Investigation into Factors Affecting Student Performance

Education enables the individuals and society to make an all round participation in development process by acquiring knowledge, ability, skills and attitudes. Academic performance is affected by most of factors. These includes gender difference, age, traveling time to reach the university, income of father, combine study, sitting back in class room, attendance, internet usage for study, previous qualification. This topic variables that affect the students performance has generated as considerable amount of scholarly attention (Meltem Dayiogule, Serap trust Asik Dec 2004, Aden Kadir Geleto (Haramaya University). Primary data is collected from the student of students from York st John to analyze the result. The cumulative RESULTS is depending on variables in this study. The independent variables are selected based on literature and some preliminary analysis of data. Some variables are according to result such as sitting back in class room, age of students, traveling time, father’ income not directly affected the student performance.

I identify 9 factors which influence the student’s academic performance. These factors are; gender of students, age of students, internet surfing, city of residence, last qualification, class participation, Father Education. They Describes the implications for improving academic performance and for achieving better GRADES in education.

Review of the Literature

Education is one of the most important factors that determine the development of society or country. The main objective of this study was to identify the factors that affect students’ academic performance in higher learning institutions. Due to different factors, however, both the quantity and the quality of graduates from higher education in Ethiopia have become points of discussions nowadays a number of indicators can be used to determine the academic achievement of graduation students. In the literature, the most frequently employed measure is students’ cumulative grade point average (GRADES). We consider the academic achievement of male and female students in terms of GRADES. The dependant variable in this study is the cumulative RESULTS upon graduation of the student. The independent variables were selected based on the literature and some preliminary analysis of the data.

The gender of the student is a factor to determining student’s performance. Gender differences in attitudes, personality, teacher’s expectation and behaviors, differential course taking and biological giving rise to gender difference in achievement (Feingold, 1988) The students whose performance better in college and university. Who get better scores in high schools? Boys perform betters as compare to girls. Anderson et Al (1994). The academic performance can be influenced by factor course taking behavior, classroom experiences and participation of any student. (Byrnes, Hong and Xing, 1997; Young and fisler, 2000). According to some researchers the performance of women is better as compare to men in the colleges and university. Hyde & Kling (2000). Therefore the grades of women are good. (Leonard and Jiang, 1999; Hyde and Kling, 2001; Bridgeman and Wendler, 1991; Wainer and Steinberg, 1992).

On the biological perspective the gender differences considers social factors to subordinate the biological factors like brain structure (Lynn,1998a, 1998b, 1999; Allik, Must and Lynn, 1999; Colom and Lynn, 2004) asserts that males have larger average brain sizes than females and therefore, they would be expected to have higher average IQs Mackintosh (1998). On the other hand some researcher claims that there is no gender difference in general intelligence. Some authors explain this pattern by stating that females are more hard working and have a stronger work ethic than males Stage and Kloosterman (1995).

Other researchers also have argued that female receive higher grades than male because they work harder and attend class more frequently (Wainer and Steinberg, 1992). “Girls are found to get better grades than boys” This phenomenon is explained by boys disregard for authority, academic performance and formal achievement, differences in students attitudes to work increased maturity and more effective learning strategies Baker and Jones (1993).

Different researchers have made attempts to identify the factors that affect student’s performance in lower and higher institutions. Anderson et. al. (1994) concludes that students whose performance is better in high schools they also perform better in college and universities and men had better grades than women. Borg and Shapiro (1996) said that a student’s performance is better in classroom where student and professor have similar learning styles. On the other hand Topping (1994) have found that sitting at the back in the classroom and absence from classes negatively affect the student’s academic performance. According to topping an increase of one percent in absences will reduce the score of the final examination by 0.043%. Another most important factors affecting student’s academic performance are how early they starts reading for final exams, ESLCE RESULTS. Father’s education, whether he/she gets the department of first choice, income category of the father and age of the student are some other factors to evaluate the performance Younger, Warrington and Williams (1999). This indicate that students whose father more educated they perform better than students having less educated or illiterate fathers The results of the data analysis show that the most important factors that affect students performance are students previous performance at high school level (ESLCE) RESULTS, Getting the department of first choice, time of starting reading for examinations and age of the student influenced their performance Leonard and Jiang (1999).

