CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

Principles of accounting courses present multiple challenges for instructors such as low

student motivation, attendance, participation, and knowledge retention, and high student anxiety

and withdrawal rates. In addition, the course material is very extensive and technical in nature,

and often the instructor has difficulty in covering all the material they would like to cover during

the semester.

Principles of accounting courses present multiple challenges for instructors such as low

student motivation, attendance, participation, knowledge retention, high student anxiety and

withdrawal rates. Every course in all universities, states and college has different degree of

difficulty in terms of their learning strategies. Learning principles of accounting requires

patience and perseverance. However, the institutions let their students to finish their time allotted

for that subject without enough knowledge gained from the instructors that turns out to be self-

study. On the contrary, studying on your own doesn’t give you an advantage to pass major

exams; as a result, disappointments are present, low motivation to learn that will lead to

withdrawal from the course. In this study, the learning strategies or study habits in the field of

accountancy will be determined within the respondents and how it affects their academic

performance.

The course material is very extensive and technical in nature, and often the instructor

has difficulty in covering all the material they would like to cover during the semester. Given the

fact that every course requires learning materials, in the field of accountancy is way too much
expensive. Different authors of different books are saying different explanations that cause their

learners getting confused. In some schools, instructors are unable to finish all the covered topics

of the subject due to some specific reasons, and that affects the learning of their students –they

don’t get enough knowledge because of the topics not discussed that might be helpful for future

purposes. This study will assess the effectiveness of their study habits to their academic

performance.

On the other hand, according to the studies conducted by Accounting Education Change

Commission (1990; 1992) and the American Accounting Association (1995), they came up to

recommend the use of active learning strategies, specifically, in accounting courses. Active

Learning strategy is a pedagogical approach in which students do not only sit and listen, instead

they are actively participating and engaged in the learning process. It benefits the students by

promoting greater interest in the subject material, enhancing intrinsic learning satisfaction,

increasing understanding and retention of course material, developing the desire and ability to

become lifelong learners, and improving communication, interpersonal, problem solving,

analytical thinking, and critical thinking skills. In this study, we strategies to be used will be

stipulated. Those strategies if not used by the instructor, then a self-study are applied and some

strategies are required to gain knowledge and enhance skills.

Student’s academic performance occupies a huge and important place in education as

well the learning process. It is the primary criteria to consider one’s potentialities and capacities

which can be measured through the examination results (Nuthana&Yenagi, 2009). Throughout

the years, rapid increase in number of shifters has occurred and it’s very alarming to both

instructors and educators. It only means that the difficulty level has been increased and those

who fit the field will survive to the best way they know how.
 Accountancy is basically a skill course where continuous practice is a criterion to master

the concept and principles. Having mastery on the concepts through time spent studying

combined with constant practice contributes a lot to improve academic performance, not just

only for accounting subjects, but also for minor subject taken together.

Study habits of every student have a great impact towards their achievement during their

school days. It ensures the acquisition of knowledge and skills that enable individual to increase

their productivity. Study habit of a student pertains to their perception pertaining to the college

experience and perceived value of the education received while attending an educational

institution.

Academic achievement occupies a very important place in education as well as in the

learning process. Taylor (1964) states that the value the student places upon his own worth

effects his academic achievement. A habit is just a behavior that is repeated. These are the ways

on how we are studying. In having study habit whether it is good or bad has an effect to our

academic achievement. To study is to dedicate self to the application and the task of the study is

to become engrossed in a process of learning. The general belief is that students who exercise

good study habits are likely to excel more than those who have a bad study habits. Without good

study habits, one does not grow and becomes self-limiting in life. It will take us on how far we

want to go.

Good study habits lead to enhancement in learning as ability improves and sharpens

through mastery and principles and by means of training exercise and constancy of application

(Ortinero, 2000). Good study habits help us to manage our time and even help us to improve our

concentration and focus. It develops a good study routines and start achieving our educational
goals. Manila Bulletin (2011) stressed that the point of having good study habits is to be

effective and efficient. Effective in terms of highly competitive learners, not just by making it to

the top but having integrity to their jobs, same as efficiency in doing their tasks on the right time.

A literature review by Nagaraju (2004) pointed out that, for good academic success, good

study habits and attitudes are significant towards learning and mastery of all concepts. Hence, it

is imperative and desirable that a probe into the pattern of study habits and attitudes of students

be made. 

