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CHAPTER 2
Review of Related Literature and Studies
Foreign Literature
Student Performance
Galiher (2006) and Darling (2005), used GPA to measure student performance because the main focus in the student performance for the particular semester. Some other researchers used test results or previous year result since they are studying performance for the specific subject or year (Hijazi and Naqvi, 2006 and Hake, 1998). Many researchers have discussed the different factors that affect the student academic performance in their research. There are two types of factors that affect the students' academic performance. These are internal and external classroom factors and these factors strongly affect the students' performance. Internal classroom factors includes students competence in English, class schedules, class size, English text books, class test results, learning facilities, homework, environment of the class, complexity of the course material, teachers role in the class, technology used in the class and exams systems. External classroom factors include extracurricular activities, family problems, work and financial, social and other problems. Research studies shows that students' performance depends on many factors such as learning facilities, gender and age differences, etc. that can affect student performance (Hansen, Joe B., 2000). Harb and El-Shaarawi (2006) found that the most important factor with positive effect on students' performance is Parental Involvement. (http://www.journalofbusiness.org/index.php/GJMBR/article/viewFile/721/651)
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
In his widely cited paper, Romer (1993) is one of the first few authors to explore the relationship between student attendance and exam performance. A number of factors have contributed to declining class attendances around the world in the last 15 years. The major reasons given by students for non-attendance include assessment pressures, poor delivery of lectures, timing of lectures, and work commitments (Newman-Ford, Lloyd & Thomas, 2009). In recent times, students have found a need to seek employment while studying on a part-time basis due to financial constraints. The numbers of part-time and mature students has also risen sharply. The use of information technology also means that information that used to be obtained from sitting through lectures can be obtained at the click of a mouse. Indeed, web-based learning approaches have become the order of the day. Given all these developments that either makes it impossible or unnecessary for students to attend classes, the question that needs to be asked is whether absenteeism affects students' academic performance. Research on this subject seems to provide a consensus that students who miss classes perform poorly compared to those who attend classes (Devadoss& Foltz, 1996; Durden& Ellis, 1995; Romer, 1993; Park & Kerr, 1990; Schmidt, 1983). Based on these findings a number of stakeholders have called for mandatory class attendance. Although the existing evidence points to a strong correlation between attendance and academic performance, none of the studies cited above demonstrate a causal effect. The inability of these cross-sectional studies to isolate attendance from a myriad of confounding student characteristics (e.g. levels of motivation, intelligence, prior learning, and time-management skills) is a major limiting factor to the utility of these findings (Rodgers & Rodgers, 2003). Durden and Ellis, (1995) controlled for student differences in background, ability and motivation, and reported a nonlinear effect of attendance on learning, that is, a few absences do not lead to poor grades but excessive absenteeism does.
Educational services are often not tangible and are difficult to measure because they result in the form of transformation of knowledge, life skills and behavior modifications of learners (Tsinidou, Gerogiannis, & Fitsilis, 2010). So there is no commonly agreed upon definition of quality that is applied to education field. The definition of quality of education varies from culture to culture (Michael, 1998). The environment and the personal characteristics of learners play an important role in their academic success. The school personnel, members of the families and communities provide help and support to students for the quality of their academic performance. This social assistance has a crucial role for the accomplishment of performance goals of students at school (Goddard, 2003). Besides the social structure, parents' involvement in their child's education increases the rate of academic success of their child (Furstenberg & Hughes, 1995).
MEDIA/TECHNOLOGY
Education encounters, in modern times, challenges in all aspects of social, economic & cultural life; the most important of which are over-population, over-knowledge, education philosophy development & the change of teacher's role, the spread of illiteracy, lack of the staff & the technological development & mass media (Aloraini, 2005, p. 30–32). This drove the teaching staff to use the modern teaching technologies to face some of the main problems, which education & its productivity encounter, by increasing the learning level which may be achieved through providing equivalent opportunities for all people whenever & wherever they are, while taking into account the individual differences between learners (Wilkinson, 1986, p. 13 & Abd
El-Halim Said, 1997, p. 19). To improve the educational productivity, some of the teaching staff sought to mainstream technology within education, developing traditional techniques & using new educational methods (Al-A'ny, 2000). Mainstreaming the technological media within what is called ''Multimedia'' is the pattern which led to infinite applications of computer technologies. The concept of this technology came into being with the appearance of sound cards, then compact disks, then came the use of digital camera, then the video which made computer an essential educational tool. Nowadays, multimedia expanded to become a field on its own. The concept of multimedia technology is broad & it has infinite usage fields; it is a profound element as an educational technology in addition to its use in medical & statistical domains & in establishing databases. Moreover, the entertainment sector is one of the sectors that had the lion's share in using this technology. Interaction is the main element in multimedia technology as most of its applications are characterized by interaction. Consequently, multimedia programs may provide a more effective & more influential experiment than using each technology separately.
