Research Project 2

Chapter I

Introduction Now a days students are indulge into a different lifestyles and situations which are greatly influence by the changing trends economic changes from which they are engage. There are many factors that influences the individuals lifestyle and specially the learning and academic performance of students, but only few or some of them contributes the greatest effect. According to Erick Erikson, a renounced and one of the most respected and influential psychologist he believes that personality develops in a series of stages and describes “ the impact of social experiences across the whole life span of a person”. Erikson also believed that every person develops it own ego identity or the sense of self that we developed through social interaction and also according to him our ego identity is constantly changing due to new experiences and information that we acquire in our daily interactions with others. In our daily walks of life we are constantly facing different challenges and obstacles which greatly affect and influence everyone’s own insights towards life particularly in the life of students. In order to know and site some of the many factors that mainly influence and contributes to these changes, we decided then to conduct a small scale survey to a number of students to determine what really are the factors that influences each and every students and have the most effect on the students learning and academic performance.

Theoretical framework of the study

Most of us had our own personal interests and conflicts as we go on with our lives, these conflicts could change us in different ways either by becoming adoptive to it or be influence by it affecting our lifestyles and personality and choice, because as A. Maslow theorized that “unfulfilled cognitive needs can become redirected into neurotic needs”. For example, children whose safety needs are not adequately met may grow into adults who compulsively hoard money or possessions. This provides the basis for wide-ranging and extensively validated work relating to achievement, affiliation, power and ambition as we move toward self actualization. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslow)

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Conceptual Framework

Is it related to the occupational status of the students parents or relatives? Is it the result of economic crises? Is it related to low income & not enough salary?

Is it result of the students insecurity and the Is it related to the students poor

need of belongingness?

study habits?

Is broken family or unmet childhood needs

Is it to the students behavior of

brought the students to be engaged or such

going to school?

inappropriate behavior?

Is it related to the students loose

What is the possible effect or result of strict

of interest to study?

parenthood and individual? How can it affect the lifestyle & needs of the students?

Statement of the Problem

“The top 3 student problems in Butuan Doctors College as of 2006-2007 that affects the students academic performance” The problems: 1.) Financial 2.) Student learning capacity 3.) Peer pressure and alcoholism The sub-problems: A.) Financial i) Is it related to the occupational status of the students parents or relatives? ii) Is it the result of economic crises? iii) Is it related to low income & not enough salary? B.) Students learning capacity i) Is it related to the students poor study habits? ii) Is it to the students behavior of going to school? iii) Is it related to the students loose of interest to study? C.) Peer pressure & alcoholism i) Is it result of the students insecurity and the need of belongingness? ii) Is broken family or unmet childhood needs brought the students to be engaged or such inappropriate behavior? iii) What is the possible effect or result of strict parenthood and individual? How can it affect the lifestyle & needs of the students?

Hypothesis Students encounter scholastic problems regarding on their personal preferences and conflicts, choices, lifestyle and monetary difficulties. But do students usually or occasionally encounter those problems? Can it really affect the students academic performance? Significance of the study This study is significant to the following target population: 1. To the students that are affected either of this problems and to the concerned individual that are willing to be of help. 2. To the teachers and Nursing personnel’s who are in some ways takes part in the teachings and rendering of care to the students. 3. To the Department to acknowledge this problems and maybe find ways and attempt to make changes and help the students in any means necessary. 4. For everybody to be aware of this problems. As a whole the study will answer some of the doubts and questions that most of us questioned and wonder particularly in the academic collaboration of every teachers and students. The outcome of this research will somehow give us an insight of the problems that most of the students are in and in someway by the collaboration of the department these will be recognize

Delimitation of the study The study Is mainly concerned in the most popular and the commonest problem that most of the students encountered in their scholastic activity and academic performances in school, concerning also with their everyday life styles, economic collaborations and social interactions and how could this be in someway or somehow affect their performance not just in school but in their whole-being, personality and insights towards life. The study is mainly focused on the students of Butuan Doctors’ College at third Year level as of 2006 – 2007.

Chapter II

Review of Related Literature: About Financial needs Source: (http://www.methodsreporter.com/2006/12/17/college-financial-aid/)

Getting accepted to their school of choice is not the problem for many qualified students. High GPAs, long extra curricular resumes and solid entrance exam results usually result in an acceptance letter and sometimes a scholarship. But as the annual college application ritual comes to an end, the focus turns to the question: “Ok. I’m in. But how am I going to pay the bills?” A combination of poor financial planning on the part of many parents, stiffened rules on financial aid programs and rising tuition rates at colleges nationwide are leaving more working class families behind. A college degree has long been an essential tool for the nation’s poorest families wishing to improve their financial futures. Today it is even more so. Sullivan said many parents are not doing enough to educate themselves about the cost of college. This lack of forethought can leave college graduates with debt that can set retirement investments back by as much as $1.7 million over the lifetime of the fund. Student debt brings other issues. “People are buying a home later and not starting a family,” he said, citing several recent surveys on college graduates. “It’s a vicious, vicious cycle.”

