ACTION RESEARCH REPORT

Assessment of Study Habits and their Implications on Student

Academic Performance: A case study of Ngumbe Community Day
Secondary School
Presented by:

Lickson Mchepa

6th

On
July, 2015
At

DOMASI COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

Overview
1. INTRODUCTION
Background to the
Study
Statement of the
Problem
Objectives and
Research Questions
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Study habits
Study Skills
Academic
Performance

3.
RESEARCHMETHODOLOG
Y
Research Design
Research Setting
Sample Size and
Sampling Technique
Data analysis
4. RESULTS AND
DISCUSSION
5. CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Acheaw, (2004) defines study habits as well-planned

and deliberate patterns of study which has attained a
form of consistency on the part of students towards
understanding academic subjects and passing
examinations.
A good study habit is a prerequisite for good academic
performance(Jato et. al., 2014).
Children with poor study habits receive poor grades in
school, get easily distracted and frustrated.
Success as the name implies is wished for by
everybody but it is not easily come by on a mere
platter of gold; one must work for it through hard work
and diligence.

Statement of the Problem

Due to the increasing nature of poor academic performance of

Ngumbe CDSS students in internal as well as MANEB
examinations, many questions had been raised by teachers,
parents and students as to why students perform so poorly.
But for an excellent performance, there is need for the student
to form good study habits (Acheaw, 2004).
It is clear from all indications that most secondary school
students have poor study habit which might lead to poor
academic performance.
As true as this might sound, it is yet to gather adequate
research evidence to prove that it is a key factor on why
students fail.
Therefore, the researcher wanted to investigate the study
habits and their implications on student performance at
Ngumbe CDSS.

Objectives of the Study

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

SPECIFIC OBEJCTIVES

To assess the study habits of students and how they affect their
performance.

To examine the study habits practiced by students at Ngumbe CDSS.

To determine the frequency to which student of Ngumbe use the
library.
To ascertain the relationship between study habit and academic
performance at Ngumbe CDSS students.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

What are the study habits among students at Ngumbe CDSS?

How often do students use the library?
Is there a relationship between (Students) study habits and
academic performance?

Significance of the Study

The following will benefit from the

findings of this study
School Administrators
Students
Teachers
Future researchers

LITERATURE REVIEW

Literature review focused mainly on study habits,

study skills and study habits vs academic
performance.

Study Habits

Most students do not know how to study

probably because they are not aware of what
techniques to apply in the study situation.
Good and effective study habits, according to
Hills and Ballow (2000) include test preparation,
note-taking, time consideration, library use,
organizing material in a study and choosing a
good study environment among others.

LITERATURE REVIEW cont.

Study Skills

There is little doubt that no two people study the same way,
and it is a near certainty that what works for one person may
not work for another.
However, there are some general techniques that seem to
produce good results. These include:
o The SQ3Rs method (Jato, et. al., 2014),
o PQRST Method of Studying (User, 2015),
o KWL studying method (Mansfield, 1996).,
o The Human Memory Graph (Ali, 2014), and
o The Human Attention Span (Ali, 2014).

Human Memory Graph

Source: CASA at: http://casa.tamucc.edu

Human Attention Span

Source: Savage (2011)

LITERATURE REVIEW cont.

Academic Performance

Good study habits lead to good academic performance

but bad and defective study habits result to poor
academic performance (Moghadam and Cheraghian
2008) .
Jato et. al. (2014) argued that study habits are
particularly important for students, whose needs
include time management, note taking, the elimination
of distractions, and assigning high priority to study.
De Escobar (2011) observes that if learners earn high
grades it is concluded that they may also have
effectively studied hard while low grades indicate
lesser and poorer study habits.

RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY

Research Design
This study used the quantitative approach to allow the
reporting of summary results in numerical terms
across many repetitions of answers.
Research Setting
Ngumbe CDSS which partnered with Bearsden
Academy is located in Chileka, Blantyre Rural.
The school has twelve classrooms, library, science
laboratory and computer laboratory. Each classroom
can accommodate fifty to eighty (50 - 80) students
depending on the form level.

RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY cont.

Sample Size and Sampling Technique

The population size of one hundred and five (105) students was
drawn from Ngumbe CDSS. This represents a (10.2 %) of the entire
Ngumbe CDSS student population of 1030.
The sample size is supported by Babbie, (2005). He was of the
opinion that for a population of 1000 and above, a sample size of 1020% was acceptable.
The population was sampled through a simple random sampling
procedure to avoid biasness.
Form one and three contributed thirty four (34) each while form four
contributed thirty seven (37) respondents.

RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
cont.
Data Collection and Instrument Procedure

Data was collected using a self developed survey

questionnaire.
The research questionnaire was described in terms
of time management, note taking, test preparation,
study environment, student examination
performance and library use.
The researcher personally administered the
questionnaires to the respondents and retrieved
them on the same day.
To improve the reliability and validity of the research
instrument, the questionnaire was pilot-tested.

RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY cont.

Data Analysis
Data that was extracted from the
questionnaires was classified, organized
and tabulated accordingly.
Microsoft excel was used for analysis
and interpretation of data.
The researcher used excel to easily
enter and create graphical or visual
representation of data. It is also simple
to make inferences.

