JOURNAL OF THE CATALYST INSTITUTE FOR Asia-Pacific International University INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES
Volume 12 Number 2 December 2015
5 Editorial - Damrong Sattayawaksakul 6- 23 Lifelong Learning for Personal and Professional Development in Malaysia Su-Hie Ting, Siti Halipah Ibrahim, Rohaida Affandi, Azhaili Baharun, Wan Azlan Wan Zainal Abidin, Edmund Ui-Hang Sim
24 - 33 The Correlation Between Student’s Academic Achievement and Ethical and Moral Activities Involvement in a Christian Institution Nakhon Kitjaroonchai
34 - 43 Predicting Student Academic Achievement by Using the Decision Tree and Neural Network Techniques Pimpa Cheewaprakobkit
44 - 55 Risk Factors for Hypertension among a Church-based, Black Population in London Maxine A Newell, Naomi N Modeste, Helen Hopp Marshak, Colwick Wilson, Sherma J Charlemagne-Badal Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Dengue Fever Prevention among the Villagers of Moo 1 56 - 62 Baan Klongsai, Nhongyangsuea Subdistrict, Muaklek District, Saraburi Province, Thailand Supatcharee Makornkan, Pornpan Saminpanya, Ampaiwan Toomsan, Poomarin Intachai, Panipha Saengproa, Daramas Marerngsit
63 - 67 Analysis of Customer Satisfaction by Perceived Leadership Practices and Front-line Staff Performance in Selected Public Sector Agencies in Central Manchester: A Multivariate Approach Sandra Tomlinson and Risper A Awuor 68 - 76 Decreasing Anxiety among Communication Arts EFL students Through Peer Teaching and Activities Jeffrey Dawala Wilang and Atita Satitdee
77 - 84 Integrating English to Science Teacher Training Classroom Supat Sairattanain
85 - 93 A Study of the Learning Strategies Used by Business Students at Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand Esther Hungyo 94 - 102 The Perceived Effects of Internet Usage on Academic Achievement among Southeast Asian College Students Gabby Jed Catane Galgao CATALYST, Journal of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, Asia-Pacific International University Online ISSN 2408-137X
Editor Damrong Sattayawaksakul, Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand
Managing Editor Assistant Professor Dr Joy C Kurian, Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand
Assistant Editor/Copy Editor: Daron Benjamin Loo, Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand
Administrative Board Dr Jarurat Sriratanaprapat, Director of Research Department, Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand Dr Pak T Lee, Director of MBA Program, Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand Yuan Yuan Huo, Research Associate, Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand
Design and Layout May Su Thwe Mang, Institue for Interdisciplinary Studies, Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand
Editorial Board Professor Dr Beulah Manuel Washington Adventist University, USA Assistant Professor Dr Joy C Kurian Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand Dr Chayada Thanavisuth Assumption University, Thailand Dr Oktavian Mantiri Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand Dr Wayne Hamra Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand
Reviewers Professor Dr Elizabeth Role University of Eastern Africa, Baraton, Kenya Professor Dr Gilbert Valentine La Sierra University, USA Professor Dr Jimmy Kijai Andrews University, USA Professor Dr Reuel Almocera Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, the Philippines Professor Dr Siroj Sorajjakool Loma Linda University, USA Associate Professor Dr Bienvenido Mergal Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, the Philippines Associate Professor Dr Edelweiss Ramal Loma Linda University, USA Associate Professor Dr Evelyn V Almocera Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, the Philippines Associate Professor Dr James Park Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, the Philippines Associate Professor Dr Richard Apelles Sabuin Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, the Philippines Associate Professor Dr Safary Wa-Mbaleka Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, the Philippines Assistant Professor Dr Joy C Kurian Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand Assistant Professor Dr Ragui Paoring L Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, the Philippines Assistant Professor Thanis Bunsom King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand Dr Darrin Thomas Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand Dr Chayada Thanavisuth Assumption University, Thailand Dr Daniel Bedianko Valley View University, Ghana Dr Oktavian Mantiri Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand Dr Pak T Lee Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand Dr Gerald Schafer Carroll University, USA Jariya Sudtho Sisaket Rajhabat University, Thailand Stuart G Towns Walden University, USA Daron Benjamin Loo Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand Veraliza Kirilov Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand Valentino Junior Milton Gumbilai Kyoto University, Japan Parinda Jantori King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand
Editorial Statement
CATALYST is the flagship journal of Asia-Pacific International University (AIU). It is an inter-disciplinary, peer-reviewed journal published by AIU’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies through its publishing arm, Institute Press. The journal is published online with a limited number of hard copies available.
Scope of CATALYST
As an interdisciplinary journal, CATALYST brings together articles in several areas of the humanities and social sciences such as religion, education, arts and humanities, and business, as well as social science research in other disciplines.
Objectives of CATALYST
1. To facilitate scholarly activity among the faculty of AIU 2. To engender scholarly exchanges with other universities within Thailand and with visiting lecturers, pastors and teachers from other parts of the world 3. To encompass scholarly as well as professional articles, seminar/ forum papers, research papers and book reviews
Publishing Schedule
CATALYST is published biannually by Institute Press during the months of June and December.
Indexing
ASEAN Citation Index (ACI) and Thailand Citation Index (TCI), EBSCO and CAR
Submission Procedure
1. Manuscripts should be in MS Word format and should relate to one of the relevant disciplines listed in “focus and scope”. 2. Manuscripts should adhere to the Catalyst Publishing Guidelines; failure to comply with the guidelines may result in the rejection of a submission. 3. Manuscripts should be submitted through the online submission system found in “submission request” 4. Manuscripts should be submitted by the last day of February for the June issue, or the last day of August for the December issue.
Current and Past Issues
Volume 11 June 2015 Volume 10 December 2014 Volume 9 July 2014 Volume 8 December 2013 Volume 7 December 2012 Volume 6 December 2011 Volume 5 December 2010 Volume 4 December 2009 Volume 3 December 2008 Volume 2 December 2007 Volume 1 December 2006 Contact information
Damrong Sattayawaksakul Email: [email protected] Tel: +66-36-720777 ext 1239
May Su Thwe Mang Email: [email protected] Tel: +66-36-720777 ext 1504
All opinions, errors, omissions and such expressed in Catalyst are the responsibility of the authors.
© Institute Press, Asia-Pacific International University, 2015 Editorial
This year marks the 10th year for Catalyst. It has served as a flagship interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal of Asia-Pacific International University (AIU). It is my privilege to inform that the journal has recently been promoted to Level 1 of the Thai Journal Citation Index (TCI). Moreover, the journal was accepted and approved by the ASEAN Citation Index (ACI) Steering Committee on September 10, 2015, to be included in the ACI database. The ACI database is the first and the only regional citation index database for ASEAN member nations. This means that Catalyst is ranked at the top tier academic journal index in Thailand and in ASEAN nations. We appreciate all the authors and our staff who have contributed to make this achievement a reality. In this issue, there are five qualified articles submitted from various researchers external to the university and there are five qualified articles submitted by the researchers of the university. We are delighted to see reports and findings of various content areas, including education, administration, business, language and psychology. We hope this issue of Catalyst will be a contribution to the academic and professional development of the society and a source of information for various disciplines and researches. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all authors, reviewers, editorial board members, executive board members, as well as journal staff for their contributions to this issue of Catalyst. Last but not least, we would like to invite our readers to publish your valuable paper with us. You can find more information at our website, http://www.apiu.edu/catalyst-issues. We would also appreciate comments or suggestions from you to help us improve Catalyst.
Damrong Sattayawaksakul
5 Catalyst ISSN: 2408-137X, Volume 12, No. 2, 2015 Institute Press
Lifelong Learning for Personal and Professional Development in Malaysia Su-Hie Ting, Siti Halipah Ibrahim, Rohaida Affandi, Azhaili Baharun, Wan Azlan Wan Zainal Abidin, Edmund Ui-Hang Sim
Abstract
The study examined economic and non-economic benefits of non-formal lifelong learning for participants. A survey of 1,923 participants of non-formal lifelong learning programmes offered by six ministries in Malaysia showed that 50% participated in programmes that are related to the jobs and 50% participated in non job-related programmes. In the category of job-related lifelong learning programmes, participants of technical skills-based programmes are the most likely to enjoy salary increment and promotion. For others, the employment benefits are in the form of additional opportunities for training and increased job responsibilities. Besides bringing about personal development, non job-related lifelong learning programmes also endowed participants with useful skills and knowledge to earn additional income, get a job, and set up small businesses. For lifelong learning programmes to bring about better economic returns, the findings indicate that the programmes need to be structured based on skill levels (basic to advanced) and market surveys need be conducted to determine industry needs.
Keywords: non-formal lifelong learning, economic returns, personal development, professional development
Introduction
Lifelong learning refers to learning throughout life. Lifelong learning is not restricted to learning in formal education systems and includes vocational learning as well as “learning leading to self-development or self-actualisation” (Cropley, 1980, p. 2). This means that self-directed learning activities are pursued not only for professional development but also for personal development. In this paper, lifelong learning for professional development is defined as learning of new skills and knowledge for the purpose of career advancement whereas personal development encompasses personal growth in self-esteem, knowledge and skills as well as networking. Adult learning, a synonym for lifelong learning more commonly used in Europe, is conceptualised as having six characteristics: (1) voluntary participation; (2) respect for self-worth; (3) collaboration; (4) praxis [practice]; (5) fostering of a spirit of critical reflection; and (6) an aim of nurturing self-directed, empowered adults (Brookfield, 1985). In countries like the United States and Australia, lifelong learning is also referred to as continuing education. For example, the Institute of Continuing and TESOL Education at the University of Queensland offers academic, technical and vocational programmes of two to seven weeks for international students and professionals (The University of Queensland, 2015). Vocation-related training tends to be prioritised by policy makers in allocation of resources (Tight, 1998a, 1998b) and the focus is on the returns from the investment in lifelong learning (Cohn & Addison, 1998; Jenkins, Vignoles, Wolf, & Galindo-Rueda, 2003). However, in recent years, employers in Scotland have changed their priority from supporting lifelong learning to apprenticeship (Lowe & Gayle, 2015).
Benefits of lifelong learning
Lifelong learning enables individuals to acquire useful skills which increase their employability. This is one of the main findings of Jenkins et al.’s (2003) study. The data for this study were drawn from the National Child Development Study conducted in Great Britain. The 5,127 respondents in Jenkins et al.’s study were tracked
6 from the time they were 7 years old. The data used for analysis were from the 1991 and 2000 surveys when the respondents were 33 and 42 years old respectively. The findings showed that male respondents who left school earlier had a higher likelihood of finding jobs if they participated in lifelong learning programmes but other respondents were hardly rewarded with salary increments despite their participation in lifelong learning programmes. Jenkins et al. were of the view that in the 1990s, Great Britain had not promoted lifelong learning as a means to improve the economic situation of individuals and the respondents might have joined lifelong learning programmes for personal enjoyment or to fulfil requirements by their organisation rather than to obtain work-related benefits. Nevertheless, other researchers have found that lifelong learning brings about work-related benefits. Similar to Jenkins et al. (2003), Rothes, Lemos, and Goncalves (2014) found that lifelong learning is more likely to benefit unemployed male respondents with a lower level of education in Portugal. These respondents were more extrinsically motivated to participate in lifelong learning programmes as they believed that they would improve in their work status and economic situation. However, their dropout rate was high. Rothes et al.’s (2014) study involved 310 adult students registered in three types of courses: short courses (50-175 hours), vocational courses (1-2.5 years) and non-vocational courses (4 years). These findings concur in showing that the skills and knowledge acquired from lifelong learning programmes can enhance employment prospects for the respondents who fall into the category of unskilled workers (see also Daehlen & Ure, 2009; Konrad, 2005). Consistent with this, older adults above 45 years old are more inclined to believe that they would not derive much benefits from participating in lifelong learning programmes and they also receive less support from their organisation to participate in these programmes (Kyndt, Michielsen, Van Nooten, Nijs, & Baert, 2011). Since younger individuals are more likely to benefit from lifelong learning, they make up a larger proportion of the participants of lifelong learning programmes. Most of the programmes are vocation-related and participants are motivated by hopes of using the newly acquired skills and knowledge for employment purposes (Awuor & Parks, 2015; Lowe & Gayle, 2015). Besides lifelong learning for employability, lifelong learning can be beneficial for personal growth. An example of personal growth resulting from lifelong learning is improved self-esteem, and individuals with a higher level of education are more likely to value this than those with a lower level of education (Berker & Horn, 2003). Besides gains in self-esteem, older adults who have worked and return to pursue higher education reported acquisition of new competencies, developing pre-acquired competencies, developing adaptation skills and career progression – all of which are associated with professional benefits (Ambrósio, Sá, & Simões, 2014). However, the 195 adult students pursuing university degrees in Public Administration, Languages and Business Relations, and Information Technology in a Portuguese university also valued their personal development in terms of learning new languages. Benefits of lifelong learning for older adults who have retired from active work takes on a different meaning. Many of the recent studies on lifelong learning in developed countries revealed that lifelong learning is crucial for a successful aging process (e.g., Zunzunegui, Alvarado, Del Ser, & Otero, 2003). Community well-being for older adults is among the benefits of lifelong learning (Borges & Roger, 2014; Merriam & Kee, 2014). Improvement in mental health is another benefit of lifelong learning for the older adults (Hammond, 2004). Hammond interviewed 145 respondents and 12 instructors and group leaders of lifelong learning in Essex, Nottingham and North London on the effects of lifelong learning on the respondents. The study showed that the older adults had better self-esteem, communication and social integration after participating in lifelong learning programmes. They were also more competent and effective and experienced a faster recovery from their mental health problems. In developed countries where the percentage of older adults is larger (World Economic Forum, 2012), lifelong learning is important in ensuring and enhancing the well-being and quality of life of the aging population. The benefits of lifelong learning for professional and personal development are clear from the literature. In fact, Majhanovich and Napier (2014) went as far as saying that lifelong learning is the characteristic of the society in the 21st century. Merriam and Kee (2014) gave Thailand as an example of a country which has succeeded in enculturating lifelong learning for the whole country. In Thailand, lifelong learning is required by the law and the Office of Non-formal and Informal Education (ONIE) plays an important role in promoting lifelong learning and creating a learning society.
Access to lifelong learning opportunities
Research has indicated that there are some groups who derive greater benefits from their participation
7 in lifelong learning, and scholars such as Cross (1981) and Riddell, Weedon, and Holfod (2014) have raised the question of equity of access of lifelong learning opportunities. In Australia, socio-economic status is apparently a strong predictor of participation in lifelong learning. Gorard, Rees, and Ralph’s (1999) survey of 1,104 adults in New South Wales, Australia showed that socio-economic status has a stronger influence than educational level in determining who participates in lifelong learning (see also Belanger & Valdivielso, 1997; Field, 2000). However, in the United States, socio-economic status influences completion of lifelong learning programmes rather than enrolment in these programmes. For instance, Anderson and Darkenwald (1979a) reported that participation is affected by age and educational level but not by the socio-economic status of the participants In their study involving 79,631 adults, 11.5% had participated in adult education [lifelong learning]. However, Anderson and Darkenwald (1979a) found that the drop-out rate among young Afro-American participants from lower socio-economic groups was four times higher than other groups. In another report, Anderson and Darkenwald (1979b) presented the profile of a typical part-time student based on their analysis of the 1975 National Center for Educational Statistics/Bureau of Census survey data, that is, a woman aged 25-34 who is married but does not have children, has completed a college education, is working full-time and has a family income of US$15,000-20,000 per year. The part-time student is likely to be a teacher rather than one working in the health and finance industries as the percentage of participation in lifelong learning among these occupational groups is lower. Houle’s (1988) study in Chicago confirm that most of the participants of lifelong learning programmes are in the age range of 20s to 50s, and tend to have a lower level of education. In the interviews, Houle learnt that the respondents were more interested in vocational courses but some of them were motivated by the opportunity to meet others and develop social networks. Houle identified the following factors as important in affecting their participation in lifelong learning: job, educational level, family background, influence of peers, teacher, school and the library. Houle’s findings suggest that besides the socio-demographic variables, the publicity on lifelong learning programmes influences participation. In Malaysia, lifelong learners tend to be younger. Since community colleges have been established under the Ministry of Higher Education for the purpose of enculturating lifelong learning, this review will focus on lifelong learning programmes offered by community colleges – and partly because information on lifelong learning programmes offered by other sectors are not readily available. As an example, most of the 152 participants of lifelong learning programmes conducted by Mas Gading Community College in Sarawak are in their twenties (Amdan, Abdullah, & Johan, 2014). Of these 55% are not employed whereas 23% were working government departments, indicating that a large number of the participants were hoping to use the skills and knowledge acquired either to seek employment or to improve their employment prospects. This deducation is supported by information on their earnings. The monthly salary of 66% of the respondents were below RM1000, which is just above the minimum wage of RM800 in West Malaysia and RM900 in East Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak). The results of another study (Lee & Michael, 2014) also show that the participants of a computer software application course were planning to use their skills to either seek employment or further their studies. However, they also reported gains in personal development such as interaction and communication skills, and problem solving and decision-making skills. Yet another study conducted in Miri Community College in Sarawak showed that most of the lifelong learners were below 40 years old and hoping to use the new skills and knowledge for work and business purposes (Chong & Abdul Rahman, 2014). Their survey involved 375 out of 11,227 participants of lifelong learning programmes offered between 2011 and 2014. Their results showed that 52% were 25-40 years old and 46% were SPM school leavers (equivalent to Year 12). Nevertheless, there are some programmes for retirees of the armed forces to prepare them for a smooth transition to alternative work or entrepreneurship activities (Mohd Zaitun, Mohd Khalil, & Dady, 2014). In fact, based on this review, it can be concluded that where lifelong learning in Malaysia is concerned, most of the participants of lifelong learning programmes are also in the younger age group, have a lower level of education, and tend to be unemployed – not that different from the United States.
Background on lifelong learning in Malaysia
In the United States, Europe and Australia, lifelong learning has been promoted since the 1980s and 1990s but it is a recent emphasis by the Malaysian government. For Malaysia to become a developed nation by the year 2020, lifelong learning is seen as a necessary investment to move towards a knowledge-based economy in the information communication technology era. To ensure realisation of a knowlege-based economy, the government has invested in education and human capital training, particularly in lifelong learning (Mustapha & Abdullah,
8 2006). The sixth thrust of the National Higher Education Strategic Plan (NHESP) is enculturation of lifelong learning. Lifelong learning enables individuals to reskill and upskill, and in the process gain socio-economic benefits. Based on the blueprint of lifelong learning for Malaysia 2011-2020, lifelong learning is defined as learning undergone by individuals aged 15 and above with the exception of professional students (Blueprint on enculturation of lifelong learning in Malaysia 2011-2012, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, 2012a). Professional students are defined as full-time students in school, college, training institutions and universities with the goal of entering the workplace for the first time after the studies. Enculturation of lifelong learning is implemented through various ministries. For example, under the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, community colleges are specifically set up for the enculturation of lifelong learning. As of June 2009, 56,056 learners have been enrolled in short-term courses at community colleges (Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, 2012b, p. 11). The latest report in Utusan Melayu (2014) shows that more than 1.3 million Malaysians have benefitted from the lifelong learning courses offered by the 90 community colleges, and the groups benefitting are the senior citizens, police personnel, women, and the disabled. As projected by Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (2012), there is an increase in the number of lifelong learners in Malaysia. The main investor in lifelong learning in Malaysia is the government although funding mechanisms have been put in place for the industry to offer lifelong learning programmes (e.g., The Human Resources Development Fund). Over the years, the government has increased investment in lifelong learning programmes through various ministries and government agencies. The socio-economic indicators pooled from various economic reports showed an increase in allocated budget for education and training from 23,058 million in 2005 to 37,668 million in 2009 (Ministry of Higher Education, 2012, p. 11). An example is Skim Latihan 1Malaysia implemented in 2011. The investment of 100 million brought about a spike in the number of participants in lifelong learning programmes. Since the primary role of lifelong learning is “for Malaysia to come out of the middle income trap it is in, its people from the lower education level need to have their qualification upgraded” (Ministry of Higher Education, 2012, p. 12), it is important to find out whether the lower income group has access to upskill and reskill through lifelong learning programmes. While government agencies may collect feedback from participants at the end of lifelong learning programmes, the data are restricted; the data collected may vary from agency to agency. Therefore, there is a need for a large scale study of the impact of lifelong learning programmes on participants. The findings of the study would provide a database on the impact of lifelong learning programmes for reference in policy formulation human capita development in the context of Malaysia’s goal to achieve the status of a high income nation and a knowledge-based economy by the year 2020.
Purpose of the Study
The study examined the benefits of non-formal lifelong learning for personal and professional development in Malaysia. The specific objectives of the study were to:
1. determine economic and non-economic benefits from job-related lifelong learning programmes; 2. determine economic and social benefits from non job-related lifelong learning programmes; and 3. examine participants’ suggestions for improvement of lifelong learning programmes.
In this paper, the term “lifelong learning programmes” will be used to refer to non-formal programmes (Direktori Pembelajaran Sepanjang Hayat Peringkat Nasional 2012/2013, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, 2012) which encompass:
• Cluster 2 (technical skill-based course less than 6 months), and • Cluster 3 (self-development courses that do not lead to award of formal qualifications)
Non-formal lifelong learning programmes do not include Cluster 1 which encompasses part-time study programmes at certificate, diploma, degree and postgraduate levels, including e-learning (e.g., Long distance degree programmes offered by Universiti Sains Malaysia). Non-formal lifelong learning programmes also do not include Cluster 4 which refers to part-time study programmes for adult learners at certificate, diploma, degree and postgraduate levels. For this study, lifelong learning programmes are for participants aged 15 and above.
9 Methodology
Research Design
For this study, a survey research design was chosen to study large scale patterns of lifelong learning patterns in Malaysia. Surveys can study a big population at relatively low cost and in a shorter time compared to qualitative designs that delve into individual experiences. “In fact, survey research is often the only means available for developing a representative picture of the attitudes and characteristics of a large population” (Check & Schutt, 2012, p. 160). The survey covered the 2013-2014 period and involved participants of lifelong learning programmes offered by six ministries as follows:
1. Kementerian Sumber Manusia (KSM, Ministry of Human Resources), 2. Kementerian Kemajuan Luar Bandar dan Wilayah (KKLW, Ministry of Rural and Regional Development), 3. Kementerian Pembangunan Wanita, Keluarga dan Masyarakat (KPWKM, Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development), Kementerian Pendidikan Tinggi (KPT, Ministry of Higher Education), 4. Kementerian Pertanian dan Industri Asas Tani (KPIAT, Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry), and 5. Kementerian Belia dan Sukan (KBS, Ministry of Youth and Sports).
The headquarters of the six ministries of the federal government are based in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya but there are branch offices in each state in Malaysia. The agencies offering the lifelong learning programmes are also found all over Malaysia, and therefore the participants of the study are from all parts of Malaysia.
Sample selection
The minimum sample size was determined based on the database provided by the six ministries who were requested to supply 10 participant's contact details for each of their lifelong learning programmes offered in 2013-2014 to Planning, Research and Policy Coordination Division, Ministry of Education. Table 1 shows the minimum sample size for the six ministries based on 95% confidence level and response rate of 70% based on a review of existing literature on survey response rates. Social science research traditionally rely on 95% confidence level (Kellstedt & Whitten, 2013). The response rate for telephone surveys in Western settings had decreased over the years. Curtin, Presser, and Singer (2005) reported that the return rate for the General Social Survey in the United States was in the range of 73.5%-82.4% in the years 1975-1998 and 70.1% in the year 2002. Other researchers stated that even with the best effort, it is too difficult and expensive to obtain survey response rates exceeding 70% (Nulty, 2008). For mailed questionnaires, the accepted response rate in social surveys is 50% (Babbie, 1973; Kidder, 1981; Richardson, 2005). Based on the literature review, the response rate for the present study was fixed at 70%, and this was used for the calculation of the minimum sample size to target for each of the six ministries.
Table 1. Sample size calculation for survey of lifelong learning participants
Given database for Minimum number2 Targeted sample Actual sample size survey1 size3 after survey KPM 200,000 323 1,110 1,033 KKLW 123 90 90 102 KSM 1,267 258 400 403 KPIAT 70 58 60 66 KPWKM 82 66 70 82 KBS 773 228 250 237 Jumlah 202,265 1,023 1,980 1,923
1Number of participants with complete contact details 2Minimum number calculated based on 95% dan 99% confidence levels and response rate of 70% 3Targeted sample size took account of the larger database provided by some ministries to obtain survey data on a larger range of courses offered by these ministries
10 The sample size calculator from National Business Research Institute was used (https://www.nbrii.com/ our-process/sample-size-calculator/) to calculate the targeted sample sizes for the six ministries. This sample size calculator was designed for studies intended for decision-making, which fits the purpose of the present study because findings on social and economic benefits gained by participants of Malaysian lifelong learning programmes can be used for policy making. Some modifications were made to survey a larger sample size for ministries which provided a larger database to obtain data for a larger range of courses. The outcome of the survey was 1,923 participants from lifelong learning programmes offered by the six selected ministries in 2013-2014.
Participant description
Out of 1,923 participants, 46% were male and 54% were female (Figure 1). KPIAT had a gender balance in the participants attending lifelong learning programmes in 2013-2014 but there were more female participants for KPM and KPWKM and more male participants for KKLW, KSM and KBS programmes. The gender proportion depends on the type of programmes. For example, KPWKM offers programmes on making various kinds of food which cater to a female audience whereas KBS programmes on electrical wiring and power maintenance are mainly attended by men.
Figure 1. Percentage of male and female participants for lifelong learning programmes offered by the six selected ministries
Most of the lifelong learning programme participants were 20-29 years old (Figure 2). The participation is the lowest among the 15-19 and more than 60 years old groups. KPIAT programmes attracted participants in the 50-59 age group. Because of the small percentage of retirees, lifelong learning for community well-being for older adults is not relevant (see Borges & Roger, 2014; Merriam & Kee, 2014).
11 Figure 2. Percentage of lifelong learning participants classified according to age group for the six selected ministries
A majority of the participants of lifelong learning programmes were Malay (93%, Figure 3), and the pattern is similar across ministries. Only 3% were Chinese, 3% Indian, and 3% other Indigenous. The Malay is the majority ethnic group in Malaysia accounting for 50.33% of the 30.26 million population, followed by the Chinese (21.76%), Other Indigenous (11.80%) and Indian (6.52%) (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2014).
Figure 3. Percentage of participants by ethnic group for lifelong learning programmes offered by the six selected ministries
Among the 1,923 participants surveyed, 33.94% held white collar jobs such as managers and teachers whereas 40.37% had blue collar jobs such as technicians, clerks and welders, and 21.30% were unemployed (Figure 4). Going by ministry, KBS and KPM programmes catered to blue collar workers whereas KPWKM programmes catered to white collar workers. In this study, job is used as an indicator of socio-economic status. According to Figueiredo and Elkins (2002), social status can be determined from their job, prestige of the job, income and self-evaluation.
Figure 4. Percentage of blue and white collar jobs held by participants of lifelong learning programmes offered by the six selected ministries
12 Instruments
A questionnaire was formulated for the study on social and economic benefits of lifelong learning programmes offered by six selected ministries. For the purpose of this paper, the relevant items are:
1. Name of the lifelong learning programme attended
2. Economic returns with financial benefits (e.g., salary increment, additional income, and promotion for job-related lifelong learning programmes; career advancement, setting up business, and advance business for non job-related lifelong learning programmes)
3. Non-economic benefits (e.g., additional opportunities for training, additional job responsibilities, and employer recognition of new competency for job-related lifelong learning programmes; and self-development and new skills and knowledge for information sharing for non job-related lifelong learning programmes)
Other items on the source of information and payment of fees are not relevant. The questionnaire and protocol for the telephone survey were pilot tested on two participants of a lifelong learning programme and found to be suitable. Subsequently the questionnaire was improved by adding a question which allowed the participants to say that they did not derive any benefits from attending lifelong learning programmes.
Data collection and analysis procedures
Representatives of government agencies under the six selected ministries were invited to attend a meeting on 29 September 2014 with the assistance of Planning, Research and Policy Coordination Division, Ministry of Education. The purpose of the meeting was to explain the study and to seek their cooperation in supplying information on lifelong learning programmes offered by their ministry in 2013-2014. The government agencies were requested to submit contact details of 10 participants for each lifelong learning programme offered to Planning, Research and Policy Coordination Division, Ministry of Education. Based on the targeted sample size for the six ministries, enumerators were given a set target and asked to use the telephone survey protocol for the survey. They filled in the questionnaire during the telephone call. The questionnaire data sent by the enumerators were keyed into Excel sheets by a research assistant. Frequencies and percentages of participants reporting various social, non-economic and economic benefits from participating in lifelong learning programmes were computed.
Limitations of the study
Two limitations of the study arose from incomplete and inaccurate data received. First, a proportion of the data was incomplete because the participant contact details were missing. This reduced the population size of participants to be surveyed because the minimum sample size was calculated based on this. Second, some data were inaccurate. In some cases, in-house training was reported as lifelong learning by some government agencies although the scope of the lifelong learning was clearly specificied in the meeting on 29 September 2014. However, when the enumerators found this out, these participants were not included in the survey. In other instances, some participants who were telephoned claimed that they did not attend the programme. Their names could have been submitted by their employers but they did not eventually attend the lifelong learning programme. Finally, a proportion of the participants could not be reached using the telephone numbers given. Even with a large proportion of participants refusing to participate in the study, not answering the telephone calls and not replying sms sent by enumerators, the study succeeded in surveying the impact of lifelong learning programmes on 1,923 participants.
Results and Discussion
The results in this section are presented based on the three objectives of the study. Out of 1,923 participants, 50% attended lifelong learning programmes related to the job whereas the other half attended programmes not related to their job.
13 Social and economic benefits from job-related lifelong learning programmes
The two types of economic returns from job-related lifelong learning programmes studied were promotion and salary increment. In the telephone survey, they were asked whether they were given promotion and salary increment after participating in the lifelong learning programme but if they did not think that their job promotion or salary increment was due to skills and knowledge acquired from the lifelong learning programme, they would answer “no” to the question. Job promotion is accompanied by a salary increase but lifelong learning participants can be given salary increments without a promotion. Figure 5 shows that participants who attended KBS programmes were more likely to be promoted (27%) and to be given salary increment (30.38%). The percentages for the other ministries were less than 10%. Examples of KBS programmes are electrical wiring (single-phase, three-phrase), electrical generator, and main switchboard. These are clearly job-related skills for technicians which could have helped them to perform better in their jobs. We have information from another part of the questionnaire which is not the focus of this paper, that is, the person who pays for the course fees. For a majority of the KBS participants, the fees were paid by themselves (71.31%) or their family (12.24%). Only 16.03% of the KBS participants had their fees paid by their employers, indicating that generally employers do not provide much additional training for their technicians as they are expected to have the skills already but if the technicians were motivated enough to attend professional development programmes at their own expense, then they were rewarded with salary increment and/or promotion.
Figure 5. Percentages of participants who were promoted and given salary increment after attending job-related lifelong learning programmes
Three types of non-economic returns from job-related lifelong learning programmes were examined, namely, additional responsibilities in the workplace, more opportunities for training and praise for new skills. These benefits are classified as non-economic benefits because the participants do not directly obtain monetary gains but recognition of their higher level of competence at their workplace. When employees are entrusted with a bigger scope of job responsibilities, this shows their employers’ recognition of their enhanced skills and knowledge. The bigger scope of job responsibilities may open the way for future job promotion and salary increment. Figure 6 shows that a substantial proportion of participants were given additional responsibilities after they attended job-related lifelong learning programmes: 45.12% of KPWKM participants, 43.94% of KPIAT participants, 33.76% of KBS participants, 30.39% of KKLW participants, and 23.08% of KSM participants. However, the percentage was the lowest for KPM participants (10.16%). Many of the lifelong learning programmes offered by KPM were sewing, grooming and cooking-related but the job-related ones include computer and graphic design skills. In this present era, employees are expected to have computer skills.
