Effect of time management skills on students’ academic performance

 

Students’ time is a limited resource. Like other limited resources, time can be more or less effectively managed. We propose that differences among individuals in time management practices account for some of the differences in how much students achieve during their school years. The self-perception of having good time management skills is considered to have a direct correlation to performance levels. Students who perceive themselves as having good time management skills are usually the students who are more involved and have a high desire to achieve, resulting in a higher level of performance. To improve academic performance among school students, self-attitudes and participation in activities that keep schedules busy will help enforce the principal influence — time management practices [1, p. 55].

This study is focused on how time management skills influence students’ academic performance in Kazakhstan. To conduct this study, qualitative research design was implemented. Purposeful sampling was used to select 50 respondents according to students’ GPA. School surveys among 9 and 11 grade students were held to explore the issue at the site of Nazarbayev Intellectual School in Pavlodar city, Kazakhstan.

The findings of the research will be beneficial for teenagers, their parents, psychologists and school staff.

Key words: time management skills, academic performance, teenagers, Kazakhstan

 

Research problem

There’s no doubt that today’s students are the future leaders for nation building. Students must study hard to enter good prestigious Universities as Cambridge and Nazarbayev University. Almost every NIS student is focused on studying at Nazarbayev University. However, studying in such universities is not easy and demands certain skills, for instance, time management. Learners have to overcome various obstacles to achieve better academic performance measured by the GPA system. The Grade Point Average (GPA) system, as an indicator of the students’ academic performance, is used in many countries around the world [2, p. 1056]. Kazakhstan is no exception. As for Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools, students have to study hard; in case they get three “C”s (i.e. 3), they will be expelled from the school.

Some factors can be sited as the barriers to students’ high performance during the stay at school or University. These factors may be categorized as cognitive and learning factors, social activities and others. Many researchers around the globe have studies this issue. According to Sansgiry, Bhosle and Sail (2004), time management skills play a significant role in achieving students’ academic performance [3, p. 5]. Study in other countries, like Malaysia, Turkey, UAE, the U. S. and others show that time management skills have a positive or negative effect on students’ academic performance [1, p. 57]. Researchers have not investigated yet to what extent time management skills influence Kazakhstani schoolchildren’s academic achievements. That is why there is a need of carrying out a research in this field to analyze the current situation in Kazakhstan and define whether poor time management skills is a hindrance to teenagers’ academic achievement. For the purpose of this research study, academic achievement refers to GPA (Grade Point Average) as it is essential to explore whether there is a correlation between time management skills and students’ average school GPA.

Needless to say that NIS students are overloaded with homework, participation in various activities and projects, and they have very tight schedule. In NIS students read a lot; they have to have an outstanding photographic memory. In addition, during summative assessment students need to submit everything on time. As a result, time management is one of the critical factors which will directly influence students’ academic performance. A proper time management skill may help students to overcome and manage the tight schedule effectively.

NIS curricula and assessment system is similar to western and European standards. Schools there demand a lot from their students. So does NIS. Students are expected to organize their time effectively and be successful in study.

Significance and benefits of the research

This research study will have implications at many levels. First, it will be useful for school heads to understand the importance of teaching students time management skills. Second, parents will benefit as their children’s academic performance might improve. Third, students themselves will no longer suffer from lack of time management skills; students will use the findings to reflect on their studying and use it in the future at University time.

Purpose of the study

Purpose of this study is to explore time management skills influence on students’ academic performance for 9 graders at the site of Nazarbayev Intellectual School (NIS) Pavlodar. To investigate the research, school survey and questionnaires will first be organized and then analyzed to define to what extent time management skills effect teenagers’ academic achievement.

Research question

The following research question is intended to be answered:

RQ: What is the effect of time management skills on students’ academic performance?

Hypothesis of the research

Previous studies have investigated the influence of time management practices on academic performance, leading me to conduct my own, similar study: Students will benefit in academic performance and achievement by managing their time more efficiently. The sense of personal control of their time helps students balance academic work with extracurricular activities. And by balancing their workload, they become less stressed and begin to enjoy what they are doing.