The researcher thinks that multimedia is one of the best educational techniques because it addresses more than one sense simultaneously, as it addresses the senses of sight & hearing. Multimedia programs provide different stimuli in their presentations which include a number of elements some of which are (Aloraini, 2005, p. 55–75): Texts, spoken words, sound & music, graphics, animations and still pictures.
These elements were mainstreamed in a comprehensive presentation so as to provide effective education, which in turn will support the participation of the different senses of the learners in diverse syllabi. (Hadmin,2000).
PHYSICAL
Mahar (2006), Habitual physical activity is vital for enhancing overall health. Lifestyle behaviors adopted in childhood tend to track into adulthood, and more active children tend to be more active as adults than their sedentary peers, thus aiding in the prevention of diseases such as obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and other health problems. Unfortunately, physical activity among children and adolescents has declined, and increasing numbers of children are spending more time in sedentary activities. A review of the literature reveals that few studies have been conducted to evaluate the physical activity levels of elementary school children during a typical school day. Likewise, few studies have been conducted to evaluate the effects of physical activity on the classroom behavior of elementary school children.
Additional research is also needed to evaluate the effectiveness of classroom-based physical activity programs on on-task behavior and academic performance. Because on-task behavior can be directly linked to physical activity that is performed immediately preceding the observation period, it may be the most appropriate variable to evaluate relative to academic performance. Test performance is influenced by factors other than physical activity performed at school and usually can be linked directly to physical activity behavior. Additional information on the effectiveness of classroom-based physical activity programs on academic performance (e.g., standardized tests and grades) can, however, provide a stronger rationale for why school systems should make policy changes to require more physical activity during the school day. Finally, it is recommended that students be tracked for several years to evaluate the chronic effects of a classroom-based physical activity program on physical activity levels, body composition, and academic performance.
SOCIAL
From Wikipedia (2009), the term psychosocial refers to one in psychological development in and interaction with a social environment. The individual is not necessarily fully aware of this relationship with his or her environment.
In 2004, Barker and Garvin Doxas stress that a learning environment includes physical surroundings, psychosocial or emotional components, social and cultural influence that exist in a learning situation. Ozay, et.al (2004) also pointed out that classroom environment factors have been found to be particularly influential on student results.
Learning Theories.com (2012, April 12), exemplifies on Vygotsky's Social Development Theory that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the process of cognitive development. Such occurs first between the child and other people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intra-psychological). Other people can be conceptualized as the "The More Knowledgeable Other (MKO)". The MKO refers to anyone who has a better understanding or a higher ability level than the learner, with respect to a particular task, process, or concept. The MKO is normally thought of as being a teacher, and could also be peers.
The Developmental and Social Factors emphasize that learning is influenced by social interactions, interpersonal relationships, and communication with others. Learning is often enhanced when children have an opportunity to interact with and collaborate with others on instructional tasks. In these situations, children have opportunities for perspective taking and reflective thinking that can enhance their self-esteem and development. Quality interpersonal relationships can provide trust and caring that increase children's sense of belonging, self-respect, self-acceptance, and produce a positive learning climate. Parents, teachers, and peers are very important people in the child's social world and their relationships with the child can either enhance or undermine the child's learning.
When Aronson (2003) first published The Social Animal in 1972, he confirmed scientifically what people knew experientially: Human beings are social in their very nature. In fact, Dunbar (1998) hypothesized that the large human brain evolved primarily to adapt to an increasingly complex social environment. As Goleman (2006) puts it "We are wired to connect." The domain of social intelligence and development is a critical component of descriptions of human ability and behavior (Albrecht, 2006; Gardner, 1983/1993, 2006). Social skills are important t for preparing young people to mature and succeed in their adult roles within the family, workplace, and community (Ten Dam & Volman, 2007). Elias et al. (1997) suggested those involved in guiding children and youth should pay special attention to this domain: social skills allow people to succeed not only in their social lives, but also in their academic, personal, and future professional activities. For educators, it is increasingly obvious that learning is ultimately a social process (Bandura, 1986; Dewey, 1916; Vygotsky, 1978). While people may initially learn something independently, eventually that learning will be modified in interaction with others.
EMOTIONAL
Emotion may be seen as a complex of feelings, sensations and tendencies to action accompany by stirred-up bodily conditions and directed toward a specific object or situation. It covers a wide range of behavior that is agitated and without definite orientation, as well as behavior that is highly motivated and goal directed. It has been defined as "a strong feeling or agitation involving internal and external bodily changes" or "a condition of upset that drives the individual to move". Emotional states from the mildest effective states of pleasantness and unpleasantness to the more intense states.
Gilmer (1996) stresses that the affective factors involving emotions and feelings can significantly influence the outcome. It will be helpful to think of emotions as accompanying motivated behavior.