14 The pattern of results is similar for further opportunities for training. In career path planning, employers often send their employees for on-the-job training to equip them with new skill sets. For example, lecturers in public universities are required to attend a minimum of 42 hours of job-related training per year. Although the employees do not obtain monetary gains from the training, the employers have to allocate funds for their training (course fee, travel expenses). Figure 6 shows that a substantial proportion of participants was given more opportunities for training after attending job-related lifelong learning programmes organised by KPIAT (51.52%), KPWKM (46.34%), KKLW (35.29%) and KSM (28.54%). However, participants who attended job-related lifelong learning programmes offered by KPM (10.84%) and KBS (18.99%) were less likely to be given additional job responsibilities. As mentioned above, computer and graphic design skills may be in the job description, and employers may not see the point in investing in this form of training. In fact, the current trend in Scotland indicates that employers believe in apprenticeship more than training (Lowe & Gayle, 2015).
Figure 6. Percentages of participants reporting non-economic benefits after attending job-related lifelong learning programmes
Figure 6 shows that it is not the Malaysian culture for employers to praise their employees for new skills as the percentages are below 25%. Among the ministries, KPWKM (23.17%) participants were the most likely to get employer recognition of enhanced work capabilities. The KPWKM lifelong learning programmes were mainly on health, entrepreneurship and grooming. It is possible that most of the KPWKM participants were women who might have been working in professions which needed knowledge of health and skills in entrepreneurship and grooming, which makes it more likely for them to receive compliments on new skills in these areas. Verbal praise is regarded as a strategy to increase productivity without incurring monetary expense (salary increment, promotion) but it is not popular in this setting. Recognition of better work capability is more often acknowledged in the yearly performance appraisal, which translates to better bonuses and perhaps greater salary increment than the annual increments. An overall comparison of the results show that not all job-related lifelong learning programmes bring economic returns to the participants. KBS participants are the most likely to enjoy both economic and non-economic returns because the lifelong learning programmes were technical-skills based. Because of this, they were willing to pay for the fees themselves instead of relying on their employers. In other words, they were willing to invest in lifelong learning for their professional development. For participants of lifelong learning programmes offered by KKLW, KSM, KPIAT and KPWKM, the additional skills and knowledge acquired may open the way for upskilling in the form of more opportunities for training and additional responsibilities (for them to practise their new skills) but they had not gained monetary rewards at the time of the study. The results also show that it is not beneficial for participants to attend computer and graphic design lifelong learning programmes in terms of gaining economic and non-economic returns; therefore, these programmes are mainly for self-improvement but not to the level of upskilling.
15 Figure 7. Percentage of participants not gaining any benefit from job-related lifelong learning programmes
Government agencies which offer lifelong learning programmes may assume that lifelong programmes bring benefits to participants, whether economic or non-economic. However, the findings of this study challenges this assumption. For example, 21.09% of 403 KSM participants reporting not gaining any benefit from job-related lifelong learning programmes (Figure 7). Figures 5 and 6 confirm the low relevance of KSM programmes for professional development because the benefits tend to be non-economic rather than monetary. Next, despite rather high percentages of KBS participants reporting economic and non-economic returns from lifelong learning programmes, 13.5% of the 237 participants stated that they did not benefit from the job-related lifelong programme they attended in 2013 or 2014. These results suggest that the types of lifelong programmes offered need to be constantly reviewed so that they focus on more useful skills for professional development.
Economic and social benefits from non job-related lifelong learning programmes
The economic benefits from participation in non job-related lifelong learning programmes are different from job-related programmes. Three possible forms of economic benefits were examined in this study: earning additional income, setting up business, and getting a job. Figure 8 shows that KPWKM participants have the most opportunity to earn additional income with the new skills acquired from lifelong learning programmes on health, grooming and entrepreneurship (25.61%). The percentages were much less than 16% for the other five ministries.
Figure 8. Percentage of participants reporting economic benefits after attending non-job related lifelong learning programmes
16 Similarly, the KPWKM participants are the most likely to set up business (15.85%), followed by KKLW (7.84%). The percentages are less than 5% for the other ministries. Examples of setting up business as reported by the particpants are taking orders for sewing head scarves and making cakes through online business websites. The percentages of KPWKM participants setting up businesses are lower than those reporting additional income – a larger proportion may earn some extra income on an ad-hoc basis but do not venture into establishing small-scale businesses. The pattern of results for getting a job are different from the other two economic benefits of non job-related lifelong learning programmes. The programmes offered by five ministries are useful in increasing the employability of 9-15% of the participants. The percentage of KPM participants getting a job after attending lifelong learning programmes is lower (5.23%), but the sewing, grooming, cooking and computer and graphic design skills help them to earn some additional income. An overall comparison of the results show that the forte of KBS is job-related lifelong programmes but not non-job related programmes. For non-job related lifelong learning programmes, KPIAT and KPWKM programmes are useful in generating income. Examples of KPIAT programmes are fish farming, bottling and other forms of food processing. These programmes equip participants with skills to venture into small businesses. Next, the results on the social benefits from non job-related lifelong learning programmes are described. The term “non-economic” which was earlier used for job-related programmes is not used here, but the benefits are clearly social benefits and are not attached to monetary gains of any kind: self-development and new skills and knowledge for information sharing.
Figure 9. Percentage of participants reporting social benefits after attending non-job related lifelong learning programmes
The large proportion of participants reporting self-development after attending non job-related lifelong learning programmes indicate that this is the main benefit; the percentages range from 23% to 61%. Participants felt more confident of themselves, and they could use the new skills for themselves or their family (e.g., cooking, sewing, vegetable growing). KBS is the only ministry with a relatively lower percentage (13.92%, Figure 9), and this is to be expected because the forte of KBS lifelong learning is technical skills for professional development of technicians and not personal growth. In comparison with self-development, fewer participants reported sharing the new skills and knowledge with others, as indicated by percentages of less than 15% for the six ministries (Figure 9). However, among the six ministries, participants attending non job-related lifelong learning programmes offered by KPWKM (14.63%) were the most likely to share the information with others. Some of the participants were teachers and lecturers in various institutions, and they shared the information with their students. Other participants passed on their newly acquired knowledge and skills to their friends and family. Overall, non job-related lifelong learning programmes offered by the ministries (except KBS) can be assumed
17 to bring about personal development to the participants and some additional income. Self-development encompasses character development, which Kolej Komuniti Kos Lanas (2015) reported as the main social benefit of their lifelong learning programmes (see also Hammond, 2005). An example of personal development course is the Mandarin course offered by community colleges, where the participants are mainly non-Chinese who want to learn the language for basic communication (Soong & Ting, 2014). A small proportion used their newly learnt knowledge and skills to engage in entrepreneurial activities or to get new jobs. This indicates that the non job-related lifelong learning programmes have the potential to enable reskilling to take place, albeit for a small number of participants. When the gains are merely personal growth, policy makers and funders of lifelong learning are likely to regard it as having intangible returns. Even in Australia where the emphasis of lifelong learning is on improving employment prospects, “most workers do not move into a different occupational or skill levels post training” (Clemans, Newton, Guevara, & Thompson, 2012, p. 3). Clemans et al. also found that workers are not motivated by employment and higher wages alone when they pursue lifelong learning; in fact, their motivation for skill-building is their social and personal wellbeing. Based on the Australian case, Clemans et al. argues that lifelong learning that is not for the purpose of employment (entering it, maintaining it, or retraining for it) enhances human capital potential by ensuring “health and personal wellbeing and community cohesiveness” (p. 17).
Participants’ suggestions for improvement of lifelong learning programmes
Finally, the participants’ suggestions for improvement of the lifelong learning programmes are described. The last question in the survey was whether participants had any suggestions to improve lifelong learning programmes. Indirectly, this would reveal their dissatisfaction with some aspects of the lifelong learning programmes. Some participants had no comments. Altogether 723 responses were collected from 723 participants (Table 2).
Table 2. Participants’ suggestions for improvement of lifelong learning programmes
Suggestion Frequency 1. Offer courses with levels (from basic to advanced) 112 2. Ensure suitable course duration (many requests a longer time) 112 3. Offer courses related to industry and current market demands* 68 4. Improve the course environment (equipment, environment, enough materials) 61 5. Increase frequency of courses to open up opportunities to public to attend 58 lifelong learning programmes (don’t restrict participation) 6. Increase variety of course content (scope, topic, new information) 55 7. Increase advertising and promotion of lifelong learning programmes 47 8. Invite experienced lecturers 45 9. Increase use of practical and interactive approaches 42 10. Reduce fee (e.g., allow loans or special schemes) 39 11. Work towards certification of courses 24 12. Increase the number of locations in which the courses are offered (especially in 24 rural areas) 13. Organise courses at suitable times (e.g., holiday and weekends, and not at night) 22 14. Offer financial aid for business 3 15. Contact agencies that can offer jobs 2
The most frequent requests are for programmes with levels (basic to advanced) because this allows participants to learn skills at a suitable level (112 requests). Some participants felt that the lifelong learning programme they attended was either too basic or too advanced. There were just as many requests for programmes with a suitable duration – 112 requests. Most of the requests were for a longer duration. A lot of the programmes were 1-day courses or 5 to 7 days but KKLW offered a number of 6-month long programmes in 2013 and 2014 like refrigeration and tailoring. The third most frequent request was for the government agencies to offer courses related to industry and current market demands (68 requests). The participants wanted lifelong learning programmes which would bring economic returns, such as jobs and enhanced career opportunities. Examples of courses requested by participants include:
18 a. finance: financial management, business, GST, accounts, b. DIY (do-it-yourself) skills: home repair, landscape, c. technical skills: PDP, environmental protection, hybrid engine EEV, autogear, CVT, electric and solar cars, CIDB NPOSS (OSHA), Microcontroller, d. information technology skills: computer software dan hardware C++ language applications, network, website management, Adobe Photoshop, ICT, e. engineering skills: Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA), Red Hat Certified System Engineer (RHCE), CISCO Certified Entry Networking Technican (CCENT), CISCO Certified Network Associate Routing and Switching (CCNA), CCNP Routing and Switching Certificate, HSE, OKU, f. culinary skills: traditional cakes, cooking and preserving food, g. farming skills: farming, animal husbandry, and mushroom cultivation, h. others: work life balance, herbal medicine, Mandarin, religion (Al-Quran), face and body massage, decoration, head scarve sewing, funeral management
There was also dissatisfaction with the management of the lifelong learning programmes, which led to suggestions to improve the following aspects:
a. Improve the course environment (equipment, environment, materials) b. Increase variety of course content (scope, topic, new information) c. Invite experienced lecturers d. Increase use of practical and interactive approaches as they felt that there was too much one-way communication and inadequate practice e. Increase frequency of courses to open up opportunities to public to attend lifelong learning programmes (do not restrict participation)
Most of these suggestions concerned the quality of the lifelong learning programmes, and only one was on accessibility or opportunity to participate in the programmes. As many as 47 participants also felt that advertising and promotion of lifelong learning programmes should be heightened. From the participants’ perspective, for lifelong learning programmes to be more beneficial, the programmes need to focus on market demands and be pitched at different levels. The programmes should also provide certification of skills so that the participants can use the certificate of attendance for getting new jobs or advancing in their career. This is the idea of APEL (Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning) mentioned in the Direktori Pembelajaran Sepanjang Hayat Peringkat Nasional 2012/2013 (Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, 2012). This study shows that the lifelong learning programmes that need recognition are those targeted at enhancing the skills of blue collar workers as this would enable them to upskill. This is in line with Strategy 3 of the National Higher Education Strategic Plan (NHESP), where enculturation of lifelong learning among the blue collar workers would move the country towards a knowledge-based economy. Research has consistently shown that lifelong learning programmes benefitted men who stopped schooling earlier than usual more than any other group because they learnt skills which enabled them to find employment or get a wage increase, whether the studies were conducted in the United Kingdom (Jenkins et al., 2003) or in Portugal (Rothes et al., 2014). Findings have also concurred on the dominant orientation of the lifelong learning programmes towards professional development (Awuor & Parks, 2015; Daehlen & Ure, 2009; Konrad, 2005; Kyndt, Michielsen, Van Nooten, Nijs, & Baert, 2011; Lowe & Gayle, 2015). Because of the vocation-orientation, more young people are attracted to participate in the lifelong programmes (Anderson & Darkenwald, 1979a, 1979b; Houle, 1988) – a similar trend is observed in the present study as well as other studies conducted on community colleges in Malaysia (Amdan, Abdullah, & Johan, 2014; Chong & Abdul Rahman, 2014; Lee & Michael, 2014). Personal development also takes place even though the programmes are targetted at professional development (Ambrósio, Sá, & Simões, 2014; Berker & Horn, 2003), thereby achieving both thrusts of the goal of lifelong learning in Malaysia (Ministry of Education, 2015). In this light, it is more economically worthwhile to support lifelong learning programmes aimed at professional development as it brings both economic returns and personal growth benefits to the participants. Furthermore, studies on lifelong learning in other countries also focus on economic returns, for example, supply and demand (Coffield, 1999; Cohn, & Addison, 1998; Jenkins et al., 2003; Plewis & Preston, 2001).
19 Conclusion
The survey of 1,923 participants of non-formal lifelong learning programmes offered by six ministries in Malaysia showed that 50% participated in programmes that are related to the jobs and the other 50% participated in programmes that are not related to their jobs. The participants are mainly Malay, aged 20-29, and a majority are either unemployed or holding blue collar jobs. In the category of job-related lifelong learning programmes, technical skills-based programmes are the most likely to equip the participants with noticeably better skills and knowledge which result in their employers giving them salary increment and promotion. For participants who attended programmes which are less technical in nature, the employment benefits are in the form of additional opportunities for training and increased job responsibilities which give them the opportunity to demonstrate their higher level of competence in the workplace. This may lead to future promotion and salary increments. Undoubtedly, non job-related lifelong learning programmes brings about personal development but there are also monetary benefits. On average, about 20% of the participants used their newly acquired knowledge and skills to earn additional income, get a job, and set up small businesses (including online businesses). This shows that even non job-related lifelong learning programmes have good economic returns for participants. Policy makers and funders who invest in lifelong learning programmes would also view this as good returns from the investment. As the bulk of lifelong learning programmes, whether job-related or not, do not bring about much economic returns, we recommend that the programmes be structured based on skill levels (basic to advanced) and market surveys be carried out to determine industry needs so that the skills and knowledge taught are useful for professional development of the participants. Considering the resources put into provision of lifelong learning programmes, the focus should be on professional development rather than personal development because the latter can be assumed to occur whenever there is lifelong learning. There is, however, a place for lifelong learning programmes focusing on specific skills that individuals may be keen to acquire such as culinary or information technology skills for personal development but these programmes should also be structured based on skill levels so that the participants can reap better returns. Future research on lifelong learning in Malaysia should focus on the impact of lifelong learning from the perspective of employers, in particular whether the professional development that is assumed to occur results leads to better productivity for the organisation.
References
Ambrósio, S., e Sá, M. H. A., & Simões, A. R. (2014). Lifelong learning in higher education: the development of non-traditional adult students' plurilingual repertoires. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116, 3798-3804. Amdan, M. K., Abdullah, S. N. Z., & Johan, M. H. (2014). Persepsi masyarakat setempat terhadap program kursus pendek dalam membantu meningkatkan ekonomi keluarga dan kebolehdapatan pekerjaan di Kolej Komuniti Mas Gading. Prosiding Seminar Penyelidikan Kolej Komuniti Wilayah Sarawak (pp. 125-136). Bau, Sarawak, Malaysia: Kolej Komuniti Mas Gading. Anderson, R. E., & Darkenwald, G. G. (1979a). Participation and persistence in American adult education: Implications for public policy and future research from a multivariate analysis of a national data base. Direction Papers in Lifelong Learning. Anderson, R. E., & Darkenwald, G. G. (1979b). The adult part-time learner in colleges and universities: A clientele analysis. Research in Higher Education, 10(4), 357-370. Awuor, R. A., & Parks, D. (2015). Development of graduate education programs in the age of broken borders. Catalyst, 11(1), 41-45. Babbie, E. R. (1973). Survey research methods. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Belanger, P., & Valdivielso, S. (1997). The emergence of learning societies: Who participates in adult learning? Tarrytown, NY: Elsevier Science Inc. Berker, A., & Horn, L. (2003). Work first, study second: Adult undergraduates who combine employment and postsecondary enrollment. (NCES 2003-167). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC. Borges, B., & Roger, K. (2014). Lifelong learning as a source of well-being and successful aging. Revista Série-Estudos, 38, 35-46. Brookfield, S. (1985). A critical definition of adult education. Adult Education Quarterly, 36(1), 44-49. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1177/0001848185036001005
20 Check, J., & Schutt, R. K. (2012). Research methods in education. London: SAGE Publications. Chong, S. C., & Abdul Rahman, H. S. (2014). Persepsi peserta kursus pendek ke atas program pembelajaran sepanjang hayat (PSH) di Kolej Komuniti Miri. Prosiding Seminar Penyelidikan Kolej Komuniti Wilayah Sarawak (pp. 171-190). Bau, Sarawak, Malaysia: Kolej Komuniti Mas Gading. Chow, T. K., Amdan, M. K., & Liu, T. H. (2014). Persepsi masyarakat setempat terhadap pembelajaran sepanjang hayat (PSH) di Kolej Komuniti Mas Gading. Prosiding Seminar Penyelidikan Kolej Komuniti Wilayah Sarawak (pp. 137-153). Bau, Sarawak, Malaysia: Kolej Komuniti Mas Gading. Clemans, A., Newton, A., Guevara, R., & Thompson, S. (2012). Lifelong Learning and Employment Prospects: An Australian case. Report prepared by the Faculty of Education, Monash University and Adult Learning Australia for UNESCO, Bangkok. https://ala.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/UNESCOWholeFi- nalDraft17Sept.pdf Coffield, F. (1999). Breaking the consensus: lifelong learning as social control. British Educational Research Journal, 25(4), 479-499. Cohn, E., & Addison, J. T. (1998). The economic returns to lifelong learning in OECD countries. Education Economics, 6 (3), 253-307. Curtin, R. et al. (2005). Changes in telephone survey nonresponse over the past quarter century. Public Opinion Quarterly, 69 (1), 87–98. Cropley, A. J. (1980). Lifelong learning and systems of education: An overview. In A. J. Cropley (Ed.), Towards a system of lifelong education: Some practical considerations (pp. 1-15). Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for Education. Department of Statistics Malaysia. (2014). Population by ethnic group, MALAYSIA, 2014 http://pqi.stats.gov. my/result.php?token=794549197fd88eb2bbef117e07bf9525 Daehlen, M., & Ure, O. B. (2009). Low-skilled adults in formal continuing education: does their motivation differ from other learners? International Journal of Lifelong Education, (5),68 661-674. Field, J. (2000). Lifelong learning and the new educational order. Trent, United Kingdom: Trentham Books. http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/43589_8.pdf Figueiredo, R. J. P., & Elkins, Z. (2002). Are patriots bigots? An inquiry into the vices of ingroup pride. American Journal of Political Science, 47, 171–188. Gorard, S., Rees, G., & Fevre, R. (1999). Two dimensions of time: The changing social context of lifelong learning. Studies in the Education of Adults, 31(1), 35-48. http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ583080 Hammond, C. (2004). Impacts of lifelong learning upon emotional resilience, psychological and mental health: fieldwork evidence. Oxford Review of Education, 30(4), 551-568. Houle, C. O. (1988). The inquiring mind: A study of the adult who continues to learn. ED365848 http://eric. ed.gov/?id=ED365848 Jenkins, A., Vignoles, A., Wolf, A., & Galindo-Rueda, F. (2003). The determinants and labour market effects of lifelong learning. Applied economics, 35 (16), 1711-1721. Kellstedt, P., & Whitten, G. (2013). The fundamentals of political science research. Cambridge University Press. Kidder, L. H. (1981). Research methods in social relations. New York, Holt: Rinehart & Winston. Kolej Komuniti Kos Lanas (2015). Karnival dan Seminar Pembelajaran Sepanjang Hayat (#My3L – Life Long Learning) http://www.kkklk.edu.my/index.php/koleksi-berita/247-karnival-dan-seminar-pembelaja- ran-sepanjang-hayat-my3l-life-long-learning Konrad, J. (2005). Learning motivation of lower qualified workers. Centre for Applied Research in Education, University of East Anglia. Kyndt, E., Michielsen, M., Van Nooten, L., Nijs, S., & Baert, H. (2011). Learning in the second half of the career: Stimulating and prohibiting reasons for participation in formal learning activities.International Journal of Lifelong Education, 30(5), 681-699. Lee, C. P. C., & Michael, B. (2014). Persepsi pelajar terhadap program sijil aplikasi perisian computer di Kolej Komuniti Mas Gading. Prosiding Seminar Penyelidikan Kolej Komuniti Wilayah Sarawak (pp. 154-170). Bau, Sarawak, Malaysia: Kolej Komuniti Mas Gading. Lowe, J., & Gayle, V. (2015). From lifelong learning to youth employment: Back to the future for higher education in Scotland’s colleges. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 10.1080/0309877X.2014.971104 Majhanovich, S., & Napier, D. B. (2014). Lifelong learning in the new millennium: Voices from the XV World Congress of Comparative Education Societies. International Review of Education, 60(4), 449-462. Merriam, S. B., & Kee, Y. (2014). Promoting community wellbeing: The case for lifelong learning for older adults. Adult Education Quarterly, 64 (2), 128-144.
21 Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (2012a). Blueprint on enculturation of lifelong learning in Malaysia 2011-2012. Putrajaya, Malaysia: Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi Malaysia. Accessed http://www.mohe. gov.my/portal/en/penerbitan-kpt-selanjutnya/452-blueprint-psh.html\ Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia. (2012b).Direktori Pembelajaran Sepanjang Hayat Peringkat Nasional 2012/2013. Putrajaya, Malaysia: Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi Malaysia. Accessed May 3, 2013, from http://www.mohe.gov.my/portal/images/utama/penerbitan/direktoriPSH2012.pdf Ministry of Education Malaysia (2015). Education Blueprint 2015-2025: Higher Education. Putrajaya: Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia. Mohd Zaitun, M. F., Mohd Khalil, M. K. N., & Dady, Y. X. (2014). Halatuju pelajar-pelajar sijil modular kebangsaan (landskap) Kolej Komuniti selepas bergraduat: Satu kajian kes. Prosiding Seminar Penyelidikan Kolej Komuniti Wilayah Sarawak (pp. 18-27). Bau, Sarawak, Malaysia: Kolej Komuniti Mas Gading. Mustapha, R., & Abdullah, A. (2006). Malaysia transitions toward a knowledge-based economy The Journal of Technology Studies, pp. 51-61. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ905143.pdf Nulty, D. D. (2008). The adequacy of response rates to online and paper surveys: What can be done? Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, (3),33 301–314. Plewis, I., & Preston, J. (2001). Evaluating the benefits of lifelong learning: a framework. Order, 85473(656), 5-6. Richardson, J. T. E. (2005). Instruments for obtaining student feedback: a review of the literature. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, (4),30 387–415. Riddell, S., Weedon, E., & Holford, J. (2014). Lifelong learning and higher education in Europe 1995–2011: widening and/or narrowing access? International Journal of Lifelong Education, 33(1), 1-6. Rothes, A., Lemos, M. S., & Gonçalves, T. (2014). Motives and beliefs of learners enrolled in adult education. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 112, 939-948. Sharan, B. M., & Kee, Y. (2014). Promoting community wellbeing: The case for lifelong learning for older adults. Adult Education Quarterly, 64 (2), 128–144. DOI: 10.1177/0741713613513633 Soong, G. P., & Ting, S. H. (2014). Non-Chinese working adults’ formal learning of Mandarin Chinese in Sarawak. Prosiding Seminar Penyelidikan Kolej Komuniti Wilayah Sarawak (pp. 96-109). Bau, Sarawak, Malaysia: Kolej Komuniti Mas Gading. The University of Queensland (2015). Continuing education. http://www.icte.uq.edu.au/continuing-education Tight, M. (1998a). Lifelong learning: Opportunity or compulsion? British Journal of Educational Studies, (3),46 251-263. Tight, M. (1998b). Education, education, education! The vision of lifelong learning in the Kennedy, Dearing and Fryer Reports. Oxford Review of Education, 24(4), 473-485. Utusan Melayu (Ogos 26, 2014). 1.3 juta rakyat dapat manfaat program PHJ. http://ww1.utusan.com.my/utusan/ Dalam_Negeri/20140826/dn_09/13-juta-rakyat-dapat-manfaat-program-PHJ#ixzz3YTswEwUn World Economic Forum. (2012). Global population ageing: Peril or promise? Retrieved from http://www3. weforum.org/docs/WEF_GAC_GlobalPopulationAgeing_Report_2012.pdf Zunzunegui, M. V., Alvarado, B. E., Del Ser, T., & Otero, A. (2003). Social networks, social integration, and social engagement determine cognitive decline in community-dwelling Spanish older adults. Journal of Gerontology, 58B(2), S93–S100.
About the Authors
Associate Professor Dr Su-Hie Ting teaches English at the Centre for Language Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. She has a Ph.D in Applied Linguistics from the University of Queensland. Her research interests are language use, attitudes and identity, strategic competence, and academic writing. Dr Siti Halipah Ibrahim is a lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. She received her B.Sc (HBP) majoring in Building Engineering and MSc in Housing from Universiti Sains Malaysia, and Ph.D in Building Services Engineering from University of Leeds. Her research interests are housing design, thermal comfort in buildings, Industrialised Building System (IBS), energy efficiency design and green technology. Rohaida Affandi graduated with Master of Science in Construction Management from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. She is a lecturer of Civil Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering, and a research fellow at the Centre of Renewable Energy, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. Her research interests are construction project management and micro hydro projects for the rural community.
22 Associate Professor Dr Azhaili Baharun is a lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. Associate Professor Dr Wan Azlan Bin Wan Zainal Abidin is the Deputy Dean at the Graduate School and a lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. His research interests are in telecommunication and renewable energy, and he has been actively involved in life-long learning activities. Dr Edmund Ui-Hang Sim is an associate professor at the Department of Molecular Biology, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. He obtained his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Queensland. His research specialisation is in cancer genetics but he also publishes in disciplines related to higher education and politics.
23 Catalyst ISSN: 2408-137X, Volume 12, No. 2, 2015 Institute Press
The Correlation between Students’ Academic Achievement and Ethical and Moral Activities Involvement in a Christian Institution Nakhon Kitjaroonchai
Abstract
This study investigates the correlation between students’ academic achievement and their involvement in ethical and moral activities. The sample of the study was 472 students from Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand, who were enrolled in different programs in the second semester of the academic year 2013-2014. Data were obtained from the internal software created by the IT department at Asia-Pacific International University called System for Administration, Reports, Requests and Academics. Data were analyzed using One-way ANOVA to examine significant difference between students’ academic achievement and their participation in ethical and moral activities. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (Pearson’s r) was used to analyze the correlation between students’ academic achievement and their ethical and moral activities involvement. The study revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between students academic achievement and their involvement in ethical and moral activities at a = 0.05. The findings of the study also revealed that there was also a statistically positive correlation between students’ academic achievement and their involvement in ethical and moral activities (r-value = 0.447, p-value = 0.000 at a = 0.01).
Keywords: academic achievement, ethical and moral activities, college students
Introduction
Off-site school activities have been recognized for promoting ways to enhance students’ school experiences and increase social skills, self-discipline, public interest, and leadership skills (Adeyemo, 2010). Extracurricular activities and activities promoting ethical and moral values have long been integrated into the school syllabus as a means to propel students to a greater path of life, as well as to develop desired graduate traits outlined by various stakeholders. Worldwide educational systems perceive moral values as a significant component to govern behaviors and cultivate a person to be upright and virtuous. These ethical and moral values are consolidated either directly or indirectly in a school curriculum. In Thailand, for example, the Implementation Handbook of the National Qualification Framework for Higher Education designates five domains of learning, which are integrated into courses that students need to take. The five domains are ethical and moral integrity, knowledge, cognitive skills, interpersonal skills and responsibility, and numerical analysis, communication and IT skills. Of the five, ethical and moral development takes precedence over other domains (Handbook of National Qualification Framework for Higher Education in Thailand, 2006). This is also apparent in the manual of the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment for external quality assessment, whereby the first indicator in the ONESQA manual (ONESQA, 2014) on quality of graduate stated the following: “students should live worthwhile and valuable daily lives; they are on good terms with others, willing to serve, and develop various moral virtues such as discipline, gratitude, kindness, patience, honesty, frugality, diligence, unselfishness. They also obtain work experience, join in extracurricular activities, and engage in beneficial service” (p. 1). This criterion requires all learners in all programs of study to be engaged in beneficial service (extracurricular) while pursuing professional skills and knowledge at school. At Asia-Pacific International University (AIU), holistic education is provided in which the principles of education are grounded by Biblical values and students are prepared for lives of joyful and selfless service to others (Academic Bulletin, 2014). The institution is guided by principles and philosophy of education stated
24 over a century ago by a church pioneer, Ellen G. White, in her book entitled ‘Education’ published in 1903. She stated, “True education means more than the perusal of a certain course of study. It has to do with the whole being and with the whole period of existence possible to man. It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual powers.” (p. 13). This statement can be explained that education must not put an emphasis in the learner of one particular dimension, but it must deal with the whole being, namely, physical development (curriculum or programs that enhance physical health which includes practical work-study programs, community service projects, or service learning), mental empowerment (all subjects or courses offered in school settings that promote function of mental discipline and empowerment), and spiritual emphasis (extra-curricular activities such as personal devotions, worships, prayers, vespers, chapels, or other religious-related activities that enhance an individual’s faith in the Christian God). In corresponding to its mission, the institution requires all students to attend a Chapel Program every Wednesday morning and this ethical and moral activity is known as Character Development Program (GENL110) and it is obligatory for all students at Asia-Pacific International University. Failure to attend this character development program on a weekly basis or receiving a ‘U’ grade will be noted in students’ academic records. The university enforces this policy to implement its identity to uphold ethical and moral values in building desirable characters in its students. Boarding students at Asia-Pacific International University are strongly encouraged to attend dormitory worships to learn and digest moral lessons from the Christian Bible perspectives to live a worthy and meaningful life. It is not only this character development program and worships that students are required to attend, but also a variety of activities as well as other religious-related programs and community service programs in which students are urged to be engaged in. The institution believes that all these ethical and moral exercises will prepare students to be well-rounded citizens with public-mindedness in serving others selflessly in the community they live in. The Office of Higher Education Commission in Thailand has given a strong emphasis on ethical and moral values to be integrated in all courses in addition to theoretical knowledge and skills imparted to learners. To address these concerns as well as to enrich other researchers’ findings on positive impact of students’ involvement in extracurricular activities, this research intends to examine if extra-curricular programs (ethical and moral activities, community service activities, and other religious-related activities) organized by Asia-Pacific International University have any impact on students’ academic achievement. The findings could serve as a reference point for further development of students’ character.
Review of Literature
Morality is associated with both a descriptive and a normative sense. In the descriptive sense, morality refers to a code of proper conduct corroborated by individuals or groups (Gert, 2012). In contrast, the normative sense defines ‘morality’ as a code of conduct, given specified conditions and endorsed by particular groups (Luco, 2014). Pornrungroj (2014) stated that morality is a beneficial act which each organization, society, or community prizes its value. Morality is essential and necessary, and it is a desired characteristic which differ individuals to be distinctive. According to the Pornrungroj (2014), the moral values which enrich a person to be virtuous and noble are such as self-discipline, conscience, gratitude, kindness, patience, honesty, austerity, perseverance, and selflessness. Morality refines one’s character and behavior to be well thought of and admired. A person with moral values is able to endure hardship, overcome criticism, and optimistically confront challenges in a tranquil manner. Guseinov asserted that the golden rule of morality is “a rule of mutuality” which means “relationship between people are moral when they are interchangeable as subjects of individually responsible conduct and when they have the ability to put themselves in other’s places.” (Guseinov, 2014, p. 91). In religious perspectives, for example Christianity, morality is based on God’s character and laws outlined in the biblical doctrines, and morality is modeled by Christ. In the Christian perspective, morality should not differ from one person to another for the Bible is the source of morality and so is God. The golden rule in the scripture sums up the core doctrine of Christianity that human beings must love their God and their neighbors. Any individual who complies with this golden rule and perceives that God is the source of morality, that person is anticipated to act and live moral life. In Buddhism, morality has to do with the Five Precepts, namely 1) ahimsa, no killing; 2) no stealing; 3) no lying; 4) no adultery; and 5) no imbibing in intoxicating drinks (Sellmann, 2009). Buddhists believe that moral development can be secured when a person can control his own actions or refrain from exercising thoughts or actions that yield negative effects, and making moral decisions can lead to positive feelings and emotional enhancement (Malti, Keller & Buchmann, 2012).