Family background is also another important factor found to be significant in this study, although it had not been considered in the previous studies. The more the father is educated the better is the performance of the student. This may be due to the fact that educated fathers are well aware to challenges in education, and thus provide their children with moral strength to perform very well. Educated Fathers may exempt their children from doing some household activities when they get low scores (sige, 2001). Performance of students, on the other hand, is negatively related to economic statuses of the fathers. To escaping from poverty in Ethiopia and other underdeveloped countries, the students who coming from poor family backgrounds may study very hard for secure jobs Baker, D. P. and Jones, D. P. (1993) Creating Gender Equality. Students from poor family background may also know that their parents expect financial assistances from them after graduation, thus they work very hard to achieve the goal.

Research Design

The objective of this study is to identify the factors that could affect the performance of students in higher learning institutions. A number of indicators can be used to determine the academic achievement of graduate students. In the literature, the most frequently measure is student’s cumulative grades point average (GRADES).

The performance of students measured with GRADES in the educational sectors. In the causal study, we see how an independent variable produces changes in another dependent variable. The mind writer projects of descriptive although subsequent studies might be causal. The Cumulative RESULTS is dependent variable in this study. The independent variables were selected based on the literature and some preliminary analysis of the data. The data is analyzed through cross tabulation relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables through correlation techniques. In this research to study the influence of different factors on the cumulative RESULTS upon graduation of the students. Students are the logical group helps us for generating ideas now their performance.

Research Methodology

Developing the research design & clearly defining the research question is a useful way to design a research study. Studies made by others for their own purposes represent secondary data. Local and international articles and journals were referred as secondary source of information in the study. Primary data on student’s characteristics were collected by using a questionnaire prepared. It is inefficient discover areas through the collection of primary data. Provided the basis for developing the questionnaire used in the study primary data were collected from the distribution of self administered questionnaires to 100 students of Gujarat and Gujranwala universities. The questionnaire contained eighteen variables related to different aspects of the student’s performance in the educational institution.

Research instruments

For this purpose Close ended questionnaire form was designed for this project. There are two sections in the questionnaire. Section A is the demographic profile that identifies student’s gender wise, age wise, geographically, background of students last qualification in degrees, relationship of travel time, father income and education and study time duration, public and private sector institute. Section B includes determinants like student’s internet surfing time, class participation combine study and class attendance.

Sample Design & Data collection procedure

The sampling method was used to select 100 students from York st John and York collage. We have selected five disciplined including B.A business management Master in Business Administration (MBA), MA English, and Malam. A minor editing was done before the final questionnaires were used to collect data from students by acting in their feedback. We personally went in educational institutes and collect data by interacting with students. Before hand over questionnaire form to students, we approached to desire discipline students and make sure that they are not from 1st semester and had RESULTS result which is major variable to evaluate the student’s performance.

Data analysis techniques and selection of measure

The statistical package for social science program (SPSS) was used to summarize and run correlation on data obtained from the survey. Frequency distribution used to mention demographics of students. Correlation techniques were utilized to discuss relationship between student’s academic performance and variables.

The variable also measured on 5 Likert-type scales, was the students overall performance in the educational sectors and the independent variables were the standardized factors scores create for each individuals. Cross tabulation and Correlation techniques were utilized to discuss the relationship between academic performances to GRADES. Cross tabulations used to determine the relationship of GRADES with different variables

Research Questionnaire and Interpretation

We are the students of GIFT University and we are conducting the research to know the factors that influence the academic performance of students. So kindly give us your precious time by fill this questionnaire.

What is your Gender?

Male

Female

What is your age group?

16-19

20-24

25-30

What is your current semester in the University?

First

Second

Third

Forth

What is your program in University?

MBA

B.A

M.A/M.S.C/M.C.S

Internet surfing in semester system makes help in achieving good scores?