Taking on debt Any college student who has filled out the Federal Application for Student Aid (FAFSA) understands the drill: By early January they should know their parents adjusted gross income, their 2006 IRA income tax return and if their parents are eligible to file a federal and state 1040A or 1040EZ. Colleges use this essential information to consider how much assistance prospective students will receive in an ever-escalating financial quest for a degree. Sullivan estimates that parents of a child born today probably need to put at least $150 a month into a savings plan to ensure that a newborn could go to college 18 years from now. This presents a challenge for low-income families, who are bringing home as little as $400 a week. “The affordability crisis is limited almost entirely to students from families in the bottom half of the parental income distribution, below $62,240,” according to public policy analysis from the national education advocacy organization Postsecondary Education Opportunity. But if recent trends in tuition rates continue – nationwide analysis by The College Board, an education research organization, shows that the cost of college has risen by more than 11 percent – paying for a secondary education will only get more difficult. College tuition has risen at a rate much greater than inflation and family income. Education and Performance (The students learning capacity) Source: (http://www.weac.org/resource/june96/under.htm) Since 1983, critics of public education have argued that many American students do not possess the depth of knowledge or skills to assure either personal life success or national economic competitiveness. A particular concern of the critics has been the apparent inability of many students to engage in

complex problem-solving activities and to apply school knowledge and skills to real-life problems in workplace settings. That American students fail to meet such expectations should not be surprising since the traditional measures of school outcomes, standardized achievement tests, have not required the application of knowledge in new settings. What teachers and schools face is a fundamental redefinition of what it means to be a student or a teacher and what it means to learn or to teach. Educators confront a paradigm shift in teaching and learning which is driven by the increasing anomalies of the current educational system. High drop-out rates, low skill and knowledge levels among many students, low levels of student engagement in school work, and poor international comparisons suggest that the current educational paradigm is weak or inappropriate. It will not be enough to do better what was done well in 1965 or 1985, but, rather, educators must learn to work with students and the subject matter in fundamentally different ways. This is the task confronting those who seek to improve our schools. Educators understand that changes in student outcomes must be supported by parallel changes in curriculum and instruction. However, it is apparent that many of today's teachers are caught in the midst of a change for which they may not have been professionally prepared. Many teachers were educated in classrooms where the role of the student was to memorize information,

conduct

well-regulated

experiments,

perform

mathematical

calculations using a specific algorithm, and were then tested on their ability to repeat these tasks or remember specific facts. All of us- parents, teachers, retirees, business people, citizens, employees, students- face a scale of educational change for which our experiences have not prepared us. Our beliefs about "how schools ought to be" are in tension with new expectations of "what schools ought to accomplish."

Teaching for Understanding Teaching for understanding is neither magical nor mysterious; however, classrooms which nurture student understanding do possess distinctive qualities. What is meant by "understanding?" How does it differ from "knowing?" Perkins and Blythe (1994) draw the following distinction between knowing and understanding: When a student knows something, the student can bring it forth upon demand- tell us the knowledge or demonstrate the skill. Understanding is a subtler matter, which goes beyond knowing . . . We have formulated a view of understanding consonant with both common sense and a number of sources in contemporary cognitive science . . . Understanding is a matter of being able to do a variety of thought-demanding things with a topic- like explaining, finding evidence and examples, generalizing, applying, analogizing, and representing a topic in a new way . . . In summary, understanding is being able to carry out a variety of "performances" that show one's understanding of a topic and, at the same

time,

advance

it.

We

call

such

performances

"understanding

performances" or "performances of understanding" (pp.5-6). Howard Gardner's view of understanding parallels the Perkins and Blythe definition in that he emphasizes the application of knowledge in new circumstances: “I consider an individual to have understood when he or she can take knowledge, concepts, skills and facts and apply them in new situations where they are appropriate. If students simply parrot back what they have been told or what they have read in a textbook, then we do not really know whether they understand” (Steinberger, 1994, pp.26-27).

