I.

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Being a college student is quite different from a high school and grade school
student. Unlike in primary and secondary level, it is imperative for a college student to
possess a strong will and determination in achieving goals but most college students are
having difficulties in adapting with the environment they’re in and sometimes, ends up to
a failure in accomplishing the duties and obligations of a college student.

According to the statistics report by Streegan, et. al, people often think that there’s
a possibility that a student could lose self-confidence in studying and be discouraged to
try again after failing and students who failed to pass a certain requirement for a certain
requirement were obliged to repeat taking the particular subject which causes poor
remarks on the student’s academic records and even worse, having an impression of
failing certain subject even the student didn’t because not all irregular students became
irregular because of failing. There are students who tend to lose interest in studying and
thinks of shifting to other courses or even quit studying but there are also students who
are still pursuing careers and continues to study even after failing from their former
subjects. These are what we call in college, the “irregulars” or “irregular students”.

Streegan and colleagues also stated that a student who is unable to accomplish on
taking the subjects in sequence that are organized in the program curriculum due to
different reasons is an irregular student. Some people thinks that irregular students take
their studies for granted and think of it as a non-important matter but people don’t really
know the reasons behind their sitautions as irregular students.

There are several factors affecting college that’s why some become irregular
students. Accordint to Bobiles and others in their study on the “Emotional Intelligence in
Relation to Academic Perofrmance of Selected Irregular Students of College of Arts and
Sciences at New Era University in 2004, One of these factors in the feeling of
discrimination. Many irregular students are experiencing different treatment from the

1
regular students like in the schedules that the school provides. These students are being
isolated in a classroom setting of regular students for not belonging in any groups of
similar interests and havinga hard time in adapting and coping with the environment.

According to the blog of Claudine Roque (2016), it was quoted that there’s a lot
of reasons of being an irregular student. It was emphasized that not all irregular students
have poor or low average in academics because being an irregular student comes with
many reasons. Being an irregular student means you’ll have to deal with classmates who
may be younger or older who are from different levels and be prepared for challenges
faced by irregular students.

Through this research, many students will be enlightened on the truth about the
situations of irregular students by including in this paper the stories of irregular students
and how these students deal with the challenges and situation as irregulars.

B. Statement of the Problem

What caused these students to becme irregular? What challenges are they facing
for being in this kind of situation? How do they deal with these challenges they have and
what motivates them to continue their studies?

Many people thinks that being an irregular student is negative effect of what the
students did or didn’t do while studying and oftentimes, thinks that these students became
irregular because of failing on a subject. Also, other people think that being an irregilar
student creates a bad image for that student because of these misconceptions but these
irregular students have much reasons to be an irregular student (Roque 2016).

Irregular students are the students that’s having hard time coping with their
academic problem the most (Bobiles et. al, 2004). Irregular students experience
discrimination, not having an organized schedule of classes, have lesser number of
subjects and units, and other factors that make them different from being a regular

2
student and these factors affect their acdemic performances which lead to grade results.
Also, irregular students are feeling ‘out of place’ inside their classes where in most of the
sudents are regular students who are having group of peers.

Being an irregular student is not an easy matter to deal with, says the blogger with
a username, ‘arktistanglakwatchera’. There are many struggles that these students
encounter in every day of their college life. It was also stated that there are struggles of
being an irregular student which will be further discussed in this paper and higlighted that
the term “irregular student” is just a status in college or labael but it isn’t as simple as
what the people thinks.

Irregular students have different challenges and the strategies on coping up also
varies as to how these students deal with people and the environment. Some of them can
easily adapt to changes while some are having a hard time managing and adapting those
changes.

Therefore, this study was conducted to know what challenges the irregular
students are facing now and how these student manage the situation of being irregular. It
can be observed that there are irregular students in almost all colleges and universities to
be studied to gather enough information to be provided to people.

C. Objectives of the Study

This research aims to describe the challenges of irregular students in the Teacher
Education Program in Bataan Peninsula State University-Balanga Campus:
a. Discuss the reasons of being an irregular student
b. Make other students understand that irregular student doesn’t always mean
they have failed a subject by providing enough infomation about irregular
students
c. Determine how irregular students cope up with different classmates

3
 d. Know how irregular students adapt on changes being encountered at
school
e. Make people understand how irregular students deal with the situation
they have through this research

D. Significance of the Study

This study is helpful in analyzing the importance of knowing the challenges of

irregular students. It aims to provide general knowledge about the reasons of becoming
irregular and how to cope with the situation as an irregular student.