John Dewey began with an eloquent plea for the education of the whole child. Study shows that our emotional system is a complex, widely distributed, and error-prone system that defines our basic personality early in life, and is quite resistant to change. Far more neural fibers project from our brain's emotional center into the logical/rational centers than the reverse, so emotion is often a powerful determinant of our behavior than our brain's logical/rational processes.
Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains was created in 1956 under the leadership of educational psychologist Dr. Benjamin Bloom in order to promote higher forms of thinking in education, such as analyzing and evaluating, rather than just remembering facts (rote learning).In the affective domain of the learners (Krathwohl, Bloom, Masia, 1973) includes the manner in which we deal with things emotionally, such as feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasms, motivations, and attitudes. The five major categories are listed from the simplest behavior to the most complex.
According to Dean Taylor, students between the ages 5 and 18 years of age are expected to learn in school. It is their primary job in this society, and it's possibly the one thing that will prepare them to become productive members in their adult years. What they learn will also determine the choices they make when they enter the workforce or continue into higher education. In order for students to learn there are several factors that must be considered. Most of these factors are external; they deal with social or cultural values. Also, it may be determined by the school's environment as well as the teachers and the administrations that teach them. Still, another important factor falls upon the student's ability and willingness to learn.
Thorndike, like many of the early behavioral learning theorists, linked behavior to physical reflexes. In his early work he also viewed most behavior as a response to stimuli in the environment. This view that stimuli can prompt responses was the forerunner of what became known as stimulus-response (S-R) theory (Elliot et al, 1996). Thorndike developed his Law of Effect which states that if an act is followed by a satisfying change in the environment, the likelihood that the act will be repeated in similar situations increases. According to Thorndike, pupils learn more effectively and easily, and retain that learning longer, if it has pleasant consequences. Thus, rewards, successes, or positive reinforcement further learning, while punishments, failures or negative experiences hinder it.
B. F. Skinner proposed that reflexive behavior accounts for only a small proportion of actions. He proposed another class of behavior, which he labeled operant behaviors because they operate on the environment in the apparent absence of any unconditioned stimuli, such as food. Like Thorndike's, Skinner's work focused on the relation between behavior and its consequences. For example, if an individual's behavior is immediately followed by pleasurable consequences, the individual will engage in that behavior more frequently. The use of pleasant and unpleasant consequences to change behavior is often referred to as operant conditioning (Microsoft Encarta Reference Library, 2004).
Bandura's social learning theory is a major outgrowth of the behavioral learning theory tradition. Developed by Albert Bandura, the social learning theory accepts most of the principles of behavioral theories but focuses to a much greater degree on the effects of cues on behavior and on internal mental processes, emphasizing the effects of thought on action and action on thought.
Bandura noted that Skinnerian emphasis on the effects of consequences of behavior largely ignored the phenomena of modeling – the imitation of others' successes or failures. He felt that much of human learning is not shaped by its consequences but more efficiently learned directly from a model. Bandura's analysis of observational learning involves four phases: attention, retention, motor reproduction, and motivational processes (Slavin et. al., 1995).
To produce a behavior that matches that of a model, a child goes through four sets of processes. Her ability to attend to the modeled behavior is influenced by factors in her own experience as well as in the situation; her skill in retaining what she has observed reflects a collection of cognitive skills; her reproduction of the behavior depends on other cognitive skills including the use of feedback from others; and she will be motivated to produce the behavior by various incentives, her own standards, and her tendency to compare herself with others (Hetherington, p.25).
English philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke disagreed. They argued that all human experiences—including sensations, images, thoughts, and feelings—are physical processes occurring within the brain and nervous system. Therefore, these experiences are valid subjects of study. In this view, which later became known as monism, the mind and body are one and the same. Today, in light of years of research indicating that the physical and mental aspects of the human experience are intertwined, most psychologists reject a rigid dualist position. (Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation).
Parent's Involvement to the Academic of the Learner
Parents' positive attitude towards child's education is important in determining school attendance and academic achievement of the child. Favorable attitude towards schooling and education enhances parental involvement in children's present and future studies .
Often, the affluent parent will have access to educational resources for his/her child directly or indirectly. It is more likely that these parents will have higher regards for education, set educational goals for the child and/or be models. Also, it is more likely a child with doctors as parents will end up pursuing higher education- possibly medical school, than the child whose parent's education stopped at a high school diploma. This is not to stay that the child's education is predetermined by the parent's education; however it is merely one factor that can affect the student's desire to learn.
Krashen (2005) concluded that students whose parents are educated score higher on standardized tests than those whose parents were not educated. Educated parents can better communicate with their children regarding the school work, activities and the information being taught at school. They can better assist their children in their work and participate at school (Fantuzzo & Tighe, 2000; Trusty, 1999).