25 A number of research articles showed that learners who uplift ethical and moral values and actively participate in ethical and moral activities can improve their inner potential as well as their academic performance. In other words, students’ academic achievement may be linked with their involvement in activities that promote ethical and moral values (Marsh & Kleitman, 2002; Broh, 2002; Huang & Change, 2004; Jeynes, 2007; Wang & Shiveley, 2008; Strapp & Farr, 2010; Mooney, 2010; Erickson & Phillips, 2012). Research by Adeyemo (2010) found that students’ involvement in extracurricular activities helped boost their achievement in learning physics, and social activities that they were engaged in positively influenced their academic achievement, while Metsapelto and Pulkkinen’s study (2012) revealed that students’ participation in academic clubs was associated with their higher academic achievement and lower internalizing problems compared to those non-participating students. Extracurricular activities provide students with a sense of personal belonging to their committed group and they often receive moral support from companions to achieve the objectives or common goal of their plan. Chip, Cynthia and Jane (2003) studied the improvement of student achievement through character education with middle school students in Chicago, Illinois, and they found in their post-intervention data that the improvement of moral character such as integrity, honesty, trustworthiness, and respect increased student academic achievement. Character education facilitates students on decision making, which Stiff-William (2010) calls ‘decision filter’ where a decision making process engages both cognitive and affective processes and it supports individuals when they encounter barriers or problems in life. This ‘decision filter’ will enhance learners’ ability to make perceptive and sound decisions in life. Mooney (2010) and Erickson and Phillips (2012) revealed that extra curriculum activities such as religious activities which promote morality and virtue had a positive impact on student success. Mooney found that students who attended religious services once a week or more during their last year of high school had higher grades at college than non-regular religious attendees. In her study, she averred that religious students reported studying more, partying less, and dedicating more time to extracurricular activities which they find beneficial to their academic life, while Erickson and Phillips (2012) revealed in their study a positive relationship between religious participation and educational outcomes. Mooney’s (2010) and Erickson and Phillips’ (2012) studies are congruent with that of Jeynes (2007) whose study showed that students attending religious schools had higher levels of academic achievement than those who are in public schools. Jeynes affirmed that religious schools outperformed nonreligious schools due to differences in school culture such as school atmosphere, racial harmony, level of school discipline, school violence, and amount of homework done. This, according to Jackson and Coursey (1986, cited in Jeynes, 2007, p. 15) is because “religious people are more likely to have internal locus of control and perform well.” Students attending a religious institution with strict regulations and disciplinal procedures under the supervision of caring teachers tend to reduce the academic gap and succeed in school. Jeynes (2007) argued that religious commitment could have a positive impact on academic outcomes. This is echoed by Sumari, et al. (2010) where religiosity is cited as one of the significant factors that contributes to academic achievement. With these in mind, the present study intends to enrich existing ideas by examining the correlation between students’ academic achievement and their involvement in ethical and moral activities regulated by Asia-Pacific International University, as well as investigating if there is significant difference between students with a higher academic achievement and the ones with lower achievement with respect to their participation in ethical and moral activities. The researcher anticipates that the current study would contribute to the understanding of the relation between moral enrichment and academic achievement. It could also serve as a reference for individuals who have invested in a large amount of time in promoting extracurricular activities that are associated with ethical and moral values in order to enhance and nurture character development in students’ lives while pursuing a Christian education.
Research Methodology
Participants
The target population for this study was 472 college students consisting of 204 male and 268 female students enrolled in different majors at Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand, in the second semester of academic year 2013-2014. Of this population, 223 students were from the Thai program while 249 were from the International program. These students resided in the university dormitories so that they could independently participate in the on-going extra-curricular activities provided by the university.
26 Instrument
The researcher retrieved data of students’ records of extracurricular activities attendances from the learning management system of AIU called SARRA (System for Administration, Reports, Requests and Academics). This software was built on .NET framework version 3.5 and used ASP.NET and runs on Windows Server 2008. SARRA features different capacities and the system generates grade reports, financial report, expense report, course evaluation, and other reports such as worship attendance, citizenship point, learning center attendance, and many more. SARRA also provides different features and facilitates administrative procedures for various departments. For example, the registrar from Admission and Records Office can use this software for student data management, course evaluation management, student academic achievement (GPA). Thus, the researcher obtained prompt data of students’ ethical and moral activities attendances which were recorded in the software and investigated their correlation with student academic achievement (GPA) which was provided by the Admission and Records Office. Students’ ethical and moral activities attendances’ scores were tabulated into percentage by SARRA as the students participated in such activities as dormitory worships, vespers, Sabbath worships, community service on Saturday afternoon, chapel programs, family group, student assemblies, departmental worships, and small groups or clubs. All these ethical and moral activities attendances were recorded by student attendance system which was closely monitored by student residence hall assistants.
Results and Discussion
The demographic characteristics of the participants are summarized in Table 1 below.
Table 1. Frequency of Percentage of subjects divided according to gender, program of study, year of study, and major of study (N= 472).
Frequency Percentage Gender Male 204 43.2 Female 264 56.8 Program of study International 249 52.8 Thai 223 47.2 Year of study Freshman 150 31.8 Sophomore 115 24.4 Junior 101 21.4 Senior 106 22.5 Major of study English 250 53.0 Business 111 23.5 Science 26 5.5 Theology 23 4.9 Education and psychology 62 13.1
The majority of the research participants were English majors, which made up 53% of the total sample followed by business (23.5%), while the smallest group was theology students (4.9%). The aims of this study were to examine the correlation between students’ academic achievement and their involvement in ethical and moral activities, and to investigate if there is significant difference between students with higher academic achievement and the ones with lower academic achievement with regards to their involvement in the ethical and moral activities regulated by the university. The researcher assumed that getting involved in ethical and moral activities has a positive impact on students’ academic performance. Table 2 below shows students’ academic achievement and mean scores for involvement in ethical and moral activities.
27 Table 2. Learning achievement and mean scores and standard deviation of involvement in ethical and moral activities
Learning Achievement N Mean Std. Deviation low achievement (0.00-1.99) 34 24.7009 24.36010 average achievement (2.00-2.99) 219 57.9098 37.00061 high achievement (3.00-4.00) 219 80.5990 35.90920 Total 472 66.0451 39.04755
As can be seen from Table 2, the analysis shows that students with higher learning achievement demonstrated greater involvement in ethical and moral activities (M= 80.59, SD = 35.90) than those students with average achievement (M=57.90, SD=37.00) and low achievement (24.70, SD = 24.36). Interestingly, as the mean score of academic achievement increases, the mean score of ethical and moral activities involvement is also boosted subsequently as shown in Figure A.
Figure A. Line graph of the mean of ethical and moral activities attendance vs academic achievement (GPA)
To determine whether there are significant differences among heterogeneous learners with regard to their involvement in ethical and moral activities, One-way ANOVA and Scheffe test were used to analyze data. The result of statistical analysis shows in Tables 3 and 4 below.
Table 3. Analysis of the significant difference between heterogeneous learners in regard to their involvement in ethical and moral activities
(I) Learning (J) Learning Mean Difference Std. Sig. 95% Confidence Interval Achievement Achievement (I-J) Error Lower Upper Bound Bound low achievement average achievement -33.20893* 6.58834 .000 -49.3872 -17.0307 (0.00-1.99) (2.00-2.99) high achievement -55.89816* 6.58834 .000 -72.0764 -39.7199 (3.00-4.00) average low achievement (0.00- 33.20893* 6.58834 .000 17.0307 49.3872 achievement (2.00- 1.99) high achievement 2.99) -22.68922* 3.41563 .000 -31.0766 -14.3019 (3.00-4.00)
28 high achievement low achievement (0.00- 55.89816* 6.58834 .000 39.7199 72.0764 (3.00-4.00) 1.99) average achievement 22.68922* 3.41563 .000 14.3019 31.0766 (2.00-2.99) *.The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level.
Table 4. Analysis of groups classified in different subset (Involvement in ethical and moral activities – Scheffe)
Subset for alpha = 0.05 Learning Achievement N 1 2 3 low achievement (0.00-1.99) 34 24.7009 average achievement (2.00-2.99) 219 high achievement (3.00-4.00) 57.9098 219 Sig. 80.5990 1.000 1.000 1.000 Means for groups in homogeneous subsets are displayed.
In Table 3, One-way ANOVA statistical analysis shows that there are significant differences among the three different groups by their involvement in ethical and moral activities at a = .05. Students with high academic achievement showed statistically significant difference from the other two groups with average achievement (p=0.000) and low academic achievement (p= 0.000) by their participation in ethical and moral activities. Likewise, the group with average academic achievement shows statistically significant difference from their peers with low academic achievement (p = 0.000) by their participation in ethical and moral activities. The analysis also shows that the three different groups were classified in different subsets (Subset for alpha = 0.05) as shown in Table 4. To respond to the research objective of examining the correlation between students’ academic achievement and their involvement in ethical and moral activities, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (Pearson’s r) was used to analyze data and the statistical analysis is shown in Table 5.
Table 5. Correlation statistics between student academic achievement and their involvement in ethical and moral activities
Involvement in Academic Ethical and Moral Achievement Activities Involvement in Ethical and Moral Pearson Correlation 1 .447** Activities Sig. (2-tailed) .000 Sum of Squares and Cross- 188.065 5194.253 products .399 11.028 Covariance 472 472 N Academic Achievement Pearson Correlation .477** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 Sum of Squares and Cross- 5194.253 718138.859 products 11.028 1524.711 Covariance 472 472 N **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
The statistical analysis shows in Table 5 that there is a significantly positive correlation between students’ academic achievement and their involvement in ethical and moral activities (r-value = 0.447, p < 0.01). In other words, ethical and moral activities organized in the university may play a positive role in students’
29 academic performance. Such finding is congruent with Mooney’s (2010) and of Sumari, Hussin, and SiraJ’s (2010) who all reported that ethical and moral as well as religious daily practices establish social control and promote positive educational outcomes at school settings.
Discussion
From the results of this study, it can be assumed that ethical and moral activities organized by AIU may have a positive bearing on the students’ academic performance. The findings of this current study suggested that students with higher academic achievement (GPA) show trends of positive involvement in ethical and moral activities. From this current study it is obvious that participation in ethical and moral activities did not lower students’ academic performance per se, but instead helped them to persist and perform better in their academic life. The finding of the study is congruent with Wang and Shiveley’s (2008) whose study revealed that extracurricular activities have a very positive impact on the academic performance of students at Sacramento State. They discovered that students achieved higher rates of retention and graduation, better GPAs when students are engaged in activities such as board members of associated students, residence hall associates, orientation leaders, or student club leaders. The findings of this current study also corresponded with Jeynes’ (2007), Mooney’s (2010), and Erickson and Phillips’ (2012) who found that attending religious activities increases students’ academic achievement and reduces disciplinary behavioral problems as well as drug problems in school. The results of this study paralleled other researchers’ works on correlation between students’ academic achievement and their participation in extracurricular activities as studied and synthesized in the literature review (Broh, 2002; Huang & Change, 2004; Jeynes, (2007); Wang & Shiveley, 2008; Mooney, 2010; Erickson & Phillips, 2012). This phenomenon can be explained from different angles. From the researcher’s perspectives, the current study results can be interpreted as the following: Ethical and moral activities as well as religious-related activity enhance students’ academic performance. This is because religion plays a vital role in an individual’s life and religious belief and practice as suggested by Mooney (2010) where religion “give(s) believers solace in time of trouble, thereby enabling them to deal better than nonbelievers with stressful events that might otherwise negatively impact their academic achievement.” (p. 199). According to Jeynes (2003: 119) religious practice produces “internal locus of control” in propelling devotees to confront challenges with positive perception. Religious practice can also establish social control and promote positive educational outcomes (Mooney, 2010), and involvement in religious activities during adolescence has long-term effects on a range of life outcomes which result in mental health as well as educational attainment. Religiosity is one of the significant determinants of high academic success and moral standard, so students who uphold religious disciplines and bring them into compliance in daily practice will enhance their mental ability (Sumari, Hussin, & SiraJ, 2010). In the Christian and Biblical perspective, the scripture claims, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge” and “the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding (Proverbs 1:7, 2:6, New International Version). Nedley argued that in a Christian school setting, nurturing spiritual faith and reading spiritual materials on a daily basis could enhance the brain function as well as intellectual empowerment, so students’ academic performance can be improved (Nedley, 2010). Students’ active involvement in ethical and moral activities at Asia-Pacific International University could be an essential determinant for them to apply for available educational scholarships procured by the university. As a practice here at the university, an ad hoc committee assigned to select qualified candidates for scholarships would often define a criterion that applicants must exhibit characteristics that depict an earnest involvement in ethical and moral activities regulated by the institution, apart from their outstanding academic performance. Along with this, a number of academic excellence awards initiated by various departments are presented annually during the consecration ceremony on graduation day attended by academia, guardians, patrons, distinguished guests, relatives and friends. This honorable ceremony brings dignity and acknowledgement to distinctive students whose academic achievement as well as life aspect is well-worth praising. In achieving a favorable outcome, learners are often motivated by internal and external factors to stimulate them to reach their goals since both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations have a positive relation with students’ learning achievement (Kitjaroonchai & Kitjaroonchai, 2012). In addition to this, a number of subjects used for this study are sponsored students whom their respective mission, church, or patron anticipates will grow in wholesomeness as defined in the Adventist holistic educational philosophy; the harmonious development
30 of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual powers (White, 1903). The university strongly emphasizes these three aspects of development through ethical and moral activities in order to shape students to become fully prepared to live in a competitive society where ethical and moral values are often neglected. Furthermore, involvement in a committed group or club activity strengthens social bonding among the members. The findings of this study correspond with Wang and Shiveley (2008), whose study revealed that students obtained better GPA and higher good standing when they are engaged in activities such as serving as a board member or serving in a leadership position in student clubs. This might be due to social relations among the members that boost them to support each other to achieve their set goals as well as learning objectives. Their sense of belonging drives them to harmoniously achieve the outcomes. As Hinck and Brandell mentioned (cited in Fujita, 2005, p. 6), “involvement in community and service learning affects learners’ higher level thinking skills, motivation to learn, application of learning, problem solving, as well as basic academic skills.” Students’ involvement in a well-structured community service, club activity, or ethical and moral activities could enhance their potentiality as they learn skills necessary for life, social skills, and time management. Huang and Chang (2004) claimed that students’ co-curricular involvement is highly associated with cognitive development, affective growth, and interpersonal skills growth. Thus, students should be encouraged to participate in such practical activities to maximize their cognitive domain. Ethical and moral activities in particular play significant roles in students’ lives by improving their characters, self-discipline, positive attitudes as well as school performance, as they deal with internal and external conflicts in solemn manner with the application of an internal locus of control mode (Jeynes, 2003). Students who uphold moral values and religious disciplines rigorously may respond well to challenges to their worldview and attempt to conquer those obstacles by learning more about their faith and striving to excel in their field of study in order to show their peers and teachers that religious faith and academic life are not mutually exclusive (Mooney, 2010). Ethical and moral values as well as religious principles have a positive impact on students’ academic achievement and they are inevitably needed in all walks of life in this competitive world where materialism and intellectualism are prized. The knowledge of ethical and moral values and religious principles need to be fostered together with academic knowledge, and demonstrated through an individual’s life for service to people and society at large.
Recommendations for Further Study
The study provides useful information regarding the issue of whether extracurricular activities such as ethical and moral activities have a positive or negative impact on students’ academic performance. Additional questions pertaining to whether or not ethical and moral activities have a positive impact on the academic performance of students need further investigation. Thus, the researcher would suggest that consideration be given to further studies being made in the following areas:
1. This study should be replicated, using a different population, particularly Buddhist or non-Christian students who enrolled in a Christian school in other regions to investigate if ethical and moral activities or religious-related activities regulated by a Christian-based school have any impact on their academic performance or college life. 2. The data sources used for analyzing correlation between academic achievement and involvement in ethical and moral activities in this current study are quantitative in nature. Therefore, a qualitative study should be conducted to enrich cross-validation of data for in-depth discussion of the findings. 3. A study on the effects of involvement in the university’s ethical and moral activities on students’ future profession should be researched or followed up to investigate whether or not these extracurricular activities have an impact on students’ profession or daily life following graduation
Conclusion
This study aimed to examine the correlation between students’ academic achievement and their involvement in ethical and moral activities as well as to examine if there is any significant difference between students with higher academic achievement and the ones with lower academic achievement with regard to their involvement in ethical and moral activities. The study’s results showed that involvement in ethical and moral activities had a positive correlation with students’ academic achievement. The findings also revealed
31 that there was a statistically significant difference between students with high GPA and those with lower GPA. To sum up, the current study results should be valuable to the Student Administration Office and Chaplaincy Office at Asia-Pacific International University as well as other sister institutions who have invested a large amount of time to regulate these meaningful activities in order to foster students to grow mentally, socially, and spiritually as defined by the Adventist education philosophy.
References
Academic Bulletin. (2014). Asia-Pacific International University Academic Bulletin 2013-2015. Bangkok: Darnsutha Press Co., Ltd. Adeyemo, S. A. (2010). The relationship between students’ participation in school extracurricular activities andtheir achievement in physics. International Journal of Science and Technology Education Research, 1(6), 111-117. Broh, B. A. (2002). Linking extracurricular programming to academic achievement: who benefits and why? Sociology of Education. 75, 69-96. Chip, F., Cynthia, H.,& Jane, J. (2003). Improving student achievement through character education. Master of Arts Action Research Project, Saint Xavier University and SkyLight Professional Development Field-Based Master’s Program. Retrieved March 22, 2015, from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ ED477142.pdf Erickson, L.D. & Phillips, J. W. (2012). The effect of religious-based mentoring on educational attainment: more than just a spiritual high? Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 51(3): 568-587. Fujita, K. (2005). The effects of extracurricular activities on the academic performance of junior high students. Retrieved May 15, 2015, from http://www.kon.org/urc/v5/fujita.html Gert, B. (2012). The definition of morality. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved March 3, 2015, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/morality-definition/ Guseinov, A.A. (2014). The golden rule of morality. Russian Social Science Review, 55(6). 84-100. Huang, Y.& Chang, S. (2004). Academic and co-curricular involvement: Their relationship and the best combinations for student growth. Journal of College Student Development, 45, 391-406. Jeynes, W. H. (2003). Religion, education, and academic success. Greenwich: information age. Jeynes, W. H. (2007). Religion, intact families, and the achievement gap. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, 3, 1-24. Kitjaroonchai, N. & Kitjaroonchai, T. (2012). Motivation toward English language learning of Thai students majoring in English at Asia-Pacific International University. Catalyst, 7(1), 21-40. Luco, A. (2014). The definition of morality: threading the needle. Social Theory and Practice, 40(3), 361-387. Malti, T., Keller, M., & Buchmann, M. (2012). Do moral choices make us feel good?: the development of adolescent’s emotions following moral decision making. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 23(2), 389-397. Marsh, H.W.,& Kleitman, S. (2002). Extracurricular activities: the good, the bad, and the nonlinear. Harvard Educational Review, 72, 464-512. Metsapelto, R.L.,& Pulkkinen, L. (2012). Socioemotional behavior and school achievement in relation to extracurricular activity participation in middle childhood.Scandinavian Journal of Education Research, 56(2), 167-182. Mooney, M. (2010). Religion, college grades, and satisfaction among students at elite colleges and universities. Sociology of Religion, 71(2), 197-215. Morality. (1995). In Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary (5th edition). UK: Oxford University Press. Morality. (2015). In Online business dictionary.com. Retrieved March 3, 2015, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/morality.html National Qualifications Framework for Higher Education in Thailand. (2006). Bangkok. Nedley, N. (2010). Adventist youth conference: How to enhance your intelligence. [3ABN]. Australia. Office of National Educational Standards and Quality Assessment. (2014). Bangkok. Pornrungroj, C. (2014). The quality of students is a reflection of teacher quality. Bangkok: The office for national education standards and quality assessment. Proverbs 9:10 – New International Version. Retrieved May 10, 2015, from http://biblehub.com/niv/ proverbs/9-10.htm
32 Puntachai, S. & Khamawattana, P. (2012). A study on the desirable characteristics of bachelor’s of engineering graduates from the viewpoint of employers. Online Journal of Education, 7(1), 518-528. Retrieved March 4, 2015, from http://www.edu.chula.ac.th/ojed/doc/V71/v71d0038.pdf Sellmann, J.D. (2009). Buddhist morality and trans-morality. The International Journal of the Asian Philosophical Association. 1(2), 62-72. Stiff-Williams, H. R. (2010). Widening the lens to teach character education alongside standard curriculum. The Clearing House, 83: 115–120. Strapp, C.M., & Farr, R. J. (2010). To get involved or not: the relation among extracurricular involvement, satisfaction, and academic achievement. Teaching of Psychology, 37, 50-54. Sumari, M., Hussin, Z., Siraj, S. (2010). Factors contributing to academic achievement and moral development: A qualitative study. The International Journal of Research and Review, 5(2), 18-23. Wang J. & Shively J. (2008). The impact of extracurricular activity on student academic performance. Retrieved April 28, 2015, from http://www.csus.edu/oir/Research%20Projects/Student%20Activity% 20Report%202009.pdf White, E.G. (1903). Education. Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association.
About the Author
Nakhon Kitjaroonchai is a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand.
33 Catalyst ISSN: 2408-137X, Volume 12, No. 2, 2015 Institute Press
Predicting Student Academic Achievement by Using the Decision Tree and Neural Network Techniques Pimpa Cheewaprakobkit
The following article was first presented as a peer-reviewed paper at International MultiConference of Engineers and Computer Scientists 2013 held at Hong Kong, on 13-15 March, 2013.
Abstract
The aims of this study are 1) to study the prediction accuracy rate between the two data mining techniques: decision tree and neural network in classifying a group of student academic achievement, 2) to analyze factors affecting academic achievement that contribute to the prediction of students’ academic performance. In this study, the researcher used WEKA open source data mining tool to analyze attributes for predicting undergraduate students’ academic performance in an international program. The data set comprised of 1,600 student records with 22 attributes of students registered between year 2001 and 2011 in a university in Thailand. Preprocessing included attribute importance analysis. The researcher applied the data set to differentiate classifiers (Decision Tree, Neural Network). A cross-validation with 10 folds was used to evaluate the prediction accuracy. An experimental comparison of the performance of the classifiers was also conducted. Results show that the decision tree classifier achieves high accuracy of 85.188%, which is higher than that of neural network classifier by 1.313%.
Keywords: Academic Achievement, Data Mining, Decision Tree, Neural Network
Introduction
Data mining is a tool to analyze data from different perspectives and to summarize it into useful information. It has been recognized by many researchers as a key research topic in database systems. Several emerging applications in information technology also call for various data mining techniques to better understand user behavior, to improve the service provided and to increase business opportunities (Chen, Han & Yu 1996). However, these techniques do not generate the same prediction results. In response to such an issue, this research studies the prediction accuracy rate between the two popular data mining techniques: decision tree and neural network in classifying a group of student academic achievement. Higher education is an important contributor to the development of human resources. However, one of the major problems of students is failure to meet academic requirements to remain in higher education. Many students struggle with a GPA below the required standard. As a result, students may not graduate in a given period of time, and lose potential job opportunities. Each year the number of students who are dropping out of higher education increases. Therefore, this research also aims to investigate the factors that affect the academic achievement of students. This will help faculty advice and assist at-risk students in a timely fashion. The data sample used in this study was a group of undergraduate students in an international program. This analysis uses data mining techniques to classify the data.
Literature review
Theory: Data mining
Data mining (Affendey, Paris, Mustapha, Sulaiman & Muda, 2010) is a process of automatically discovering
34 useful information in large data repositories. It is an integral part of the Knowledge Discovery in Database (KDD), which is the overall process of converting a series of transformation steps, from data preprocessing to the post-processing of data mining result. Data mining tasks are generally divided into 2 major categories, namely, predictive and descriptive tasks. Predictive modeling refers to the task of building a model for target variable as a function of the explanatory variable. The two types of predictive modeling tasks are classification, which is used for predicting discrete attributes and regression, which is used for predicting continuous target attributes. The goal of both tasks is to create a model that minimizes the error between the predicted and true values of the target variable.
Classification
Classification is the process of data management model building that identifies in-group data to illustrate the differences between groups of data and to predict the data that should be in any class. The model used to classify data into determined groups is based on an analysis of the data set. This data set would lead the system to classify data. The end result is a model of learning which can be represented in many forms such as the Classification (IF-THEN) rules, Decision Tree, or Neural Networks. Then the rest of the data, as the actual data, will be drawn to test and compare with those acquired from the model for the accuracy testing. The model will be updated and tested to have a satisfactory level. Later, when new data comes and is plugged into the model, the data can predict grouping by the model.
Decision trees
Decision trees present a system using a top-down strategy based on the divide and conquer approach where the major aim is to partition the tree in many subsets mutually exclusive. Each subset of the partition represents a classification sub-problem. A decision tree is a representation of a decision procedure allowing to determine the class of a case. It is composed of three basic elements (Utgoff, 1989):
• Decision nodes specifying the test attributes. • Edges corresponding to the possible attribute outcomes. • Leaves named also answer nodes and labeled by a class.
The decision tree classifier is used in two different contexts:
1. Building decision trees where the main objective is to find at each decision node of the tree, the best test attribute that diminishes, as much as possible, the mixture of classes with each subset created by the test. 2. Classification where we start by the root of the decision tree, then we test the attribute specified by this node. The result of this test allows to move down the tree branch relative to the attribute value of the given example. This process will be repeated until a leaf is encountered. So, the case is classified by tracing out a path from the root of the decision tree to one of its leaves (Quinlan, 1990).
Neural Network
Neural networks are being applied to an increasing large number of real world problems. Their primary advantage is that they can solve problems that are too complex for conventional technologies; problems that do not have an algorithmic solution or for which an algorithmic solution is too complex to be defined. In general, neural networks are well-suited to problems that people are good at solving, but for which computers generally are not. These problems include pattern recognition and forecasting, which requires the recognition of trends in data. The true power and advantage of neural networks lies in their ability to represent both linear and non-linear relationships and in their ability to learn these relationships directly from the data being modeled. Traditional linear models are simply inadequate when it comes to modeling data that contains non-linear characteristics. The most common neural network model is the multi-layer perceptron (MLP). This type of neural network is known as a supervised network because it requires a desired output in order to learn. The goal of this type of network is to create a model that correctly maps the input to the output using historical data so that the model can then be used to produce the output when the desired output is
35 unknown. The MLP and many other neural networks learn using an algorithm called backpropagation. With backpropagation, the input data is repeatedly presented to the neural network. With each presentation the output of the neural network is compared to the desired output and an error is computed. This error is then fed back (backpropagated) to the neural network and used to adjust the weights such that the error decreases with each iteration and the neural model gets closer and closer to producing the desired output. This process is known as “training” (Hyndman & Athanasopoulos, 2014).
Related Works
Work by Thai Nghe, Janecek, and Haddawy (2007) have compared two classifiers, Decision Tree and Bayesian Network, to predict students GPA at the end of the third year of undergraduate studies and at the end of the first year of postgraduate from two different institutes. Each data set has 20,492 and 936 complete student records respectively. The results show that the Decision Tree outperformed Bayesian Network in all classes. The accuracy was further improved by using resampling technique, especially for Decision Tree, in all cases of classes. At the same time, resampling was used to reduce misclassification, especially on minority class of imbalanced datasets, because Decision Tree algorithm tends to focus on local optimum. Ian and Eibe (2005) gave a case study that used educational data mining to identify behavior of failing students to warn students at risk before final exam. Romero, Ventura and Garcia (2008) gave another case study of using educational data mining in Moodle course management system. They used each step in data mining process for mining e-learning data. Also, educational data mining used by Polpinij (2002) to predict students’ final grade using data collected from Web based system. Beikzadeh and Delavari (2005) used educational data mining to identify and then enhance educational process in higher educational system which can improve their decision making process. Finally, Waiyamai (2003) used data mining to assist in the development of new curricula, and to help engineering students to select an appropriate major. In other works, Kotsiantis, Pierrakeas and Pintelas (2003) compared six classification methods (Naive Bayes, Decision Tree, Feed-forward Neural Network, Support Vector Machine, 3-nearest Neighbor and Logistic Regression) to predict drop-outs in the middle of a course. The data set contained demographic data, results of the first writing assignments and participation in group meetings. The data set contained records of 350 students. Their best classifiers, Naive Bayes and Neural Network, were able to predict about 80% of drop-outs. The results also showed that a simple model such as Naïve Bayes is able to generalize well on small data sets compared to other methods such as Decision Tree and Nearest Neighbor that require a much larger size of datasets.
Method
To investigate the propositions, two classification algorithms were adopted and compared: the neural network and the C4.5 decision tree algorithm. These two techniques are the most widely-used classification techniques, especially in artificial intelligence (Elouedi, Mellouli & Smets, 2000; Fayyad, Piatetsky-Shapiro & Smyth 1996). The classification models were implemented using WEKA 3.7.5 version (Merceron & Yacef, 2005). Series of records of first year undergraduate students who enrolled in the international programs of a private university in the academic years of 2001 to 2011 with 1,600 items and 22 attributes were used for the study. The investigation process consists of three main steps: Data Preprocessing; Attribute Filtering; and Classification Rules (Minaei-Bidgoli, Kashy, Kortemeyer & Punch, 2003).
Data Preprocessing
The student records were still not in a form that could be used in the data mining testing and analysis; therefore, the data needed to be prepared to be in a proper format before using them. The process was divided into various stages: Data Cleaning; Data Selection; and Data Transformation. The records of samples were drawn from many departments: for example, the study performance samples were taken from the Office of Admissions and Records, the number of hours in the extra curricula activities was taken from the Office of the Student Administration, and the number of hours worked was taken from the Finance Department. These data were in the form of several Microsoft Excel files with some duplicate fields. To make it easier to write programs, the researcher restored the data into a form of table using the Oracle Database version 10g Express Edition as shown in Figure 1. The program was developed by Java and SQL language for selecting the
36 attributes as presented in Figure 2. Then, the researcher recalculated values of the attribute. For example, the researcher recalculated the number of hours worked and the number of hours in the extra curricula activities per semester to per month, and from the hours of study outside classroom per semester to each month for all the studied students. Next, the researcher collected all data and the Export File from the table records format into the .CSV data file format as shown in Figure 3, to be used in the analysis with the WEKA. The attributes used in research were reduced into only the desired attributes.
Figure 1. The data import from Excel file into the Oracle database
Figure 2. The development of program through Java language to select desired attributes
37 Figure 3. Example of students’ data after the cleaning
Attribute Filtering
This is the process of screening for the most needed attributes. The working principle of data classification of this study was based on the selected 20 attributes out of the initial 22 attributes as shown in Table 1. The student Identification Number (ID) and semester Grade Point Average (GPA) were left out from the study through this process. The student Identification Number for all students, were either identical or different from each other and did not affect the analysis. Because the semester GPA of the students, was close to Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA), the CGPA was selected as the dependent variable in this analysis. If the GPA attribute was included in this study, it would have the most influence in the study and the relationship of other attributes would not be seen.