Knowing the real situation of irregular students is important not only to irregular
students alone but also to regular student ones. This will provide direction on how
irregular students can cope with the situation of being irregular and impart ideas on how
to adapt to changes that an irregular student encounters.

This research can also be helpful to parents to be infromed and understand their
children’s situation. By knowing the real situations of these students, parents should be
able to help the students in dealing with their problems by being suporters and
motivators.

This research can also be beneficial to the school by contributing this study to the
school library to be used as reference for possible future researches and studies.

E. Scope and Delimitation of the Study

This research focuses on the experiences and the challenges faced by irregular
students of education at Bataan Peninsula State University-Balanga campus from 2nd-4th
year level. It will also provide information and understanding about the true nature of
irregular students.

This study targeted to have 22 respondents but only ended up interviewing 19

because of conflict schedules that the reasearchers and respondents have. It is difficult to

4
meet schedules of both parties to be available to conduct a research. Aside from these, the
researchers encountered many problems in having respondents for some other reasons.
First, knowing the availability of the respondents is a difficult task. Most of the irregular
students are difficult to find since almost all are not enrolled in the same sections and the
same year level. Another reason is that, few irregular students are willing to become part
of the study. Also, when the research was conducted, the final examinations was about to
come so most of the students are busy to even enetertain such interview invitations.

Most students are busy at the time this research was conducted that’s why most
irregular students that were supposed to be respondents were nt interviewed due to
conflicts with schedules of both the irregular students and researchers.

The respondents’ names were not included in the appendices of this paper due to
the respondents’ requests not to include and mention their names.

II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND THEORETICAL

FRAMEWORK

A. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

“Irregulars are misunderstood people”, this was according to Streegan, et. al

(2011) in their statistics report on The Causes and Effects of Being an Irregular Student.
It was stated in the study that some people think that irregular students do not have high
regard for their education even without knowing why they really became irregular.

In addition, Streegan and colleagues said that irregular students are those who
skip year levels because of various types of reasons. Irregular students do not have
permanent section/block and schedule. These students are frequently the ones who are
having many friends because irregular students get to meet new classmates in every
semester and every class they attend to. These students are also managing their own time
and if they are lucky enough, these students can choose the schedule that can be handle
best. But not all irregular students can adopt with the changes they encounter and focuses
only on passing the subject.

5
 Furthermore, according to Bobiles and others in their thesis in 2004, irregular
students are the students that are having hard time coping with their academic problem
the most. They experience discrimination, not having an organized schedule of classes,
have lesser number of subjects and units, and other factors that make them different form
being a regular student. And these factors affect their academic performances which lead
to grade results. Also, irregular students are feeling ‘out of place’ inside their classes
where in most of their classmates are regular students that’s having group of peers.

Being an irregular student is not an easy matter to deal with. There are many
struggles that they encounter in every day of their college life. This is according to a
blogger with the username ‘arkistanglakwatchera’ in her blog.

B. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study is to describe the challenges encountered by

irregular students. Based on the experience of the teachers, it came to a point that the
teachers develop a theory which is called a Theory of Difficulty where it identifies the
students’ characteristics that includes the weaknesses and performance of the students in
school that has a bit problem. In series of studies, this theory helps improve the learning
of the students by having ways to develop the understanding and difficulties encountered
by students.

According to Guimarães, et al. (2002) , in the Self-Determination Theory (SDT)

the motivation in every university has been important in several years. Motivation
influences the involvement of the students in learning activities. Students' motivation is
considered important in the teaching and learning process that penetrates in all levels.
These students give effort in studying as well as their academic performance to
accomplish the students’ plans in life (Lens, et al., 2008). The motivation of the students
can affect the students learning, performance, and in their learning environment.
(Wechsler, 2006)

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 Moreover, George Herbert Mead in the Social Behaviorism Theory explained that
it is helpful to develop the individual by having social life and the experiences. Mead said
that the individual’s personality should have self-awareness and self-image. The person
who has more social experiences will be more knowledgeable and developed holistically.

Additionally, the students experienced group activity in class. It is used to

enhance the cooperative learning of the students. This type of group activity aims to
increase the students’ comprehension and understanding of content as well as building
transferable skills by having a small group that the students should be working together to
combine and maximize their learning. (Johnson, et al., 2008) In addition, cooperative
learning is where the students develop better performance produce by the entire group.
(Johnson, et al., 2014)

C. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY

Being an irregular student is not easy, there are a lot of struggles a students might
face in dealing with the situation, this is according to the blogger with the username,
“arktistanglakwatchera” about the Struggles of Being an Irregular Student. In the blog,
the following struggles of irregular students were discussed:

1. Your personality is being judged, big time.

2. No man is an island, but an irregular student is.
3. No one backs you up.
4. We’re friends, ah wait where do you live again?
5. They are graduating and I’m grad waiting.
6. I wish everyday is wash day.
7. It’s you again?

