ATTITUDES AND STUDY HABITS OF
GRADE VI PUPILS AS CORRLATES TO
THEIR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN
SCIENCE
I. CONTEXT AND RATIONALE
The world is becoming more and more
competitive. Quality of pupils’ academic performance
has become the key factor for personal progress. It is
the desire of all parents that their children climb the
ladder of academic performance as high level as
possible. In fact, it appears as if the whole educational
system revolves round the academic performance of the
pupils.
Thus and has to be made by educationalist to find
various strategies to unravel the complex determinant of
academic performance, such as intelligence, study habit
and other personality variables like self concept, anxiety
and attitudes.
Study habits are usually defined as pupils’ ability
to manage time and other resources to complete an
academic task successful. ‘Study habit’ is the amount
and kind of studying routines which the student used
during a regular period of study which occurred in a
conducive environment.
Crede and Kunsel (2008) defines study habit as study
routines, including, but not restricted to, frequently of
studying sessions, review of material, self-testing,
rehearsal of learned material, and studying in a
conducive environment.
Pupils’ attitudes towards the act of studying (Crede &
Kuncel, 2008) are referred as “study attiyudes”. There
are many factors affecting study orientation expressive
of study habits and attitudes of pupils. Individual
differences, effective usage of time, note-taking, study
habits training, family, proper study environment,
homework, using library, reading-listening, and writing
and outstanding common factors.
However, interest and will are very important for
study habits and attitudes. Individual differences can
be analyzed in terms of control focus, gender, success
dimension.
The quality of a nations depends the quality of its
citizen. The quality of the citizens depends on the
quality of their education and quality of education
besides other factor which depends upon study
habits and study attitudes of the learners. Quality of
education is reflected trough academic achievements
which is function of study habits and study attitudes of
the pupils. Thus, to enhance the quality of education is
it necessary to improve study habits and study attitudes
of the pupils. To improve study habits and attitudes,
factors are needed to identify which affect those
characteristics adversely.
Identification of these factors may lead towards
remedial measures.
The focus of this study is on pupils’ attitudes and
study habit toward science subjects taught in
elementary classrooms. Thus, the scope of the present
study was limited to science as experience by pupils in
elementary school rather than out-of-school
experiences obtained from external source.
Attitudes towards science denotes interests or feeling
towards studying science. It is the pupils’ disposition
towards like or dislikes of science subject while attitude
subject in science means scientific approach assumed
by an individual for solving problems, assessing ideas
and making decisions.
II. ACTION REASERCH QUESTION
The study aims to determine the relationship of the
study and attitudes of Grade VI pupils from selected
Mamburao Elementary SchoolDistrict, Diision of
Occidental Mindoro to their academic performance in
Science for the SY 2017-2018.
The study will answer the following questions:
1. What is the attitude of the respondents in their
science subject?
2. What is the assessment on the study habits acquired
by the respondents?
3. What is the level of performances of the responses in
their science subject?
4. Is there a significant relationship between the
respondent’ study habits and attitudes towards Science
subject?
5. Is there a significant relationship between the
respondents’ attitudes and academic performance in
science.
6. Is there a significant relationship between the
respondents’ study habits and academic performance in
Science?
III. SCOPE AND LIMITATION
The researcher will focused on the study habits and
the study attitudes of Grade Six pupils in Science in
relation to academic performance from selected
Mamburao Elementary Schools in the Division of
Occidental Mindoro. The respondents were limited
only to Grade VI pupils of selected schools of
Mamburao District SY 2017-2018.
IV. PROPOSED INNOVATION, INTERVENTION
AND STRATEGY
The following are the innovation, intervention and
strategy to make the attitudes and study skills in
science more effective such as;
> Make the lesson in science more interesting and
enjoyable by providing hands on activities that provide
students with opportunities to engage in exploration
and sense making with the science content like
experimentation and research.
> To sustain good motivation of the student to study,
make the lesson real or authentic by creating learning
activities that are based on topics that are relevant to the
pupils’ lives. Strategies include using local examples,
teaching with events in the news, using pop culture
technology(iPods, cell phones, tablet, YouTube videos)
to teach or connecting the subject with your students
culture, outside interest and social lives.
> Science teacher should demonstrate more
positive attitudes towards sciences than their pupils by
showing great enthusiasm, resourcefulness, helpful
behavior, and thorough knowledge of the subject matter.
>Provide the pupils with some tips to increase their
span for concentration while studying their lesson in the
classroom or even at home.
V. ACTION RESEACH METHODS
A. Participants and /or other source of Information
The participants/ respondents of the present study
were 120 Grade VI pupils fro selected schools of Mamburao
District School Year 2017-2018.
Table 1. Respondents’ Distribution.
SCHOOL
POPULATION
SAMPLE SIZE
Mamburao Central School
PERCENTAGE
25
Fatima Elementary School 36
8
Talabaan Elementary
School-Proper
8
Casoy Elementary School
12
Tayamaan Elementary
Schhol
23
Aroma Elementary School
18
Dapi Elementary School
8
25
It shows the distribution of the respondents in the
study. Out of
pupils that composed the total
population of Grade VI pupils in Mamburao District,
120 were used as respondents. This number is 25% of
the total population. According to Cohen (1988)this
number will satisfy the requirements to run the
correlation and regression analysis.
b. Data Gathering Procedure
Permission from the School Administrator/School
Head of the concern school were sough before the
conduct of the study. The questionnaire were distributed
to the respondents. The final grades of the respondents
were requested from their science teachers or advicer.
C. Data Analysis
Descriptive statistics such as frequently
distribution, percentage, mean and standard deviation
were used to determine respondents’ study habits,
attitudes towards science and their academic
performance. The relationship between the variables
will be measured using the Pearson Product Moment
Correlation.
All the responses will be computed using a
computer software, the Statistical Package for Social
Sciences.
VI. ACTION RESEARCH WORKPLAN AND
TIMELINE
Activity
Week/Month
1
1. To seek
January 2018
permission
from the
School
Administrator
to conduct
questionnaire
Week/Month 2
Week/Month 3
Week/Month 4
Week/Month 5
Activity
Week/Month 1 Week/Month 2
Week/Month 3
Week/Month 4
Week/Month 5
VI. ACTION RESEARCH WORKPLAN AND TIMELINE
2. To determine
the respondents
results on a given
questionnaire
3. To find the
results and
findings including
its analysis and
interpretation on
the questionnaire
4.To find out the
Summary,
conclusion and
recommendation
based on the
analysis obtained
February 2018
February to
March 2018
March