Classification Rules
Classification of data is a technique for data classification from various feature items through the survey of attributes in the database to distinguish categories which have been defined in advance. The techniques used to categorize the data include the Decision Trees and Neural Network techniques. A Decision Tree is a tree-shaped structure that represents sets of decisions (Connolly, Begg & Strachan, 1999). These decisions generate rules for the classification of a dataset. Trees develop arbitrary accuracy and use validation data sets to avoid spurious detail. They are easy to understand and to modify. Moreover, the tree representative is more explicit, and has easy-to-understand rules for each cluster of student’s performance. The classes in the Decision Tree are cluster IDs obtained in the first step of the method. The Decision Tree represents the knowledge in the form of IF-THEN rules. Each rule can be created for each path from the root to a leaf. The leaf node holds the class prediction. The C4.5 is an algorithm used to generate a Decision Tree developed by Ross Quinlan. The C4.5 is an extension of Quinlan’s earlier ID3 algorithm. It employs a “divide and conquer” strategy and uses the concept of information entropy. The general algorithm for building Decision Trees is: (Quinlan, 1992)
• If all cases are of the same class, the tree is a leaf and so the leaf is returned labeled with this class; • For each attribute, calculate the potential information provided by a test on the attribute (based on the probabilities of each case having a particular value for the attribute). Also calculate the gain in
38 information that would result from a test on the attribute (based on the probabilities of each case with a particular value for the attribute of a particular class) • Depending on the current selection criterion, find the best attribute to branch on.
A multilayer perceptron (Hagan & Menhaj, 1994) is a Feed forward Artificial Neural Network model that maps sets of input data onto a set of appropriate output. It is a modification of the standard linear perceptron in that it uses three or more layers of neurons (nodes) with nonlinear activation functions and is more powerful than the perceptron in that it can distinguish data that is not linearly separable, or separable by a hyper plane. MLP networks are general-purpose, flexible, nonlinear models consisting of a number of units organized into multiple layers. The complexity of the MLP network can be changed by varying the number of layers and the number of units in each layer. Given enough hidden units and enough data, it has been shown that MLPs can approximate virtually any function to any desired accuracy.
Table 1. All variables in the student database
Attribute Type Description ID student’s identification Gender binary student’s gender (female or male) Status nominal student’s status (single, married, divorced) Age numeric student’s age (1:< 18 years, 2: 18-25 years, 3: 26-30 years, 4: 31-40 years, 5: > 40 years) Continent nominal Continent (Asia, America, Europe, Africa) School_Ed nominal Educational background (BA, College, Diploma, High School, MA) Qualification numeric Student’s qualification (1-General, 2-Vocational) Father_Occ numeric Father’s occupation (1-Government, 2-Private, 3-Business, 4-other) Mother_Occ numeric Mother’s occupation (1- Government, 2- Private, 3-Business, 4- Other) Scholarship numeric Get a scholarship (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) Dorm binary On-campus residence (yes or no) ESL binary Pre-University English ESL (yes or no) Dept numeric Department (from 1 – 10) NativeEng binary Native English speaker (yes or no) G.P.A numeric Grade Point Average (< 2.00, 2.00-2.49, 2.50- 2.99, 3.00-3.49, > 3.50)
39 Attribute Type Description C.G.P.A numeric Cumulative Grade Point Average (< 2.00, 2.00-2.49, 2.50-2.99, 3.00-3.49, > 3.50) Major_CGPA numeric Grade Point Average of major subject(< 2.00, 2.00-2.49, 2.50-2.99, 3.00-3.49, > 3.50) Credits numeric Number of credits (from 1 – lowest to 3 – highest) NumCourse numeric Extra-curricular subject (from 1 – lowest to 3 – highest) Learning_ numeric Extra study hour Center (from 1 – lowest to 5 – highest) Work_Hour numeric Work hour (from 1 – lowest to 5 – highest) Activity_Hour numeric Work activity (from 1 – lowest to 5 – highest)
Model Building
For the data classification format determinant for the Training Set and the set of data format to use in testing the validity of the Testing Set, the researcher used the classification technique of Cross-validation Fold: 10 (Romero, Ventura & Garcia, 2008). This method divided the data into 10 sets and at each time of study, one data set was used for testing and the remaining nine sets were used to develop the model. The testing was repeated to cover the 10 series data set. Then, the study was tested several times by adjusting the values, choosing the Correct Value, and comparing the Precision Value and the Recall Value to have the most appropriate value to be used for the model.
Model Evaluation
To create a rule of Decision Trees to use as a model, the researcher selected the technique of Decision Rules: PART by selecting rules with a clear condition: not too many or too few rules: rules that can be easily understood: and the appropriate Correct Value, Precision Value and Recall Value. However, whenever there were too many rules, the researcher used the pruning method to reduce the classification errors caused by outliers, and then compared the tested results with the Neural Network method from the Correct Value, Precision Value, and Recall Value.
Result
The results of the analysis show the Decision Tree Model had an accuracy rate of 85.188% while the Neural Network Model had an accuracy rate of 83.875%. The result suggests that the Decision Tree Model is more accurate than the Neural Network Model. Further results reveal the factors that affect academic achievement of students are as follows:
1. The number of hours worked per semester; 2. An additional English course; 3. The number of credits enrolled per semester; 4. Status of students such as single, married, or divorced.
40 The results from the test created 13 rules. Following are examples of these rules:
WorkHr_5 = High: Risk (320.0/12.0)
WorkHr_5 = Low AND Credit = 12-15 credits AND Mother_Occ = Other: Not Risk (65.0/7.0)
ActivityHr_5 = Medium: Risk (9.0/2.0)
ESL = No AND Credit = 12-15 credits: Not Risk (290.0/50.0)
NumCourse = Low AND Continent = Asia AND Age = 18-25 years AND ActivityHr_5 = Low AND WorkHr_5 = Medium: Risk (14.0/3.0)
Credit = 12-15 credits AND ESL = No AND ActivityHr_5 = Lowest AND Status = Single AND School_ed = High School AND Dorm = Yes: Not Risk (82.0/21.0)
WorkHr_5 = Lowest AND NumCourse = Low: Not Risk (139.0/39.0)
Credit = < 12 credits AND Gender = Male AND Status = Single: Risk (95.0/18.0)
ESL = No AND Credit = > 15 credits: Not Risk (109.0/9.0)
Table 2. Performance comparison between Decision Tree and Neural Network models
Performance Measures J48 (C4.5) MLP Correctly Classified Instances (%) 85.188 83.875 Incorrectly Classified Instances (%) 14.812 16.125 Precision 0.852 0.838 Recall 0.852 0.838
Table 2 shows performance comparison between the Decision Tree and the Neural Network models. When comparing the Precision Value and the Recall Value of the 2 models, the Decision Tree model generates the Precision Value of 0.852. This represents the number of found class and a prediction accuracy of 85.2% when compared to the number of whole classes from the database. It is in line with the Recall Value of 0.852 which also means the number of found class and a prediction accuracy of 85.2% when compared to the number of whole classes from the database. On the other hand, the Neural Network model generates the Precision Value of 0.838 or 83.8% and the Recall Value of 0.838 or 83.8%. The results reveal that the Decision Tree Model gives more accurate prediction than the Neural Network Model. When comparing the Precision and Recall values of the Decision Tree Model, the results are equal at 0.852 or 85.2%, while the Precision and Recall values of the Neural Network Model are also equal at 0.838 or
41 83.8%. The results show the accuracy of prediction when compared to the found classes and all classes in the database. The percentages of accuracy are equal.
Conclusion and future work
After classifying the academic achievement of undergraduate students registered in the International Program using the Decision Tree and Neural Network techniques, it can be concluded that the Decision Tree technique has better accuracy of data classification for this data set. The analysis of important factors for grouping students could be concluded as follows: Firstly, most of the students who do not have risk of low academic achievement are the students who have never studied additional English courses. This group of students had a good grasp of English proficiency before entering the university. This is why they did not need to take additional English courses to improve their English skill. They are single, work few hours per semester, and register for 12-15 credits per semester. Secondly, most of the students who have risk of low academic achievement are the students who study additional English courses. The result shows that this group of students did not have good foundation of English proficiency before entering the university. This is why they needed to take additional English courses to improve their English skills. Many of them are either married or divorced. They work at a moderate to high number of hours per semester. They register for either less than 12 credits per semester (students are not allowed to register more than 12 credits if the CGPA is low) or more than 15 credits per semester (students are allowed to register more than 15 credits if the CGPA is high). There were several limitations to the study and any future study should expand to look at some of the following issues. Firstly, the results from the data analysis from the data mining method are only the important factors affecting student achievement. Each factor has a different significant value. Thus, the grouping of students who are at risk or not at risk, and other factors or elements should be considered as well. Secondly, the model can be improved to be applicable to analyze the risk level of students, and find ways to advise and assist the at-risk students. Thirdly, the research analyzed only data from students registered in the international program of the undergraduate level. Future investigation should expand this study in applying this method to other study programs. There are some recommendations to the institution studied. Firstly, there should be a system to record important student information accurately and completely. Lastly, there should be a central database to store the information of all students.
References
Affendey, L. S., Paris, I.H.M., Mustapha, N., Nasir Sulaiman, Md. & Muda, Z. (2010). Ranking of Influencing Factors in Predicting Students’ Academic Performance. International Technology Journal, 9(6), 832-837. Beikzadeh, M. R. & Delavari N. (2005). A New Analysis Model for Data Mining Processes in Higher Educational Systems: proceedings of the 6th Information Technology Based Higher Education and Training, 7-9 July 2005. Chen, M. S., Han, J. & Yu, P. S. (1996). Data mining: an overview from a database perspective.IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 8 (6), 866 – 883. Connolly, T., Begg, C. & Strachan, A. (1999). Database Systems: A Practical Approach to Design Implementation and Management. Harlow: Addison-Wesley. Elouedi, Z., Mellouli, K., & Smets, P. (2000). Decision trees using the belief function theory. In Proceedings of the international conference on Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty IPMU.1. 141-148. Fayyad, U., Piatetsky-Shapiro, G. & Smyth, P. (1996). From Data Mining to Knowledge Discovery in Databases. AI Magazine, 17 (3), 37-54. Hagan, M. T. & Menhaj, M. B. (1994). Training Feed-forward Networks with the Marquardt Algorithm. IEEE Trans. on Neural Networks, 5(6), 989-993. Hyndman, R. J., & Athanasopoulos, G. (2014). Forecasting: principles and practice [OTexts]. Retrieved from https://www.otexts.org/fpp/9/3 Ian, H. W. & Eibe, F. (2005). Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques with Java Implementations. California: Morgan Kaufmann.
42 Kotsiantis, S. B., Pierrakeas, C. J. & Pintelas, P. E. (2003). Preventing Student Dropout in Distance Learning Using Machine Learning Techniques. In proceedings of 7th International Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems (KES 2003), 267-274. Merceron, A. & Yacef, K. (2005). Educational Data Mining: a Case Study.In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education AIED 2005, Amsterdam: IOS Press. Minaei-Bidgoli, B., Kashy, D., Kortemeyer, G. & Punch, W. (2003). Predicting Student Performance: An Application of Data Mining Methods with an Educational Web-Based System. In the Processing of 33rd ASEE/IEEE conference of Frontiers in Education. Piatetsky-Shapiro, G. & Frawley, W. J. (1991). Knowledge Discovery in Databases. MIT Press. Polpinij, J. (2002). The Probabilistic Models Approach for Analysis the Factors Affecting of Car Insurance Risk. M.S. thesis, Department of Computer Science, Kasetsart University. Thailand. Quinlan, J. R. (1990). Decision trees and decision-making. Systems, Man and Cybernetics, IEEE Transactions on, 20(2), 339-346. Quinlan, J. R. (1992). C 4. 5: Programs for Machine Learning. Morgan Kaufmann. Romero, C., Ventura, S. & Garcia, E. (2008). Data Mining in Course Management Systems: Moodle Case Study and Tutorial. Computers & Education, 51(1). 368-384. Thai Nghe, N., Janecek, P. & Haddawy, P. (2007). A Comparative Analysis of Techniques for Predicting Academic Performance. ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference. Utgoff, P. E. (1989). Incremental induction of decision trees. Machine learning, 4(2), 161-186. Waiyamai, K. (2003). Improving Quality of Graduate Students by Data Mining. Department of Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kasetsart University, Thailand.
About the Author
Pimpa Cheewaprakobkit, instructor in the Computer Information System Program, Faculty of Business Administration, Asia-Pacific International University.
43 Catalyst ISSN: 2408-137X, Volume 12, No. 2, 2015 Institute Press
Risk Factors for Hypertension among a Church-based, Black Population in London Maxine A Newell, Naomi N Modeste, Helen Hopp Marshak, Colwick Wilson, Sherma J. Charlemagne-Badal
Abstract
Compared to other ethnic groups, there is an increased prevalence of hypertension, and subsequent morbidity and mortality, among people of African descent residing in the United Kingdom. We studied a group of people of African descent living in London to examine the impact of their lifestyle on hypertension. A cross-sectional study, using a convenience sample of individuals aged 25-79 from 17 predominantly Black Seventh-day Adventist churches across London. Linear regressions were run between the main variables of RR score for hypertension and blood pressure levels. Hypertension was more prevalent among males (34%) than females (21.6%). Relative Risk Estimates for hypertension were predictive of diastolic blood pressure (p<.05). The blood pressure levels among the participants in this study were lower than Caribbean-born Blacks but higher than African-born Blacks in the national UK data for minorities. For this church-based group education concerning health practices did not significantly impact their moving towards lifestyles that decreased HTN risk. Behavior change, therefore, must be the focus of future interventions.
Keywords. hypertension, risk factors, minority
Introduction
The increased prevalence of hypertension (HTN) and subsequent morbidity and mortality among people of African descent in the United Kingdom (UK) as compared to other ethnic groups has been well documented (Higginbottom, 2006; Khan & Beevers, 2005; Swift, Markandu, Sagnella, He, & MacGregor, 2005; Hajat, Tilling, Stewart, Lemic-Stojcevic & Wolfe, 2004; Agyemang & Bhopal, 2003; Lane & Lip, 2001; Lemic-Stojcevic, Dundas, Jenkins, Rudd, & Wolfe, 2002). The Health Survey for England 2004 (National Centre for Social Research, 2005) reported HTN prevalence rates for men and women in the general population as 31.7% and 29.5% respectively, but reported higher prevalence rates for Black Caribbean men and women at 38.4% and 31.7% respectively. The literature generally lists smoking as an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease/coronary heart disease (Bernaards, Twisk, Snel, van Mechelen, & Kemper, 2005; Kaplan, 2004; Onal, Erbil, Ozel, Aciksari, & Tumerdem, 2004; Lee et al. 1998), but the specific relationship between smoking and HTN is not fully understood. While there is a consistent acute rise in blood pressure (BP) during smoking (Kaplan, 2004; Lee et al., 1998), the effects of long-term smoking on HTN are less clear in some epidemiological studies. There appears to be a J-shaped association between alcohol use and cardiovascular disease, in general, and HTN specifically, where moderate or light drinkers have lower BP than both non-drinkers and heavy drinkers (Tomson & Lip, 2006; Kaplan, 2004; Ohmori et al., 2002; Malinski, Sesso, Lopez-Jimenez, Buring & Gaziano, 2004; Twisk, Kemper, Mechelen, & Bertheke, 2001). According to Nanchahal, Asdon and Wood (2000), however “the J-shaped association between alcohol intake and all-cause mortality represents the sum of its protective effect on CHD mortality and detrimental effect on other, primarily non-cardiovascular causes of death” (p.57). Although the statistics for heritability risk vary from study to study ranging from 14 to 82% for systolic blood pressure (SBP) and 8 to 64% for diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (DeStefano et al., 2001), most authorities now recognize that children of parents with HTN have a higher risk of developing HTN than children of normotensive parents (Jackson & Dishman, 2002). Stress, both mental and physical, also play a role in developing HTN (Bedi, Varshey, & Babbar, 2000). While
44 the exact mechanism of how stress leads to HTN is not completely understood (Player & Peterson, 2011, Plante, 2002; Esler, Rumantir, Kaye, & Lambert, 2001), it is “well accepted that… [stress] contributes to the pathogenesis of HTN” (Bierhaus, Humpert and Nawrithit, 2004, p. 1,189). Blacks have greater increases in vascular tone in response to stress than Whites, and it has been suggested that this is due to the combination of increased peripheral vascular resistance and higher levels of environmental and psychosocial stress. These ethnic differences lead to sustained HTN (Stein, Lang, Singh, He, & Wood, 2000). Age is described as a risk factor for HTN (Schwartz, Gerin W, Davidson, Pickering, Brosschot, & Thayer, 2003), with both SBP and DBP increasing with age from the second decade (Kornitzer, Dramaix, & De Backer, 1999). Before the age of 30 the BP of Blacks in the UK is lower than that of Whites, but higher after age 30 (Agyemang & Bhopal, 2003). Body mass index (BMI) is also noted to be significantly related to HTN. Overweight (a BMI > 25) and obesity (a BMI > 30) are major risk factors for many chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease (Goldberg, 2003). They are related to HTN, independent of age or gender, (Appleby, Davey, & Key, 2002; Lopes, Bortolotto, Szlejf, Kamitsuji, & Krieger, 2001) and account for 78% and 65% of HTN in males and female, respectively (Pausova, 2006; El-Atat, Aneja, McFarlane, & Sowers, 2003). The prevalence rates of overweight (including obesity) for Caribbean (64.5%) and African (69.8) women in the UK are somewhat higher than those of the general female population (51.7%). The overweight prevalence rates for African men (61.8%) are lower than the general male population (66.5%) while those for Caribbean men (67.4%) are higher (National Health Services, 2005). Specific to the prevention and treatment of HTN is physical activity (PA): 20-30 minutes of moderate to vigorous cardiovascular exercise on 4-5 days of the week reduces BP and is effective for long-term HTN control (Pescatello et al., 2004). Additionally, many practitioners recommend accumulated PA, which is less intense, as a modality for treating HTN which can significantly reduce BP in both pre-hypertensive and hypertensive individuals (Brookes, 2005; Padilla, Wallace, & Park, 2005). Sodium intake has also been consistently linked to HTN. He and Macgregor (2002) conducted a meta-analysis of randomized control trials on salt intake and HTN. The results demonstrated that a reduction of sodium had a significant effect on SBP and DBP: On average the BP of hypertensives decreased by 5/3 mm Hg and normotensives by 2/1 mm Hg. They suggest that, in the long-term, population salt reduction would have a positive impact on public health by decreasing BP and therefore cardiovascular mortality. Hooper et al.’s (2004) meta-analysis also led them to conclude that sodium reduction resulted in an average decrease of 1.1 mm Hg for SBP and 0.6 mm Hg for DBP, and that the low salt diet enabled those who were hypertensive to discontinue their medications without a subsequent loss of BP control. Diet also plays a key role in the prevention and treatment of HTN. In 2002, John et al. (2002) carried out a randomized control trial to examine the specific effects of fruit and vegetable consumption on BP. They reported that after six months of a diet with a minimum of five daily portions of fruit and vegetables, the SBP and DBP of the intervention group fell 4 mm Hg and 1.5 mm Hg respectively, more than in the control group. Comparisons of the effects of vegetarianism, and non-vegetarianism show that the SBP and DBP of vegetarians are 3 to 14 mm Hg and 5 to 6 mm Hg lower, respectively, than non-vegetarians. For vegetarians, the prevalence of HTN ranges from 2% to 40%, while the range is from 8% to 60% in non-vegetarians (Berkow & Bernard, 2005). As part of its policy on health, the British government set one of the 2010 targets as the reduction of deaths from heart disease and stokes in those less than 75 years of age by two fifths. One of the means by which they planned to achieve this goal was by the improvement of individual lifestyles (Department of Health, 1999). Most of these lifestyle recommendations are part of the emphasis on diet and healthy living advocated by the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church (Fraser, 1999; Fønnebø, 1994). In the United States (US), the health profile of Black SDAs is better than that of non-SDA Blacks (Montgomery et al, 2007). Therefore, this study aimed to examine the lifestyles of SDAs living in London and to compare their risk factors for HTN to US Black SDAs and to the non-SDA Black population in the UK.
Methods
This was a cross-sectional study of Black SDA Christians living in London. Using a convenience sampling technique, 352 participants from 17 predominantly Black SDA churches, across London, self-selected to be part of the study. The participants completed a questionnaire and had their blood pressure and anthropometric measurements taken by qualified nurses.
45 Participants were included if they: (a) were current members of the SDA church, (b) resided in any of the London boroughs, (c) were between the ages of 25 and 79 years, and (d) self-identified as Black. Participants were excluded if they: (a) reported current use of alcohol or tobacco, (b) had a diagnosis of HTN and currently taking medication to control BP.
Measures
Blood Pressure. Blood pressure was recorded using digital monitors and classified according to the British Hypertension Society (BHS)(Mead, 2004). It was measured seated, once in each arm and then repeated in the arm with the highest reading. An average of the repeated measure in one arm was calculated. BMI. Anthropometric measures were taken with participants in light clothing and without shoes. Weight was measured using a Conair Weight Watchers Glass Memory Precision Electronic Scale (WW43). Height was measured using a portable Seca Leicester height measure. Body mass index was calculated as the body weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared, and classified as < 18.5 being underweight, 18.5 – 24.9 being normal, 25.0 – 29.9 being overweight and 30 – 39.9 being obese, and > 40 being extremely obese. Waist circumference (WC) was measured and recorded in centimeters using a flexible measuring tape. (Increased cardiovascular disease risk when WC is > 102 cm in men and 88 cm > in women.) Survey Instrument. A structured questionnaire was developed for use in this study. The items in the first section focused on demographic questions such as age, gender, education, and yearly income. Questions were formulated to assess the participants’ knowledge and lay beliefs about HTN. The health belief model (HBM) was the theoretical framework used to develop the section examining perceptions about HTN. Most of the items for the HBM constructs were drawn from the instrument developed by Desmond, Price, Roberts, Pituch and Smith et al (1992) or adapted from Champion’s (1984) HBM scale. Cohen’s 10-item Perceived Stress Scale was used for measuring stress (Cohen, Kamark, & Mermelstein, 1983). Also included were items on diet (salt, fruit, and vegetable consumption, whether participants were vegan or vegetarian) and levels of daily PA to evaluate participants’ current practices related to HTN prevention. The questionnaire was checked for clarity before it was used for data collections. Building on the 10-year relative risk estimates (RRE) for cancers developed by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health (Colditz et al, 2000), researchers at the Siteman Cancer Center expanded the RRE to include heart disease and stroke (Siteman Cancer Center, nd.). Using the heart disease and stroke estimates as guidelines a 10-year RRE was developed to score the risk of HTN for the participants in this study (Table 1).
Table 1. Ten-Year Relative Risk Estimates for Hypertension
Risk Factor RR Score Age: > 50 +2 Female +1 Family History Parental +2 Sibling +3 BMI Women 25-28.9 +2 > 30 +3 Men 25-29.9 +2 > 30 +3 Waist circumference Women >35in +1 Men >40in +2
46 Risk Factor RR Score Stress Score >14.7 +2 Salt Added during cooking +1 Generally added at table without tasting food +3 Generally taste then food then add salt at the table +2 Taste food and occasionally add salt at the table +1 Rarely/never add salt to food at the table -1 Vegan -4 Vegetarian -3 Fish > 3 servings per week -2 Red meat consumption > 3 servings per week +2 White meat consumption > 3 servings per week +1 Fruit/Vegetable > 5 servings per day -1 Physical Activity at least 30 minutes per day for five days or three hours per week -2
Data Entry/Analysis. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows software program version 14 was used for data entry and analysis Linear regressions were run to examine the associations between the RRE score for HTN, SBP and DBP, as classified by the BHS.
Results
Demographics
A total of 352 questionnaire were distributed. 27 (7.67%) were not returned, and 13 of those returned could not be used. Ultimately the sample size used for analyses was 312. Table 2 provides details on the respondents surveyed. Of the 312 respondents, the majority were born in the Caribbean, followed by those born in the UK. Two thirds were female. The mean age for all of the respondents was 44.37 years. When age was examined by place of birth, African Blacks were on the average younger than Caribbean Blacks. The majority (43.2%) reported being married for the first time followed by 36.4% who were single/never married. A little over one third (34.7%) completed graduate degrees.
Table 2. Demographic Characteristics of Participants
Total* Caribbean African U.K. born p-value N=312 171 (55%) 32 (10.3%) 108 (34.7%) Gender‡ Male 94 (31.1) 53 (31.7) 11 (37.9) 30 (28.6) Female 208 (68.9) 114 (68.3) 18 (62.1) 75 (71.4)
Mean Age (SD) 44.37 (12.7) 49.24 (14.1) 37.38 38.9 (6.4) <.0001 (10.8)
Marital Status <.0001 Single/Never married 112 (36.4) 43 (25.6) 9 (29.0) 59 (54.6) First time married 133 (43.2) 80 (47.6) 19 (61.3) 34 (31.5) Remarried 14 (4.5) 10 (6.0) 0 (.0) 4 (3.70) Divorced 28 (9.1) 21 (12.5) 1 (3.2) 6 (5.6)
47 Total* Caribbean African U.K. born p-value N=312 171 (55%) 32 (10.3%) 108 (34.7%) Separated 12 (3.9) 6 (3.6) 1 (3.2) 5 (4.6) Widowed 9 (2.9) 8 (4.8) 1 (3.2) 0 (.0) Annual household income .003 Less than ₤10, 000 41 (16.7) 25 (19.7) 4 (16.0) 11 (11.8) ₤10 - ₤20, 000 58 (23.6) 35 (27.6) 8 (32.0) 15 (16.1) ₤20 - ₤30, 000 55 (22.4) 30 (23.6) 3 (12.0) 22 (23.7) ₤30 - ₤40, 000 37 (15.0) 16 (12.6) 3 (12.0) 18 (19.4) ₤40 - ₤50, 000 17 (6.9) 9 (7.1) 3 (12.0) 5 (5.4) ₤50 - ₤75, 000 27 (11.0) 10 (7.9) 1 (4.0) 16 (17.2) ₤75 - ₤100, 000 5 (2.0) 0 (.0) 3 (12.0) 2 (2.2) More than ₤100, 000 6 (2.4) 2 (1.6) 0 (.0) 4 (4.3) Highest level of education <.0001 Primary school 12 (4.2) 10 (6.6) 0 (0) 2 ( 1.9) Secondary school 35 (12.2) 30 (19.7) 2 ( 6.9) 3 ( 2.8) Trade/vocational school 59 (20.5) 35 (23.0) 4 (13.8) 19 (17.9) Undergraduate polytechnic 82 (28.5) 39 (25.7) 7 (24.1) 36 (34.0) or university Graduate degree 100 (34.7) 38 (25.0) 16 (55.2) 46 (43.3) * One respondent did not indicate country of birth, 16 respondents did not indicate gender, 4 did not indicate marital status, 66 did not report household income, and 24 did not indicate level of education
Anthropometric Measurements
More men than women were overweight (45.2% and 40.1% respectively), but more women (18.4%) than men (16.1%) were obese. The only morbidly obese participants were female. None of the BMI differences by gender were significant, however. Twenty-one percent of women had WC measurements that placed them at risk for cardiovascular disease when compared to 12.5% of men (p =.000). Women also had significantly higher perceived stress means (18.2) than men (16.1, p =.004 ). Women, however, had lower BP measurements than men (126/77 and 136/78 respectively) and a significantly smaller percentage of them (21.6) were hypertensive than men (34.0, p = .037).
Dietary Patterns
The dietary patterns of respondents are presented in Table 3. Vegetarians made up 32.8% of the sample and of the 25.1% who met the government recommendation of five servings of fruit and vegetables daily, 56 were women and 17 were men. While the majority of the study population was neither vegan nor vegetarian, only 2.6 of them ate meat or fish seven days a week. Although the majority (68.6%) said that they rarely or never added salt to their food at the table, 78.9% generally added salt during cooking.
Table 3. Dietary Patterns of Seventh-day Adventists Living in London
Dietary Patterns Male Female All n (%) n (%) n (%) Vegans 11 (12.5) 29 (14.9) 40 (14.2) Vegetarians 17 (20.3) 25 (15.1) 41 (16.7) Red Meat Consumption Less than 1 day/week 37 (67.3) 97 (77.0) 139 (73.9)
48 Dietary Patterns Male Female All n (%) n (%) n (%) 1-2 days/week 13 (23.6) 18 (14.3) 33 (17.6) 3-4 days/week 3 (5.5) 11 (8.7) 14 (7.4) 5-6 days/week 2 (3.6) 2 (1.1) White Meat Consumption Less than 1 day/week 16 (28.6) 39 (30.7) 56 (29.5) 1-2 days/week 23 (41.1) 53 (41.7) 81 (42.6) 3-4 days/week 11 (19.6) 28 (22.0) 40 (21.1) 5-6 days/week 5 (8.9) 5 (3.9) 10 (5.3) 7 days/week 1 (1.8) 2 (1.6) 3 (1.6) Fish Consumption* Less than 1 day/week 17 (27.0) 37 (26.8) 56 (26.9) 1-2 days/week 29 (46.0) 71 (51.4) 104 (50.0) 3-4 days/week 14 (22.2) 18 (13.0) 33 (15.9) 5-6 days/week 1 (1.6) 12 (8.7) 13 (6.3) 7 days/week 2 (3.2) 2 (1.0) Fruit and vegetable consumption Less than one portion/day 4 (4.3) 10 (5.0) 14 (4.6) 1-2 portions/day 37 (39.8) 51 (25.5) 90 (29.7) 3-4 portions/day 35 (37.6) 83 (41.5) 123 (40.6) 5 or more portions/day 17 (18.3) 56 (28.0) 76 (25.1) Sodium intake Do you generally add salt during cooking? 70 (78.7) 160 (79.2) 236 (78.9) Do you generally add salt at the table without 3 (3.2) 10 (4.8) 14 (4.5) tasting your food? Do you generally taste your food and then add salt 9 (9.6) 23 (11.1) 32 (10.3) at the table? Do you taste your food and occasionally add salt at 13 (13.8) 23 (11.1) 37 (11.9) the table? Do you rarely, or never, add salt to your food at the 66 (70.2) 141 (67.8) 214 (68.6) table? * Only variable with significant p-value (p = .036)
Physical Activity
Overall, the women participated in less PA than the men: Except for the category of heavy housework, almost half of the women reported never or rarely exercising (see Table 4).
Table 4. Levels of Physical Activity among a Sample of Black Seventh-day Adventists Living in London
Physical Activity Male Female All p value n (%) n (%) n (%) How many days per week, on average, do you .042 get at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise? Never or rarely 21 (25.0) 84 (44.4) 105 (37.2)
49 1-2 days 30 (35.7) 47 (24.9) 82 (29.1) 3-4 days 16 (19.0) 32 (16.9) 50 (17.7) Physical Activity Male Female All p value n (%) n (%) n (%) 5-6 days 8 (9.5) 13 (6.9) 21 (7.4) 7 days 9 (10.7) 13 (6.9) 24 (8.5) How many days per week, on average, do you take .573 a walk of at least 30 minutes? Never or rarely 24 (27.3) 55 (28.4) 81 (27.7) 1-2 days 24 (27.3) 49 (25.3) 76 (26.0) 3-4 days 10 (11.4) 36 (18.6) 46 (15.8) 5-6 days 18 (20.5) 34 (17.5) 55 (18.8) 7 days 12 (13.6) 20 (10.3) 34 (11.6) How many days per week, on average, do you do .014 heavy housework for at least 30 minutes? Never or rarely 29 (34.9) 41 (21.6) 72 (25.4) 1-2 days 35 (42.2) 67 (35.3) 103 (36.4) 3-4 days 9 (10.8) 40 (21.1) 53 (18.7) 5-6 days 7 (8.4) 20 (10.5) 29 (10.2) 7 days 3 (3.6) 22 (11.6) 26 (9.2) How many days per week, on average, do you do .000 heavy manual work for at least 30 minutes? Never or rarely 35 (38.9) 124 (67.0) 166 (58.2) 1-2 days 26 (28.9) 32 (17.3) 60 (21.1) 3-4 days 10 (11.1) 13 (7.0) 24 (8.4) 5-6 days 13 (13.8) 7 (3.8) 20 (7.0) 7 days 6 (6.4) 9 (4.9) 15 (5.3) Meet government recommendations .930 of PA 5 days per week Yes 47 (56.0) 103 (55.4) 150 (55.6) No 37(44.0) 83 (44.6) 120(44.4)
Direct comparison with Health Survey for England data was not possible, but some comparisons can be made between the risk factors of BMI, WC, PA, fruit and vegetable consumption, sodium use in cooking and at the table, and the mean levels of BP in this study and the national data (see Table 5).