On the study conducted by Alcantara, et al (2014) the levels of student’s study habits

were factored according to; concentration, time management, note taking,test preparation and

reading. Therefore, the ability of one’s learning is depends upon the factors on how they cope up

to learning method they want. Focusing on students of BS Accountancy on Colegio De San

Gabriel Arcangel, their study habits differ from one another. Some are being productive at night

and some are spending their productivity on day, while some are studying advanced to have

more time studying their difficult topics and some chose to study immediately day before their

exams, few are inclined in listening to music while some stay in quiet places. No matter their

style is a continuous effort and devotion time is necessary to get positive results. Some

individuals learn best through written words. These individuals are classified as having a print

modality preference (Keefe, 1979). They prefer reading printed materials and absorb material

best while writing and/or reading books. They also prefer to use a board for writing and they

have high ability for comprehension. Some are visual- learners –who prefer visual sensory

modes to perceive their environment. They are assumed to learn best by visual stimuli such as

pictures, graphs, maps, or images, and slides. They perceive information the best through colored

depictions and media.

 Study habit is the pattern of behavior adopted by students in the pursuit of their studies

that serves as the vehicle of learning. Many studies say that learning are better acquired and

mastered as soon as the learner attends to it. Many studies found out that several factors play a

significant role in students’ study habits e.g., gender, year level, time management, study

techniques, learning environment etc. Thus, investigation on this area becomes a real and

compelling motivation for the researchers to conduct the study about study habits among the

respondents

Good study habits lead to more possible of achieving positive academic performance.

Along with this, learning modules are highly contributor to student’s academic performance as

various researches conducted by researchers such as Chopra (1988), Greager and Murray (1991),

Dhamija (1993), Dutt (1998), Aggabao (2002), Rastogi (2003) and Puri (2009), learning comes

from their self-learning material and teaching styles. Thus, learning most likely happen in

combination with the study habits of students and the teaching techniques of the instructor.

Teaching style depends upon the specialization of students, instructor whose specialization is

drafting/engineering/architecture is not suitable teaching bundle of cookery class and so with the

field of accountancy –instructor must have a deep knowledge upon teaching accounting concepts

and principles for better learning of its students and avoid increase on shifting courses.

Nowadays, one student can find solution to its problem in just clicking its query by all

means of social media platforms. It is one of the easiest ways to find solutions in a difficult

problem. Since we are now living in an advance society, learning through the use of technology

most likely occur even to young generation. Learning styles have been shown a vital role on

learning process, it reflects upon the academic achievement of the students: academic success

means better information acquisition and self-learning. However, not all academic success is
interrelated to a better information acquisition, in some cases, academic performance depending

upon the monetary value of the student’s payment and its capability to pay in due time. Lesser

capability to pay is more likely to influence its academic performance.

With these, the researchers came up with the study on what are the various study habits

of selected accountancy students. Specifically, the researchers want to know the impacts of

having a good study habit in academic performance of the selected accountancy students in

Colegio de San Gabriel Arcangel.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

FOREIGN

Students aim to achieve academic performance by gaining better information to help

them reach their goal. As Dalmolin, Mackeivicz, Pochapski et al. (2018) suggests that

determining the learning styles of students will ultimately improve their educational experience.

It is indeed that any implications of changing learning styles and learning something significant

from it can affect one’s academic performance. According to Miguel A. Cerna (2015), the

importance of improving study habits lays in their relationship with attitudes, which are deemed

important for achieving high academic performance. As a student, we should possess on all the

necessary and good study habits that leads us to a well academic performance. Good study habits

should be done accordingly to how we manage our time, what are our study techniques we

should use and where is the environment we are comfortable studying. There are lots of

distractions and hindrances when studying and as students; we should know how to avoid those

distractions that could not help during our study.

 A study conducted by Jiraporncharoen, Angkurawaranon, Chockjamsai et al. (2015), they

found out that there is a relationship between learning styles and academic performance among

the undergraduate students of Thailand. This seems to justify the aforementioned study that

determining of learning styles will help to improve one’s academic performance, it influences the

performance through better way of understanding it. The better the learning style is the better

understanding is possible and will produce academic excellence. Academic excellence

determines students’ ability to cope up in lessons; it is their strength on that is being utilized that

affects their academic performance.

