Factors Affecting the Academic
Performance in Trigonometry of
First Year BSCE Students in USeP
Abstract
Education plays a vital role in progressing the individual’s human capital, thus Trigonometry is a must and a hard subject of civil engineering students in University Of Southeastern Philippines. This study aimed to determine the factors affecting the academic performance of first year BSCE students in USeP. With this, a research was conducted to distinguish the factors that change the civil engineering students’ academic performance which may consecutively help in the enhancement of the students and teachers alike and for parents to understand and help their children regarding school matters. A descriptive-quantitative design was utilized and the main method used for gathering data was a self-reporting questionnaire on irregular first year students,also average weighted mean was used to determine the level of impact. In the personal conditions category, feeling hungry in class was found to be a high impact, in the category of study habits andIprefer listening to radio, ranked lower. It was discovered that students have personal condition factors as low in impact and teacher-related aspect got the highest impact out of five domain. In school-related aspects, the highest indicator isthere are available library references. Among the teacher-related factors, only one (1) item which is the teacher has mastery of the subject matter established to be of very high impact. Base from the findings, it was concluded that several factors pose a high impact on the academic performance of students in trigonometry, with teacher-related factors topping the list. Among the five (5) domains, school-related aspect and home-related aspect fell behind the top indicator. Nonetheless, both categories are still deemed to be highly impactful. Conversely, study habits and personal condition factors pose little effect on academic performance of students.
Keywords: academic performance, teacher-related aspect, school-related aspect, home-related aspect, study habits, personal condition.
Introduction
In this modern generation where technology has been revised, there is always a first approach to consider human activity which dubbed as education, wherein it plays a vital role in progressing the human capital and connected to the individual’s well-being and opportunities for better living (Battle & Lewis, 2012).
Today, many people still believe that computation is the heart of mathematics. However, computation, for mathematics, is merely a tool for structures comprehension, patterns of mathematical concepts and their relationship, and therefore gives solutions for complex real life problems (Rasmussen, 2006).
It becomes necessary for people of all ages to analyze, reach, and use the mathematical knowledge effectively and efficiently to be successful citizens in our information age. Particularly, students taking civil engineering course need to be well equipped higher order mathematical knowledge (Khan 2000).
The quality of student’s performance remains at top priority for educators (Crosnoe et. al, 2004). In University of Southeastern Philippines, their course outline for engineers starts with the basic mathematics that which includes Algebra, Analytic Geometry and especially Trigonometry, wherein UseP focuses on this to have student’s strong foundations when dealing with the higher math subjects.
Trigonometry is a branch of mathematics that deals with relationships between the sides and angles of triangles. The study of the properties of triangles and trigonometric functions and of their applications (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).
The factors affecting a student’s academic performance arise from several reasons. First, Personal Condition, which emphasizes what students feel and experience when having class. Second, Study Habits, focuses on the attitude of student’s daily routine while studying. Third, Home-Related Aspects, deals with barriers of student’s performance due to the errands in the house. Fourth, School-Related Aspects, shows the aspects in school that is possibly a hindrance to one’s academic performance which are the facilities, availability of references and activities held within the University. And Fifth, Teacher-Related Aspects, refers to the traits and behavior that the teacher display during class.
This research was conducted among civil engineering students of USeP, Davao City to determine the factors that affect the academic performance of the engineering students which may consequently help in the improvement of the students and teachers alike.
The result of this study may benefit the students by allowing them to understand better the factors that can affect their academic performance. They may be able to improve their academic performance with the findings that are established by this study.
With this study’s insights, the parents may be able to understand and help their children regarding their school matters and give them support. For the teachers, this study may help them to recognize problems encountered by the students that may pose an effect in their performance. They may find alternative actions on how to handle students. For the school administrators, they may be able to promote thinking skills assessment in their school, letting their teachers understand the influences of their students preferred learning styles that will promote adequate learning opportunities and effective instructions.
Methodology
This is a quantitative research as it administrates study about the factors greatly affecting the performance in trigonometry of civil engineering students by utilizing the theory of Alos, Caranto and David (2015). It shall be done by gathering numerical data from a descriptive-survey method. The study will be carried out in the University of Southeastern Philippines.
Information shall be conducted from thirty participants who are certified USeP student and have enrolled in the course BSCE for it is considered to be effective for aims used for instrumentation according to Hertzog (2007).
The researchers will adopt the instrument that has already been used by Bastian (1995) and accepted by other authors including the researchers who we have adopted their work upon. A self-reporting questionnaire will be used to acquire data on the factors such as personal conditions, study habits, home-related aspects, school -related aspects, and teacher- related aspects as it affects the performance of students in trigonometry.