Table 5. Comparison of hypertension risk factors in current study and the health survey for England 2004
Current study Health Survey for England 2004* Caribbean African Male Female Male Female Male Female Mean BMI 26.0 26.6 27.1 28.0 26.4 28.8 WC “at risk” (%) ** 12.5 20.5 22.0 47.0 19.0 53.0 Meet government guidelines for physical 20.2 13.8 37.0 31.0 35.0 29.0 activity (%) Consume five or more portions of fruit and 18.3 28.0 32.0 31.0 31.0 32.0 vegetables daily (%)
50 Current study Health Survey for England 2004* Caribbean African Add salt during cooking (%) 78.7 79.2 77.0 69.0 74.0 83.0 Rarely/never add salt at the table (%)* 70.2 67.8 49.0 64.0 43.0 45.0 Mean SBP 136.24 125.75 133.3 123.0 128.0 118.1 Mean DBP 78.35 77.04 74.70 73.70 73.50 72.80 Hypertensive (%) † 34.0 21.6 38.0 32.0 25.0 19.0 * National Health Services, 2005 ** Increased cardiovascular disease risk when WC is > 102 cm in men and 88 cm > in women. 52 † British Hypertension Society classifications
Regressions were run (see Table 6) to determine if the RRE score of the risk factor variables for HTN predicted SBP, DBP and BP classification according to the BHS. When controlling for age, gender, family history of HTN and SES, the RRE score was only predictive of, and positively associated with DBP (R = .165). Physical activity was not significantly related to DBP, therefore was excluded from the regression model and presented descriptively in Table 4 above. When controlled for gender, the only risk factors that were significantly associated with DBP and SBP were BMI at .444 (p = .000) and WC at .403 (p = .000).
Table 6. Results for Regressions for the Dependent Variable of Diastolic Blood Pressure
B SE B β Step 1 Constant 73.54 6.26 Age 0.09 0.62 .11 Gender -2.03 1.48 -.10 Family history of HTN 2.51 1.51 .12 Education* 0.05 2.26 .00 Step 2 Constant 73.97 6.17 Age .11 0.06 .14 Gender -2.70 1.48 -.13 Family history of HTN 1.63 1.52 .08 Education -0.51 2.23 -.02 RRE Score 0.50 0.19 .20† * Education “up to secondary” versus “beyond secondary” used as proxy for SES NOTE R2 = .03 for Step 1; Δ R2 = .03 for Step 2; †p <.05
Discussion
Research documents that only a small portion of the population that is hypertensive is diagnosed and adequately managed (Lane & Lip, 2001). Additionally, Blacks in the UK are more likely to have their HTN detected in the community than their counterparts from other ethnic groups (Lip et al., 2007). In the present study it was not surprising then that even though one of the inclusion criteria was that the participants were not being treated for HTN, 34.0% of males and 21.6% of females actually had elevated BPs. In the US, African American women are 1.81 times more likely than African American males to have HTN (Townes, 1988), and in the UK there is a greater prevalence of HTN among Caribbean women than Caribbean men (Nazroo, 2001). Despite the increased risk for females in several of the HTN risk factors in this study, unlike the findings of Townes and Nazroo both SBP and DBP measurements were lower for women than men 125.8/77.0 and 136.2/78.4 respectively, and fewer women were hypertensive when compared to men, 21.6% versus 34.0% (p = .037). It is unclear why this is so, but research has shown that there is a strong association
51 of overweight and obesity with HTN (El-Atat, Aneja, McFarlane, & Sowers, 2003; Lopes, Bortolotto, Szlejf, Kamitsuji, & Krieger, 2001), and the absence of any significant differences of BMI between the genders in this study might account for the lower levels of HTN among females. Dong and colleagues (1999) state that by the age of 50 one in two UK Blacks is hypertensive. When those who were 50 and older were separated from the younger participants in this study a similar proportion, 48.8%, were hypertensive. As with the whole group, however, fewer women were hypertensive than men, 45.5% versus 53.6%, though the difference was not statistically significant. When the findings of this study are compared with the data reported for minorities in the Health Survey for England (2004) the population in this study had lower BMI means, a lower percentage of those with WC that put them at risk for HTN, and a lower percentage of salt added at the table. Salt use in cooking, however was higher, and those who met the government guidelines for daily PA and fruit and vegetable consumption were lower (see Table 5). Because such a large percentage of this study population rarely or never used salt at the table, the higher percentage of salt use in cooking than those reported in the national data could be due to the subjects’ knowledge that salt added at the table is worse than salt added in cooking. Given the emphasis on this among SDAs, the low percentage of the subjects that met the government guidelines for daily consumption of fruit and vegetables is baffling. The presence of many imported fruit and vegetables means that they have access to produce from many of their native countries. Sixty-three percent of the participants, however, had annual incomes of < £30,000 which might make the price of familiar produce prohibitive. The lower levels of PA might be explained by age: In the national data the levels of PA drops off as age increases. The mean age for our study sample was 44.37 and only ranged from 25-79 years, compared to a range of 16- 55+ for the national survey. A large proportion of younger individuals with higher levels of PA were probably excluded from this study. Nationally, only 5% of the population identify as vegetarian or vegan (Henderson, Gregory, & Swan, 2002), but in our study 14.2% reported being vegan and 16.7% claimed to be vegetarians. In other studies omnivores had higher BPs than vegetarians, vegans and those who ate fish (Berkow & Bernard, 2005; Appleby, Davey, & Key, 2002) and while the percentage of omnivores in our study was high, only 1.1% ate red meat and 1.6% white meat daily. The mean BP levels for our study were 132.0/78.9 for vegetarians 128.4/76.8 for vegans and 128.1/76.9 for omnivores. These results might be explained by the fact that the fruit and vegetable consumption in our study population was low and therefore little of their HTN controlling benefits were experienced by the vegans and the vegetarians. As noted earlier, few of the omnivores had daily meat consumption, and this could be the reason for their low BP levels. Besides the use of salt at the table, BMI and WC were the only risk factors where the participants in this study were at decreased risk for HTN when compared with the national data for minorities. Despite the higher SBP and DBP means, for the subjects in this study, when compared to the national data, the actual percentage of respondents in this study who were hypertensive was lower than the Caribbean Blacks, but higher than the African Blacks in the national study (see Table 5). Much of the data looking at HTN in Blacks in the UK separates the group into Caribbean Blacks and African Blacks. One limitation of this study was the low number of African-born Blacks, only 10.3% of the sample. Another limitation is that no pilot study was done prior to data collection. This could have increased the reliability of the instrument used. Finally, having a convenience sample of individuals who self-selected into the study increased the probability that the participants represented individuals who were more concerned about their health, in general, than others from this segment of the Black population. Randomization would have avoided this effect and increased the generalizability of the findings. We recommend that in the future a similar study be carried out including respondents from other of the large cities in the UK with a greater proportion of Africans. This would increase the significance of comparisons with the national data. Additionally, this study reinforces the need for educators to develop programs that aim for behavior change. Despite the exposure to information on health within the SDA community, the respondents did not have many health behaviors that decreased their risk for HTN. In conclusion, the evidence for the lifestyle of Black SDA’s in London as being protective against HTN is mixed: Contrary to previous findings (Townes, 1998; Nazroo, 2001), women in this study had less HTN than men and as a whole the BP levels for this group were lower than the Caribbean Blacks but higher than the African-born Blacks in the national data. Unlike their US counterparts, the health profile of the Black SDAs in London, does not stand out as superior to that of the general Black population in the UK. Many of the
52 health practices traditionally emphasized by the SDA church were not being practiced even though there was knowledge of the association of these practices with the reduction of HTN risk. (These findings are reported in another paper.)
References
Agyemang, C., & Bhopal, R. (2003). Is the blood pressure of people from African origin adults in the UK higher or lower than that in European origin white people? A review of cross-sectional data. Journal of Human Hypertension, 17, 523-534. Appleby, P. N., Davey, K. D., & Key, T. J. (2002). Hypertension and blood pressure among meat eaters, fish eaters, vegetarians and vegans in EPIC-Oxford. Public Health Nutrition, 5, 645-654.
Bedi, M., Varshey, V. P., & Babbar, R. (2000). Role of cardiovascular reactivity to mental stress in predicting future hypertension. Clinical and Experimental Hypertension, 22, 1-22. Berkow, S. E., & Bernard, N. D. (2005). Blood pressure regulation and vegetarian diets. Nutrition Reviews, 63, 1-8. Bernaards, C. M., Twisk, J. W., Snel, J., van Mechelen, W., & Kemper, H. C. (2005). In a prospective study in young people, associations between changes in smoking behavior and risk factors for cardiovascular disease were complex. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 58, 1165-1171. Bierhaus, A., Humpert, P. M., & Nawroth, P. P. (2004). NF-KB as a molecular link between psychosocial stress and organ dysfunction. Pediatirc Nephrology, 19, 1189-1191. Brookes, L. (2005). Hypertension highlights: Significant new definitions, publication, risks, benefits—and gene therapy? Medscape Cardiology, 9(2). Retrieved March 10, 2006, from http://www.medscape.com/ viewarticle/514644 Champion, V. L. (1984). Instrument development for health belief model constructs. Advances in Nursing Science, 6, 73-85. Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Colditz, G. A., Atwood, K. A, Emmons, K., Monson, R. R., Willet, W. C., Trichopoulos, D. et al. (2000). Harvard report on cancer prevention volume 4: Harvard cancer risk index. Cancer Causes and Control, 11, 477-488. Department of Health.(1999). Saving lives: Our healthier nation. The Stationary Office. Desmond, S., Price, J., Roberts, S., Pituch, M., & Smith, D. (1992). Perception of hypertension in Black and White adolescents. The Journal of Health Behavior, Education & Promotion, 16, 3-10. DeStefano, A. L., Gavras, H., Heard-Costa, N., Bursztyn, M, Manolis, A., Farrer, L. A., et al. (2001). Maternal component in the familial aggregation of hypertension. Clinical Genetics, 60,13-21. Dong, Y., Zhu, H., Sagnella, G. A., Carter, N. D., Cook, D. G., & Cappiccio, F. P. (1999). Association between the C825T polymorphism of the G protein b3-subunit Gene and hypertension in blacks. Hypertension, 34, 1193-1196. El-Atat, F., Aneja, A., McFarlane, S.,& Sowers, J. (2003). Obesity and hypertension. Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics of North America, 32, 823-854. Fønnebø, V. (1994). The healthy Seventh-day Adventist lifestyle: What is the Norwegian experience?American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 59, 1124S-1129S. Fraser, G. E. (1994). Diet and coronary heart disease: Beyond dietary fats and low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 59, 1117S-1123S. Fraser, G. E. (1999). Associations between diet and cancer, ischemic heart disease, and all-cause mortality in non-Hispanic white California Seventh-day Adventists. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 70, 532S-538S. Fraser, G. E. (1999). Diet and primordial prevention in Seventh-day Adventists. Preventive Medicine, 29, S18-S23. Goldberg, G. (2003). FLAIR-FLOW 4: Synthesis report on obesity for health professionals. Nutrition Bulletin, 28, 343-354. Hajat, C., Tilling, K., Stewart, J. A., Lemic-Stojcevic, N., & Wolfe, C. D. (2004). Ethnic differences in risk factors for ischemic stroke: A European case-control study. Stroke, 35, He, F. J., & MacGregor, G. A. (2009). A comprehensive review on salt and health and current experience of worldwide salt reduction programmes. Journal of human hypertension, 23(6), 363-384.
53 Henderson, L., Gregory, J., & Swan, G. (2002). National diet and nutrition survey: Adults aged 19 to 64 years. Vol. 1: Types and quantities of foods consumed. London: The Stationary Office. Higginbottom, G. M. (2006). ‘Pressure of life’: Ethnicity as a mediation factor in mid-life and older peoples’ experience of high blood pressure. Sociology of Health & Illness, 28, 583-610. Hooper, L., Bartlett, C., Davey Smith, G. & Ebrahim. (2004). Advice to reduce dietary salt for prevention of cardiovascular disease. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 1, CD003656.pub2. DOI:10.1002/14651858.pub2. Jackson E. M., & Dishman, R. K. (2002). Hemodynamic responses to stress among black women: Fitness and parental hypertension. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 34, 1097-1104. John, J. H., Ziebland, S., Yudkin, P., Roe, L. S., & Neil, H. A. W. (2002). Effects of fruit and vegetable consumption on plasma antioxidant concentrations and blood pressure: A randomized controlled trial. The Lancet, 359, 1969-1974. Kaplan, N. M. (2004). Hypertension curriculum review: Lifestyle modifications for prevention and treatment of hypertension. Journal of Clinical Hypertension (Greenwich), 6, 716-719. Khan, J. M., & Beevers, D. G. (2005). Management of hypertension in ethnic minorities.Heart, 91, 1105-1109. Lane, D. A., & Lip, G. Y. H. (2001). Ethic differences in hypertension and blood pressure control in the UK.QJM: An International Journal of Medicine, 94, 391-396. Lee, K. S., Park, C. Y., Meng, K. H., Bush, A., Lee, S. H., Lee, W. C., et al. (1998). The association of cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption with other cardiovascular risk factors in men from Seoul, Korea. Annals of Epidemiology, 8, 31-38. Lemic-Stojcevic, N., Dundas, R., Jenkins, S., Rudd, A., & Wolfe, C. (2001). Preventable risk factors for coronary heart disease and stroke amongst ethnic groups in London. Ethnicity & Health, 6, 87-94. Lip, G., Barnett, A. H., Bradbury, A., Cappuccio, F. P., Gill, P. S., Hughes E et al. (2007). Ethnicity and cardiovascular disease prevention in the United Kingdom: A practical approach to management. Journal of Human Hypertension 21, 183-211. Lopes, H. F., Bortolotto, L. A., Szlejf, C., Kamitsuji, C. S., & Krieger, E. M. (2001). Hemodynamic and metabolic profile in offspring of malignant hypertensive parents. Hyptertension, 38, 616-620. Malinski, M. K., Sesso, H. D., Lopez-Jimenez, F., Buring, J. E., & Gaziano, J. M. (2004). Alcohol consumption and cardiovascular disease mortality in hypertensive men. Archives of Internal Medicine, 164, 623-628. Mead, M. (2004). British Hypertension Society guidelines 2004-BHS IV. Ten key comments for primary care. British Journal of Cardiology, 11, 246-250. Retrieved November 16, 2004, from http://www.bjcardio. co.uk/pdf/950Vol11_Num3_May-June_2004_p246-250.pdf Montgomery. S., Herring, P., Yancey, A., Beeson, L., Butler, T., Knutsen S, et al. (2007). Comparing self-reported disease outcomes, diet, and lifestyles in a national cohort of Black and White Seventh-day Adventists. Preventing Chronic Disease[serial online] Retrieved October 14, 2008, from http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/ issues/2007/jul/06/06_0103.htm. Nanchahal, K., Ashdon, W. D., Wood, D. A. (2000). Alcohol consumption, metabolic cardiovascular risk factors and hypertension in women. International Journal of Epidemiology, 29,57-64. National Centre for Social Research. (2005)Health survey for England 2004: Volume 1: The health of minority ethnic groups. Retrieved Jan 28, 2008, from http://www.ic.nhs.uk/webfiles/publications/healthsur- vey2004ethnicfull/HealthSurveyforEnglandVol1_210406_PDF.pdf. National Health Services. (2005).Health survey for England 2004: The health of minority ethnic groups-Headline tables. Health and Social Care Information Centre. Nazroo, J. Y. (2001). Ethnicity, class and health. London. Policy Studies Institute. Ohmori, S., Kiyohara, Y., Kato, I., Kubo, M., Tanizaki, Y., Iwamoto, H et al. (2002). Alcohol intake and future incidence of hypertension in a general Japanese population: The Hisayama study. Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research; 26, 1010-1016. Onal, A. E., Erbil, S., Ozel, S., Aciksari, K., & Tumerdem, Y. (2004). The prevalence of risk factors for hypertension in adults living in Istanbul. Blood Pressure, 13, 31-36. Padilla, J., Wallace, J. P., & Park S. (2005). Accumulation of physical activity reduces blood pressure in pre-and hypertensives. [Electronic version] Medicine and Science in Sports & Exercise, 1264-1275. Retrieved March 10, 2006, from http://www.acsm-msse.org Pausova, Z. (2006). From big fat cells to high blood pressure: Obesity-associated hypertension. Current Opinion in Nephrology and Hypertension, 15, 173-178.
54 Pescatello, L. S., Franklin, B. A., Fagard, R., Farquhar, W. B., Kelley, G. A., & Ray, C. A. (2004). American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Exercise and hypertension. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 36, 533-553. Plante, G. E. (2002). Vascular response to stress in health and disease. Metabolism, 51, Suppl 1, 25-30. Player, M. S., & Peterson, L. E. (2011). Anxiety disorders, hypertension, and cardiovascular risk: a review. The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 41(4), 365-377. Desmond, S. M., Price, J. H., Roberts, S. M., & Pituch, M. J. (1992). Perceptions of hypertension in Black and White adolescents. Health Values: The Journal of Health Behavior, Education & Promotion. Schwartz, A. R., Gerin, W., Davidson,. K. W., Pickering, T. G., Brosschot, J. F., & Thayer, J. F. (2003). Toward a causal model of cardiovascular responses to stress and the development of cardiovascular disease. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, 22-35. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. Your Disease Risk: Relative Risks. Retrieved October 14, 2007, from http://www.yourdiseaserisk.wustl.edu/ pdf_files/rr_ydr.pdf. Stein, M. C., Lang, C. C., Singh, I., He H. B., & Wood A. J. J. (2000). Increased vascular adrenergic vasoconstriction and decreased vasodilation in Blacks: Additive mechanisms leading to enhanced vascular reactivity. Hypertension; 36, 945-951. Swift, P. A., Markandu, N. D., Sagnella, G. A., He, F. J., & MacGregor, G. A. (2005). Modest salt reduction reduces blood pressure and urine protein excretion in Black hypertensives: A randomized control trial. Hypertension; 6, 308-312. Tomson, J., & Lip, G. Y. H. (2006). Alcohol and hypertension: An old relationship revisited.Alcohol & Alcoholism, 41, 3-4. Townes, E. M. (1998). Breaking the fine rain of death. New York: Continuum Publishing Company. Twisk, J. W. R., Kemper, H. C. G., Van Mechelen, W., & Bertheke Post, G. (2001). AEP, 11, Wolfe, C. (2002). IS10: The incidence, natural history, resource use, and outcome of stroke [1 of 2]. Retrieved November 16, 2004, from http://www.dh.gov.uk/PolicyAndGuidance/ResearchAndDevelopment/Re- searchAndDevelopmentAZ/CardiovascularDiseaseAndStroke/CardiovascularDiseaseAndStrokeArti- cle/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=4001897&chk=8uIeVM
About the Authors
Dr Maxine A Newell works at the Faculty of Science, Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand. Professor Dr Naomi Modeste works at the School of Public Health, Loma Linda University, California, USA. Associate Professor Dr Helen Hopp Marshak works at the School of Public Health, Loma Linda University, California, USA. Professor Dr Colwick Wilson works at the School of Behavioral Health, Loma Linda University, California. Assistant Professor Dr Sherma J. Charlemagne-Badal works at the Schoolf Public Health, Lomda Linda University, California.
55 Catalyst ISSN: 2408-137X, Volume 12, No. 2, 2015 Institute Press
Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Dengue Fever Prevention Among the Villagers of Moo 1 Baan Klongsai, Nhongyangsuea Subdistrict, Muaklek District, Saraburi Province, Thailand Supatcharee Makornkan, Pornpan Saminpanya, Ampaiwan Toomsan, Poomarin Intachai, Panipha Saengproa, Daramas Marerngsit
Abstract
This research aims to identify the relationship between knowledge, attitude and practice of Dengue Fever (DF) prevention among the villagers of Moo 1 Baan Klongsai, Nongyangsuea Subdistrict, Muaklek District, Saraburi Province, Thailand. One hundred and ninety eight respondents were purposely selected from 406 villagers with the mean age of 49 years. Three questionnaires were used for data collection and descriptive statistics, %, x ̅, S.D. and r were employed for data analysis. The results showed that 50.5% of respondents had a high level of knowledge regarding DF, 55.6% understood the cause of DF, 47.5% could relate the life cycle of the AE mosquito and 68.2% to the transmission risk of DF. This study also revealed that the knowledge of DF prevention of the respondents was at a moderate level, though 82.8% had a good level of attitude about DF. Both knowledge and attitude of the respondents were positively related and statistical significant to practice for DF prevention with the level of 0.05 (r = 0.283, p = <0.001, r = 0.160, p = 0.025, respectively). The findings indicated that if people are supplied with precise knowledge, they may have good practice in preventing the DF.
Keywords: Dengue fever, public health, knowledge and prevention
Introduction
Dengue Fever (DF) is a viral infection carried by Aedes aegypti and constitutes a national health problem. It is an emerging disease, episodic in nature and occurring yearly. The disease was first reported in Thailand in 1949 and in 1958 there was a large outbreak in Bangkok with 2,706 cases and resulting in 296 deaths. Since then DF has spread to every province of Thailand. The spread is attributed to population congestion and improvements in the national transportation system which has allowed the vector to migrate. The epidemiology report from the Infection Control Center, Ministry of Public Health revealed that the number of patients with DF, Dengue Shock Syndrome (DSS), and Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever (DHF) were 2.4 times higher than five years ago, and epidemic levels occurred one month earlier than in previous years. The number of patients had clearly increased in the middle of March rather than in the middle of April as expected. A morbidity rate of 239.51 per 100,000 population was the highest rate in the past 10 years. There were 136 deaths for a case fatality rate of 0.09%. The dengue fever outbreak from October to December 2012 had an effect on the outbreaks in early year of 2013. Other supportive evidence of a country-wide outbreak in 2013 was the dominance of dengue serotype 3 for which there is less protecstion against this serotype among Thais (Bureau of Epidemiology, Infectious Control Department, Ministry of Public Health, 2013). Five hundred forty-three cases of DHF were reported in Saraburi province with 88.70% morbidity rate per 100,000 people and a mortality rate of 0.36% with two deaths occurred. Compared to the DHF morbidity rate in Thailand, Saraburi province was ranked 58th among the 77 provinces and ranked 2nd within the Health Sevies Network Area 4. Further, Muak Lek district has the most DF incidents followed by other district in Saraburi province such as Pra Phuthabaht, Chalermprakiet, Banmhoa, Muang, Nhongdon, Nhongsang, Donphut, Wangmuang, Saohai, Kangkoy, and Wiharndang (Bureau of Epidemiology, Infectious Control
56 Department, Ministry of Public Health, 2013). No previous research has been done in this geographic area to ascertain knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) baseline from the villagers. The study results will be used 1) to plan for further DF interventions with the long term goal of providing a plan to control and shorten the DF epidemic peak time, 2) to develop guidelines to support the villager’s KAP and to prevent DF occurrences in the future, 3) to guide public health staffs in develop and control DF eruption in their area and 4) to properly and effectively educate the people some DF KAP of DF prevention now and in future.
Objectives
The objectives of this research were to study: Knowledge, attitude, and practice of DF prevention among the villagers in Moo 1 Baan Klongsai, Nhongyangsuea Subdistrict, Muaklek District, Saraburi Province, Thailand. The relationship between knowledge, attitude, and practice of DF prevention among the villagers in Moo 1 Baan Klongsai, Nhongyangsuea Subdistrict, Muaklek District, Saraburi Province, Thailand.
Operational Definition
Aedes aegypti - Common house mosquito is a mosquito in Aedes aegypti specy which is a carrier of Dengue Fever. The characteristic of it has white and black strips on the body. The larva of the common house mosquito – is the larva and pupae of an Aedes aegypti common house mosquito that lives inside and outside a house. DF (Dengue Fever) is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. The Knowledge of Dengue Fever is the community’s capability to explain, memorize, and understand the cause of DF; common house mosquito life cycle; the transmission mode, prevention and control of DF, which is measured by the questionnaire that was conducted by researchers. The attitude of DF is the concept and feeling of the villagers towards DF. Practice of Dengue Fever prevention is activities and behaviors that intercept or resist the sickness from the disease among themselves and family members.
Tested Hypothesis
Knowledge, attitude and practice of DF prevention among the villagers in Moo 1 Baan Klongsai, Nhongyangsuea Subdistrict, Muaklek District, Saraburi Province, Thailand are at a good level. The relationship between the knowledge, attitude, and practice of DF prevention among the villagers in Moo 1 Baan Klongsai, Nhongyangsuea Subdistrict, Muaklek District, Saraburi Province, Thailand is positive.
Table 1. Variables of this research
Independent Variables Dependent Variable 1. Knowledge of DF P r a c t i c e o f D F p r e v e n t i o n 2. Attitude of DF
Population and Sample
The village population was made up of 406 individuals who were 15 years old and above. Yamane’s formula was used to determine the sample size with a margin of error of less thasn 0.05 (1973) and it gave 198 respondents (83 male and 115 female) which was based on a purposive sampling method.
Instrument
Self-developed questionnaire testing of knowledge, attitude, and practice of DF prevention was used for the survey. The questionnaire was divided into 4 parts: Part 1: General demographic information such as gender, age, marital status, education level, occupation and family income.
57 Part 2: The questionnaire is a 10 item test about knowledge of DF with 3 choices. Each correct answer carries one (1) point and incorrect answer carries zero (0) point. Further, the DF knowledge level is divided into three levels: a) high level – the average score = 0.67-1.00, b) moderate level – the average score = 0.34-0.66 and c) low level – the average score = 0.00-0.33 Part 3: Attitudes of DF are divided into 3 Likert scale responses, the attitude of DF level is divided into three levels: a) good attitude- the average score = 2.36-3.00, b) fair attitude- the average score = 1.68-2.35, and c) bad attitude- the average score = 1.00-1.67 Part 4: Practice of DF prevention is divided into 3 Likert scale responses, the DF prevention practice level is divided into three levels: a) good level- the average score = 2.36-3.00, b) Moderate level- the average score = 1.68-2.35, and c) Not good level- the average score = 1.00-1.67
Validity of Instrument
Three questionnaires were created by the researchers and the content validity was ensured by 3 experts and tested on 30 the villagers at Moo 14 Panghauchang village, Nhongyangsuea sub-district, Muaklek district, Saraburi.
Reliability
The Kruder-Richardson 20 formula was used to measure the reliability of the knowledge of DF questionnaire with the result of 0.73 and Cornbach Alpha Coefficient formula to analyze the attitude and practice toward DF with the results of 0.79 and 0.75 respectively.
Results
General information
The statistical data of the respondents include 58.1% female with an average age of 49 years ((x ̅ = 48.5, S.D. = 16.4, Min = 15, Max = 84). 80.8% were married, 56.1%, completed elementary school, 43.4% farmers and had an average income of 58,288 Baht/month (Table 2).
Table 2. Number and percentage of people at Moo 1, Ban Panghuachang, Nongyangsua Subdistrict, Muaklek District, Saraburi Province (n=198).
Variable Number Percentage
Gender Male 83 41.9 Female 115 58.1 Age ≤ 30 year old 30 15.2 31-40 39 19.7 41-50 38 19.1 ≥ 51 year old 91 46.0 Married status Single 18 9.1 Married 160 80.8 Widow 14 7.1 Divorce /separate 6 3.0 Education level No formal education 7 3.5 Elementary school (G.1-G.6) 111 56.1 Secondary school (G.7-G.9) 21 10.6
58 Variable Number Percentage Education level Secondary school (G.10-G.12)/ vocational certificate 42 21.2 Diploma /high vocational certificate 4 2.0 Bachelor's degree 12 6.1 ≥ Bachelor's degree 1 0.5 Occupation Employee 37 18.7 Government service / State Enterprises 6 3.0 Business/Sale 18 9.1 Agriculture 86 43.4 Housework 19 9.6 Others 32 16.2 The family's income. (Baht/month) ≤ 10,000 88 44.5 10,001-50,000 62 31.3 50,001-100,000 22 11.1 ≥100,001 26 13.1
Knowledge, attitude, and practice of DF prevention
Table 3 shows that 50.5% of the respondents (x ̅ = 0.66, S.D. = 0.17) had high level of knowledge of DF. With this, 55.6% (x ̅ = 0.61, S.D. = 0.29) were aware of the cause of DF, 47.5% (x ̅ = 0.71, S.D. = 0.30) understood the life cycle of Aedes Egypti and 68.2% (x ̅ = 0.83, S.D. = 0.26) understood the transmission of DF. However, they had moderate level of knowledge in prevention and protection of DF with only 37.9% (x ̅ = 0.51, S.D. = 0.27) , though, 82.8% had good attitude of DF. Of this group, 95.5% (x ̅ = 2.72, S.D. = 0.24) and 75.3% (x ̅ = 2.59, S.D. = 0.35) had good attitude about the concept of DF prevention and practice of DF prevention, respectively. The respondents’ practice of DF prevention was at good level (59.1%) (x ̅ = 2.42, S.D. = 0.33).
Table 3. Number and percentage of knowledge, attitude, and practice of the DF prevention (n = 198)
Level Average Standard Deviation
Variable Low Amount Moderate High (Percentage) Amount Amount (Percentage) (Percentage)
Knowledge 4(2.0) 94(47.5) 100(50.5) 0.66 0.17 - Cause of DF 8(4.0) 80(40.4) 110(55.6) 0.76 0.29 - Life cycle of Aedes Egypti 12(6.1) 92(46.5) 94(47.5) 0.71 0.30 - Transmission of DF 5(2.5) 58(29.3) 135(68.2) 0.83 0.26
- prevention and protection of DF 57(28.2)75(37.9) 66(33.3) 0.51 0.27 Attitude 0(0.0) 34(17.2) 164(82.8) 2.65 0.26 - the concept of DF prevention 0(0.0) 9(4.5) 189(95.5) 2.72 0.24 - practice of DF prevention 1(0.5) 48(24.2) 149(75.3) 2.59 0.35 practice of DF prevention 5(2.5) 76(38.4) 117(59.1) 2.42 0.33
Relationship between knowledge, attitude, and practice of DF prevention
Table 4 shows that there’s a positive relationship between knowledge and attitude of correspondents and statistical significant to practice for DF disease prevention with the level of 0.05 (r = 0.283, p = <0.001, r = 0.160, p = 0.025 respectively).
59 Table 4. Relationship between knowledge, attitude, and practice of DF disease prevention by using Pearson’s chi-square (n = 198)
Variable Practice of DF disease prevention r p - value Knowledge 0.283 < 0.001 Attitude 0.160 0.025
Discussion
Knowledge of DF
50.5% of the respondents have a high level of knowledge of DF (Table 3); however, knowledge of DF prevention is at the medium level. The findings of this study are consistent with those of Sophachan (2007) and Sompim (2008), where 55.7 % of household in Ban Tar Muang Si Bun Rueang, Chonnabot District, Khon Kan Province and 87.6% of participants in Ban Tor Pradoo Moo 6 Kranuan Khon Kaen Province have a high knowledge level of DF. Moreover, a similar study by Sombutsawad et al. (2012) in Phimai district, Nakhon Ratchasima Province revealed that 58.84% from a non DF outbreak village had a high level of knowledge of DF.
Attitude of DF
This study has found that most of the respondents (82.8%) had a good level of attitude which is in agreement with Tosati (2009). In Tosati’s study of village health volunteers in Chang Thun sub-district, Bo Rai district, Trat Province found that most of the village health volunteers had the highest level of attitude (52.7%)
Practice of DF Prevention
The results showed (Table 3) that the respondent’s practice is at good level (59.1%) which is consistent with the Tosati (2009) as well. In Tosati’s study the village health volunteers had the higher level of preventative behavior (73.7%).
Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of DF Prevention Correlation
This study has shown that both knowledge and attitude of the respondents were positively related and statistical significant to practice of DF prevention with the level of 0.05 (r= 0.283, p=<0.001, r=0.160, p=0.025, respectively) (table 4), which is consistent with Tosati (2009) who has studied about the knowledge attitude and DF preventive behavior and control of the village health volunteers in Chang Thun sub-district, Bo Rai district, Trat Province which found that the correlation of DF knowledge, attitude and practice is significantly statistic at 0.05. Similarly, Chokchaichamnankit (2004) studied the topic of knowledge, attitude and practice to prevent and control of dengue hemorrhagic fever in community at Amphoe Phra Pradaeng, Samutprakan province. The Chokchaichamnankit’s study showed that there was a relationship between knowledge, attitude and practice with statistical significance (p<0.01). From the study, the authors found that the knowledge about DF prevention is at a high level but the knowledge about DF prevention and control is at the medium level. Also, the authors found that DF attitude is at a good level. It shows that firstly, DF prevention and control by destroying mosquito breeding need to be done by every household. Secondly, the people must be willing to eradicate mosquito breeding in every household and in the community. The study revealed that DF preventive behavior of the people is at a high level, for example, most of them sleep in a room that has a mosquitoe net to protect them from mosquitoes bites. Furthermore, the people have to always close their water containers – both drinking and cleaning water. House environment need to be renovated to have enough light and good ventilation because the people in Moo 1 Baan Khong Sai, Nongyangsuea sub-district, Muak Lek district Saraburi province are farmer. From the area survey, the authors found the staff of Khongsai Health Promotion Hospital always used voice broadcasting and car broadcasting to provide knowledge to the community. Therefore, it should be a process to prevent and control DF by constantly educating the people with
60 proper knowledge attitude and practice of DF prevention in many ways before rainy season starts till the end of winter. The important proceed to control DF is to focus on prevention and control the mosquito larvae (aegypti) – reduce as much as possible and try the best to shorten eruption period. The sufficient promoting in knowledge and attitude toward DF in community effects positive practice of DF prevention.
Conclusions
1. Knowledge of DF as reported by the respondents was high. 2. Respondents’ knowledge of DF prevention and protection was moderate. 3. Attitude of DF as reported by the respondents was at good level. 4. Practice of DF prevention as reported by the respondents was at high level. 5. There was statistical significant between the knowledge and attitude of the respondents and practice of DF prevention.
Based on the findings, the authors recommend that more studies are needed concerning the following: 1. Replicate this study in other villages and other DHF outbreak areas. 2. Identify strategies that will lead to cooperation among community ineffective DHF prevention. 3. Compare effectiveness of health promotion program to prevent DHF in difference formats and in different communities.
Recommendation on closing the gap between Knowledge and the application and practice of mosquito eradication. We suggest to perform the following:
1. Broadcast through the media outbreaks of DHF 2. Village health volunteers demonstrate to local villagers the six practices of mosquito eradication: 2.1 Keep water containers covered. 2.2 Change water in uncovered containers each week. 2.3 Put small fish in uncover containers. 2.4 Keep a clean environment around the home. 2.5 Follow the steps regularly and frequently. 2.6 Scrub containers each week before using for water.
Acknowledgments
Funding support is acknowledged from Asia-Pacific International University. The authors are grateful to faculty and staff at the Mission Faculty of Nursing, the Villagers of Moo 1 Baan Klongsai, Nhongyangsuea Subdistrict, Muaklek District, Saraburi Province and health personnels at Baan Klongsai Health Promoting Hospital for their support and collaboration. We are grateful to Dr. Fred Troutman for English proofreading and Associate Professor Dr. Seriwat Saminpanya for his productive comments.
References
Barbazan, P. et al. (2002). Dengue hemorrhagic fever epidemiology in Thailand: description and forecasting of epidemics. Microbes and Infection, 4, 699-705. Bureau of Epidemiology, Infectious Control Department, Ministry of Public Health. (2013). Annual Epidemiological Surveillance Report. Nonthaburi: The Agricultural Co-operative Federation of Thailand Limited Publishing. Chokchaichamnankit, L. (2004). Knowledge, Attitude and Practice to prevent and control of Dengue Hemorrhagic fever in community At Amphoe Phra Pradaeng, Samut Prakan Province. Master of Science (Community Medicine)Thesis, Chulalongkorn University. Sombutsawad, R. et al. (2012). Comparative study of Dengue Heamorrhagic fever prevention by people living in epidemic and non-epidemic villages in Phimai district, Nakhon Ratchasima Province. Srinakarin Medical Journal: 27 (4), 361-5. Sompim, M. (2008). DF Preventive and Control Behaviors of People in Ban Tor Pradoo Moo 6, Toonsad Subdistrict, Kranuan District, Konkaen Province
61 Sophachan, S. (2007). DF Prevention Practice of the people in Ban Tar Muang Si Bun Rueang, Chonnabot District, Khon Kan Province. Tosati, S. (2009). DF Knowledge, Attitude and Prevention and Control Practice of the Village Health Volunteers in Chang Thun, Bo Rai district Trat Province. Yamane, T. (1973). Statistics: An Introduction analysis. 2nd ed. New York: Harper&Row.
About the Authors
Supatcharee Makornkan is a lecturer at the Mission Faculty of Nursing, Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand. Dr. Pornpan Saminpanya is a Senior Lecturer at the Mission Faculty of Nursing, Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand. Ampaiwan Toomsan is a lecturer at the Mission Faculty of Nursing, Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand. Poomarin Intachai is a lecturer at the Mission Faculty of Nursing, Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand. Panipha Saengproa is a tutor at the Mission Faculty of Nursing, Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand. Daramas Marerngsit is a tutor at the Mission Faculty of Nursing, Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand.
62 Catalyst ISSN: 2408-137X, Volume 12, No. 2, 2015 Institute Press
Analysis of Customer Satisfaction by Perceived Leadership Practices And Front-line Staff Performance in Selected Public Sector Agencies In Central Manchester: A Multivariate Approach Sandra Tomlinson and Risper Akelo Awuor
Abstract
This quantitative research study was designed to investigate customers’ perceptions of leadership practices and front-line staff performance on their satisfaction in selected public sector agencies in central Manchester. The participants involved in the study were customers of two selected public sector agencies. The main instrument for the data collection was a four-point Likert Scale questionnaire that was administered to conveniently selected ninety six public sector customers. A multiple regression analysis was employed to analyse the data. The findings from the study revealed that there a statistically significant positive relationship between customer satisfaction and customer service worker performance.
Key words: Customers, customer satisfaction, leadership, customer perception
Introduction
Quality customer service is of paramount importance for the survival of business ventures in the twenty-first century globally. Jamaican businesses are not exempted or immune to this construct. The evolution of technology, international business and global travel has revolutionized the Jamaican business landscape and has set the standard by which Jamaican organizations must perform. In fact, because of these developments the Jamaican consumers are demanding greater level of customer service from the Jamaican business community whether public or private sector. Jamaican customers today are more cognisant of and are demanding excellent service from public sector leaders and customer service employees. It is therefore imperative that leaders in the public sector be prepared to respond to the growing demands of the public by adequately preparing customer service employees to meet and exceed customers’ expectations. Traditionally, our public sector was designed to facilitate the persons who work in these sectors and not the people for whom the sector was designed (Ministry Paper no. 56 September 2002). Jamaican customers, using the services offered by public sector agencies, have many and varied expectations and experiences. However, what is not clear is how effectively, leaders and customers service employees are responding to these customers. Henry (2006) posits that quality service is dependent on customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, leadership, and continuous improvement.
Background
In 1994, the then Prime Minister of Jamaica, P.J. Paterson initiated the benchmarking of the United Kingdom Citizen’s Charter Program in the public sector in Jamaica. This program was implemented in response to customers expressing their disgust with the service offered by officers of the government and in particular customer service workers (Tindigarukayo, 2007). Baker and Bent (1997), as cited by Tindigarukayo (2007) suggested that all public sectors are operated using the citizens’ money directly or by taxes and so citizens expect high quality service that is efficient and affordable. There is a concern by many customers that they are not experiencing high quality customer service at many public sector agencies in Jamaica. Sinclair-McCalla (2011) stated that the government of Jamaica is
63 aware of the perception that public officers are not facilitating the delivery of excellent customer service to the public. The purpose of this quantitative study is to determine if perceived leadership practices and the performance of frontline staff, impact customer satisfaction among a randomly selected sample of public sector customers. The study also examined if perceived customer satisfaction and perceived leadership practices varied by gender. The findings from the study as well as recommendations could allow leadership within the public sector in Jamaica to improve the quality of customer service offered to the public. Thus ensuring that the quality of customer service delivered is of the highest possible standard. This study may also prove significant for customers as they could see remarkable improvement in the quality of service they receive from public sector agencies. The study was guided by the following research questions:
1. What is the relationship between leadership practices and customers’ satisfaction as perceived by customers in selected public sector agencies in Jamaica? 2. What is the relationship between frontline staff performance and customers’ satisfaction as perceived by customers in selected public sector agencies in Jamaica? 3. Which predictor variable accounts more for customers’ satisfaction in the public sector in Jamaica?
Literature Review
Leadership Definitions
There are multiple definitions for leadership, Alan Keith states that leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen (Kouzes & Posner, 2007). Covey (2004), on the other hand defines leadership as “communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves” (p.98). Another definition of leadership is provided by Harris (2000, p. 120) whereby it “is the ability to influence others”. It was noted by Harris (2007) that leadership is more than having a title as it involves the development of the skills and practice needed to lead. Unless leaders in the public sector buy into the philosophy of excellent customer service, the organization will not create excellent customer service. The leader’s philosophy must be communicated to workers so that they can make rational decisions that will enhance customers’ experiences.
Leadership Practices
Based on an analysis of various leadership experiences Kouzes and Posner (2007) postulate five practices of exemplary leadership. These are: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable others to Act and encourage the Heart.
Customer Service
Harris (2000) states that “customer service is anything we do for the customer that enhances the customer experience” (p.2). The essence of customer service is “concerned with looking after customers to ensure that their wants, needs, and expectations are met or exceeded, thus creating customer satisfaction” (Henry, 2003, p.1). Henry further posits that quality customer service is “meeting and exceeding customer expectations every time” (p.3).
Customers
A customer may be defined as “someone who depends on the timeliness, quality and accuracy of someone else’s work” (Henry, 2003, p. 18). Timm (2001) defines a customer as “any person with whom we exchange value” (p.2), he further postulates that there are different names for customers, based on the nature of the business or organization. The name that customers are referred to as is based on the type of transaction that they do with an organization or business. For the purpose of this study customers are, clients, and users, who engage in some form of transaction with selected public sector agencies in Jamaica.
64 Customer satisfaction and Quality
Satisfaction as defined by Harris (2007) “is the overall feeling of contentment with a customer interaction. Customer satisfaction recognizes the difference between customer expectations and customer perceptions” (p.2). Customers’ satisfaction is often established quickly or developed sometimes over time. According to Douglas and Connor (2003) “The consumer who has developed a heightened perception of quality has become more demanding and less tolerant of assumed shortfalls in service.” (p. 1). Many researchers have stated that there is a strong relation between satisfaction and quality. The concepts are many times referred to as doppelgängers. However, many academics emphasize that the concepts can be used interchangeably (Granroos, 1982, Boulding et al., 1993; Rust & Zahorik, 1993; Jamali 2005). Satisfaction and quality are based on expectation, perception, experiences and evaluation of the service.
Methodology
Participants for the study on how perceived leadership practices and the performance of frontline staff, impact customer satisfaction were randomly selected from public sector customers. Sampling was used to obtain a sample of ninety six (96) drawn from the public sector customers’ in Central Manchester. The data collected was analysed using multiple regression analysis procedure to determine the relationship between customers’ satisfaction and perceived leadership practices and customer service workers performance. All ethical guidelines for the research process, particularly caring for data were adhered to.
Data Analysis
The resulting output for the regression to predict customer satisfaction from leadership practices and customer service workers performance are represented by the tables below.
Table 1.
Correlations
NewCRS1 NewCRM2 NewC3 Pearson Correlation 1 .617** .405** NewCRS1 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 N 96 96 96
Pearson Correlation .617** 1 .362**
NewCRM2 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 N 96 96 96 Pearson Correlation .405** .362** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 NewC3 N 96 96 96 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
The Pearson correlation coefficient presented in Table 1 shows a statistically significant positive relationship between customer satisfaction and customer service worker performance (r = 0.41, p = 0.00< 0.05) and customer satisfaction and leadership practices (r = 0.36, p = 0.00 < 0.05).
65 Table 2.
Model Summary Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate
1 .429a .184 .167 .65262 a. Predictors: (Constant), NewCRM2, NewCRS1
The regression model indicates that 18% of the variance in Customer Satisfaction is accounted for by Leadership practices and customer service. As indicated in the ANOVA Table below The model is
statistically significant, F(2,93) = 10.50; p=.0001<.05).
A value of 0.43 indicates that customer service managers’ practices and customer service workers performance are good predictors of customer satisfaction. The R2 (coefficient of determination) value of portion of the dependent variable explained by the dependent variable. In this model R2 is 0.184 that is the independent variables, customer service mangers practice and customer service workers performance explains 18% of the variability of the dependent variable customer satisfaction.
Table 3. ANOVAa
Model Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig. Regression 8.941 2 4.470 10.496 .000b 1 Residual 39.610 93 .426 Total 48.551 95 a. Dependent Variable: NewC3 b. Predictors: (Constant), NewCRM2, NewCRS1
Table 4. Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized t Sig. Coefficients B Std. Error Beta (Constant) 1.386 .302 4.589 .000 1 NewCRS1 .243 .099 .293 2.466 .016 NewCRM2 .208 .137 .181 1.518 .132 . Dependent Variable: NewC3
The standardized coefficient, β, for customer service worker performance is 0.293. (See Coefficients table 4). This means that for each unit of customer service workers’ performance there is an increase/increment of 0.29 in customer satisfaction. The increment isstatistically significant at 0.01 level.
Discussion
Customer service relationship has gained significant attention in Jamaica in recent years due to the fact that the relationship between customers and service workers and leaders ultimately determines the success or failure of business. Based on the findings, there is a statistically significant relationship between customer satisfaction and customer service worker performance in the public sector in Central Manchester, Jamaica. However the data has shown that there is no statistically significant relationship between leadership practices and customer satisfaction in Central Manchester. This could be as a result of the fact that leaders do not necessarily have day to day contact with customers of the selected public sector agencies. The variables customer service workers performance and leadership practice are good predictors of customer satisfaction.
66 However, workers performance accounted for more customer satisfaction than the variable leadership practice.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The study focused on the relationship between customers’ satisfactions by perceived leadership practices and customer service workers performance in Central Manchester. The findings indicated a statistically significant relationship between customer satisfaction and customer service workers performance. The findings will assist public sector organization to place more emphasis on the training of customer service workers. The theoretical context suggested that leadership practices and customer service worker performance is related to customer satisfaction in the public sector. However, the results did not show a statistically significant relationship between leadership practices and customer satisfaction in this study. The findings therefore provide the base for further studies. The study did not include all possible factors that could impact customer satisfaction in the public sector the researcher is therefore recommending that further studies be done to investigate other variables that can influence customer satisfaction in the public sector in Jamaica. A qualitative orientation could be employed to discern managers’ perception of the performance of employees in the public sector. The literature demarcated the relationship between customer satisfactions in relation to leadership practices. The literature available on customer satisfaction been impacted by leadership practices and worker performance led to the purpose of this research.
References
Baker, J. R. & Bent. D. (1997). Customers service: Charters and their role in improving public sector service delivery in the UK and Australia. Boulding, B., Kalra, A., Staelin, R., & Zeithaml, V. (1993). A dynamic process model of service quality: from expectations to behavioral intentions. Journal of Marketing Research,7-27. Covey, S. R. (2004). The 8th habit: from effectiveness to greatness. USA: Free Press. Douglas, L. & Connor, R. (2003). Attitudes to service quality – the expectation gap.Nutrition & Food Science, 33(3), 165-172. Government of Jamaica. (2002). Public sector modernisation vision and strategy. Ministry paper no. 56. Retrieved from http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/carica... Gronroos, C. (1982). Strategic Management and Marketing. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. Harris, E. K. (2000). Customer Service – A Practical Approach (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Henry, B. (2006). Strategies for creating a service culture. Retrieved from http://csajonline.com/service_ culture.htm Jamali, D. (2005). A study of customer satisfaction in the context of a public private partnership.International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 24(4), 370-385. Kouzes, J. M. & Posner, B. Z. (2007). The ldearship challenge (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Rust, R. & Zahorik, A. (1993). Customer satisfaction, customer retention, and market share. Journal of Retailing, 69(2), 193-215. Sinclair-McCalla, P. (2011). Reducing bureaucracy- a vision for Government customer service. Retrieved from www.icac.org.jm/.../Reducing%20Bureaucracy%20-... Timm, P. (2001). Customer service: career success through customer satisfaction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Tindigarukayo, J. (2007). Benchmarking the citizen’s charter in Jamaica: An empirical evaluation.Proceedings of the 8th Annual Conference Crisis, Chaos and Change: Caribbean Development Challenges in the 21st century. Trinidad and Tobago, March 26-28, 2007.
About the Authors
Dr Sandra Tomlinson works at Northern Caribbean University, Jamaica. Dr Risper Akelo Awuor is the Dean of the Faculty of Education and Psychology of Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand.
67 Catalyst ISSN: 2408-137X, Volume 12, No. 2, 2015 Institute Press
Decreasing Anxiety among Communication Arts EFL Students Through Peer Teaching and Activities Jeffrey Dawala Wilang and Atita Satitdee
Abstract
This paper reports the results of a longitudinal study aimed to create classroom activities that can lead to the reduction of speaking, listening, reading, and writing anxieties in English language learning of Thai undergraduates major in Communication Arts in a university in Thailand. Four widely-used anxiety scales were utilized such as Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale (FLLAS) by Kim (2000) for listening anxiety, Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA) by McCroskey (1982) for speaking anxiety, Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) by Saito et al. (2009) for reading anxiety, and Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) by Cheng (2004) for writing anxiety. Results of the study reveal that the participants are more anxious with their receptive skills (listening and reading, M=3.49 and M=3.39 respectively) as compared with their productive skills (speaking and writing, M=3.35 and M=3.38 respectively). Moreover, the highest anxiety provoking situations in each language skill include inability to differentiate words in listening (M=3.73), inability to understand what is being read (M=3.62), using English in writing a composition (M=3.67), and forgetting facts while speaking (M=3.57). The above findings are crucial on how language teaching is designed this ongoing semester.
Keywords: Communication Arts, English language, reduction activities, skill-specific anxiety
Introduction
For more than a semester of teaching English to mass communication students, students have cited language anxiety when using English, which in turn inhibits their participation to most activities designed for their classes. Some of the common comments are: I don’t like English, English is hard, I’m shy to speak English, I always think I’m not good in English, English grammar is my weakness, I cannot listen, etcetera. Most of the students, however, accepts the importance of English in their future careers, especially in the upcoming full economic integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The above comments stimulate our desire to conduct a classroom-based study on anxiety in our classes. To date, research on anxiety has become language skill-specific, for example, speaking skill. However, the actual language learning in our foundation English classes is not skill-specific, rather it is an interdependence of four language skills – speaking, listening, writing and reading. While it is possible to isolate teaching a particular skill or sub-skill, the design of the curriculum encourages the teaching of various skills in one setting – a 3-hour class. Thus, this classroom-based study aim to understand the anxiety experiences of the language learners in our classes and to design in-class activities that may decrease their language apprehensions.
Debilitating effects of anxiety
Factors affecting anxiety and its debilitating effects to language learning has been established since the 70’s. Accordingly, anxiety is the “distinct complex self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings and behavior related to classroom language and learning arising from the uniqueness of language learning process” (Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope, 1986: p. 128). The designed measurement scale, Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), after statistical analysis deduced three factors provoking anxiety such as communication apprehension, fear of failure, and fear of negative evaluation generally found in a foreign language class. Although FLCAS is widely
68 used, revisions are being done to suit the context under study. The generalizability of the listed anxiety provoking situations may not be applicable to a learning a particular language skill. Overtime, research on foreign language anxiety identified language learning aspects where debilitating effects were established to specific language’s macro-skills such as reading, speaking, writing and listening coupled with various skill-specific measurements. In listening, Kim (2000) in her extensive research on listening anxiety generated Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale (FLLAS) specific for listening anxiety. Using Kim’s FLLAS, Golchi (2012) found negative correlation between listening anxiety and listening comprehension. Similar to Golchi, Zhang (2013) concluded that foreign language listening anxiety could have a direct impact onto learners’ listening performance. Similar to the above debilitating effects of anxiety, Elkhafaifi (2005) further found out that demographic variables may affect the listening anxiety as experienced by students in an Arabic language classroom. Accordingly, year in school and level of Arabic course are negatively correlated with listening anxiety. In speaking, McCroskey in 1982 constructed the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24) to measure four communication contexts such as speaking in public, small groups, meetings and in dyads. Mak (2011) collaborated such anxiety situations among Hong Kong university students including lack of preparation in speaking in-front of the class, corrections while speaking, and prohibition of native language use in the classroom. While Gregersen and Horwitz (2002) found negative effects of anxiety on oral performance, the authors by using video-taped oral interviews indicated that perceptions regarding errors and individual performance standards differ individually. Saito et al. (1999) designed the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) to alienate reading anxiety from general foreign language classroom anxiety measured by, for example, Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. Joo and Damron’s (2015) study concluded that foreign language reading anxiety varies depending on course levels, gender and exposure to the target language. Shi and Liu (2006) found out that Chinese are more anxious than their American counterparts. In addition, low language proficiency, lack of cultural knowledge, unfamiliarity of the learning context and teacher diversity affected the level of anxiety of Chinese male and female students abroad (Zhang, 2000). Cheng (2004) elaborated writing anxiety by conceptualizing three dimensions including Somatic Anxiety – psychological effects; Cognitive Anxiety – concerns about perceptions, expectations and performance; and, Avoidance Behavior – aspects related to behaviors of the learners. Since then, the negative effect of writing anxiety to writing task or performance has been clearly established (Chen & Lin, 2009; Saito & Samimy, 1996). Kurt and Atay (2007) demonstrated that students who received peer feedback experienced less writing anxiety than those who got feedback from their teacher. Revisiting the interdependence of four skill-based anxieties, Pae (2013) suggested that listening, writing, speaking and reading contribute to the general classroom anxiety experienced by the language learners. Furthermore, diminished language performance of the students has been credited to their anxiety experiences (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1995b). In a Spanish class, Casado and Dereshiwsky (2001) indicated that the apprehension levels of the students do not necessarily decrease or increase over time. The authors suggested group activities, the use of native language, creation of support groups and having smaller classes to teach the students. In-class situations such as negative feedback, peer feedback, and negative thoughts have been documented to have debilitating effects on the language process. Loreto and McDonough (2013) found out that students who perceived feedback positively possessed lower level of anxiety. Among Korean students, Yim (2004) indicated that negative thoughts on their own English ability generates anxiety. With regards to peer feedback in writing, Yastibas and Yastibas (2015) pointed that it has positive results such as the decrease of writing anxiety, increase of self-confidence and improvement of peer collaboration in the classroom. Burden (2004) endorsed teacher’s role to act as facilitator in the classroom assessing their performance in a positive way. Much research on anxiety have focused on its relationship with language performances by administering survey questionnaires. And most studies employed one-time survey method and statistical correlations with grades or language performances were computed afterwards. And while previous research were able to identify variables that incite students’ anxiety in language learning, limited studies have conducted twofold surveys to the same population in order to find out which activities or teaching methods could be adapted to decrease or abate anxiety in the language learning process. Moreover, the complex interplay of variables, of which some are mentioned above, are needed to be investigated in a Thai classroom of EFL students majoring in Mass Communication. This will contribute to the paucity of classroom-based studies specifically on the practical recommendations and techniques to address sources of foreign language anxiety in the classroom.
69 Design of the study
The study is longitudinal, which started in the second semester (January - May 2015) of School Year 2014-2015 until September 2015, the second month of the first semester (August – December 2015) of School Year 2015-2016 in a medium-sized university in Thailand. This study aim (1) to identify the most anxiety provoking situations in English language learning among undergraduate Communication Arts students and (2) to find ways to decrease their anxiety through peer teaching and activities by using action research approach to understand and resolve the phenomenon under study (Brydon-Miller, 2003).
Participants of the study
The survey was distributed to 160 first year undergraduate students majoring in Mass Communication at the start of the semester in January 2015. On September 2015, the survey was administered to the same population. However, twenty students left the university. Thus, only 140 responses were considered in the final analysis of data.
First phase of the study
Last semester, we have administered four widely-used anxiety scales such as Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale (FLLAS) by Kim (2000) for listening anxiety, Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA) by McCroskey (1982) for speaking anxiety, Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) by Saito et al. (2009) for reading anxiety, and Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) by Cheng (2004) for writing anxiety. About one hundred and sixty students participated from our classes. The anxiety scales were found to be highly reliable: 33 items, α = .91 for listening; 20 items, α = .89 for reading; 24 items, α = .86 for speaking; and 22 items, α = .86 for writing.
Second phase of the study
Knowing the anxiety levels experienced by our students last semester, we intentionally included peer teaching, a classroom-based activity where students become the central figures in the classroom as compared to their lecturer. It is assumed that such practice reduces their anxiety considerably as recommended by previous studies (Casado & Dereshiwsky, 2001; Kurt & Atay, 2007). Peer teachers are given options to choose the lessons in the textbook to ‘teach’ to their classmates. They are expected to prepare activities of their choice. However, they are required to discuss such activities to their lecturer a week ahead of their schedule. Guidelines for peer-teachers and teaching techniques were adapted from previous research’s recommendations to aid on how anxiety can be reduced. At the end of at least four lessons, we administered an adapted scale which collated only the top 5 highest anxiety situations from the four surveys experienced by the students. The students were instructed to think of their peers as teachers while they filled-out the survey forms.
The instruments
SLWAI is a 27-item questionnaire designed by Cheng (2004) and was generated to measure the second language writing anxiety of undergraduate Chinese students. Example of anxiety situations are writing under pressure, writing under time constraints, worry about evaluation, among others. FLRAS is a 20-item scale created by Saito et al. (1999). Here are the examples: getting upset when the reading material is not understood, getting confused when the some text are forgotten, getting nervous when the words cannot be vocalized, and feeling uncomfortable in reading aloud, etcetera. FLLAS consists of 33 items developed by Kim (2000) to measure the listening anxiety of Korean second language learners of English. Sample listening anxiety situations are when the listening passage is read once, people talk fast, unfamiliar topic, difficulty in the understanding spoken instructions, word by word translation of the listening text, inability to understand the content, among others. PRCA is developed by McCroskey (1982) to measure the anxiety within the contexts of speaking situations listed where the learners feel anxiety are in group discussions, meetings, getting into conversations, and
70 giving speeches. Instances include participating in group discussions, expressing an opinion in a meeting, conversing with a new acquaintance, fear of giving a speech, forgetting facts while giving a speech, among others. In all surveys, the students were asked to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement of each item by using a 5-point Likert Scale. Score in the surveys fall into five categories such as 1.0-1.7 – Strongly Disagree, 1.8-2.5 – Disagree; 2.6-3.4 – Neutral, 3.5-4.2 – Agree, and 4.2-5.0 – Strong Agree. Negative statements were turned into positive in the data analysis.
Data analysis
The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The means of scores of the items in the first phase of the survey were computed to know the most anxiety provoking situations experienced by the students in the classroom. After adjusting our teaching practices through focusing on peer teaching and classroom activities, the second survey was administered and the means of scores of the top 5 most anxiety-provoking situations were compared to the former.
Findings and discussions
In this section, we discuss the findings of our study focusing on the indicators of anxiety provoking situations in all four skills, the changes that we have introduced after the results of the first phase of study were collated, and the comparison of the results from the first and second phases of the study were discussed.
Highest anxiety provoking situations
Results of the first phase of the study revealed that receptive skills, listening (M=3.49) and reading (M=3.39), have slightly higher mean scores as compared to productive skills, writing, (M= 3.38) and speaking (M=3.35). The above results suggest that a myriad of factors, i.e., the numerous activities held in the classroom, affected the students’ uncertainties of what to measure based on the means of scores indicating their neutrality in all four skills as compared to specific-item analysis where the students decisively agreed that such situations in the succeeding sentence are anxiety-provoking. The highest anxiety provoking situations in each language skill include inability to differentiate words in listening (M=3.73), inability to understand what is being read (M=3.62), using English in writing a composition (M=3.67), and forgetting facts while speaking (M=3.57). The above results indicate the weakness of the students in listening to use cues in the segmentation of spoken words in order to identify the words, which is needed in order to understand the meaning of word or the text as a whole. In reading, the results is alarming as the students may lack of lexical knowledge, even though the readings topic provided were selected from general topics. In writing, the students partially agreed that writing in English arouses their anxiety. It could be result of higher language competence where correctness of language matters as compared to speaking where errors are often permitted and can be self-corrected at the same moment. Since our students are mass communication who are exposed to various communication settings, their speaking anxiety is the lowest among all four-skills measured.
Comparison of highest anxiety provoking situations
In listening, the top 5 anxiety situations (refer to Table 1, first phase) include difficulty in differentiating spoken words (M=3.73), listening to a lecture (M=3.68), fast delivery of speech (M=3.67), familiarity with the topic (M=3.66) and a noisy environment (M=3.62). Most of the students agreed that receptive ability including lexical segmentation and speech rate, and schema affect listening comprehension. It is interesting to note that it is necessary to maintain an orderly classroom as it may affect the input of the text to the hearer. It may also intervene in the process of differentiating words as other sounds interfere in the hearing process. Another interesting point indicated is that lecture may actually stimulate tensions within the students’ minds. This situation heavily influenced our decision to initiate an assisted peer teaching activities in our classes this on-going semester reducing our lecture hours.
71 Table 1. Listening anxiety
Indicators of listening anxiety situations (Kim, 2000) Means of scores First phase Second phase It is difficult to differentiate words. 3.73 3.39 I feel tense when listening to, or imagining myself listening to 3.68 2.97 a lecture. I worry I might not be able to understand when people talk 3.67 3.58 too fast. I am nervous when I’m not familiar with the topic. 3.66 3.37 I have difficulty when the environment around me is noisy. 3.62 3.49
With regards to reading (see Table 2, phase one), the common problem is comprehension-based. As it is a receptive skill, like that of listening, lack of understanding the reading in word-level could lead to a myriad of problems, for example, the need to answer comprehension and inferential questions about the reading text. Such challenges requires an enormous aid from the lecturer on how to help students to read per se what the reading passage is all about.
Table 2. Reading anxiety
Indicators of reading anxiety situations (Saito et al, 2009) Means of scores First phase Second phase I get upset when I’m not sure whether I understand what I 3.62 3.50 am reading in English. I am nervous when I am reading a passage in English when I 3.60 3.53 am not familiar with the topic. When reading English, I get nervous and confused when I 3.59 3.56 don’t understand every word. I would be happy to learn to speak English rather than having 3.58 3.26 to read as well. When reading English, I often understand the words but can’t 3.55 3.36 quite understand what the author is saying.
Writing a composition in English is the least activity the students would like to do in their classes. This could be explained by the negative thoughts of the students, their fear of being evaluated negatively, and loss of face. Feedback strategy, therefore, has to be considered to gradually increase the students’ self-esteem to be able to take risks in writing the required composition.
Table 3. Writing anxiety
Indicators of writing anxiety situations (Cheng, 2004) Means of scores First phase Second phase Unless I have no choice, I would use English to write a 3.67 3.25 composition. If my English composition is to be evaluated, I would worry 3.59 2.91 about getting a very poor grade. I’m afraid that all my English compositions would always be as 3.52 3.31 very poor. I’m afraid that other students would deride my English 3.51 3.13 composition if they read it.