Futhermore, Chilca (2017) conducted a study among university students of Peru and

found out that learning styles do influence academic performance. Similarly, the study conducted

by Siahi and Mayo (2015) come up to an outcome of positive relationship by 0.66 between

students’ study habits and academic achievement. The result implies that there must be a

significant attention if we are planning to improve our academic performance. Students’

academic excellence requires attention, concentration, motivation, techniques and styles; it is the

criterion that one must possess to achieve the aforementioned objective.

However, procrastination is a one barrier why many students fail to comply on time. It

can be seen to their activity performance through the quality. Hence, academic performance

encompasses quality control, efficiency and effectiveness of the students. This may achieve

through time management, as Adebayo (2015) states on its study among students of Ekiti State in

Nigeria, he found out that there is a significant relationship between the time management and

academic performance. This only implies that students need to find their specific time to

accomplish one achievement. Hence, time management cannot be separated from academic

achievement.
 Moreover, Nasrullah and Khan (2015 states that time management is highly related to

academic performance. As they observe among the students of Qurtuba University of Science

and Technology, that all successful students (on their own course) is a good time managers.

Hence, academic achievement is related to learning styles –which possesses the quality control,

efficiency, effectiveness and time management. Academic excellence is the fruit of long time

labor of the student, it the outcome of all hardships that he/she exerted.

LOCAL

According to Magulod (2017a, 2017b), one of the important steps to undertake to ensure

quality and optimal learning experience among university students is to consider their different

learning styles and preferences. Learning style refers to how students learn and process

information in their own ways. Different students vary with different learning styles. Students

need to possess the attitude in performing different learning styles. Learning styles is how

individual received and process information and this goes to a good study habits.

However, a study conducted by Alos et al. (2015) showed that factor affecting students

among Benguet State University is their study habits. They find it out as highly impactful with “I

study only when there is a quiz” as having the highest mean. This implies that study habits arise

when the pressure tags along: pressure to get failed, pressure on neither exceeding nor meeting

the expectations, pressure to be judged.

Pressure tags along when we procrastinate and/or do nothing. As to Mercado, Bayugo,

Leynes et al. (2016) the most common problem encountered by accounting students is not taking

down notes, outline and practicing problem-solving skills. Hence, laziness and procrastination

keeps away the attention of the learner towards achieving its educational goals. It is one of the
weaknesses that must be overcome if we are planning on achieving our goal. Financial crisis is

also a factor to which why students is involve to not having good study habits. As stated in the

results of the study by Relucio (2019) among the Grade 11 students of Maticmatic National High

School, most of the respondents are facing work and financial stability that withdraws their

attention from studying. On the contrary, from the research conducted, it shows a positive

significance between the good study habits and academic performance among the students.

In line with this, the study conducted by Subia and Garcia (2018) shown that there

findings of the study the following was concluded that: the level of academic performance of the

respondents is in the fairly satisfactory level. The students who are involved in athletics are more

likely to be more of focused in training, but in the study conducted, it shown that students are

more motivated to prepare, train hard, make personal sacrifices to achieve excellence, became

inspired because they enjoy competing and want to get in the winner's circle.

On the other hand, the study conducted by Bulanon (2019) states that the socio-

demographic and the economic profile have significance with the learning styles. In terms of age,

it implies that the younger the learners, the more the learning styles they utilize. In terms of sex,

most female are engaged in utilization of learning styles in purpose of educational improvement.

In terms of income, the lower the income of their parents is, the less the students have learning

styles as they cannot afford buying learning material such as modules and textbooks that may

help them upon learning and expose them to various learning styles. Studying is truly an art.

There is no single way to study effectively, but according to (Alvarez, 2017) listening actively

and focusing can help one fully grasp the lessons and be able to note important knowledge that

were not written or flashed on the board. Learning comes from different various styles, but

academic success is the result of the combined different learning styles.

Statement of the Problem

This study of the problem to determine the study habits of accountancy students at

Colegio De San Gabriel Arcangel. It also aims to answer the following questions:

1. What is the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of:

1.1 Gender

1.2 Year Level

1.3 Age

2. What are the study habits of the respondents as to :

2.1 Time Management

2.2 Study Techniques

2.3 Learning Environment

3. What is the academic performance of respondents for the last two (2) semesters?

4. Is there any significant relationship between the study habits of respondents their

academic performance?

Hypothesis

Based on the specific problem stated the hypotheses are hereby given:

Ho: There is significant relationship between study habits of accountancy students and

their academic performance.

Ha: There is no significant relationship between study habits of accountancy students and

their academic performance.