FINDINGS AND
DISCUSSIONS

The researchers final

respondents were lowered into
one hundred and five (105) from
the expected number of one
hundred and ten (110) due to
the absence of some
respondents upon data
gathering.

FINDINGS
study habits of the respondents

Figure 1.1

Figure 1.2

FINDINGS cont.

Figure 1.3

Figure 1.4

FINDINGS cont.
Frequency to which student of Ngumbe
use the library.

Figure 2.1

FINDINGS cont.
The relationship between study habits and
academic performance of Ngumbe CDSS
students.
Subject
Total
%
Biology

Score
Less than 40
F
9

%
37.14

Mathematics

54

P/Science

36 34.29

Chichewa
English
100
Social & Dev.
100

12

51.43

11.43

40-59
F

60-69

40 38.10
23 21.90
35 33.33
36 34.29

F
11

10.48

13 14.29
16
29

70-79

15.24
27.62

36

34.29

35 33.33

20 19.04

37

35.24

35 33.33

14

13.33

F
7

6.67
8

80 & above
F

7.62

7.62
7

11 10.48
19 18.10
7

105 100

6.67
7

6.67
8.57

6.67

6.67

10 9.52

8.57

105

100

105 100
105

100

105

105

FINDINGS cont.

Figure 3.1

Figure 3.2

FINDINGS cont.

Figure 3.3

Figure 3.4

FINDINGS cont.

Figure 3.5

DISCUSSION
Study habits in terms of study environment,
time management, note taking and test
preparation.
The result on the first four figures (figure 1.1
1.4) show poor study habits among students of
Ngumbe secondary School in terms of time
management, test preparation, note taking and
study environment.
The results agreed with many authors such as
Nouhi et al. (2008), Aquino (2011), Nagaragu
(2004) and Sarwar et al. (2009).

DISCUSSION cont.
Study habits in terms of library use

The results in figure 1.6 revealed that there

was poor use of the library.
Dent (2006) reported that a study
conducted by Lance (2000) showed that
students that used school library regularly
had 18 percent higher achievement tests
scores than their counterparts without a
school library.
The findings of Acido (2010) also revealed
that two students who scored above
average in reasoning skills studied regularly.

DISCUSSION cont.
Impact of study habits on student academic performance

The academic performance of the respondents as shown in table 3.1 was poor.
The poor academic performance of the students could be attributed to:

the failure of the students to manage time (figure 1.1).

students studied in places where there were distractions and
disturbances (Figure 1.2).
most students studied hard a day before the actual day of writing
examinations
students did not use the school library regularly
This is also in agreement with the findings of Koko, (1999), that poor
academic achievement or failure is a consequence of poor study habits.
Demola (2012) reported that Facebook; Yahoo; Twitter; MySpace;
English Premier League; European Football Leagues among other
things have taken over the time students could have used for reading
and studying.

DISCUSSION cont.

A discrepancy in study habits between high and low-achieving

students was also noted in figures 3.1 3.5 which showed that high
achievers have excellent study habits while low-achieving students
has average to poor study habits.
This is in agreement to Yu (2010) who found out that highachieving students had a more positive attitude toward study in that
they detected and reacted positively to the favorable aspects of the
situation they found themselves in, while the low-achieving
students tended to be fault-finders, reacting to the negative aspects
of study.
However, both high-achieving and low-achieving students seem to
have same level of study habits in study environment and library
use. This might be that the school does not provide best conditions
necessary for students to do well in these areas.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the findings, the researcher concluded that students of

Ngumbe CDSS had poor study habits in terms of time management,
note taking and test preparation.
He also found out that the school has no conducive environment for
study.
The study also found that there were no library periods in the
school time table. The school library also opens irregularly and the
school library is too small to accommodate students who would like
to study in the library.
Many students never study outside of the class each day, and never
know what was covered/to be covered in the examinations.
Thus poor study habits invariably led to poor performance among
the students.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings and conclusions gathered, the

researcher would like to recommend the following:

The researcher recommends use of study system

"SQ3R"
The researcher recommends that students must use
the human memory graph, KWL, mapping or
charting method to condense and synthesize
reading, lessons and discussions.
There should be a library study hour on the school
time table

RECOMMENDATIONS cont.d

Students should find suitable and comfortable places to study

outside the class each day, especially at home to compliment the
study at school.
There is need for the students to study and cover the syllabus on
each subject in order to know what will be covered in each
examination.
The amount of time used in studying must increase in order to
devote more time to quality study both at school library and at
home to prevent poor academic performance currently being
experienced in the CDSSs.
Lastly, the researcher recommends that students must learn to
manage time effectively. Make study schedules or plans and stick
to them, make list of things to do and less cramming. These will
help to have good time management.

Area of Further Research

The researcher is of the view that the

topic of study habit is very wide and
dynamic. Areas of study of students
study habits are inexhaustible, It is
therefore of paramount interest that
another study be carried out on
relationship between study habits and
attitude of students towards their school.

I THANK YOU FOR YOUR

ATTENTION