Contributing Factors to Low Performing Students

Contributing Factors to Low Performing Students In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts major in Guidance and Counseling CHAPTER 1 Introduction Students are facing with many issues in their lives, and because of the competing things for your attention, it’s hard to concentrate on studying. Studying can seem very boring when compared to any other exciting activity. You may even prefer doing non-sense things rather than to study your lessons.

Too many people treat studying as the thing to do when you get around to it or have some spare time, too many people look at studying as necessary task, not an enjoyment or an opportunity to learn. ( Grohol, 2006 ) Studying is important in our lives, especially to the lives of the students. Each student as unique individual has different abilities, approaches, ways of thinking, interests and ways of studying the lessons. These individual differences have significant influences on ones learning style and acquisition.

Each student has different methods and ways of studying and these methods are sometimes helpful but some are not as effective as the others. (Oppapers, 2010) http://www. termpaperwarehouse. com/essay-on/Study-Habits-Chapter-1/82775 Students’ low performance in school is not without consequences to either the students themselves or the school system. Problems like difficulty of adjustment to school works, distance of parents, rebellion against authority, feeling of basic inferiority and financial difficulty are often manifested by underachievement in school.

However, these variables have contributed to the success or failure in the four year stay in high school but are perceived in different perspectives by the individual learners (Soberano, 2000). Bar-On and Parker (2000) stated that the school is a social environment with many demands on social competence. The young people who fail to get along with their peers in the classroom are likely to be perceived as distractible or even disruptive, thus affecting their performance and progress in school.

Family relationship is considered to be an important factor in student life. Schneiders indicate that from the very start it is the family and particularly the parents, who ensure the satisfaction of basic physical and psychological needs on the basis of which intense and lasting ties are ordinarily established. The close affinity between youth and the home has significant implications for personality development. As the evidence indicates, the personality development of teen-agers is to an important degree a measure of home and family influences.

As pointed by Franken (Batingal, 2007), “children growing up in a positive family atmosphere, whose parents are involved in their schooling tend to develop better self-regulation and also do better in school. ” However, irresponsible, unstable job of parents and lack of financial and moral support to their siblings has resulted the student’s low esteem, less motivated in their school performance. Moreover, expertise of knowledge of the teachers in his field of studies and effective classroom management plays a significant factor of the student’s academic performance and achievements.

Since given the best teacher in terms of knowledge ability and potentials, if he lacks the ability to control his students in the classroom, teaching cannot be effective and thus, no learning will take place (Acero, Javier, and Castro, 2007). Individual characteristics such as age, sex, and parents’ educational attainment are important factors in achieving better education outcomes. Adolescents encounter varied obstacles during their entire school life. Academic performance is affected by the characteristics of the learner’s environment.

One of which is, living environment, whether one lives in the home or in the lodging/boarding house show an effect on the academic performance of students. Graceda (Soberano, 2000) discusses that the impact of the types of residential arrangement and some important factors, like I. Q. , parents’ relationships and socio-economic status of the family correlate in each residential arrangement indicates lower academic performance. On the other hand, adolescent peers also affect how well and how much they learn. Peers provide models that can encourage or discourage learning. However, by and large, peers have harmful effect on grades.

Over half the students’ surveyed said that they did not talk about school work with their friends. In fact, merely 1 in 5 said he or she did not do as well as possible for fear or earning the disapproval of peers (Rathus, 2001). The major findings of the study from National Center for Education Statistics, compared with students with friends who showed little interest in learning, those with friends who cared about learning had better educational outcomes–they were less likely to drop out of school and more likely to be enrolled in an academic program, graduate from high school, and continue their education after graduating.

On the other hand, students with friends who were interested in having sex, drinking, and using drugs experienced less desirable educational outcomes. These students experienced a higher rate of dropping out of school and a lower rate of being enrolled in academic programs, graduating from high school, and pursuing postsecondary education (nces. ed. gov).