal in related

fields, internet facilities and other educational soft wares) and students’ academic performance?

3. What relationship does eating breakfast before going for lectures and students’ academic

performance have together?

Research Hypotheses

The following ideas were used in this research

Io1: Student’s absenteeism/lateness to class does not have any connection with their academic

performance.

Io2: Use of appropriate study aids (textbooks, journal in related fields, internet facilities and other

educational soft wares) for students’ does not have any connection with their academic

performance.

Io3: No appreciable connection between eating breakfast before going for lectures and students’

academic performance.

Research Methodology

This research adopted both descriptive-correlational design and ex-post-facto research designs.

Descriptive design was adopted because student’s questionnaire was used to establish the percentage of

students involved in each of the variables tested while correlational design was used since the research is

aimed at finding the relationships between various factors and performance of students. The justification

for use of ex post facto design was informed by the fact that data on students Grade Point Average (GPA)

was taken directly from the first semester result sheet. The population of research comprised all the

National Diploma students in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Maintenance

Engineering and Electrical Engineering totaling 292. Simple random sampling method was adopted to pick

120 students as research participants. This method represents 41 percent of the entire study population.

Simple percentage and means scores were employed for the descriptive analysis while the relationship

between the students’ variables and academic performance was determined by using Pearson Product

Moment Correlation (PPMC).





Table 2: Population and Sample for the study

S/N Departments Population Sample

1 Mechanical Engineering 115 45

2 Industrial and Maintenance Engineering 105 45

3 Electrical Engineering 72 30

Total 292 120

Results and Discussion

Table 3: Percentage of Students’ Responses to each Variables and their Mean Grade Point Average

S/N Questionnaire Items Yes % MGPA No % MGPA

1 I attend lectures regularly 94 78 3.33 26 22 2.78

2 I regularly use internet facility and other educational software packages relating to engineering to study and complete my assignments

79

66

3.58

41

34

2.45

3

I regularly ensure not to miss my breakfast before

going for lectures

56

47

2.98

64

53

2.13

MGPA = Mean Grade Point Average

Data analysis in Table 3 showed the percentage responses of the students in each of the variables (Class

attendance, use of appropriate learning aids, textbooks, journal in related fields, internet facilities and

other educational soft wares and consumption of breakfast before going for lectures). The result showed

that 78% of students attend lecture regularly while 22% are not regular for lectures. 66% of the students

reported that they often make use of internet facilities, relevant Engineering textbooks and journal in

related fields while studying and completing their assignments while 34% of the students do not avail

themselves of this opportunity. 47% of the students complied with taken breakfast before going for

lectures while 53% of the students do not cultivate this habit. Data on Grade Point Average (GPA) was





taken directly from the first semester result sheet and the average for each group of students was

computed as Mean Grade Point Average (MGPA).

Table 4: Relationship between Lecture attendance and Students’ Academic Performance.

X Y XY X2 Y2 rxy

∑X=3.33 ∑Y= 2.78 ∑XY= 9.2514 ∑X2= 11.088 ∑Y2= 7.7284 1.00

X=Students attending lectures regularly, Y=Students not attending Lectures regularly, N=120

Since the value of rxy is 1.00 from Table 4, it means that regular lecture attendance can result significantly

in better academic performance as students who attend lectures regularly were found to do better

academically than their counterpart who does not attend lectures regularly. In view of the above, the

ideas proved that no connection exists between students’ absenteeism/lateness to class and their

academic performance and hence it is hereby rejected.