The researcher uses the mean formula in finding the highest factor;
Mean =
Where ∑ is the total of tally; N is the statistical limit.
After the questionnaires will be distributed the following problems will be expected to be determined: 1)What are the factors that affect the academic performance of First Year BSCE students; 2) Which indicator among the five factors has the highest impact on the civil engineering students; 3) Which factor has the greatest effect on the academic performance of CE students in USeP.
Results and Discussion
Factors Affecting Academic Performance of Civil Engineering Students
Table 1 shows the set of five factors with their indicators. The indicators for each category were arranged from highest to lowest mean.
In the subset personal condition, the indicator with the highest mean was ‘feeling hungry in class’ having highest impact and ‘difficulty in breathing’ with the lowest mean having low impact on BSCE student’s academic performance.
Feeling hungry in class came in most impactful in the same subset. This is reinforced by previous research conducted by Deloitte (2007) and released by Share Our Strength which revealed that, on average, students who eat school breakfast could achieve 17.5% higher scores on standardized math tests, attend 1.5 more days of school per year. Students who attend class more regularly are 20% more likely to graduate from high school.
For the items included in the study habits section, all indicator belong to the lower range of impactbut the indicator ‘I study only when there is a quiz’ got the highest mean. Other indicators though was discovered to belong in the lower range, the indicator with the lowest mean was determined. The indicator ‘I prefer listening to radio’ got the lowest mean having very low impact.
Robert Bjork and fellow PT blogger Nate Kornell (2008) have explored some of the study habits of college students in a 2007 paper in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review revealed that the memory provides a number of important suggestions about the most effective ways to study. One of the most important tips of studying is that students should study by testing themselves rather than just reading over the material because the student could remember and understand it easily other than just reading without comprehending. It is also important to study over a period of days rather waiting until the last minute to study because the student could internalize more knowledge and could have enough time to analyze and understand the lesson given. Kornell and Bjork's (2010) cited in (Markman 2012) studies suggest that only about 2/3 of college students routinely quiz themselves, and a majority of students study only one time for upcoming exams. These findings are consistent with this study’s findings wherein it was discovered that among factors related to study habits; the indicator ‘I only study when there is a quiz’ came out as the most impactful.
Another study was conducted in a context similar to the study in Iran by Zarei (2008). This study intended to examine the effect of frequent testing on Iranian English student’s performance and classroom attendance. The results revealed that the more frequently students were exposed to quizzes; the better their performance appeared to be. Moreover, the results showed that the administration of frequent quizzes had a positive correlation with classroom attendance.
On the other hand, the factor home-related aspects were discovered to have a low influence on student engineers’ academic performance. The indicator with the highest mean in this subset was ‘Both my parents are working'. Although the other indicatorbelong to the lower range, the indicator with the lowest mean was determined which was ‘I have many brothers and sisters’.
Based from the article of Rafi (2015), a child and parent having healthy relationship with mutual respect for each other and faith could manage his or her learning. On the contrary, a child may bring unhealthy outcomes with a shattered family which adversely affects the learning of each student. Thus, student’s attachment to such families could greatly affect the student’s academic performance
In the school-related aspects, three indicators were discovered to have high impact. These indicators are ‘there are available library references’, ‘the time schedule is followed’ and ‘there are school programs’ but the indicator with the highest mean was‘there are available library references' posing as the most impactful. Meanwhile, the indicator, ‘there is fast internet access in the library' was found to belong in the low impact range.
Based from the study of Lance et al. (1993), there are several predictors of the school library that affect the students’ academic performance such as the size of collection of books and school library staff. Students who tend to score higher usually come from schools providing more library references.
Lastly, in teacher-related aspects, the indicator ‘teacher has mastery of the subject matter’ had the highest mean with a very high impact. The rest of the indicators were deemed to be of high impact and the indicator ‘teacher always scold students’ having the lowest mean.
According to Usman (2012), teachers who possesses knowledge of the subject matter, has skillful use of information and owns at least a bachelor’s degree from a four-year institution defines a qualified teacher. Another study was conducted by Adeyemi (2010), revealed that the academic achievement of students are affected by the teachers performance. Some studies also revealed that the students’ academic achievement is influenced by the teachers’ educational qualifications and experience.
Highest to Lowest Indicator That Affects Performance of First Year Civil Engineering Students
The table shows all the mean of each subset. Teacher related aspects has a mean of 3.64 having high impact, next school-related aspects with a mean of 3.44 having high impact, home-related aspects with 3.40 having high impact, then study habits with 2.90 having low impact and Personal condition with 2.69 having low impact. The factor with the highest mean was teacher-related aspects and personal condition with the lowest mean.