Defining Peer-pressure Source: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_pressure#See_also) Peer pressure is a term describing a person's changes, or temptations to change, in attitude, behavior and morals as directly influenced by their peer group. A social hierarchy requires members to conform to, for example, the group's actions, fashion sense, taste in music and television, and outlook on life. Social groups affected include membership groups, when the individual is "formally" a member (for example, a political party or trade union), and social cliques. A person affected by peer pressure may, or may want to, belong to these groups. They may also recognize dissociative groups with which they would not wish to associate, and thus they behave adversely concerning that group's behaviors. Peers influence your life, even if you don't realize it, just by spending time with you. You learn from them, and they learn from you. It's only human nature to listen to and learn from other people around you. Peers can have a positive influence and sometimes a negative influence on age group.Peers can have both positive and negative influences on each other. Some people give in to peer pressure because they want to be liked, to fit in, or because they worry that other people may make fun of them if they don't go along with the group. Others may go along because they are curious to try something new that others are doing. The idea that "everyone's doing it" may influence some kids to leave their better judgment, or their common sense, behind. Another example of peer pressure is in perceived financial status, which usually occurs in adulthood. Many adults feel as though they must attain a certain level of wealth and financial success to keep up with their peers, whereas this may not be required at all in order to live a secure, content and comfortable

life. Often this motivates people to increase their perceived (i.e. by their peers) financial status - as opposed to their real financial status - by doing things like buying or renting expensive vehicles, clothes, houses, electronic appliances, which are usually detrimental to their real financial status. Additionally, one may feel pressured to achieve better real financial status as well, and may act upon this by making risky decisions like a change of job. Peer pressure is something that many people give in to. Socialization is the process by which human beings or animals learn to adopt the behavior patterns of the community in which they live. For both humans and animals, this is typically thought to occur during the early stages of life, during which individuals develop the skills and knowledge necessary to function within their culture and environment. However, this also includes adult individuals moving into an environment significantly different from one(s) in which they have previously lived and must thus learn a new set of behaviors. Agents of Socialization- people and groups that influence our self-concept, emotions, attitudes, and behavior. Examples: Family, peers, and mass media. (Henslin, 2006) Henslin (1999:76) contends that "an important part of socialization is the learning of culturally defined gender roles." Gender socialization refers to the learning of behavior and attitudes considered appropriate for a given sex. Boys learn to be boys and girls learn to be girls. This "learning" happens by way of many different agents of socialization. The family is certainly important in reinforcing gender roles, but so are one’s friends, school, work and the mass media. Gender roles are reinforced through "countless subtle and not so subtle ways" (1999:76). Henslin (2004:66) suggests that the fact that parents let their preschool boys roam farther from home than their preschool girls illustrates how girls are socialized to be more dependent.

Chapter III Research Method In order to arrive into a more distinct and transparent point of view of the problems, we have conducted a small scale survey which is in a form of questionnaire. This method is not likely as accurate compared to other data collections, but it would also gave us information or point of view to answer our research. We have created a questionnaire consisting of common problems or stressors the students encountered on their studies, we classify these into the most stressor that would likely affect the students basing on the social trends and lifestyle of most individuals including economic situation and peer pressure. We had prepared at least seven problems of the most commonest stressor we can gather and think of and also we had decided to know and ask what the respondents could tell and share to us base on his/her stressor, so part of our questioner was a specification of

other stressors. On our survey form it is

important for us to know and ask for what respondent could share to us, or give and share opinions that could somehow used that will serve us an additional knowledge and information to solve the problem and know its causes and effect so that it will be easy for us to make or arrived into a conclusion During our data collection we had chosen the most student or individual that could highly be affected on daily stressors, and the most prevalent are the third year students, because usually these students are indulge into a lot of stressors on their studies. We likely analyze and determined the respondent and where to conduct a survey then we voted on the 2nd , 3rd and 4rth college students, but we have decided on the 3rd year level as our respondents, likely berceuse of the mentioned reasons and also because of the availability or material and the time frame we had. Using our survey questionnaire we have

selected a number of students of each sections. The level III Nursing students of Butuan Doctors’ College are composing of six sections and each sections is at least 40 students, we distributed 15 questionnaires. We have made 50 questionnaires from our initial survey and out of that we had gather 36 out of the 50 so 14 was not returned or was considered lost. After the survey, we then have the result, it was not as expected, but it gave us information’s and enough data thaw we could use to analyze and gave explanations to our research problem and stressors the students of BDC usually encountered. Based on the data gathered it was likely that most of the students of BDC are with the same problems concerning on their studies. We have classified these problems it was likely that most of them voted on: (1) Financial Problems, (2) Students Learning Capacity (3) Peer-pressure and alcoholism.

RESEARCH LOCALE We had decided to conduct our sample survey at the BDC on the 3rd year nursing students. Our studies was mainly focused on the stressors that the students of BDC usually encountered and affect their academic performance. The survey was basically on the school setting with actual students because we have analyzed that we could get adequate data if we conduct our survey at the school because our subject was basically the students. The questionnaires was distributed and was answered on the school classrooms during vacant time.