72 I’m afraid that other students would deride my English as very 3.51 3.13 poor.
In speaking, there is a heavy emphasis on students’ uneasiness to get involved in group discussions (refer to Table 4, phase one). This could be due to the fact that every group member during discussions are required to provide an input of the topic at hand. Others might feel pressured by their peers as compared to their lecturer’s pressure, which is often disregarded as students may opt to stay quiet.
Table 4. Speaking anxiety
Indicators of speaking anxiety situations (McCroskey, 1982) Means of scores First phase Second phase Getting involved in group discussions 3.57 3.26 While giving a speech, I get so nervous I forget the facts I really 3.57 3.26 know Not comfortable while participating in group discussions 3.52 2.52 Not calm and relaxed while participating in group discussions 3.49 2.55 I dislike participating in group discussions 3.46 3.83
Upon considering the situations where the students feel apprehension, discomfort, or uneasiness, assisted peer-led lessons and activities in the classroom were adopted. This complemented the new directive of the university to consider communicative approaches in language teaching. The guidelines enumerated in Table 5 were given to our students to support peer teaching and activities and were considered as ways to decrease the high levels of anxiety on the items found in the first phase of study. It is believed that teacher-centered classroom in language teaching ease the students’ listening anxiety as their peers are expected to speak slower, use simpler vocabulary, among others. In most peer-led activities, more proficient students were expected to act as peer-teachers resulting to a less stressful learning environment (Merc, 2011) may it be in reading, listening, writing and speaking. Since it was anticipated that our students will have difficulty in planning the lesson, each group were required to prepare and consult their respective lecturers at least one week prior to their scheduled presentation. The assigned group has to create practice-based activities such as games. Where individual participation is needed, the group presenters were asked to anoint their own representative to do the required task. The group presenters were also asked to encourage in-group discussions. To abate their anxiety about lack of topic familiarity and unpreparedness, the group presenters were required to inform their classmates of the lesson beforehand by posting updates in our class’s social media account. Lastly, the use of Thai language was permitted whenever necessary.
Table 5. Guidelines in peer teaching and activities
Key points Prepare lessons and consult the lecturer at least one week ahead of the schedule Design practice-based activities in groups Give opportunity for individual participation but as a representative of their respective group Promote discussion in groups Inform the students beforehand about the lessons The use of native language is okay whenever necessary
Aside from the listed guidelines above, some key areas in our teaching were listed to be improved (refer to Table 6). The following were agreed: photocopy the timetable of lessons and activities for all the students before the start of the semester to keep them up-to-date, allow the use of paper-based dictionaries in the classroom to minimize classroom nuances, creation of our class’s social media account to post announcements, to select general topics for all four skills, to do individual feedback rather than in-class to avoid loss of face, to give time for the students to prepare, to encourage group or individual consultations with their respective
73 lecturers, and to do pre-presentations with their lecturer ahead of the scheduled activity. Based on previous recommendations from previous studies, specific points to be considered in listening are to use pause and play technique to make sense of the listening text in phrasal or sentence levels; in speaking, to allow the use of native language during group discussions as comprehension of the topic is paramount, and to allow notes during presentations but reading of notes is ultimately discouraged.
Table 6. Techniques adapted
Key points listed Providing students with the timetable containing lessons and activities Pause and play technique in listening Use of paper-based dictionaries Use of native language is permitted during group discussions Creation of a social media account to post announcements, etcetera Selection of general topics for all four-skills Individual feedback is encouraged Giving time for students to prepare for all four-skills Allowing notes in presentations but not reading Encouraging group consultations with the lecturer Do pre-presentation with the teacher ahead of the scheduled activity
The results of the second phase of the study (see Tables 1 – 4, second phase) produced interesting points to be considered. In listening, the students’ anxiety while listening to their classmates – the assigned group to teach the lesson has decreased. This could be explained by the fact that similarity of accent – Thai accent between the presenters and listeners do exist. The word stress of the word /computer/ in a Standard English might be incomprehensible to some students as they are used to hearing the word stress at the last syllable. Thus, accented words familiar to the students were recognized easier. This is an affirmation of Casado and Dereshiwsky’s (2001) recommendations that group activities and the use of native language may actually decrease anxiety in the language classroom. Moreover, the pause and play techniques in listening may have given more time for the students to recognize the words. It is also indicated that students prefer speaking activities rather than reading. I would be happy to learn to speak English rather than having to read shows the largest difference of the means of scores of the students under reading anxiety. Understanding a reading text would be more laborious as students may need to use certain conventions and techniques to understand the meaning of the text. In speaking as it is done face to face, the listener or teacher can ask questions when the idea is unclear. Also, this could be the result of giving less attention to reading in-class as compared to the previous semester. In writing, much of the students’ worries are related to negative evaluation, for examples, poor grade and negative feedback. This is consistent with the debilitating effects of anxiety onto writing performance (Chen & Lin, 2009). The apprehensions in writing could be attributed to the complexity of the writing process in which cohesion and coherence are highly considered. At times, students may need to write a new topic where they have very limited knowledge about it. So it is not surprising when students negotiate to have the writing activity as a take home assignment. Nevertheless, giving more time for the students to write and allowing them to use paper-based dictionaries may actually help in decreasing writing anxiety. Moreover, as students may have to avoid loss of face in the classroom, individual feedback may help students feel at ease in the writing process. Lastly, one indicator has actually increased in speaking - dislike of participating in group discussions. Similar to Mak’s (2001) study, students might feel pressured during group consultations with their respective lecturers as all group members must individually take part in the pre-presentation activities and while- presentation activities. While students may not pay attention to the lecturer, students often cannot neglect peer pressure to undertake a speaking act especially when individual contribution is a factor to compute group grades. Also, immediate feedback during the pre-presentation activity could also be a contributing factor. Hence, the teacher has to provide a well-thought feedback in a timely manner. Contrary to the above indicator, the teaching techniques such as encouraging group consultations and pre-presentations may have help students to become better prepared. Allowing notes during presentations is a relief for the students whenever they forget the facts. The above ways support the reported strategies or techniques on how anxiety can be reduced in the classroom.
74 Overall, the unpredictability of results affirm the very nature of foreign language anxiety in which it may increase or decrease based on the students’ feelings or perceptions during the language learning process (Casado and Dereshiwsky, 2001). While the results are not new, the use of twofold survey and action research approach may help a classroom phenomenon better understood.
Recommendations
Although previous research on anxiety indicated its debilitating effects to language learners by administering a one-time survey, administering twofold surveys where fairly similar conditions occur maybe more beneficial on how a phenomenon under study could be understood. And though action research in the classroom could be adapted, there is a need to reinforce it with other methodologies to claim significant effects, for example, of peer teaching and classroom activities as ways to decrease the students’ anxiety in foreign language learning. Longitudinal studies which include classroom observations, student journals, among others can also be considered. As it is convenient to conduct classroom-based research, students’ voices by doing focus group or individual interviews should be included to gain deeper insights on the students’ experiences and to utilize it to support the limitations of a survey method. By doing so, the results may become more reliable as students are given opportunities to share their own personal interpretations of the study.
Conclusion
This research is situated in a classroom of communication arts students in Thailand. So far we have reported general guidelines for peer ‘teachers’ and the lecturers after administering the four different skill-specific language anxiety surveys. Although anxiety could happen at any time due to varying factors such as the learner, the teacher, environment, the task, among others, we have found out that peer teaching and activities may help decrease the most-provoking anxiety indicators in all English skill-specific surveys except in group discussions.
References
Brydon-Miller, M. (2003). Why action research. Action Research, (1),1 9-28. Burden, P. (2004). The teacher as a facilitator: reducing anxiety in the EFL university classroom. JALT Hokkaido Journal, 8, 3-18. Casado, M., & Dereshiwsky, M. (2001). Foreign language anxiety of university students. College Student Journal, 35(4), 539-551. Cheng, Y.S. (2004). A measure of second language writing anxiety: Scale development and preliminary validation. Journal of Second Language Writing, 13(4), 313-335. doi:10.1016/j.jslw.2004.07.001. Cheng, X. (2004). English listening comprehension and anxiety. Computer-Assisted Foreign Language Education, 96, 65-72. Elkhafaifi, H. (2005). Listening comprehension and anxiety in the Arabic language classroom. The Modern Journal, 89(2), 206-220. Golchi, M. M. (2012). Listening Anxiety and Its Relationship with Listening Strategy Use and Listening Comprehension among Iranian IELTS Learners. International Journal of English Linguistics,(4), 2 115-128. Gregersin, T., & Horwitz, E. (2002). Language learning and perfectionism: Anxious and non-anxious language learners reactions to their own oral performance. The Modern Language Journal, 86, (4), 562-570. Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz M. B., & Cope, J. A. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70, 125-132. Joo, K. Y., & Damron, J. (2015) Foreign language reading anxiety: Korean as a foreign language in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.ncolctl.org/. Kim, J. (2000). Foreign language listening anxiety: A study of Korean students learning English. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Texas-Austin. Kurt, G., & Atay, D. (2007). The effects of peer feedback on wiritng anxiety of prospective Turkish teachers of EFL. Online Submission, 3(1), 12-23. Loreto, S., & McDonough, K. (2013). The relationship between instructor feedback and ESL student anxiety. TESL Canada, 31(1), 20-41.
75 MacIntyre, P. D. (1995b). On seeing the forest and the trees. A rejoinder to Sparks and Ganschow. The Modern Language Journal, 79, 245-275. Mak, B. (2011). An exploration of speaking-in-class anxiety with Chinese EFL learners. System, 39, 202-214. McCroskey, J.C. (1982). An introduction to rhetorical communication. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Pae, T. (2013). Skill-based L2 anxieties revisited: Their intra-relations and the interrelations with general foreign language anxiety. Saito, Y., Garza, T. J., & Horwitz, E. K. (2009) Foreign language reading anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 83(2), 202-218. Saito, Y., & Samimy, K. (1996). Foreign language anxiety and language performance: A study of learner anxiety in beginning, intermediate and advanced level college students of Japanese. Foreign Language Annals, 29(2), 239-249. Shi, Y. Z., & Liu, Z. Q. (2006). Foreign language reading anxiety and its relationship to English achievement and gender. Journal of Pla University of Foreign Languages, 2, 013. Yastibas, G., & Yastibas, A. (2015). The effect of peer feedback on writing anxiety in Turkish EFL (English as a foreign language) students. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 199, 530-538. Yim, S. (2014). An anxiety model for EFL young learners: A path analysis. System, 42, 344-354. Zhang, L. (2000). Uncovering Chinese ESL students’ reading anxiety in a study-abroad context. Asia Pacific Journal of Language in Education, 3, 2 31-56. Zhang, X. (2013). Foreign language listening anxiety and listening performance: Conceptualizations and causal relationships. System, 41, 164-177.
About the Authors
Jeffrey Dawala Wilang and Atita Satitdee are both lecturers at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nation University, Thailand. They co-teach some English foundation courses for Communication Arts students.
76 Catalyst ISSN: 2408-137X, Volume 12, No. 2, 2015 Institute Press
Integrating English to Science Teacher Training Classroom Supat Sairattanain
Abstract
This study was aimed determining the attitudes of student-teachers towards the integration of English in science education. With the impending ASEAN Community of 2015, the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology in Thailand initiated the campaign of combining English usage with scientific tasks. The subjects of this study were forty students, enrolled in the faculty of education, majoring in Science education at Sisaket Rajabhat University, a teacher training institution in the Northeastern part of Thailand. The subjects were assigned to do projects related to science experimentation, and also present their experiments in English. Prior to their presentations, they were trained how to present projects in English. Data were collected by questionnaires, which aimed to determine their attitudes towards the integration of English into their science project presentations, and to compare different strategies used to complete the task. Students were also interviewed after completing the questionnaire. The results stated that the majority of student-teachers considered integrating English in science as very challenging as they needed to practice how to deliver both accurate science content and comprehensible English. Nonetheless, all of the subjects realized how important it is for them as future science teachers to teach in English. Hence, they were willing to practice more with a positive attitude. These findings can be used as guidelines for a teacher training institution to further enhance the integration of English in subject matters.
Keywords: Content-based instruction, teacher training, English use
Introduction
English is important for educational sectors as it gives access to a vast pool of knowledge. In Thailand, English has become an important element in education at all levels, including teacher education. This need is becoming even more urgent as Thailand prepares to join the ASEAN Community in 2015. As an effect, English has been integrated as part of science education since 2013 with seminars and workshops initiated by The Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology (IPST) for the purpose of educating science instructors to be aware of the use of English. This can be seen as an indicator that Thailand is readying itself for use of English as a medium of instruction. Nonetheless, there is a limited amount of research with regards to science teacher training. To bridge this gap and promote the use of English in future science classroom, this present study was conducted to explore the attitudes of student-teachers towards the assimilation of English use in the teaching of science subjects. Specifically, this mainly focuses on the attitudes of science teacher trainees when tasked with delivering teaching and presentations in English. A side issue worth investigating is also the application of oral presentation strategies used by science teacher trainees. Investigating student teachers’ attitudes towards the use of English as a medium of instruction should be a key in defining the success of further integration of English into the subject matter. Teachers in the 21st century should not be well-versed only in knowledge about subject content, but they also need to be aware of how to achieve the level of competence suitable for promoting learners to learn in the current world where English is a crucial tool for functions of everyday life.
77 Literature Review
English in Thailand
Wiriyachitra (2002) pointed out the role of English as important factor in the progress of business, education, science, and technological development in Thailand. In particular, with the upcoming ASEAN community campaign in 2015 where English has been promoted as a medium of communication for people of the region, the mastery of the language becomes even more important for Thailand. Billions of baht has been spent to raise the awareness and preparedness of Thailand and the Thai people for the AEC (Chonkittavorn, 2014). Regardless of the budget spent for improving Thai students’ ability to be compatible with the ASEAN community, the relatively low proficiency of English in Thailand as compared to other neighbouring countries cannot be denied. Noom-ura’s (2013) study found that under-qualified teachers seemed to be the main point of this issue. She mentioned that from a survey conducted with four hundred Thai teachers of English, 60% of the respondents report to having very limited knowledge of both English subject content and teaching methodology for the subjects. This result is echoed in Foley’s (2005) study and de Segovia and Hardison’s (2009) study where English teachers have reported using the Thai language to teach their English classes. Further subjects had reported a very traditional approach in language teaching, where structure is emphasized, instead of communication.
Attitudes towards English
Exploring participants’ attitude towards English was done for three purposes to support the objective of the present study. First, as a means to examine the language situation in the target participants’ context, and second, to analyze for any correlation between attitude and strategies used while attempting to complete the English presentation task. The final purpose was to see the willingness of student-teachers in using English in teaching science content. Attitude is considered pivotal as it is one of the key factors in implementing English as a medium of instruction in higher education (Tatzl, 2011). A fair amount of studies has been done to look at the correlation of student’s learning attitude with performance. One of such studies conducted in a Thai context was done among undergraduate students (Hengsadeekul, et al., 2013). The study found that Thai students possessed an instrumental attitude towards the use of English, as they perceived English as useful for task completion and material comprehension. Aside from that, the study also pointed out that the students also viewed English integratively, as the language gave them insights into understanding different people who spoke the language. This study will serve as a baseline for the present study.
Speaking strategies
Speaking skill is an important facet for teachers because it involves the aspects of explaining, telling, and providing knowledge verbally. For the Thai context, one important teacher role is that he or she is a knowledge transmitter, which may give rise to the assumption that teachers who do not talk are not doing their jobs well (Sanprasert, 2010). Nonetheless, as reported earlier, Thai teachers are found to emphasize structural knowledge in their English language pedagogy (Foley, 2005; de Segovia & Hardison, 2009). This may not bode well with the communicative idea that is integral in task-based teaching and learning. With this as a cornerstone, it is necessary that speaking skills of both experienced and novice teachers are at an acceptable level. For second language learners of English, this may be a challenge that may be attended to through the development of strategies. Cohen and Dornyei (2002) and O’Malley and Chamot (1990) summarized that learner strategies in learning new languages include learning strategies, language use and communication strategies. According to Cohen (1988), language strategies is divided into four categories which is also used in this study as a guideline. In Adamson’s (2004) study on Thai language learners’ strategies, Thai students were viewed by western lecturers as having limited learning strategies due to the familiarity with rote learning study. In the review of literature of Adamson’s (2004) study, it was mentioned by previous research such as Holmes and Tangtongtavy (1995) who offered an alternative explanation for this matter that Thai learners have the concept of Krengjai, which means being considerate to pose direct questions to adults, or figures of authority, including teachers. This may be cultural issue that may hinder Thai learners from developing an openly communicative use of English. Nevertheless, the results from Adamson’s (2004) study did not draw the conclusion that Thai learners’ strategies were limited. Instead, he suggested that strategy training should be introduced appropriately in
78 light of the local culture. Furthermore, the training of strategies may be necessary for new students entering university.
Integrating English into science education
There is a quite a limited number of studies that deal with the integration of English into science education in Thailand context. Therefore, the researcher reviewed most of the literature of this topic from similar educational context where English is not the mother tongue of the students. A lot of literature came from the Malaysian context where English is promoted as a medium of instruction for both Mathematics and Science. There is a belief that mastering the language will lead to successful learning of mathematics and science (Lemke, 1990). However, some studies found that English can be a great hindrance for learning the subjects’ content since many scientific texts use far too complicated language, resulting in learners who are not proficient language learners experiencing difficulty in grasping the concepts (Brown & Kelly, 2009; Sherer et al., 2009). These previous studies helped in the realization that integrating English into science content is not an easy matter. Therefore, an appropriate level of language added to the lesson should be suitable for level of the students. Language that is too complicated might lead to frustration in trying to link the two subjects. With this in mind, the researcher take decided to begin with a basic experiment, which involved the subjects being recruited for this study. In preparing student-teachers for the in-service experience, it is very helpful for them to be involved in an empirical study so as to promote the conceptualization of learner-centeredness and learner autonomy (Isarasena, 2007). Though studies into students’ attitudes towards the use of English, as well as the related strategies in a classroom setting have been done, the topic has yet dealt with student-teachers. This is of high importance, especially with the paradigm shift in determining the qualification of non-English speaking subject teachers teaching in English. Results may divulge the teaching competences of the future student-teachers, which subsequently may provide a platform for teacher training improvement (Hayes, 2009).
Methodology
This research was undertaken with a group of forty science student teachers taking a Physics Laboratory class. They were all in the third year of a five-year teaching program. At the time of the study, they had completed two fundamental English courses taken at their sophomore year. The basis of this course was partially aimed at promoting students to produce experimental projects that would be beneficial for their future teaching career. The participants’ experiences with English were quite limited as observed from their performance of English courses taken in university. Their English proficiency levels were varied ranging from beginner to pre-intermediate, according to English standardized test administered by faculty of Education.
The study was carried out in three phase:
1. Pre-presentation phase where participants were asked to complete a questionnaire to see their general attitude towards English. The data from this survey was calculated for the mean score to differentiate the groups of the students into those with a positive attitude (mean score over 2.55), and those with a less positive attitude (mean score lower than 2.55). 2. While-presentation phase was done by assigning the participants to present their science experiments in groups. These presentations were graded by English lecturers. During the presentation, they also reported their strategies used for preparing for the presentation. The data was calculated for the mean score of each item to see if there was any significant difference between two groups of students. 3. Post-presentation phase was the qualitative phase where the participants who were grouped according to the results from the attitude survey, as well as the observed speaking strategies in the different groups were interviewed. During the interview, the subjects were asked to freely articulate what they thought about the project, giving chances for the researcher to probe for more information.
Given that the goal of this study is to investigate the actual practice of integrating English into the science classroom, the mixed-method approach was considered advantageous in gleaning more specific and in-depth information.
79 Results
Attitudes of the subjects towards English
By differentiating subjects according to the mean score obtained from the survey results, eight subjects were categorized as having less positive attitude towards English while the other nine were grouped as those have a positive attitude towards English subject. The item ranked the lowest in the questionnaire was item 29 (Fluent in English is one of my life goals). This served as a basis for the interview, which yielded interesting results. According to the interview with the students with less positive attitude about English, they reported that they have never thought of themselves as English-proficient students. For them, as students majoring in science, they prioritize their mastery of science content and the ability to carry out experiments. However, even without imagining themselves as fluent language users, the subjects in this group articulated that they realized that knowing English is vital for their teaching career because some of the scientific terms are in English, which they want to pronounce correctly, and be able to explain the meaning to their future students. Another item that had a low mean score ( x =1.52) was item 25 (Finding ways to improve English speaking ability). Data from interview presented the correlation between not including being fluent in English with this item. The subjects reported that when they did not picture themselves using English in their lives, and they could not be motivated to have a self-study to further their knowledge. They thought that the English courses provided by the university were enough to let them get through their academic lives. The major cause of less positive attitude is the fact that the subjects felt that their background of using English is not enough to make them speak with confidence. All of the subjects, who had less positive attitude participated the interview evaluated their language proficiency at low level. They often mentioned about their insufficient time spent in learning English during their secondary and high school period before entering the university. However, their mean score for item 30 (Interested in learning science content by using English as a medium of instruction) was quite high ( x = 3.45) since they realized that English has become an official language for the ASEAN community and they said they want to keep themselves up to date by using the language to search for knowledge within the ASEAN. What came as a surprise was the subjects’ attitude about the use of English for teaching. The attitude about the importance of English for a teaching career was found among both groups of students to be not very important. The group with a positive attitude reported that their English was not very important for being teacher ( x = 1.45) while the group with less positive attitude towards English found that English was not necessary in teaching ( x = 1.00). This trend continued to item 30, which addressed the willingness to learn integrating English to Science content. The group with a less positive attitude pointed out their reluctance in learning how to combine the two subjects, English teaching of science ( x =1.58), since they thought that it would be difficult. They also stated that their limited vocabulary knowledge and their lack of confidence in pronouncing English contributed to this reported opinion. The group with positive attitude, on the other hand, showed more willingness in trying to learn science by using English as medium of instruction ( x =2.73). Regardless their uncertainly about understanding the difficult content in Science, this group of subjects informed that frequent exposure to English can lead to the improvement. These relatively low mean score for these two items reminded the researcher that there should be more emphasis in combining science with language. The student teachers majoring in science should be frequently reminded that English could be useful for their future teaching career. The first reason for that is to let them be familiar with English-named apparatus. The second reason lies in gaining more knowledge for academic content as numerous amount of information is available in English. They can widen their knowledge about teaching techniques and media facilitating instruction by searching in English content. After building an overview of the participants’ attitude towards learning English, subjects were assigned to make a short video of a science experiment related to physics. The researcher suggested some helpful resources and also asked an expert to comment on the language used. After the clips were made, the second questionnaire was distributed to see how they used different strategies to achieve the goal of making oral presentations.
80 Metacognitive strategies
Table 1. Metacognitive strategies used by the participants during oral presentation
Participants with different attitudes Positive Less positive (<2.55) (>2.55) (12 (11 participants) participants) Item 1: Effective group preparation 3.42 3.18 Item 2: Appropriate duties division 3.58 3.45 Item 3: Connect topics from each member 3.42 3.18 Item 4: Memorization of the content 3.17 3.09 Item 5: Group facilitates English usage 3.25 3.09
The significant differences in using metacoginitve strategies could be determined from item 1 (relating to cooperative in preparation stage) and item 3 (gathering information individually). The reasons for distinction between the two groups were explained as following. The group with less positive attitude towards English reported a higher level of cooperation at the preparation stage. From the interview, they further explained that they realized that their low-level proficiency made them gather together during preparation stage. They felt more confident when they could work side by side with their friends regardless of the time spent for scheduling for a time that suited every group member. The major task that required them to work with each other was selecting relevant content for the experiment. During the very first step of preparation, they had to decide which kind of experiment they would like to do. For the group with a positive attitude towards English, this process had been done individually before taking each preference to the group to decide the most suitable topic while the other group could not continue without members’ confirmation. For item 3 (gathering information from each member), the participants with less positive attitude represented a higher level of successfulness due to the fact that they defined the term “individual” based on the section of assigned work rather than counting on each member of the group. These participants viewed their level of accomplishment from peers’ assistance. The other group whose attitude towards English was positive viewed their work individually at a lower mean score as some of the group member had sent their work late or selected inappropriate content which could not be used in actual presentation. The latter group tended to work separately before presenting what they had found to the group. As a result, when combining the content from each member, some content were dismissed unlike the previous group who worked and consistently approved the content. Their level of achievement in combining content became higher.
Cognitive Strategies
Table 2. Cognitive Strategies used by the participants during oral presentation
Participants with different attitudes Positive (<2.55) Less positive (>2.55) (12 participants) (11 participants) Item 1: Write down new words 3.08 2.82 Item 2: Compose English notes 3.08 2.73 Item 3: Pronounce correctly 3.33 3.45 Item 4: Look for main ideas 3.08 2.91 Item 5: Make English summary 2.67 2.64
The group with less positive attitude towards English defined the way they wrote the memo for helping them in memorizing as jotting down all the important content in English. They reported that this method made them feel more confident in speaking when they saw the note right beside them during both the practice and actual presentation sessions. On the other hand, the group with a positive attitude did not depend on their notes much. They said they wrote down important ideas and looked at their notes during
81 practice period. However, they mentioned that the note was not as important as memorizing the content by themselves. The group with less positive attitude reported more use of Thai language when they struggled in expressing themselves during the presentation. Despite the fact that most of them had notes with them while presenting, they felt nervous and used some Thai words or phrases when they could not think of the English equivalent.
Communicative strategies
Table 3. Communicative strategies used by the participants during oral presentation
Participants with Positive Less positive different attitudes (<2.55) (>2.55) (12 (11 participants) participants) Item 1: Using gestures 3.17 3.00 Item 2: Create new 2.08 1.91 words 2.00 1.64 Item 3: Use Thai 1.58 1.64 Item 4: Skip some 2.08 2.18 parts Item 5: Use phrases to explain terms
The group with less positive attitude tended not to skip the part that they could not remember, most probably because they had their notes with them. Therefore, they just consistently read from the notes and avoided any pauses. The group with positive attitude attempted to recall the whole presentation and became nervous at the actual presentation. As a result, they reported more frequent times of skipping and pausing.
Rehearsal strategies
Table 4. Rehearsal strategies used by the participants during oral presentation
Participants with Positive Less positive different attitudes (<2.55) (>2.55) (12 (11 participants) participants) Item 1: Remember 3.08 2.82 from the notes 3.67 3.55 Item 2: Several 3.67 3.55 rehearsals 3.58 3.45 Item 3: Group 3.25 3.36 rehearsal Item 4: Giving feedback Item 5: Benefit of group pre
The group with less positive attitude claimed that they tried to memorize the content from their notes. However, they found themselves failing in presenting naturally. They reported that when they looked at themselves in the video presentation, they felt like their oral presentation did not sound as natural as it should be. The other group with a more positive attitude towards English, on the other hand, reported a similar attempt to remember information from the notes they made. However, for them, it was not to remember every single word, but to remember only the steps of the experiments and key words that they had to use during presenting.
82 Regardless of the fact that the group with less positive attitude preferred working together in the preparation stage, when it came in to presenting, they reported that they had not practiced presenting with their group as many times as they expected. Most of the participants belonging to this group found that they tended to use the notes that they have made during preparation to practice separately. Shyness to speak in front of others became a significant issue at the actual presentation stage. Therefore, they reported a lower mean score in item 5 (practicing in group facilitate memorization and better presentation). On the other hand, the group with positive attitude seemed to be more concerned more about the flow of the presentation. From the interview, they mentioned several times that rehearsal with group members helped a lot in making their presentation sound natural. They had to take turns presenting the steps in the chosen experiment, so the smoothness of moving from each step was needed. Therefore, they mentioned that group work helped a lot to better their presentation.
Conclusions
The issue of attitude not only affected how participants used different strategies in coping with the oral presentation task, but also influenced the way how they viewed themselves as science teachers in the future. Regardless the fact that all participants realized that English became vital in Thailand education, the willingness to try combining the two subjects were varied according to attitudes. Although all of the participants were enrolled in the same major and same faculty in their undergraduate study, their background about English exposure were very different. From the interview, subjects with less positive attitude towards learning English tended to have an unpleasant experience in learning the language since they were in high school. This affected the way how they see themselves as a science teacher, who can integrate English in their classroom, in the future. A lot of participants often mentioned about their reluctance of using English in their future classroom because they felt that they lack knowledge to pass on to learners. They felt hopeless in combining the complex content of science with English. Some of them mentioned that they were willing to try if the faculty provided them with special trainings and support. On the other hand, the students with positive attitude were different significantly in terms of their view of themselves as future science teachers. From the interview, they stated that after conducting the oral presentation project, they realized that they had to try a lot harder in improving their English speaking skills. They asked for more training and solicited suggestions on how to improve their English ability. They even asked if it was possible for teachers to partly give lectures in English to make them familiar with the language. For the strategies used, it seemed clear that the group of participants who have less positive attitude used strategies to help them be able to present their experiment more frequently. Form the interview with them, the researcher have learnt that they depended on various strategies because they thought that only their limited ability of English was not enough to survive this project. This study concludes that in order to promote science student-teachers to become more aware of integrating English into their lessons. Promoting a positive attitude towards using and learning English is needed. Without the positive attitude, student teachers might be hesitant to use English as the medium of instruction of science content. More importantly, teacher training institutions have to have the awareness that knowledge about the medium of instruction is as important as the content for instruction. In this era, science teachers have to know more than just science concepts and how to conduct experiments. Science education in the ASEAN period will also need to take into account how to make the content accessible and transferable within the wider community.
References
Adamson, J. (2004). Investigating college student attitudes towards learning English and their learning strategies: Insights from interviews in Thailand. Journal of Asia TEFL, 1(2), 47-70. Chou, M.-h. (2011). The influence of learner strategies on oral presentations: A comparison between group and individual performance. English for Specific Purposes, 30(4), 272-285. doi: http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.esp.2011.04.003 De Segovia, L. P., & Hardison, D. M. (2009). Implementing education reform: EFL teachers’ perspectives. ELT journal, 63(2), 154-162. Foley, J. A. (2005). English in… Thailand. RELC journal, 36(2), 223-234. Geringer, J. (2003). Reflections on professional development: toward high-quality teaching and learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 84(5), 373-380.
83 Holmes, H., Tangtongtavy, S., & Tomizawa, R. (1995). Working with the Thais: A guide to managing in Thailand: White Lotus Bangkok,, Thailand. Israsena, V. (2007). Thai Teachers’ Beliefs about Learner-centered Education: Implications for” Success for Life Thailand”: ProQuest. Noom-Ura, S. (2013). English-Teaching Problems in Thailand and Thai Teachers’ Professional Development Needs. English Language Teaching, 6(11). Noopong, D. (2002). English teaching problems and the needs for professional development of teachers of english in education extended schools under the jurisdiction of the office of primary education. Nakorn Ratcasima Rajabhat University. Sanprasert, N. (2010). The application of a course management system to enhance autonomy in learning English as a foreign language. System, 38(1), 109-123. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2009.12.010 Sheets, B. H., & Tillson, L. (2007). Strategies To Improve Students’ Presentation Skills. Tatzl, D. (2011). English-medium masters’ programmes at an Austrian university of applied sciences: Attitudes, experiences and challenges. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 10(4), 252-270. doi: http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2011.08.003 Wiriyachitra, A. (2002). English language teaching and learning in Thailand in this decade. Thai TESOL focus, 15(1), 4-9. Yang, A., & Lau, L. (2003). Student attitudes to the learning of English at secondary and tertiary levels.System, 31(1), 107-123. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0346-251X(02)00076-3 Yang, A., & Lau, L. (2003). Student attitudes to the learning of English at secondary and tertiary levels.System, 31(1), 107-123.
About the Author
Supat Sairattanain is lecturer in the Science Program, Faculty of Education, Sisaket Rajabhat University. He has a PhD from Mae Fah Luang University majoring in Computational Science. His interests are Geographic Information System (GIS) and science education.