In teacher-related aspects, according to Onyeachu (1996) a teacher’s effectiveness can be measured by these four aspect of teaching .Among these aspects that measures dimensional construct are subject mastery, communication skills, planning a lesson and presentation. If a teacher is effective he/she should be able to yield good results from students. It is found that the teachers attribute has a significant relevance to the performance given by the students. Bangbacle (2004) stated five attributes teachers have that could influence performance of students, their knowledge about the subject taught, communication ability, emotional ability, good sense for human relationships, once lastly their interest on their job. This is supported by the findings of Rena (2000) that the teacher factor render the highest on the future affecting engineering level with the subject. To well on an exam it needs the teacher’s knowledge on the physical, intellectual, and psychological alertness of the students.
In relation to school-related aspects, its environment and in teachers’ expectation are important for these are factors that favors the students’ performance according to the study of Sparuses (1999) as quoted by Zappala (2002). In the course of this study ,this fact remains to be true thus it was found out that schools availability in programs related to the study, library resources and the time schedule is followed revealed that it possess high impact in the academic performance of engineering students. Kwesiga (2002) argued that availability of facilities in school is proportional to the number of its facilities which affects the performance and achievements the students. In the case of Sentamo (2003) he also argued that it is the school itself that affects the educational process in organization of content, learning, the teachers overall evaluation. With these great researchers it is safe to say that the performance, results, and achievements done by students could be greatly affected by the school itself.
In home-related aspects, based from the article of Rafi (2015), a child and parent having healthy relationship with mutual respect for each other and faith could manage his or her learning. On the contrary, a child may bring unhealthy outcomes with a shattered family which adversely affects the learning of each student. Thus, student’s attachment to such families could greatly affect the student’s academic performance
Also for Study habits, in another article of Paris and Turner (as cited in Keiff, 2005), having interest in a subject matter will greatly affect the motivation of students in studying. It is more likely for a student to learn easily and smoothly with a matter of interest. The learner will engage itself in a good study habits resulting a good academic performance.
According to Kizlik (2012), study habits has its own style. Each learner has different techniques in studying for them to be more effective in that matter. Studying strategy would be effective in improving and understanding the learning about the subject, and thus, the academic performance.
And in personal condition, based from the findings of Foodbank report (2015), the overwhelming majority of teachers (82%) report that their workload increases when they have hungry students in the classroom. This is because students that are hungry are more likely to find it difficult to concentrate (73%), can be lethargic (66%), have learning difficulties (54%) and exhibit behavioral problems (52%). “Hungry children have difficulty all day with all activities - learning, social interactions and physical demands. It’s a wasted day every time and another burden on a child already struggling.”
Summary of Factors Affecting Academic Performance of Civil Engineering
Students
The Factors that Affect the Academic Performance in Trigonometry of Civil Engineering Students was divided into five(5) which are the personal condition, study habits, home-related aspects, school-related aspects and teacher-related aspects.
For personal condition, the indicator ‘feeling hungry class’ got the highest mean having high impact and ‘difficulty in breathing’ with the lowest mean having very low impact. In study habits, ‘I study only when there is a quiz’ is the indicator with the highest mean having low impact and ‘I prefer listening to radio’ with the lowest mean having very low impact. Then home-related aspects having ‘both my parents are working’ in the highest mean with a high impact and ‘I have many brothers and sisters’ in the lowest mean with a low impact. In the school-related aspects, ‘there are available library references’ is the indicator with the highest mean having high impact and ‘there is fast internet access in the library’ with the lowest mean having very low impact and lastly, teacher-related aspects having ‘teacher has mastery of the subject matter’ as the indicator with the highest mean with a very high impact and ‘the teacher always scolds students’ with the lowest mean having very low impact.
Table 2 also shows the summary of the Factors Affecting Academic Performance in Trigonometry of First Year Civil Engineering Students. It is shown that the set of factors with the highest influence on the academic performance of first year civil engineeringstudents are the teacher-related aspects with the highest mean. It is followed by study habits and school-related aspects, both equally rated as highly impactful. Conversely, the set of factors with low impacts are personal conditions and home-related aspects.
Based on the results above, it showed that school is an environment with more distracting factors andstudents preferred to study at home. Home has less distraction than school because it attained lesser factors affecting the study lifestyle of first year civil engineering students. As shown in the table, the school environment had greater factor of 54.69% than the home environment which had 45.31% which means that the school environment obtained the greater impact on the factor that affects study habits among first year civil engineering students.
Unlike school which people are coming and going in the library, talking and librarians restocking books may also distract the students who were studying (Education Corner, 2016). The noise made by the people in the library may caught the attention of the students who were studying.