Theory of Educational Productivity by Walberg (1981) determined three groups of nine factors based on affective, cognitive and behavioral skills for optimization of learning that affect the quality of academic performance: Aptitude (ability, development and motivation); instruction (amount and quality); environment (home, classroom, peers and television) (Roberts, 2007). The home environment also affects the academic performance of students. Educated parents can provide such an environment that suits best for academic success of their children. The school authorities can provide counseling and guidance to parents for creating positive home environment for improvement in students' quality of work (Marzano, 2003). The academic performance of students heavily depends upon the parental involvement in their academic activities to attain the higher level of quality in academic success (Barnard, 2004; Henderson, 1988; Shumox & Lomax, 2001).
Parental involvement in a child's education along with environmental and economic factors may affect child development in areas such as cognition, language, and social skills. Numerous studies in this area have demonstrated the importance of family interaction and involvement in the years prior to entering school (Bergsten, 1998; Hill, 2001; Wynn, 2002). Research findings have also shown that a continued effort of parental involvement throughout the child's education can improve academic achievement (Driessen, Smit & Sleegers, 2005; Fan, 2001; Hong & Ho, 2005). Academic failure has been linked with risk behaviors and negative outcomes such as; substance abuse, delinquency, and emotional and behavioral problems (Annunziata, Houge, Faw, & Liddle, 2006).
Weiss et al. (2006) also provide an integrative model of family involvement that is evidence-based or clearly linked to positive child outcomes. Their model encompasses three important categories: Parenting, Home-School Relationships, and Responsibility for Learning Outcomes. Parenting includes the attitudes, values, and practices that parents use in raising young children. This category would include nurturing parent-child relationships and child-centered practices. Home-School Relationships pertain to both formal and informal connections between families and young children's early childhood education programs. It may include regular communication with teachers and efforts by the early childhood education programs to discussion groups. Responsibility for Learning Outcomes speaks to how parents can support the language and literacy development of their children through direct parent-teaching activities such as reading aloud and engaging in linguistically rich conversations with their children.
Teacher's Involvement in the Academic of the Learner
Mary Chamberlain (2002) said that that great teacher make a difference. They have passion that seeps through the skin- a love of learning. Great progress ('a revolution') was made but a working hum and engagement is now not enough. What are now needed are quality learning conversations between teachers and learners. It is about extending rather than supervising, about linking to the child's world, about creating lines of desires, about not seeing the curriculum as a straightjacket. The curriculum it seems is more a direction.
"Appreciate that learning isn't always fun' – a good teacher knows when to push' – some learning may be uncomfortable'- really good teachers do this in skilled way.' The 'x' factor is enthusiasms- an enthusiasm and zest for teaching is critical", John Langley (2002) emphasized.
" A danger is that teachers are bogged down with curricula'. The best teachers can assess the needs of their kids'- it is worrying in recent years that curricula have become the dominant things'- a conduit for shoveling information'- this is not what teaching is all about". "A good teacher for 9-year old in this international sense is usually a female teacher. She has many years of teaching experiences. Outside of the school, the good teacher reads a lot, both professionally about education and also literature. She has stayed in the class ever since the children took their first step into school literacy, and has followed their progress carefully by informal as well as more formal assessment methods. The good teacher gives the students many opportunities to do independent, silent reading in the library, which is richly stocked, and she also often holds discussion with the students about books they have read. The children of the good teacher are encouraged to read outside school and to use the library often. During reading lessons, the children are guided to interact actively with the text by relating their own experiences to what is read, by making predictions of upcoming events during reading and by making generalizations and inferences. The good reading teacher also takes the students' interest into account when selecting reading material. The student oriented approach with a clear focus on strategies for understanding does not prevent the good teacher from using phonics elements now and then in her teaching to meet particular students' needs or when unknown long worlds, like names, are encountered." (Lundberg and Linnakyla, 1993)
Dowling (2003) believed that human teachers characteristically perform a wide range of activities that we subsume under the general heading of 'teaching'. Those include planning and designing, demonstrating, guiding, telling, questioning, testing, recording, motivating, and criticizing even learning. Many of these aspects of a teacher's role require significant expertise and the making of finely tuned and sensitive judgments based on both breadth and depth of experience. This is important, for instance, in relation to the provision of appropriate scaffolding to learners. It can also be argued that the human teacher is in a strong position, in particular by virtue of overall life experience and sophistication as a communicator, to both model and facilitate co-operative learning behaviors.