Literature review

Poor time management behaviors such as improper allocation of time or last –minute preparation for examinations, have been frequently been discussed as one of the prime source of poor academic performance [4, p. 15]. It is quite a common practice that students become overcome with feelings that there is not sufficient time to perform their all tasks adequately. It is mostly because of inefficiency in time management. According to Campbell and Svenson (1992), time management refers to the way students manage their time in order to have better academic performance which is invaluable for academic success. Thus, it is important for students to know the first step of time management i. e. giving priority to the important matters, and should remain focused on issues essential for success [5, p. 35]. In line with these notions, Gloe (1999) argued that the techniques of time management are the best ways to manage course materials successfully. These includes group discussion, exchanging ideas and sharing views on key points, which ultimately help students to perform better in the examination leads to superior academic performance [6, p. 440]. Other researchers have described time management as the way by which an individual more efficiently accomplishes tasks and goals; having balance, flexibility, and control over time; setting priorities and scheduling tasks [7, p. 763]. Recently, Kaushar (2013) found that time management plays a vital role in students’ academic performance. The researcher also argued that lack of time management skills act as the barrier to better academic performance [8, p. 59].

According to Sansgiry, Kawatkar, Dutta, and Bhosle (2004), the basic time management skills begin with prioritizing, placing more emphasis on important tasks, being able to say ‘no’ to less important issue, and being able to stop and start immediately specific activities at pre-set schedules. They have also argued that implementing such strategy related to time management, one must engage in a “to do” list and need discipline to stay focused with the list in order to have better management of one’s available time.Other important issues related to time management which includes developing effective study habits, critically analyzing problems and assignments, knowing one’s peak hour of concentration, learning effective memorization techniques, thinking aloud and most importantly, avoid procrastination [3, p. 7].

Britton and Tesser (1991) tested their hypothesis that grade point averages could be predicted by time management practices. They had ninety students in Georgia answer a 35-question time management survey and submit their SAT scores. They found that two time management components directly affect the cumulative GPA; planning — including utilizing short and long term goals -- and time attitudes, or, the perception of how their time needs to be spent. Learners that practiced both planning and positive time attitudes found that they had much more time to complete their tasks because they felt more in control of how their time was spent therefore knowing when they had to say “no” to activities. It was also found that the students who reported using goal-oriented time management had a higher overall GPA. This seems to indicate that time management practices do have an influence on college academic achievement, but that’s not all they affect [9, p. 405].

Many researchers around the globe explored the issue of time management skills on academic achievement and their findings reflect that there is a link between time management and academic performance. The majority of them tend to think that good time management has a positive influence on teenagers’ academic achievement. However, there is a lack of research devoted to this issue in Kazakhstan. This proposal fills a gap in the international time management influence literature by conducting an exploration of the time management skills effect on Kazakhstani schoolchildren’s academic performance.

There is an urgent need for carrying out such a research as this phenomenon of time management skills and its influence on teenagers’ academic achievement has not been investigated yet in Kazakhstani schools. It is also of great interest to define the main reasons of poor time management skills of Kazakhstani teenagers and whether time management has a positive or a negative impact on teenagers’ academic achievement. To answer the research question, teenagers will participate in school surveys with the permission of school administration and parents of children. The close-ended questionnaires will provide with the data for further analysis and interpretation. Finally, all the data findings will be embedded and concluded. The collected data will contribute to further research on the issue of time management skills and its impact on academic achievement. School surveys with close-ended questions were designed for students 9 grades at NIS Pavlodar. The total number of participants was 40 students aged 13–15.

Participants of the research

Students of 9 and 11 grades were purposefully chosen according their GPA to participate in this study. Learners both with high and low academic achievements were chosen to prove the hypothesis of the research.

Data collection

The following steps were taken in order to carry out a study:

1.                Students and their parents completed the consent form for using the information from the surveys.
2.                A venue and a time for surveys in the school were organized by the researcher.
3.                50 students from 9 and 11 grades were invited to participate in the survey previously explaining the purpose of the research. Respondents were given a choice to be interviewed in any language they wish (Kazakh, Russian, English).
4.                School children answered the questions of the surveys.
5.                The collected data was analyzed later for the research purpose.

Findings of the research

To address the research question 50 students were surveyed. Respondents were asked to answer the following questions (see Table 1).