Classroom environment is critical in learning. Various studies have shown the distraction of noise upon studying within the classroom (Christian School Products, 2010). Sometimes classmates are very talkative whenever the students are serious in studying. Therefore, sometimes, students should study less in school because crowded area may distract the student’s concentration.
Conclusion
Analysis of the results of this study indicated the following findings. The first item in the personal conditions category is found to be of high impact. Meanwhile, the other last three (3) items in the same subset fell in the low range and the last item revealed that it has a very low impact. On the other hand, all indicators included in thecategory of study habits were considered of low impact except for the item in the lastwhich was ranked rather lower.
First year student have been discovered to have rated home-related factors as low in impact except for the first item in the subset which of high impact. In school-related aspects, the first three (3) items are of high impact; conversely, the last indicator was rated lowest. Among the teacher-related factors, only item one (1) was established to be of very high impact and the rest posed to be highly impactful. In the subset of personal factors, feeling hungry in class was rated to be of highest impact. The indicator ‘I study only when there is a quiz’ was determined to have the highest impact among study habits. Meanwhile, among the home-related aspects, ‘Both my parents are working’ was found to be the most impactful. The indicator ‘there are available library references’ was determined to have the greatest effect among the school-related items. Highest of impact among the five domains were the teacher-related factors having the ‘Teacher has mastery of the subject matter’ as the indicator with the highest mean and of greatest impact among all other indicators included in the five factors.
Based from the findings, it was concluded that several factors pose a high impact on the academic performance of first year civil engineering student, with teacher-related aspects topping the list. Among the five (5) domains, school-related aspects and home-related aspects fall behind the teacher-related aspects. Nonetheless, both categories are still deemed to be highly impactful. Conversely, study habits and personal conditions pose little effect on student academic performance.
This paper could be a reference material to students taking trigonometry as their subject especially students engaged in engineering courses. With this study, both student, teacher and parent will understand and know the factors affecting students’ academic performance and through this, students could enhance and develop these shortcoming to the enhancement of their academic performance in trigonometry.
The following are recommended: a) teachers should use varied strategies so as to improve the academic performance of the learners; b) teachers should undergo seminars on teaching strategies to improve classroom instruction; c) the researcher suggests a research specifying a subject in determining the factors affecting the academic performance of first year civil engineering student and adding respondents from level one to level three and d) the parents should realize that they could not help a child only by financially supporting them. They should also provide mental, social, and emotional support for these are essential for in a growing student.
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ABOUT ME
Mary Kareen Faye B. Abellar, 17, is currently taking up Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at the University of Southeastern Philippines, Obrero, Davao City.
She graduated secondary at Koronadal National Comprehensive High School as part of DOST-special science class. Her research preferences are anything about construction of bridges and tall buildings. She was once a part of Kalinaw Choir andSenior Scout as Secretary.
Mary Kareen Faye B. Abellar
ABOUT ME
Laurice Fe Marie D. Vivar, 17, is currently taking up Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at the University of Southeastern Philippines, Obrero, Davao City.
She spent her secondary level at Nieves Villarica National High School, Samal Island, Davao Del Norte and graduated as Third Honorable mention. Her research interest includes constructing infrastructural buildings on local and industrialized areas and strong foundations for creating bridge support beams.
Laurice Fe Marie D. Vivar
ABOUT ME
Mark Gabriel N. Huertas, 17, is currently taking up Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at the University of Southeastern Philippines, Obrero, Davao City.
He commenced secondary level at Davao Special National High School and graduated as With Honors. One of his arrayed prestigious vogue research preferences is simplifying daedal method of structures for the benefit of humanity.
Mark Gabriel N. Huertas
ABOUT ME
Justine Jules B. Dorotan, 17, is currently taking up Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at the University of Southeastern Philippines, Obrero, Davao City.
He finished his secondary level at Assumpta School of Tagum and garnered 1st honorable mention. Good Foundation of Environmental Friendly Infrastructures is his focus on his research to alleviate the basic human needs. He is a member of Boy Scouts of the Philippines.
Justine Jules B. Dorotan
ABOUT ME
Jack Frank Celocia, 17, is currently taking up Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at the University of Southeastern Philippines, Obrero, Davao City.
He graduated secondary level at Panabo National High School as Valedictorian in the basic education curriculum. Studying about Construction of Building that are Earthquake-free is his research preference. He has an experience as a Campus Journalist.
Jack Frank Celocia
ABOUT ME
Mike Ryan Aldepolla, 17, is currently taking up Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at the University of Southeastern Philippines, Obrero, Davao City.
He attended high school at Calinan High School where he graduated as an ACLC awardee. One of research preferences is Liquidation Budget in Construction of Buildings.
Mike Ryan Aldepolla