According to the Ministerial Round Table Meeting (2003), the image of the teacher as a specialist in a specific subject who stands alone in front of the class is still a reality today in many contexts, particularly at the elementary level. However, this perception of the role of teachers no longer matches the demands of teaching and the expectations that are made with regard to the education of young people. Even if the teaching profession has preserved an element have changed and are continually changing knowledge and ways to access it, the influence of the media, societal demands, the social environment, the students themselves, etc. The teacher is moving away from being a "transmitter of knowledge" and led more and more towards becoming a "mediator in the construction of knowledge" a facilitator and even at times, a social worker. He or She must also foster the development of social skills and create a learning environment that will encourage young people to learn to live together and to become responsible citizens. Faced with expanding access to secondary education, the growing heterogeneity of students, the redefinition of objectives, learning content, working methods and
Due to low performance of the pupils, it has always been blamed on the low of efficiency of teachers. In response to this, in the article written by Evasco (2007), he quote, "We have to look for other factors to account for the deterioration of quality instruction. It is a firm belief that the failure to address quality instruction has something to do with student's socio-economic status and our culture towards education."
A common hypothesis with respect to teacher's attitude and student achievement is that students taught using the right approach or attitude achieve at a higher level because their teachers have displayed the right attitude and acquired classroom management skills to deal with different types of classroom problems (Slavin, 1987, Evan, 1992, Gibbons et al., 1997). Furthermore, more experienced teachers are considered to be more able to concentrate on the most appropriate way to teach particular topics to students who differ in their abilities, prior knowledge and background (Rauden bush and Williams, 1991). Stringfield and Teddlie 1991, Ejiogu, 1999 was of the view that in order to improve on any aspect of education, it is therefore imperative to involve a well articulated teacher education programme that will prepare the teacher for the leadership role they are expected to play. The importance of teacher in the meaningful education at all level is reflected in the national policy on education (2004) as it declares that no educational system may rise above the quality of its teachers. This declaration in the policy document underscores the need for teacher effectiveness in our schools. conceptualize teacher's effectiveness as the managerial skills essential for enhanced classroom control and discipline. It is the teacher's competence, ability, resourcefulness and ingenuity to efficiently utilize the appropriate language, methodology and available instructional materials to bring out the best from learners in terms of academic achievement.
Students' perceptions of teacher support have a direct effect on their interest and motivation (Wentzel, 1998), and teachers' expectations of student achievement(which has an affective component) influence the way they behave toward their students and thus can affect students' motivation, self-perceptions, and academic performance (Jussim & Harber, 2005). However, teacher support in the form of care for students' well-being and comfort may be necessary but insufficient to promote mastery goal orientation: Care and concern for students' learning may also be required (Patrick, Anderman, Ryan, Edelin, & Midgley, 2001). Teachers are role models who continuously induce and respond to the emotional reactions of their students. Pianta et al. (2003) applied components of attachment theory (Ainsworth, Belehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978; Bowlby, 1982) in understanding teacher–student relationships and the teacher's function as an important role model.
According to attachment theory, relationships with supportive caregivers, characterized by trust, responsiveness, and involvement, promote social and emotional development through the development of healthy internalized working models. Children with supportive internal working models feel a sense of security that allows them to explore novel situations (Bretherton & Munholland, 1999). Therefore, when teachers are warm and supportive, they provide students with a sense of connectedness with the school environment and the sense of security to explore new ideas and take risks—both fundamental to learning (Mitchell-Copeland, Denham, & DeMulder, 1997; Murray & Greenberg, 2000; Watson, 2003). However, it is not always easy to be warm and supportive, especially when provocative student behaviors thwart the teacher's efficacy to perform his or her primary instructional role and/or the school culture promotes punitive control measures over more authoritative approaches (G. R. Mayer, 2001). Although the quality of student–teacher relationship depends, in part, on how teachers express and process negative emotions (George & Solomon, 1996), as we reviewed above, for many teachers, regulating negative emotions in the classroom can be challenging and is a commonly reported stressor (Carson & Templin, 2007; Sutton, 2004). Although they regularly face situations that provoke anger, contempt, disgust, sadness, and frustration, to develop and maintain healthy relationships with their students teachers must find appropriate ways to express (or inhibit) their feelings in a classroom setting (Hargreaves, 2000). Although teachers recognize the importance of regulating their emotions and think they are keeping their feelings hidden from students, often they are less successful than they imagine (Carson & Templin, 2007; Sutton, 2004; Sutton & Wheatley, 2003).
Teachers, who expect to be responsible for educating students, soon find that their responsibilities go far beyond the curriculum. Children bring their outside experiences with them to school each day. These experiences have shaped who they are and foreshadow their futures (Ladson- Billings, 2009). Teachers are expected to overcome all of these obstacles, yet have not been adequately educated to understand how these life circumstances affect the families they serve. Working in low-income, urban schools proves to be more challenging than many teachers expected and is often far different from their own experiences with schooling. The teachers are a part of this system that they often do not fully understand. As a result, educators are likely to engage in behaviors that contribute to the achievement gap. This is particularly dangerous because research shows that the teacher is one of the greatest factors in student success (McNeal, 2005). When teachers are unprepared to cope with the realities of their students' lives and unaware of how schooling contributes to this reality, success can be difficult to achieve.