 

Table 1

	Always (2 p)	Sometimes (1 p)	Never (0 p)
I do things in order of priority
I accomplish what needs to be done during the day
I always get assignments done on time
I feel I use my time effectively
I spend enough time planning
I am able to meet deadline without rushing at the last minute
I avoid spending too much time on trivial matters
I postpone decisions
I operate without keeping a calendar
I attempt too much at once
I socialize to much at study
I spend much time in social networks
I plan time to relax and be with my friends
I judge myself by accomplishment of tasks rather than by amount of activity
I am satisfied with the way I use my time

Results: 13–15: You have outstanding time management skills; 10–12: you are managing your time fairly well, but sometimes feel overwhelmed; 7–9: your study at school is likely to be stressful and less than satisfying unless you take steps to manage your time effectively; less than 7: you need to work on your time management skills.

To conclude, there is a significant and positive relation between time planning, time management and academic performance of the 9 and 11 grade students at NIS Pavlodar. According to the survey results, students with high GPA are likely to have outstanding time management skills. Therefore, those students devote much time to academic related activities outside the class (reading books, working on projects, completing assignments). As respondents stated, it is urgent to manage time effectively in order to succeed in study and participate in the social life of school. Through this study the data suggests that students who are involved in extracurricular activities are forced, by the nature of their schedules, to manage their time better than those not involved. And those that are involved, proved to have a higher overall academic performance, as well as a higher desire to perform well. The desire to perform well could be a result of their competitive character that has transferred from their activities. Data also suggests that, those enrolled in demanding majors perceive themselves as having a high level of time-management, resulting in a higher performance level. Thus, 25 students (50 %) demonstrated outstanding time management skills, 10 students (20 %) are good at time management, 10 students (20 %) need to improve their time management skills and 5 students (10 %) demonstrated poor time management skills (see Table 2).

 

However, there are some questions that developed during this study but were not answered. For example, why is it that some students find it easy or difficult to manage their time? And some students that don’t practice any time-management skills still accomplish the same status that others who do budget their time wisely reach. I wonder; how is that? Many underlying factors could be the result to those, so the next step is to figure those out and develop a treatment for them. These could be in the form of effective examples that can be applied to any ones’ schedule.

Recommendations

1) Begin each term by filling in a schedule. First fill in things you must do (classes, assignments). Then, analyze the blank you have left to find the most effective use for these times. 2) Establish a regular time and place for study. 3) Use daylight hours to study whenever possible. 4) Keep a date book and write down all class assignment. 5) If possible, schedule study time with a partner (classmate, teacher or tutor). 6) Schedule the most difficult tasks for times when you are alert. 7) Make a daily checklist. Set priorities. Do the most important tasks first.

 

References:

 

1.                Hamzah, A. R., Lucky, E.O., Joarder, M. H. (2014). Time Management, External Motivation, and Students’ Academic Performance: Evidence From a Malaysian Public University. Asian Social Science Journal, vol. 10, No.13. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ass.v10n13p55
2.                James, D., & Chilvers, C. (2001). Academic and non-academic predictors of success on the Nottingham undergraduate medical course 1970–1995. Medical Education, 35, 1056–1064.
3.                Kelly, William E. (2004). As Achievement Sails the River of Time: The Role of Time Use Efficiency in Grade-Point-Average. Educational Research Quarterly, 27(4), 3–8.
4.                Gall, M. D. (1988). Making the grade. Rocklin.CA: Prima.
5.                Walter, T., & Siebert, A. (1981). Student success. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
6.                Gloe, D. (1999). Study habits and test taking tips. Dermatology Nursing, 11(6), 439–449.
7.                Macan, T. H., Shahani, C., Dipboye, R., & Phillips, A. P. (1990). College students’ time management: Correlations with Academic performance and stress. Journal of Eductional Psychology, 82(4), 760–780. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022–0663.82.4.760
8.                Kaushar, M. (2013). Study of impact of time management on academic performance of college students. Journal of Business and Management, 9(6), 59–60.
9.                Britton, B. K., & Abraham, T. (1991). Effects of time-management practices on college grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83(3), 405–410. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022–0663.83.3.405