Strongly Agree

Agree

Not Sure

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Do you think that your last qualification score affect your current academic performance?

Yes

NO

Class participation increases the academic performance of students?

Strongly Agree

Agree

Not Sure

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Do you think your attendances affect your academic perforce?

Yes

NO

Sitting at back in class negatively affect your academic performance?

Strongly Agree

Agree

Not Sure

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Students whose father income is average gain high scores in their performances?

Strongly Agree

Agree

Not Sure

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Do you think father’s education affects the academic performance of students?

Yes

NO

City of residence affects the student’s academic performance?

Strongly Agree

Agree

Not Sure

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Frequency Table

KMO and Bartlett’s Test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy.

.785

Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity

Approx. Chi-Square

802.063

df

45

Sig.

.000

In which we analyze our data through KMO and Bartlett’s test. In which KMO is grater then .5 and less than .9 and the Bartlett test range between the .05. So our data is valid and audience response according to our perception.

Gender

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

Male

64

47.1

47.1

47.1

Female

72

52.9

52.9

100.0

Total

136

100.0

100.0

Age of Student

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

16 – 19

38

27.9

27.9

27.9

20 – 24

82

60.3

60.3

88.2

25 – 30

16

11.8

11.8

100.0

Total

136

100.0

100.0

Programmed Study

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

Business programmed

98

72.1

72.1

72.1

Other than Business

38

27.9

27.9

100.0

Total

136

100.0

100.0

Internet Surfing affect academic performance

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

Strongly Agree

75

55.1

55.1

55.1

Agree

27

19.9

19.9

75.0

Neutral

7

5.1

5.1

80.1

Disagree

6

4.4

4.4

84.6

Strongly Disagree

21

15.4

15.4

100.0

Total

136

100.0

100.0

Last Qualification major cause of good performance

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

Yes

93

68.4

68.4

68.4

NO

43

31.6

31.6

100.0

Total

136

100.0

100.0

Class Participation increase GRADES

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

Strongly Agree

66

48.5

48.5

48.5

Agree

2

1.5

1.5

50.0

Neutral

24

17.6

17.6

67.6

Disagree

22

16.2

16.2

83.8

Strongly Disagree

22

16.2

16.2

100.0

Total

136

100.0

100.0

Sitting back in class room harm student’s performances

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

Strongly Agree

29

21.3

21.3

21.3

Agree

25

18.4

18.4

39.7

Neutral

8

5.9

5.9

45.6

Disagree

37

27.2

27.2

72.8

Strongly Disagree

37

27.2

27.2

100.0

Total

136

100.0

100.0

Father’s Income also causes

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

Strongly Agree

30

22.1

22.1

22.1

Agree

37

27.2

27.2

49.3

Neutral

9

6.6

6.6

55.9

Disagree

18

13.2

13.2

69.1

Strongly Disagree

42

30.9

30.9

100.0

Total

136

100.0

100.0

Father’s Education may also cause

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

Yes

50

36.8

36.8

36.8

No

86

63.2

63.2

100.0

Total

136

100.0

100.0

City of Residence

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

Strongly Agree

57

41.9

41.9

41.9

Strongly Disagree

79

58.1

58.1

100.0

Total

136

100.0

100.0

Descriptive Statistics

Mean

Std. Deviation

Analysis N

Gender

1.53

.501

136

Age of Student

1.84

.611

136

Programme Study

1.28

.450

136

Internet Surfing affect

academic performance

2.05

1.477

136

Last Qualification major cause of good performance

1.32

.467

136

Class Participation increase GRADES

2.50

1.592

136

Sitting back in class room harm student’s performances

3.21

1.540

136

Father;s Income also causes

3.04

1.594

136

Father,s Education may also cause

1.63

.484

136

City of Residence

1.58

.495

136

Component

1

2

3

4

Gender

.953

-.110

-.117

.035

Age of Student

.316

.796

.062

.072

Programme Study

-.655

.247

-.388

.301

Internet Surfing affect academic performance

-.181

-.017

.880

.338

Last Qualification major cause of good performance

-.319

-.487

-.098

-.215

Class Participation increase GRADES

.931

.016

-.064

-.001

Sitting back in class room harm student’s performances

.878

-.191

-.137

.017

Father;s Income also causes

.848

.260

-.048

-.022

Father,s Education may also cause

.680

-.166

.348

-.208

City of Residence

.331

-.299

-.153

.846

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

a. 4 components extracted.