According to Gallavan et al (2005) Teachers, especially at the novice level, are not aware of the vastly different worlds their students live in. Instead, they assume that their students are just like them. This assumption allows for many teachers to utilize educational approaches that they witnessed growing up. As a result, when their own students struggle to succeed, they blame the child because the methodology had been effective in their own schooling. A teacher's skill, expertise and willingness can help student to learn. In the art of teaching, anything a teacher does is going to be scrutinized by the students. If the teacher serves as an ideal role model, demonstrates competence, as well as confidence, in the subject he or she is teaching, the students will respond positively. This rule applies to administrators as well. In the contrary, the favoritism of the teacher can also affect the learning process of the students. The way their teachers deal with them is one thing. Though teachers have different strategy on imparting knowledge,
students do not understand it easily. They will be confused on things regarding on how and why the teacher has their favorite students (Gaudencio V. Aquino 1975)
Local Literature
Written with Dr. Michael Aguirre Clores of the Department of Mathematics and natural Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Ateneo de Naga University, presents case studies in the interaction between students' understanding and belief in learning the theory of evolution. Constructivist theory argues that belief and understanding are separate but interrelated aspects in the learning process. Results revealed that students' position about the theory of evolution and patterns of understanding varied: (a) misconceptions or lack of understanding affecting the belief; (b) cascade of conceptual change that was complicated by belief; (c) rejection of the theory due to challenged religious belief and potential to understand evolutionary theory despite resistance to believe in the theory; (d) remaining skeptical about the theory due to ambivalence that emanated from his conflicting theological and scientific beliefs and misconception he held about human evolution, and (e) prior beliefs and concepts that were commensurate to the accepted scientific concepts and beliefs about the evolution made learning evolution less complicated. We conclude that the Filipino students' belief affect their ability to understand the theory of evolution and vice-versa.
The strategic nature of learning requires students to be goal directed. To construct useful representations of knowledge and to acquire the thinking and learning strategies necessary for continued learning success across the life span, students must generate and pursue personally relevant goals. Initially, students' short-term goals and learning may be sketchy in an area, but over time their understanding can be refined by filling gaps, resolving inconsistencies, and deepening their understanding of the subject matter so that they can reach longer-term goals. Educators can assist learners in creating meaningful learning goals that are consistent with both personal and educational aspirations and interests.( Soledad Esplanada, 1996).
MEDIA
The Philippines could be the "texting capital of the world", with reportedly 50 million text messages sent out every day (Breakthrough, DLSU). Even the crippled Philippine economy got a boost from text messaging especially its influence to the teens. Text messaging is most popular among teens and to the college students. Because of its popularity in this age group, it has sprawned a new term the "GenTxt" or text generation. Part of text messaging appeal to Filipinos probably has to do with the fact that it feeds a pre-existing cultural urge, namely to rumor monger. Text messaging enables a close-knit and factional society to share information immediately. The power of text messaging is to disseminate effect. Thus, there is no reason to think that the flow of disingenuous texts will become less rabid now in the most volatile of seasons. (Garrido, 2004). As stated by Celeste (2010), There is no doubt that modern technology has an effect on the study habits of students today. The positive side of modern technology is that it makes things easier for students to research for their homework and projects. However, it is also right to mention that technologies are also a major distraction for students.
Ma. Shiela Escuro (2009) says that, "Usage of this gadget can be controllable. It's up to the parents to teach their child to be responsible on their mobile phones, to ask them to pay-up when their mobile runs out of money. Or to get some agreement from the mobile companies that automatically cut- off usage when the child overuses their allowance for the month."
According to Fabian (2007), the world is changing fast. Technology continues to advance at lightning speed and anyone who doesn't keep up is in danger of being left behind. As a result, the way students study has changed significantly. While books still remain a valuable tool, the need to spend hours and hours sitting in the library has reduced dramatically. Students now have numerous options available to them when it comes to learning techniques.
Furthermore discussed by Fabian, We cannot deny the fact that technology can be a major distraction when studying. Using the internet itself can be distracting because of all the social networking sites and the games that are available with just one click. Of course there is the usual cellphone, iPod and iPad which can really distract the students. This will all boil down to the age and the self-discipline of the student.
RELATED STUDIES
FOREIGN
Physical
Breus (2006) More and more research studies demonstrate that daytime sleepiness from chronic sleep deprivation and poor quality sleep has significant impacts on daytime behavior and academic performance, as well as concentration, attention, and mood. Even 20 fewer minutes of needed sleep may significantly affect behavior in many areas. One study showed that those students with C's, D's and F's got about 25 fewer minutes of sleep and went to bed an average of 40 minutes later than A and B students.