Table 5: Connection between use of appropriate learning aids (textbooks, journal in related fields,

internet facilities and other educational soft wares) and students’ academic performance

X Y XY X2 Y2 rxy

∑X= 3.58 ∑Y= 2.45 ∑XY= 8.77 ∑X2= 12.82 ∑Y2= 6.00 0.705

X=Students using learning aids, Y= Students not using learning aids, N=120

Table 5 indicated a positive link between the students’ performance and use of appropriate learning aids

(textbooks, journal in related fields, internet facilities and other educational soft wares). The value of r

was found to be 0.705 which implies that use of relevant Engineering textbooks, journal materials,

internet facilities and other educational materials enhances students understanding of important

concepts taught which in turn enhances their chance of doing well academically with improved result at

the end of the semester. This therefore proved that students’ performance is not dependent on the use

of appropriate teaching aids (textbooks, journal in related fields, internet facilities and other educational

soft wares) hence the idea is hereby rejected.





Table 6: Relationship between eating breakfast before going for lectures and academic performance of

students

X Y XY X2 Y2 rxy

∑X= 2.98 ∑Y= 2.13 ∑XY= 6.35 ∑X2= 8.88 ∑Y2= 4.54 1.00

X=Students consuming breakfast before lecture, Y= Students not consuming breakfast before lecture,

N=120

From Table 6, it implies a perfect positive connection between consumption of breakfast before going for

lectures and academic performance. The value of rxy is equal to 1.00; hence, consumption of breakfast

before going for lectures significantly improves students’ performance. The implication of this result

proved that eating of breakfast before going for lectures and students’ performance does not have any

connection and the idea is hereby rejected.

Discussion of Findings

The findings from the research have shown that students factors such as attitudes to lectures, use of

appropriate learning materials to study and inculcating good nutrition/dietary habit all have positive

significant relationship with improved academic success of students in tertiary institutions. The first idea

tested was on the significance of regular lectures attendance to better academic performance. The result

indicated a positive correlation in this regards as students who attend lectures regularly had better result

compared to their counterparts who do not attend lectures regularly. This result was in line with the

findings of Goddard (2003) who found that academic performance and achievement of students depends

largely on students showing positive attitudes towards learning.

The second idea was on the relationship between the use of relevant Engineering text books, related

journal materials and use of internet facilities and students’ academic performance. The result revealed

that students tend to do better academically when they explore the use of relevant academic materials

that can positively aid their learning. Miller, Martineau & Clark (2000) have argued in support of this

finding when they assert that the use of other sources of getting information help in improving their





memory and understanding and that it is capable of changing the ways students learn and understand

what the teacher is teaching.

The finding of the result on impact of breakfast to cognitive ability of students showed that students who

cultivated the habit of consuming breakfast before going for lectures perform better than their

counterparts who do not eat breakfast before going for lectures. On the assertion of Benton (2010),

consumption of breakfast helps to boost the functioning of the brain.

Conclusion

The research explored issues relating to the students factors which influence their academic performance

especially Polytechnic Engineering scholars with a special focus on National Diploma students of all

Departments in School of Engineering, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos State. It demonstrated that for

students to fully explore their academic potentials, all the factors that interplay as determinants of

academic performances must be adequately harnessed. Since it was established from the study that

lecture attendance, use of relevant learning materials such as textbooks and consumption of nutritionally

beneficial foods have positive significant correlation with doing well academically, parents and other

students care givers must be fully on ground to give their support thorough proper counseling and

guidance and necessary financial support.

Recommendations

From the various findings of this research work and the conclusion drawn, the researcher recommends

the following for the improvement of students’ academic performance and for policy implementations:

The School Guidance and Counseling services could focus on how students’ may identify their

strengths and weaknesses and improve their methods of learning with the intention that they will

imbibe better way of study habits.

Government and non-governmental organizations saddled with the responsibilities of

formulating educational policies should be more pro-active in their responsibilities to ensure that

Nigeria educational system is working towards progress.

More ICT tools should be provided to schools across all educational levels in Nigeria. Well-

equipped library with up-to-date textbooks should be provided with e-library to help students

learn better.





Policy makers and the Polytechnic management should seek to revisit the school food programme

policy that has been abandoned so that the students can be provided with free or very cheap

meals.

Academic curriculum planners should incorporate adequate time for meal consumption especially

breakfast into the academic time table.

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