Communalities

Extraction

Gender

.936

Age of Student

.743

Programme Study

.732

Internet Surfing affect academic performance

.922

Last Qualification major cause of good performance

.395

Class Participation increase GRADES

.870

Sitting back in class room harm student’s performances

.825

Father;s Income also causes

.790

Father,s Education may also cause

.655

City of Residence

.937

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Total Variance Explained

Component

Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings

Total

% of Variance

Cumulative %

1

4.500

45.002

45.002

2

1.166

11.662

56.664

3

1.122

11.222

67.885

4

1.016

10.164

78.049

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Results

Of the 100 students who responded to the questionnaire 53 percent were male and 47 percent were female. 56.8% were enrolled in the 2nd and 3rd semester and 43.2% were from 4rth semester. A total of 64% of respondent were in the business program, while remaining 36% of respondents were in the Bachelor commerce, Master in English and other programs. For measuring the student’s academic performance 62 respondents agree and strongly agree that internet surfing make help them in study and increase their academic performance. 38 respondents were neutral and remaining was disagreeing to this statement. In the following cross tabulation we make 9 different relation between dependent and independent variable that’s may help to measure the academic performance (GRADES). Table 1 show the result of cross tabulation explained each variable and factors that affect the student’s academic performance (GRADES). The nine variables identifies in the cross tabulation.

Table 1:

Result of

Questionnaire for variable that affects students academic performance

Variable name

Dependant Variable

Independent Variable

Pearson’s R

Spearman Correlation

V1

GRADES

Gender of the Student

0.080

0.079

V2

GRADES

Age of students

0.039

0.060

V3

GRADES

Internet surfing

0.098

0.096

V4

Current Qualification performance

Last Qualification performance

0.169

0.170

V5

GRADES

Class Participation

-0.087

-0.045

V6

GRADES

Sitting Back in Class room

-0.039

-0.023

V7

GRADES

Father’s Income

0.004

0.006

V8

GRADES

Father’s Education

-0.079

-0.077

V9

GRADES

City of Residence

0.088

0.025

We can be described as follows. (V1) the gender of the student is an independent variable or factor that influencing the student’s academic performance (GRADES). By stating that females tend to work more conscientiously and have a stronger work ethic then males. In (V2) the age of the students is a factor that attracts the students toward internet surfing. Students in semester system used internet surfing that may also affect on their academic performance. For its part (V3) 218 respondents are strongly agree and agree that in semester system internet surfing makes help them to achieve good scores. (V4) last qualification may influence great part on student’s current academic performance. 68% students that have high scores in last qualification their current academic performance is very well. (V5) Class participation is also a factor that affects student’s academic performance. 74% students strongly agree that class participation increase their academic performance.

For its part class room and absence from classes negatively affect the performance of students. 62.6% students strongly agree that their attendance affects their GRADES. (V6) Sitting back in class room is a factor that may influence on the student’s academic performance. 45% students are agreeing with this statement that sitting back in the class room may affect their performance. 20% are neutral and 35% students disagree with this statement. (V7) Family background is another important factor to measure student’s academic performance.144 respondents gets high GRADES which father income is average. (V8) Father education has a great impact on student’s academic performance. Student’s whose father education is below matric their academic performance is not very well instead of those students whose father is well educated. (V9) Demographic profile like city of residence also affects student’s academic performance.