From elementary school through high school and beyond, a great many of our children are chronically sleep-deprived. With more than 2/3 of all children having some kind of sleep problem, and most adolescents not getting enough sleep, many will struggle to meet the barrage of new challenges, demands, and emotions of a new school year. It is not widely recognized and appreciated just how pervasive and critical quality sleep is for brain development and how it directly influences daytime functioning, performance, mood and behavior.
Emotional
Doran (2003) Childhood: A time of giggles, jumping exuberance, best friends. The absence of stress is a safety net where the children are protected, secure and happy and worry free. Children under stress who experience loss or who have attention, learning or conduct disorders are at higher risk for depression.
The Academy of Adolescent Psychiatry lists some symptoms of childhood depression: persistent depression; inability to enjoy previously favorite activities; frequent absences from school or poor performance; continuing low energy or motivation; poor concentration; a major change in sleeping or eating patterns and difficulty dealing with everyday activities and responsibilities.
What do we do, then, with the child who is clinging, morose, acting out? We can start by realizing that every human being is a study in complexity, that simple answers, such as "rebellious behavior" or bad parenting will not bring us any closer to seeking solutions. I suggest taking steps to address the context that frames the depression. First, design programs that bulid on children's strengths. Second, Doctors, Psychiatrist and Educators should discuss more about knowing and understanding of such behavior of a child. Third, let the children know that we understand and that we are there to help. Last, take time out to listen, to connect our children to the people and places that will affirm their efforts and help them to move forward.
Kuzma (2004) Children needs positive attention. Criticism, complaining and negative comments are discouraging and often result in more misbehavior. But encouragement, optimism and positive strokes are to kids as fertilizer is to plants. It's the stuff that really makes them flourish- as Rudolf Dreikers statement that "each child needs continuous encouragement just as a plant needs water".
The lack of positive attention can cause tremendous behavior problems in children. And how surprising isn't it, when one child is so good and the next so "slow and having bad performance" even though we treat both of them the same. You seem to get opposite results. The reason for this is that children are born with different characteristics that make them either easy or difficult to learn with.
The involvement of parents as teachers to their children play an important role to contribute to a good performance like in reading development and formation of reading habits of the children utilizing various stimulating techniques. It is important that they're most likely prepared with reading experiences to fell enjoyment, satisfaction, confidence and appreciation of the different school activities. Parents misconstrue that it is teacher's obligation to teach everything to their children and not theirs. It is more significant if they always find time for their children to read to make their children become efficient and skilled readers and for them to develop high reading performance (Dogelio, 2003)
"Remember, a positive stroke doesn't always have to be given in words. Smile, wink, and ruffle their hair and your children will get the message that you tuned into them and you will be filling their love cups.
PARENTAL
Parents who are more involved in their children's lives, as measured by the number of shared activities, are more likely to hold higher expectations for their child's education. Visiting a library together, attending a concert or play, visiting an art gallery, museum, or historical site, or going together to a zoo or aquarium were listed as the kinds of activities parents and children might have shared in the past month. Among parents who counted three or four such activities, 79 percent expected their child to achieve a bachelor's degree or higher, compared with 62 percent among parents who did not share any such activities with their child in the past month.
More striking, between six and seven percent of parents who shared at least one activity with their child expected that they would not attain more than a high school diploma, compared with 12 percent of parents who shared no activities in the past month. (Child Trends' original analysis of the 2003 and 2007 National Household Education Surveys.)
School data on parent perceptions and various characteristics of 41 elementary schools in a large suburban school district located in a metropolitan area were analyzed in this study. The responses of 11,317 diverse parents who responded to a survey indicated that positive relationships of parental involvement to student achievement were largely unaffected by school characteristics or the socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic composition of the student population. Parental involvement was consistently correlated with student performance when school resources and the composition of the school's student population were controlled. Parental involvement (participating in volunteer activities and attending parent-teacher and school activities) and empowerment (parents' perception of schools' efforts to accommodate parent participation in school activities and to communicate with parents) combined contributed most significantly to student performance. (Griffith, J. (1996). Relation of parental involvement, empowerment, and school traits to student academic performance. Journal of Educational Research, 90, 33-41.)
Researchers conducted a meta-analysis to synthesize the quantitative literature concerning the relationship between parental involvement and children's academic achievement. Their findings revealed a "moderate and practically meaningful" relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement. Parental aspiration/expectation for children's educational achievement was the strongest relationship, while parental home supervision was the weakest. The relation of parent involvement to achievement was also stronger as a "global indicator" of academic achievement (e.g. grade point average) than as a predictor of student achievement in specific subject areas.( Fan, X.T., & Chen, M. (2001). Parental involvement and students' academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 13, 1-22.)
This article analyzes how specific parenting practices, both at home and at school, relate to student achievement.
Studies cited by the author indicate that parent involvement at home influences academic performance more strongly than parent involvement at school. Three types of parent involvement at home are consistently related to school achievement:
Organizing and monitoring children's time, especially related to television viewing;
Assisting with homework; and
Talking about school issues with children.