RESEARCH POPULATION The subject of a study was mainly the students of BDC and especially the 3rd year level. During our survey we likely decided to choose only a selected number of student because we have analyzed that some students may not properly filled up the survey form and may not get adequate data and so we

decided again to prioritize only the students who had their vacant time and those who will cooperate to help on the survey. The respondents were all level III students on sections A, B & C consisting of about 40 students. CONSTRUCTION and VALIDATION of INSTRUMENTS We have decided to make only seven questions of the commonest stressors the students generally encountered the questionnaires was written on a ½ computerized bond paper, the contents are composing of a heading with sentences that denotes our intensions of conducting the survey and the purpose of our survey , then below are the problems listed on each problem was a checked box used as a selection for the students to select upon we also decided to put space for the other problem not listed and to specify the problem according to the respondents .Below are a space also provide for any opinion and reaction that the respondents may not to add, the will also give as information significant of our survey. Before the survey questions were first submitted, a sample questionnaire have been submitted to our instructor for the approval so that we can finalize it, and it was seen and validated and was approved.

COLLECTION OF DATA Letter of request Dear fellow students, We are the 3rd year students of BDC, presently conducting a study on various stressors experienced by the students during their studies and academic performance in the school. The study aims to provide pertinent data that could be used to identify the stressors and problems that the students encountered in their academic performance and studies. Kindly accomplish the questionnaires as candidly as you can and answer all items. Rest assured that your responses shall be kept strictly confidential. May we please request that the accomplished questionnaire be returned to us after a week. That you very much for your kind support and cooperation. Thank you.

Questionnaire We the 3rd year Nursing student would like to conduct a small survey as partial requirements on our research subject. Kindly fill-up the contents below.

Distribution of questionnaires: The questionnaires was being distributed by our co –members to the students of the level III nursing students, a copy of 1 to each respondent only, we have distributed of about 45 questionnaires. Retrieval of Questionnaire The questionnaires was returned during that day also, it only take 10 minutes for the survey to be done.

Consolidation of Data

Problems Sex (Pre-Marital) Drugs Alcoholism Peer-pressure Financial Students Learning Capacity Students Coping Capacity Others

Votes 6 8 19 19 26 15 18 0

Chapter IV

Findings of the study Based on the survey conducted we have gathered data and found out the top three most scholastic problems that the students encountered and BDC. The survey primarily showed the tally based on the selections of chosen problems we have presented. And based on that we have analyzed the results and make an interpretation out of the data gathered, and try to answer our hypothesis. Our findings showed that mostly of the students of Butuan Doctors College are likely affected by financial problems, Student learning capacity and Peer pressure & alcoholism, which likely influenced the students learning and scholastic activities. Mostly of the students voted on these three factors to have the greatest influenced. (1) Financial problems includes all monetary investments and payments that the students will abide as partial requirements of the school. (2) Student learning capacity, are those factors that the students can handle and able to coped as expected by the school and what is expected on the students being enrolled, these problem are mainly students centered. (3) Peer pressure and alcoholism, are those problems and factors that includes the students personal lifestyles, preferences and choices where the students are hooked and affects their studying.

Presentation of findings

Sex

14%

5%

7%

Drugs

17%

16%

Alcoholism Peer-pressure Financial

24%

17%

Students Coping Capapcity Students Leraning Capapcity

Chapter V

Summary of findings On the previous chapter, we have discussed and presented the findings of our results based on the data gathered on the survey and has founded out the top three problems that affect mostly of the students at Butuan Doctors’ College We also have interpreted the result and give an explanation on the data that would answer our hypothesis and give description of the findings.

Conclusion Based on our gathered data and findings we have concluded that the following problems that greatly affects students academic performance in BDC are the following: 1) Financial problem 2) Students learning capacity 3) Peer pressure and alcoholism

Recommendations Financial •

The school must provide transparency on school fees and make some advance notice of payments to be able for the student budget his/her allowance well.

to

•

The school must conduct a meeting with the parents every semester for them to be aware of the different payments and changes in the school policies.

•

The school must had a counseling on the students who had problems on financial support.

Student learning capacity

•

The school should have a weekly basis of counseling for every students especially of those who have difficulties on their study and of those who are with declining grades.

•

The school should implement and provide encouragements for the students, like acknowledgments to students who has good grades and encouragements to students who had low grades.

•

The school may also provide activities for the students to participate and developed their own potentials.

Peer pressure and Alcoholism •

Strict policies must be implemented for those student who are caught drinking outside the school during schooldays and specially for those students who are caught under the influence of liquor inside the campus.

•

Behavior therapy must be done for those students who are addictive to alcohol.

•

The faculty should not allow and tolerate stores or any establishments that displays and allows liquors near school premises.