THE RELATIONSHIP OF STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF STUDY HABITS AND ATTITUDES BASED ON DIFFERENCES IN SEX, GRADE, AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

ANNE PIHLAK KOIVO, Purdue University

Abstract

Students' habits and attitudes are important not only for school success but also for learning situations outside of school and beyond formal schooling as well. The purpose of this study was to investigate how students of differing sex, academic achievement level, and grade level in secondary school perceive their study habits and attitudes. The sample of students for the research was selected from a high school in the Midwest with a total population of 625. The stratified random sample procedure was used to obtain 25 students from each of the upper and lower academic achievement levels in each of the grades nine through 12. The 200 students chosen for the research completed Brown-Holtzman's Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes (SSHA). Hypotheses were developed and by using CROSSTABS, MANOVA, and ANOVA were examined in their relationship of the variables Delay Avoidance (DA), Work Methods (WM), Teacher Approval (TA), Education Acceptance (EA), Study Habits (SH), Study Attitudes (SA), and Study Orientation (SO) to sex, academic achievement level, and secondary school grade level. The most important single fact in this study in determining students' perceptions of the measured variables was the academic achievement level of the student. The higher the academic achievement level, the more positive study habits and attitudes possessed by the group. The consistent variation from this trend was among the 10th grade males in the higher achievement level. The ninth graders started with similar perceptions but the groups, higher and lower academic achievement levels of males and females, varied in the other three grades. After the negativism of the 10th grade, the students, particularly males of the higher academic achievement level, indicated more positive attitudes in the 11th and 12th grades. Among the grades, 10th graders tended to have the lowest scores in all of the measured variables. The females tended to have more positive overall scores when compared to the males. If the subjects are divided further into higher and lower academic achievement level males and higher and lower academic achievement level females, the high group males were consistently more positive than the females in the 11th and 12th grades.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Secondary education

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