These methods of involvement have also been linked with the resilience of students who succeed despite challenges such as poverty, minority status, or native language. Research analyzed by the author also demonstrates a positive relationship between literacy and reading at home and student achievement. Several studies have shown a strong relationship between parents reading to their children as well as children reading to their parents and reading achievement. School programs that encourage literacy activities at home have proven successful. Research has not found a consistent relationship between parental involvement in school (attending school programs, volunteering, visiting classrooms) and student achievement. Research also shows that children of "disengaged" parents (parents who are authoritarian, fail to provide guidance and structure, and do not provide emotional support) are the least successful in school settings. Finally, studies reviewed by the author indicate that schools can encourage parent involvement, both at home and at school, with outreach efforts. (Finn, J. D. (1998). Parental engagement that makes a difference. Educational Leadership, 55 (8), 20-24.)
Socio-economic factors like attendance in the class, family income, and mother's and father's education, teacher-student ratio, presence of trained teacher in school, sex of student and distance of school are also affected the performance of the students. (Raychauduri et al., 2010) Kernan, Bogart & Wheat (2011), academic success of graduate student will be enhanced if the optimal health related barriers are low. There is negative relationship between college credit and stress but weak relationship between GPA (Grade Point Average) and stress. (Zajacova, Lynch and Espenshade, 2005) AmitavaRaychaudhuri, et. al., (July 2010), found that numerous studies have been done to identify those factors which are affecting student's academic performance. The students' academic performance depends on a number of socio-economic factors like students' attendance in the class, family income, mother's and father's education, teacher-student ratio, presence of trained teacher in school, sex of the student, and distance of schools. Hijaz and Naqvi (2006) observed that there is a negative relationship between the family income and students' performance and they focus on the private colleges in Pakistan. H4:
Noble (2006), students' academic accomplishments and activities, perceptions of their coping strategies and positive attributions, and background characteristics (i.e., family income, parents' level of education, guidance from parents and number of negative situations in the home) were indirectly related to their composite scores, through academic achievement in high school. The students face a lot of problems in developing positive study attitudes and study habits. Guidance is of the factor through which a student can improve his study attitudes and study habits and is directly proportional to academic achievement. The students who are properly guided by their parents have performed well in the exams. The guidance from the Factors Affecting Students' Academic Performance Global Journal of Managementand Business Research Volume XII Issue IX Version I18© Global Journals Inc. © 2012 Global Journals Inc. ( US) US2012 Juneteacher also affects the student performance. The guidance from the parents and the teachers indirectly affect the performance of the students (Hussain, 2006).
SOCIAL
Researchers have been studying the connection between social development and academic achievement for decades and have come to a startling conclusion: the single best predictor of adult adaptation is not academic achievement or intelligence, but rather the ability of the child to get along with other children (Hartup, 1992). Additionally, Wentzle (1993) found that prosocial and antisocial behavior are significantly related to grade point average and standardized test scores, as well as teachers' preferences for the student. These studies, and others like them, indicate that a socially adjusted child is more likely to be the academically successful child.
As an explanation for why social development is important to the academic learning process, Caprara, Barbanelli, Pastorelli, Bandura and Zimbardo (2000) noted that aggression and other maladaptive behaviors detract from academic success by 'undermining academic pursuits and creating socially alienating conditions' for the aggressive child. Studies show also that if children are delayed in social development in early childhood they are more likely to be at-risk for maladaptive behaviors such as antisocial behavior, criminality, and drug use later in life (Greer-Chase, Rhodes, & Kellam, 2002). In fact, Kazdin (1985) noted that the correlations between preschool-aged aggression and aggression at age 10 is higher than the correlation between IQ and aggression.
Studies done with students at the ages of middle childhood and adolescence support the notion that those social skills acquired in early education are related to social skills and academic performance throughout school-aged years. One such longitudinal study done with third- and fourth-grade students found that social skills were predictive of both current and future academic performance (Malecki & Elliot, 2002). Mitchell and Elias (as cited in Elias, Zins, Graczyk, & Weissberg, 2003) found similar results; they showed that academic achievement in the third grade was most strongly related to social competence, rather than academic achievement, in the second grade. Similarly, Capara, Barbanelli, Pastorelli, Bandura, and Zimbardo (2000) found that changes in achievement in the eighth grade could be predicted from gauging children's social competence in third grade. At the high school level, Scales et al. (2005) measured students' level of 'developmental assets', (positive relationships, opportunities, skills, values and self-perceptions) and its relationship to academic achievement. In this study, seventh, eighth, and ninth grade students with more increased 'developmental assets' had higher GPAs in tenth through twelfth grade than those with less assets. These findings support the view that a broad focus on social and emotional development promotes academic achievement throughout middle and high school
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