The result of correlation analysis and shows in order to importance the factors which affects the student’s academic performance (GRADES) based on the Pearson’s R and Spearman’s correlation results indicates that (V1) Gender of student is strongly correlated with the student’s GRADES. (V3) Internet surfing has perfect positive correlated with student’s academic performance (GRADES). (V4) Last qualification performance of students have perfect positive correlated with the student’s current performance. (V7) father income is strongly correlated with the student’s academic performance. (V9) city of residence has perfect positive correlated with the student’s academic performance. (V1) Gender of students, (V3) Internet surfing, (V4) Last qualification, (V7) Father income and (V9) City of the respondents are strongly and perfect positive correlated with student’s academic performance. (V2) Age of students, (V5) Class participation, (V6) Sitting back in class room and (V8) Father education are also significant quality factor.

Discussion and Conclusion

The objective of this study is to identify the factors that could affect the performance of students in higher institutions. The results of the data analysis show that the most important factors that affect student’s performance are father education, last qualification performance, gender differences and city of residence. Accordingly those who performed better in previous institution, they also perform better in higher institution, because they had strong potential to easily catch up with exam types in the university. This finding is also in consistence with the findings of the previous researches. Anderson, ET. Al. (1994) concludes that students who received better scores in high schools also perform better in college and male had better grades than women. Borg and Shapiro said that a student would do better in class where the student and professor had similar learning style.

Family background is another important factor found to be significant in this study. The socio-economic background determines his/her academic achievements. If father is educated then better is the performance of the student. This may be due to fact that educated father are well aware to importance of education, and thus provide their children with moral strength to perform very well. On top of this, fathers may exempt their children from doing some household activities when they were at lower grades. Performance of students on the other hand is negatively related to economic status of the father. That is, students having poor father perform better than those who are coming from better families.

The possible reasons for this result may be that education is one of the major source to remove poverty in underdeveloped countries and the thus students coming from poor family background may work very hard for increasing scores. They don’t also have enough money to engage in other activities that take their times. The student who spent more time on study gets good GRADES. But some students are more intelligent and do not spent enough time on study and gets good GRADES. Almost in all universities, only those students who score higher RESULTSs regularly study during their education. Students who start reading for examinations from the beginning of the classes or early after the begun were also found to perform for better than those who start reading for examinations after examination dates are scheduled. Examination for all courses and departments are also scheduled so that they can be finished within one or two weeks. Thus, those who wait for the announcement of examination dates to start reading their notes could likely perform less.

Age of the students is found to be other important factors that also affect the academic performance of the students. The negative relationship between age and performance of the students may indicate to us that educating our children as early as possible are very important. The sitting back in the classroom affects the student’s performance. The students sit back in classroom don’t attend lecture conceptually. They spend their time in whispering and disturb the class. Absence from classes negatively affects the performance of the students. According to topping an increase of one person in absence will reduce the score of the final examination by 0.043%. The student’s RESULTS in first year will affect the GRADES. If students get good RESULTS in first semester will also perform well continuously in the next semester and results in good GRADES. There are significant differences in performance of students from urban and rural areas.

Female spend their spare time in home in studying while male spend their spare time in playing with friends. There are some other factors that affect student performance that are internet surfing, combine study and class participation. The student who serves more time on internet gets good grades. But one of the aspect here that student serve internet for studying purpose. If the student use internet surfing for education purpose, their performance definitely increase because they gain more and latest information from the internet and improve their performance. On the other hand student uses internets for other purpose than education do not get good GRADES.

The class participation is also effect student GRADES. The student who participates in the class discussion gets good grades. The teacher also give student Class Participation marks in class. Some student hesitates in class to talk, do not inspire the teacher and losses CPs marks that is why do not get good grades. As the most important affecting students performance. the personal problems are lack of Self confidence, feeling of loneliness and adjustment to the situation in the university. At the end these are major factors that affect students academic performance According to Spearman’s correlation results indicates that Gender of student is strongly correlated with the student’s GRADES. Internet surfing has perfect positive correlated with student’s academic performance (GRADES). Last qualification performance of students have perfect positive correlated with the student’s current performance. Father income is strongly correlated with the student’s academic performance. Cit