7
 D. DEFINITION OF TERMS

The following terms are defined in order to have better understanding on how they were
used in the study.

1. Irregular Student – the student in a college or university who is unable to follow

the list of subjects or sequence of the subjects that are included in the curriculum
program due to reasons of dropping, transferring, failing grade, shifting, etc.

2. Shifting program – refers to changing or switching of course/program to another

course/program. It is where the student takes up new course program and leaves
the former course/program

3. Transferee – a student who is changing or switching school due to varied reasons

4. Failing grade – refers on taking certain subject and unable to pass that subject. It
is the failure on subjects you took.

5. Motivation – refers to a behavior that has a strong reason for the people to act or
to do something, it is the people’s desires and need. It triggers a person to be
engaged in doing something

6. Accountabilities – refers to blameworthiness and liability concern regarding on a

person’s decision or action. It is the state of being responsible on something a
person did or something a person does

7. Dropped a subject – refers to an action in school where a student stops taking a

certain subject because of different reasons

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 III. METHODOLOGY

A. RESEARCH DESIGN

The study used the qualitative research approach where the researchers analyzed
the narrative data that were gathered from irregular students who agreed to be part of this
study. The narrative research approach was used to study the different experiences of
irregular students involved.

Through narrative research, the researchers were able to study how the irregular
students experience the situation they have and allows tell their stories to the people who
will be reading this paper. The respondents were able to tell their stories by answering
some questions of the researchers about their current status as irregular students.

Brief interviews were conducted to gather the needed data for the analysis of this
study. Through the interview, different perceptions and views of irregular students will be
found out to have understanding on the main focus of this paper.

The findings were analyzed carefully and had equal treatments to be interpreted in
this paper.

B. SAMPLE

For this research, the researchers used purposive random sampling in selecting the
participants because even though there are many irregular students to be respondents, not
all of the irregular students are available to be interviewed.

In this study, the irregular students at Bataan Peninsula State University –

Balanga Campus from different year levels from the College of Education with different
subject major will serve as the subjects. Nineteen samples were gathered form the said
University and most of them are from third year level.

9
 Almost all of the samples were interviewed personally by the researchers while
seven of those respondents were interviewed through phone call only since the
respondents and researchers had a hard time to meet the same available schedules and
just agreed to do the interview via phone and three respondents were only interviewed
through chat on Messenger due to conflicts in schedules of both parties.

C. INSTRUMENTS
Interview questionnaire was used to gather the students’ responses on experiences
as irregular students, specifically the challenges they faced. Interviews were conducted
by three different ways because of the hassles faced by both parties with regards to the
availability of their time to conduct the interview. One way is the traditional one-on-one
interview with interview guide being used by the researcher to ask questions to the
respondents. Another one is through phone calls that are being recorded throughout the
interview. And lastly, is through chat in Messenger via Facebook accounts of both the
researchers and the respondents.

In the three interviews conducted, all respondents agreed to have the responses
recorded. The personal interview was conducted while the researchers are recording the
conversations, the same with the phone call interviews where in the researchers, used the
screenshot feature of a smartphone to record the conversations.

D. DATA COLLECTION

Before the actual interview of the respondents was taken, other irregular college
students in teacher education program were interviewed to test the content validity of the
questionnaire made by the researchers by testing the said questionnaire to three irregular
students. The students are currently enrolled for Academic Year 2016-2017.

The data were collected through interviews where in the irregular students gave
responses depending situations they have.

10
 The researchers carefully analyzed the categorical data from respondents to be
used in understanding and gathering information for the study. The researchers sought for
the relevance of every answers the respondents provided.

After the interviews were conducted, the data gathered are being organized where
in the audio records are carefully transcribed and translated by the researchers. While the
screenshots from the chat conversations read keenly and reviewed by the researchers to
look for important viewpoint to include in the study and discard the ones that are not
beneficial for the research.

The two researchers both listened to the audio records to know if the
transcriptions to be made were accurate. The transcriptions of the audio records were
translated in the English language which is used in this paper and was checked by a
reliable person who is knowledgeable about the said language. The records of
conversation in the chat conversations were saved through the screenshot feature of
smartphone to be able to review and sudy it carefully.

D. DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURE

The data in this study was carefully examined by the use of descriptive and
inferential techniques to be able to analyze the data by comparisons of the answers of the
respondents in the interviews conducted.

Other data like the factors of being an irregular student were also analyzed
through computed categories, frequencies and categories that are reflection of the
respondents’ answers. These data was organized through the use of tables and graphs that
are also included in this paper.

As for the profiles of the respondents, the researchers used graphs to showcase the
representations of the irregular students as samples in this research. With regards to the
students’ responses on the interview, the researchers also used graphs as representations.

11
IV. RESULTS
This chapter includes tables and graphs that represent the findings and result of
the study. The following tables and graphs shows the profile of the respondents and the
factors that labels these students as irregular and how they differ from one another.

Graph 1: Shows what year levels and program majors the irregular students belong.

Graph 1.1: Year levels of Irregular Students Participated in the Research

Year levels of Irregular Students Participated

in the Research

First Year
Second Year
Third Year

This graph above shows that only 5% of the sample is a First Year student
while 16% are Second Year students and almost all are Third year students of the College
of Education.

12
 Graph 1.2: The Program Majors of the Respondents

The Program Majors of the Respondents

None

English

Mathematics MAPEH

Filipino

Biology

The above graph above shows the percentage of the students taking up the following
Major Subjects in Education Program:
MAPEH – 37% or 7 students
Biology – 26% or 5 students
Filipino – 16% or 3 students
Mathematics – 11% or 2 students
English – 5% or only 1 student
None – 5% or one student who doesn’t belong to any Major yet. This respondent is the
First Year irregular student

13
 Table 1: Reasons that Caused the Students to Become Irregular

Reasons that Caused the Students to

Become Irregular

8
7
6
5
4 Frequency
3
2
1
0
Shifting Failing Transferee Financial Adding of
Course Grade Subjects

The table shown above shows the frequency distribution of the causes or reasons why
these students became irregular students. Most of them ended up being an irregular student
because of shifting their courses. 8 out of 19 students decides to shift their courses causing
them to become irregular.

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 Table 2: Frequency Distribution of What Motivated the Students in Continuing their
Studies

Motivation of the Students in

Continuing their Studies

12
10
8
6 Frequency

4
2
0
Family Own self Classmates None

The table above represents what motivation the irregular students have to pursue
studying. More than half of the irregular students are motivated to study because of their
families.

After conducting the interview with all the respondents, it was found out that most of the
students think that they have accountabilities for being irregular and that it has something to
do with the decisions the decisions that ended up being irregular students. It was also found
out that being an irregular student was proven to be a difficult situation.

V. DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

DISCUSSION
By conducting this research, it was discovered that there are various reasons why
these students became irregular. Some students are being influenced with the people
around the environment which greatly affects the student’s interest in studying.

Some students tend to shift their programs or transfer to another school making
them irregular in the new class that the students enrolled at. Other students are being

15
irregular students due to their failure on certain subjects and some have problems of their
own that really influenced to get them in the situation of stopping their studies.

It is important to emphasize that being an irregular student doesn’t always mean a

failure on a particular subject or course. It was mentioned in this paper for several times
that students become irregular due to different reasons.

CONCLUSION
The following findings are obtained from several interviews conducted and with
the help of other studies that are related in this research.

Irregular students became irregular due to varied reasons depending on the

students’ situations. It’s important to remind the people that these students became
irregular not only because of failing.

Irregular students have diiferent attitudes towards the situation they have. Some
can easily adapt on the sitauation and copes up with other students who are not irregular.
Most of the respondents in this research stated that in order to adapt on the changes in the
environment, one must possess a strong personality and must learn how to befriend other
students.

Almost all of the resoondents are telling that they already adapt with the situation
as irregular student and deals with it in their own unique ways. Most respondents are
suggesting that it is best for an irregular student to always talk with classmates and try to
get along with them.

Irregular students learned from experiences and learned to deal with the situation
by coping with the environment and trying to adapt with the changes that happens.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

It is recommended that the future researchers should conduct more study

regarding the challenges of irregular students in teacher education program because the
time will come that there will be more other reasons why the students become an
irregular. There are also limited files or studies about irregular students so it will be good
if the future researchers study more on other factors on irregular students.

The students in the university should read about this study so the students will
understand the experiences and challenges of irregular students. It is a way easier to the
students to get along and communicate with irregular students.

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