84 Catalyst ISSN: 2408-137X, Volume 12, No. 2, 2015 Institute Press
A Study of the Language Learning Strategies Used by Business Students at Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand Esther Hungyo
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to identify the use of learning strategies by freshman Thai Business students in their study of English at Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand. The two specific objectives were to determine whether Thai students used learning strategies in their language learning and to determine whether successful language learners use more strategies than less successful learners. The sample of the study involved 26 Thai Business students. The sample completed the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), which consisted of thirty-three questions divided into six sub-strategies. The results obtained indicate that (a) the majority of the students were conscious of their use of strategies, (b) meta-cognitive strategies were commonly used, (c) strategies were used extensively by more successful language learners, and (d) appropriate use of strategies facilitated learners’ learning language.
Key words: Thai students; learning strategies, language learning strategies
Introduction
Research in language learning has suggested that using learning strategies gives a positive impact to students’ own learning. The positive impact may be a growth in independence or an improvement in academic achievement (Purdie, Hattie, & Douglas, 1996; Park, 1997; Hong-Nam & Leavell, 2006). Language teachers, aside from making pedagogical decisions to address language objectives in their language classes need to also impart learning skills such as strategies for future use (Oxford & Burry-Stock, 1995). When taught about strategies, students may use them effectively and even personalize these strategies to fit their culturally-driven learning schemata (Nisbett, Tindall, Arroyo, 2005; Wong, 2004). It increases motivation by instilling confidence in their own learning ability and provide them with specific type of method that can lead to successful learning. It also helps learners to select appropriate strategies for a particular task, and allows them to become more self-independent learners (Hong-Nam & Leavelle, 2006). The study of language learning strategies is not a new venture. Table 1 illustrates the definitions of language learning strategies over time.
Table 1. Definitions of language learning strategies.
Study Definition of Language Learning Strategy Weinstein and Mayer Behaviors and thoughts that a learner engages in during learning which (1997) are intended to influence the learner’s encoding process Cohen (1998) They are conscious thoughts and behaviors which include cognitive, meta cognitive, affective, and social strategies used by learners as they target to improve their knowledge and understanding of the language Wenden and Rubin Any sets of operations, steps, plans, routines used by the learner to (2007) facilitate the obtaining, storage, retrieval, and use of information
85 Types of Language Learning Strategies
The strategy types developed by Oxford (1986) is still used prevalently in studies on language learning strategies through the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) (Park, 1997; Hong-Nam & Leavell 2006; Wharton, 2000; Chamot, 2004). The types and definitions of language learning strategies are provided in
Table 2. Types and definitions of language learning strategies (Oxford & Burry-Stock, 1995, p. 5)
Type of Language Learning Strategy Definition of Language Learning Strategy
Memory strategies Grouping, imagery, rhyming, structured reviewing
Cognitive strategies Reasoning, analyzing, summarizing (all reflective of deep process- ing), as well as general practicing
Compensation strategies Guessing meanings from context in reading and listening and us- ing synonyms and gestures to convey meaning when the precise expression is not known Metacognitive strategies Paying attention, consciously searching for practice opportuni- ties, planning for language tasks, self-evaluating one’s progress, and monitoring error Affective strategies Anxiety reduction, self-encouragement, self-reward
Social strategies Asking questions, cooperating with native speakers of the lan- guage, becoming culturally aware
Studies in Language Learning Strategies
As established earlier, the study of language learning strategies has been ongoing. Though most of these studies are descriptive in that they give insights into the types of strategies employed, the process of implementing strategies, as well as the effects of using language learning strategies, studies have also been comparative, wherein factors such as gender, age, and culture are used as variables to discern any differences. Since this study is concerned with a specific group of sample, namely Asian students, discussions relevant to this criterion will be presented in the ensuing sections. Till today, there is an apparent dichotomy that divides Asian students from other non-Asian students. This can be illustrated in Kember’s (2000) study, where he highlighted several conceptualization of Asian students that he was made known of upon commencing work in Hong Kong, which included “passive, resistant to teaching innovations, extrinsically motivated, high-achievers, willing to invest in education.” These stereotypical notions of Asian students are mostly misinformed, as exemplified in studies such as those by Cheng (2000) and Gan (2009). What this entails is the formulaic assumption of how Asian students would behave in a language classroom. Nonetheless, there have been studies which refuted these claims. For instance, the notion that Asian students are very passive. Kember (2000) discussed this in light of the cultural context of Asian students. For Asian nations built on a Confucian foundation, strategies such as memorization is a typical route taken to seek understanding. For example, in Purdie, Hattie, and Douglas’s (1996) study, Japanese students were found less likely to rely on rote learning techniques. Nonetheless, when they were approached to disclose how they learned, the Japanese sample admitted that they used memorization techniques. Though this approach may be viewed as uncritical, the Confucian perspective of memorization is that it leads to understanding, instead of just remembering (Purdie, Hattie, & Douglas, 1996). Another belief is that Asian students are not intrinsically motivated, which stems from the emphasis on extrinsic achievement. Kember (2000) points out that though Asian students may appear extrinsically motivated, there is an ardent interest in learning materials due to the belief and trust that they may afford students ample preparation for their future.
86 One of such is Hong-Nam and Leavelle’s (2006) study, which found that their sample, who were enrolled in an intensive ESL-type class, preferred to use metacognitive and social strategies, perhaps because these students were driven by a strong instrumental motivation. In other words, due to the intensive nature of the course, and their objective of advancing their academic and professional lives, efficient planning and self-monitoring were essential. Furthermore, the sample involved, which was mostly Asian students, cooperated with each other to enhance learning. A study conducted by Gan (2009) also demonstrated that the sample, which consisted of Chinese and Hong Kong students, had a positive disposition towards independent learning. They also showed an inclination to engage in their own learning, which contrasts the notions that Asian students are teacher-dependent (Gan, 2009). What these studies have shown is that contrary to popular belief, Asian students do apply strategies which some may perceive as contextually a typical. In Asia, classrooms are typically teacher-centered, knowledge is learned through rote. In non-Asian contexts, Asian students were found to be unfamiliar with the teaching and learning norms of western-based education (Campbell & Li, 2007). Nonetheless, Asian students who were taught other types of language learning strategies were able to see the relevance of student-centered classrooms, as well as participative approaches to learning. Alternative strategies may be learned, if they recognize them as being useful for their learning objectives (Wong, 2004). Hence, teachers should not pre-empt how their students would learn (Kember, 2000). After all, Asian students were found to be willing to adapt to learning strategies common to the western learning contexts (Wong, 2004). When considering all these studies, research into language learning strategies should be aware that taking a cultural stance to understand learning processes may be limiting, as it trivializes the complexities of students’ learning abilities (Wong, 2004). Furthermore, language learning strategies across contexts may yield different results as there may be external factors such as institutional and social environments which may affect the strategies used (Hong-Nam & Leavell, 2006; Gan, 2009)
Language Learning Strategies: A Thai Perspective
In other Asian contexts that allowed for a more participative approach to learning, it was found that types of strategies that are positively correlated with language proficiency differ. Again, this echoes what was mentioned previously, that is, strategies may have different effects on students who may come from a seemingly similar cultural region (Park, 2000). For example, in studies among Korean students, it was found that cognitive and social strategies were significantly correlated with language proficiency (Park, 1997). Nisbet, Tindall and Arroyo (2005), on the other hand, reported that their sample of Chinese students showed that metacognitive and affective strategies were more significantly correlated with language proficiency, thus being better predictors for language assessment. Again, these discrepancies in strategy-use may be due to factors such as learners’ use of different strategies, learners’ misapplication of strategies, or other confounding variables that may have affected the research process (Nisbet, Tindall & Arroyo, 2005). In Thailand, studies on English language classrooms have reported a very teacher-centric approach to teaching. Reasons for this approach may be due to the heavy focus on high-stakes examination and an emphasis on structural knowledge of the English language. Furthermore, teachers have cited lack of training in both language and pedagogical areas (Foley, 2005; de Segovia & Hardison, 2009). With these instances as a background, it is easy to assume that English language learners are not given much opportunity to practice independent learning. With the assumption that strategy-use among seemingly similar students may not be actually similar (Nisbett, Tindall & Arroyo, 2005; Wong, 2004), this study aims to understand the nature of strategy-use in a Thai classroom, and to determine if there is a difference in terms of strategy-use between proficient and less-proficient English users.
The Sample
The sample involved in this study was beginner students. Some of the observed language issues faced by these students are their lack of vocabulary knowledge, their resistance to self-monitor, and their hesitance in taking risks. One of the major problems faced by participants of this research was their limited target language vocabulary. Because of their limited vocabulary, it was difficult for them to convey their intended messages. Another issue is that the participants do not like to monitor or self-evaluate their progress. The reason could be they do not want to know where they stand in terms of their language proficiency. On top of that, the
87 researcher observed that students avoid taking risks, probably due to the cultural filter of ‘face’. They are afraid of being ridiculed at their mistakes. This is one reason that some learners do better in writing than in speaking. For example, some of the participants’ speech is riddled with mistakes, but do better in writing. Furthermore, whenever there is an oral assessment, they would get very nervous and tensed.
The Study
As mentioned, it has been suggested that using learning strategies could improve students’ learning of the target language. With this in mind, the researcher introduced various language learning strategies to business students enrolled in an English class with the assumption that language learning would improve. This study took a quantitative approach by using the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) to collect data. The instrument consisted of 33 items with an answer ranging from a “strongly disagree or disagree” to “strongly agree or agree.” The 33 items in the questionnaire examines the students’ use of strategies. The questions were divided into two divisions, direct and indirect strategies. Direct strategies were subdivided further into memory, cognitive, and compensation strategies and indirect strategies were subdivided into metacognitive, affective and social strategies. Data was examined descriptively and at times, verified qualitatively when the participants were involved. The participants of this study were 26 Thai-speaking freshmen business major students, taking Basic English as part of their General Education courses. In this study, proficient language users are students who received a score of 60% in any language assessment, while less proficient users were those who received less than 60%. There were twelve males and fourteen females. Their age ranged from 20 to 25. They were freshman students and were considered to be at the basic level in terms of their overall English competence. Therefore, the questions in the questionnaire were translated from English into Thai to obtain accuracy for the purpose of this study. The questions were given to a native Thai and fluent English speaker, for translation. The translated questions were then printed out on a transparency and projected on the overhead projector for students to refer to while answering the questionnaire. There were no questions raised by any students as they had no problem understanding the questions. Since the questions were a form of self-report, based on their personal experiences, no pilot sessions were organized. The questionnaire was administered during a regular class period in the classroom, which took about twenty minutes to complete. Before the questionnaire was given out, the class teacher got permission from the participants. Any students not willing to participate was given a chance to do so. Furthermore, the researcher assured the participants that their grades will not be affected and that their names will be anonymous.
Results
Students’ use of Language Learning Strategies
The average score for each item in the questionnaire was analyzed and used as an indication of whether the learners use language strategy or not. Then using the final grade of the students obtained from the class teacher, the researcher compared whether proficient learners used more strategies than the less proficient ones.
Table 3. Memory strategy items.
Strongly Strongly Rating Items disagree Agree disagree agree Average I use new English words in a sentence so I can 1 8 6 9 2.95 remember them. I connect the sound of a new English word and an image or picture of the word to help me 1 4 10 9 3.12 remember the word. I use to rhymes to remember new English word. 1 4 10 9 3.12 I use flashcards to remember new English word. 2 5 8 9 3.0
88 I physically act out new English. 2 8 4 10 2.91 I review English lessons often. 2 7 6 9 2.91 3.00
The most used sub-strategies by the learners are “I connect sound of a new English word and an image or picture of the word to help me remember the word” and “I use rhymes to remember new English work” at 3.12 each. In the researcher’s opinion, since participants of this study are very basic English learners, learning with pictures and sound enhance and motivate their learning as they hear and see the image at the same time. In language teaching, one method that is used is learning target language through the use of rhymes and songs. This method enhance memorization of the vocabulary thereby making the learning better and faster. On the other hand, a small number of the participants indicated that they strongly disagree on the use of any of the memory strategies as indicated in Table 3. It is possible that these students are not aware of the learning strategies they are using or that they are using other learning strategy in a more obvious way.
Table 4. Cognitive Strategy items.
Strongly Strongly Rating Items disagree Agree disagree agree Average I say or write new English words 3 3 5 13 3.16 several times I try to talk like native English 1 0 10 13 3.45 speakers. I practice the sounds of English. 0 5 8 11 3.25 I start conversations in English. 1 8 7 8 2.91 I use the English words I know in 2 5 9 8 2.95 different ways. I read for pleasure in English. 3 10 6 5 2.54 3.04
Cognitive strategy includes six sub-strategies as shown in Table 4. The results suggest that a majority of the students are aware of their use of cognitive strategy. Sub-strategies such as trying to talk like native English speakers, practicing sounds of English, and saying or writing new English words several times received 3.45, 3.25, and 3.16 respectively. It is also interesting to note that the participants did not use English words in different ways, or start conversations, with items scoring only 2.95 and 2.91 respectively, and neither read for pleasure in English, which had a 2.54. This alludes that the learners never read English for pleasure nor used the target language with their friends or speak outside the classroom. English is probably only used in situations where the other speaker does not speak their first language. Overall, the data showed the average use of cognitive strategy is 3.04.
Table 5. Compensation strategy items.
Strongly Strongly Rating Items disagree Agree disagree agree Average To understand unfamiliar English 4 6 5 9 2.79 words, I make guesses. I read English without looking up 1 11 4 8 2.79 every new word. When I can’t think of a word during a conversation in English, I use 1 3 5 14 3.39 gestures.
89 I make up new words if I do not 1 6 7 9 3.04 know the right ones in English. I try to guess what the other person 1 5 9 9 3.08 will say next in English. 3.01
The compensation strategy includes five sub-strategies as shown in Table 5. Table 5 shows that the use of compensation strategies by the learners is not as high as the memory strategy. The results indicate that a majority of the learners agree using gestures when they cannot think of any word in English to get the message across. Gesture is another form of non-verbal communication used to get the meaning across in times of vocabulary shortage. So, when learners are short of words while communicating to other foreign speakers, gesture is one way to get the message across. Furthermore, the overall average use of compensation strategy as shown in Table 5 is 3.01. This draws the assumption that students are aware to the use of strategies in their language learning.
Table 6. Meta-cognitive strategy items.
Strongly Strongly Rating Items Disagree Agree disagree agree Average I try to find as many ways as I can 0 3 10 11 3.33 to use my English. I pay attention when someone is 0 5 6 13 3.33 speaking English. I try to find out how to be a better 0 4 11 8 3.17 learner of English. I have clear goals for improving my 0 2 6 16 3.58 English learning skills. I think about my progress in 1 3 9 10 3.22 learning English. 3.72
The meta-cognitive strategies include five sub-strategies as shown in Table 6. The results show that a majority of the sample are aware of their use of this strategy. The sub-strategy such as “I have clear goals for improving my English learning skill” obtained the highest score of 3.58, followed by, “I try to find as many ways as I can to use my English” and “I pay attention when someone is speaking English” at 3.33 respectively. Then, it is followed by “I think about my progress in learning English” at 3.22 and “I try to find out how to be a better learner of English” at 3.17, which is the lowest. What can be gathered from the results is that learners are motivated to learn the target language because they have clear goals for improving their English skills. However, they do not try to find ways to be better English learners but rather depend solely on their teachers. It could be that students view teachers as a complete source of knowledge, which is probably expected, given the findings from Foley’s (2005) and de Segovia and Hardison’s (2009) studies, where teachers are reported to assume an authoritative figure in the language classroom. When compared with the rest of the strategies, the use of meta-cognitive strategies have the highest score, at 3.72, among all the learning strategies. This result parallels Hong-Nam and Leavelle’s (2006) study.
Table 7. Affective strategy items.
Strongly Rating Items Disagree Strongly agree Agree disagree Average I try to relax whenever I feel 2 4 6 12 3.17 afraid of using English.
90 I encourage myself to speak English 0 6 10 8 3.08 even when I am afraid on making error. I give myself a reward or treat 1 8 2 13 3.13 when I do well in English. I notice if I am tense or nervous 0 4 8 11 3.30 when I am studying or using English. I talk to someone else about how 2 6 7 9 2.96 I feel when I am learning English. 3.12
The affective strategies include five sub-strategies as shown in Table 7. It illustrates that the highest rating sub- strategy is “I notice if I am tense or nervous when I am studying or using English” at 3.30, followed by “I try to relax whenever I feel afraid of using English” at 3.17, and “I give myself a reward or treat when I do well in English” at 3.1. “I encourage myself to speak English even when I am afraid on making error” at 3. 8 and “I talk to someone else about how I feel when I am learning English” has the lowest at 2.96. Perhaps the reason why the use of affective strategies scored a lower mean score is due to cultural expectations in learning. Students may feel uncomfortable with communicative aspects of language, and thus become afraid of making mistakes and making a fool of themselves in front of their friends and teachers. It is quite possible that students find it difficult to use the target language because of their familiarity of the English language classroom. As mentioned earlier, Thai English classrooms are typically teacher-centered (Foley, 2005); hence, when students are expected to participate, they may perceive this novel experience anxiously (Wong, 2004).
Table 8. Social strategies items.
Strongly Strongly Rating Items Disagree Agree disagree agree Average I ask English speakers to correct me when I talk. 0 4 8 12 3.33 I practice English with other students. 2 2 7 13 3.29 I ask for help from English speakers. 0 3 11 10 3.29 I ask questions in English. 2 7 3 12 3.04 I try to learn about the culture of English 1 5 10 8 3.04 speakers. 3.19
The social strategies include five sub-strategies as shown in Table 8. Based on the given table, majority of the students commonly used strategies such as “I ask English speakers to correct me when I talk” at 3.33, followed by “I practice English with other students” and “I ask for help from English speakers” at 3.29 respectively. In addition, social sub strategies such as “I ask questions in English” and “I try to learn about the culture of English speakers” has the lowest percentage at 3.04 respectively. From the results, we could assume that students are indeed motivated. Nonetheless, they doubt their capabilities to interact with speakers of English. Furthermore, they have no interest in learning about the culture of English language speakers. This may be due to students’ instrumental motivation towards the English language. The culture of the English speakers may also be irrelevant to the learning needs of the students (Ding & Teo, 2014).
Type of Students and Language Leaning Strategies
The second objective of this study is to determine whether more proficient students used more language learning strategies when compared to less proficient ones. The sample’s proficiency was determined based on scores from course work, midterm, and final exams. The scores were then compared to individual student’s completed questionnaire responses. The findings are presented in Table 10.
91 Table 10. Students’ use of strategies by academic status.
Academic Memory Cognitive Compensation Meta-cogni- Affective Social Status Strategy Strategy Strategy tive Strategy Strategy Strategy 5 5 4 2 4 A 6 5 (83%) 6 6 6 6 6 (83%) (83%) (67%) (33%) (67%) 4 3 1 2 B 2 (40%) 5 5 5 5 5 7 (80%) (60%) (20%) (40%) 12 (58%) 6 3 4 4 C 3 (43%) 7 7 7 7 7 (86%) (43%) (57%) (57%) D - - 2 (50%) 4 - 4 - 4 - 4 - 4 2 2 2 F - - 1 (25%) 4 - 4 4 4 4 (50%) (50%) (50%)
Table 10 provides the raw frequency and percentage of students using different types of language learning strategies based on their self-report through the completed SILL questionnaire. As observed, a majority of the students who were in the ‘A’ range academic status used a range of different strategies. This observation may parallel that of Purdie, Harrie, and Douglas’ (1996) study where high-achieving students were found to view learning as a complex cognitive process, in that learning can be facilitated through different learning strategies. Learning, from this point of view, is also not considered a process of simply gathering and storing information. What is interesting to note is that less of the A-achieving students rely on affective strategies, while about half to more than half of the ‘D’ and ‘F’ range students use them. In Nisbet, Tindall and Arroyo’s (2005) study on Chinese students, it was found that affective strategies are positively correlated with higher language proficiency. Though Table 8 indicated a positive disposition towards the use of affective strategies. Nonetheless, results contradictory when compared with the academic status of each student, as there is a low percentage of use by the sample.
Conclusion
Since this study was conducted on a specific sample in mind, the results may not be generalizable despite a quantitative approach being used. Furthermore, the results corroborate other studies that indicate that Asian students do not rely solely on memory-type strategies (Ramburuth & McCormick, 2001). What the results allow is an opportunity for the teacher-researcher to formulate an intervention plan. When teachers take into consideration students’ academic welfare, they are actually honing their teaching competencies. Hayes (2010) talks about the relevance and necessity for teachers to have a ‘teaching competency’, which is contextual knowledge about the learning environment. No longer are teachers and students bound to essentialist notions of language learning since current approaches have deemed learners as having the capabilities for learning processes which may not necessarily be common to their cultural or educational background. This notion has been evidenced in studies on language learning strategies as well. For instance, the Australian sample in Purdie, Hattie, and Douglas’ (1996) study were found to view learning as performance of academic tasks through memory and storing of information, which contrasted their Japanese counterpart who viewed learning as personal fulfillment. Hence, though language learning strategies may possibly be unfamiliar grounds to Asian students, as explained by Campbell and Li (2007), students’ unfamiliarity should not be taken as an obstacle to the integration of language learning strategies in the learning context.
Reference
Campbell, J., & Li, M. (2007). Asian Students’ Voices: An Empirical Study of Asian Students’ Learning Experiences at a New Zealand University. Journal of Studies in International Education. Chamot, A. U. (2004). Issues in language learning strategy research and teaching. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, Vol. 1 (1), p. 14-26. Retrieved March 30, 2010, from http://e-flt.nus.edu.sg/ v1n12004/chamot.pdf
92 Cheng, X. (2000). Asian students’ reticence revisited. System, 28(3), 435-446. Cohen, A.D. (1998). Strategies in learning and using a second language. TSEL-EJ Teaching Language as a Second or a Foreign language. Vol.3 (4). January 1999. Retrieved November 30, 2010, from http:// www.tesl-ej.org/ej12/r10.html de Segovia, L. P., & Hardison, D. M. (2009). Implementing education reform: EFL teachers’ perspectives. ELT journal, 63(2), 154-162. Foley, J. A. (2005). English in… Thailand. RELC journal, 36(2), 223-234. Gan, Z. (2009). ‘Asian learners’ re-examined: an empirical study of language learning attitudes, strategies and motivation among mainland Chinese and Hong Kong students. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 30(1), 41-58. Hong-Nam, K., & Leavell, A. G. (2006). Language learning strategy use of ESL students in an intensive English learning context. System, 34(3), 399-415. Kember, D. (2000). Misconceptions about the learning approaches, motivation and study practices of Asian students. Higher Education, 40(1), 99-121. Nisbet, D. L., Tindall, E. R., & Arroyo, A. A. (2005). Language learning strategies and English proficiency of Chinese university students. Foreign Language Annals, 38(1), 100-107. Oxford, R. L. (1986). Development and psychometric testing of the strategy inventory for language learning (SILL). ARI Technical Report 728. Alexandria, VA: Army Research Institute. Oxford, R. L., & Burry-Stock, J. A. (1995). Assessing the use of language learning strategies worldwide with the ESL/EFL version of the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). System, 23(1), 1-23. Park, C. C. (2000). Learning style preferences of Southeast Asian students. Urban Education, 35(3), 245-268. Park, G. P. (1997). Language learning strategies and English proficiency in Korean university students.Foreign language annals, 30(2), 211-221. Purdie, N., Hattie, J., & Douglas, G. (1996). Student conceptions of learning and their use of self-regulated learning strategies: A cross-cultural comparison. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88(1), 87. Ramburuth, P., & McCormick, J. (2001). Learning diversity in higher education: A comparative study of Asian international and Australian students. Higher education, 42(3), 333-350. Wharton, G. (2000). Language learning strategy use of bilingual foreign language learners in Singapore. Language learning, 50(2), 203-243. Wong, J. K. K. (2004). Are the Learning Styles of Asian International Students Culturally or Contextually Based?. International Education Journal, 4(4), 154-166.
About the Author
Esther Hungyo is an instructor at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand.
93 Catalyst ISSN: 2408-137X, Volume 12, No. 2, 2015 Institute Press
The Perceived Effects of Internet Usage on Academic Achievement Among Southeast Asian College Students Gabby Jed Catane Galgao
Abstract
This study was conducted in a Southeast Asian University in Thailand to assess the extent of the effect of the perceived effect of internet usage of Southeast Asian college students on their academic achievement. The study involved the participation of students from eight of the ten countries that make up Southeast Asia. The results revealed that the participants in this study perceived that internet usage had little to no effect on their academic achievement.
Keywords: Internet usage, perceived effects, academic performance, Southeast Asian students
Introduction
Asia is currently the largest internet-using continent on the planet. According to recent internet statistics (Internet world stats, 2013) Asia accounted for the world’s highest internet usage, garnering 44.8% of internet usage in the second quarter of 2012 with the rest accounting for 55.2 % of internet traffic. In terms of student demographic, it was found that undergraduate and graduate students were among the highest number of internet users in the U.S. with 95% of undergraduate students reporting internet usage and 93% of graduate students reporting internet usage out of 19-24 year olds of over 9,000 respondents (Smith, Rainie & Zickuhr, 2011). In Southeast Asia, the numbers are large as well. In 2013 alone, there was an estimated 190 million internet users in Southeast Asia (Anh-Minh, 2013), with the majority of online users in Southeast Asia under the age of 35 (Visconti, 2013). It would be safe to assume that this age group is the same age bracket where the majority of students (elementary-college) are in.
Internet Usage
General internet usage can be classified, although not limited to four main areas: 1) Entertainment i.e. streaming movies or music online; 2) Searching for information i.e. using a search engine to look up terms, meanings, or general information; 3) Communication, i.e. instant messaging services (IM); and 4) Buying and selling products i.e. buying tickets or selling items online (Joiner, et al. 2012). This is consistent worldwide with the recent study by Zhou, Fong, and Tan (2014) involving 2,400 respondents ages 14-60. The study showed that in China, the most common activity on the internet was “watching online videos” with 59% of participants having done that in the previous week and 30% rating the activity as their favorite online activity. This was followed by accessing movies or songs via the internet (52.9% active use; 24.0% a favored activity); playing online games (40.7% active use; 24.6% favored activity); communication via chat and IM services (59.1% active use; 39.5% favored activity); email (40.5% active use; 16.5% favored activity); gathering information i.e. looking for news (50.5% active use; 27.4% favored activity); searching information via search engine (33.4% favored activity; 12.1% favored activity); business i.e. purchasing or exchanging items (27.6% active use; 9.1% favored activity). In 2011, the Pew Research Center conducted a study in the United States involving 2,277 respondents, aged 18 years old or more where it was discovered that among adult internet users the top two uses of the internet were online searches and email; 92% of online adults said that they do online searches with 59% of
94 them doing online search queries on an average day while 92% of online adults had email with 61% checking their email on an average day (Purcell, 2011).
Internet and Education
In education, the internet assumes a crucial role in the areas of language study, research, resource center and retrieval and sharing of information (Bush, 2008; Chapelle & Jamieson, 2008; Garett, 2009; Manoj & Jacob, 2008; Zickuhr, 2014). Internet usage in education deals mainly with the retrieval and sharing of data, research, and as a resource center for both teachers and students (Kumar & Kaur, 2006; Purcell, Heaps, Buchanan, & Friedrich, 2013; Simons, 2014). In terms of the effects of internet use on academic achievement, several issues have been highlighted. For example, Kubey, Lavin, and Barrows (2001) have pointed out that students were used the internet excessively were found to stay up late at night, which led them to feel tired at class the next day, or missed classes. Nonetheless, they found that this behavior does not necessarily impair the students’ academic achievement, even though they may have detrimental effects on the learning processes. Kubey, Lavin, and Barrows’ (2001) study was corroborated by Anderson (2001), where the sample who used internet excessively perceived their academic work, social behavior, and sleep patterns as being negatively affected. These students who reported an excessive use of internet typically spent three consecutive hours on the internet, with only four hours spent on resting and sleeping. Students who excessively use the internet to support social networking have also reported a negative on their academic performance. Kirschner and Karpinski (2010) found that Facebook users and Facebook nonusers who reported a similar amount of time for Internet use were differentiated in terms of how often they logged into Facebook. Facebook users were found to have a lower mean GPA, and fewer hours studying per week. Some of the Facebook users were also found to report that Facebook activities distract them from their educational endeavors, even though they realized that their education is supposed to be their priority. Another detrimental effect of the internet is the use of it while in class, studying, or doing homework. These behaviors were found to negatively affect the learning experience (Jacobsen & Forste, 2011). Controlled internet users, on the other hand, seemed to have better relationships with others, better academic grades, and a higher level of academic satisfaction. On the contrary, heavy internet users are found to be more likely to get depressed, physically-ill, lonely, and introverted. Heavy internet users, though, were found to have a difficult time in their learning, but not necessarily in terms of their academic achievements (Chen & Peng, 2008). Nonetheless, the internet is not necessarily bad for students. Internet tools such as social media were found to enhance and facilitate offline social interaction (Jacobsen & Forste, 2011). Moreover, students who used internet purposefully to support and enhance their learning reported a higher academic achievement. These students frequented websites which offered subject practice. Another approach to learning on the Internet is the availability of constructive activities, such as publishing or programming (Lei & Zhao, 2007). Aside from considering internet use as a determining variable, there are other variables that may glean other types of effects. Variables such as gender, age, learning approaches and strategies are variables which may have a bearing on use and perception (Hoskins & Hooff, 2005). For example, internet use may differ according to gender and culture. It has been reported that British women were more likely to view the Internet and online tools as a means for learning, compared to their male counterparts, who perceived the Internet as a tool for personal use. The study also highlighted the similar perceptions cross-culturally. For instance, British and Chinese women underestimated their ability to use computers and the Internet. The women sample were also found to be more willing to disclose difficulties they had when using the computer or the Internet (Li & Kirkup, 2007). Socio-economic status may be an important variable as well. Jackson, et al. (2006) found that low-income students who were given internet access improved in terms of their academic achievement. The reason being the sample was more conscientious about using a privilege that they would not be able to afford on their own. The following sections sum up some of the positive and negative effects of internet use.
Significance of Student Perception
With the prevalent use of the internet among Southeast Asian university-age students, the issue of how these students perceive the effect of internet use on their academic achievement should be ascertained. Perception
95 is necessary as it reflect students’ self-efficacy, which is a trait expected of university students (Chemers, Hu, & Garcia, 2001). Furthermore, understanding students’ perception towards their learning environment, which includes resources found in their learning environment, could be pivotal in comprehending students’ learning processes and academic achievement (Meece, Anderman, & Anderman, 2006). Finally, studies on students’ perception on the Internet have been conducted in western contexts (see Kubey, Lavin, & Barrows, 2001; Kirschner & Karpinski, 2010) but little has been done in the Asian context. Looking at perception from a cultural perspective may yield different results, as illustrated in Li and Kirkup’s (2007) study, where Chinese students were found to use online technology differently from their British counterparts. Perception is a powerful construct that affects students’ academic performance. Chemers, Hu, and Garcia (2001) have suggested that perception on the self, as well as on the learning experience are both positively correlated with their academic achievement. Perception affects self-efficacy as well. When students possess self-efficacious traits, they are able to regulate work performance in a positive manner. This also involves perceiving learning processes as a positively challenging educational experience (Chemers, Hu, & Garcia, 2001; Meece, Anderman, & Anderman, 2006).Nonetheless, having a positive perception towards the learning environment does not necessarily entail similar results. For instance, perception on workload was found to have no significant relationship with approaches or strategies used for studying. Another example is the perception towards teaching. A perception that a learning and teaching environment is good has been found to influence students to form deep and critical study habits. Furthermore, having a positive perception towards the teaching and learning environment may help develop generic academic and workplace skills necessary for students’ professional future (Lizzio, Wilson & Simons, 2002).
The Study
Aside from the need to understand the perceived effects of internet on academic performance, this research is significant for the context of this study because the institution involved is a boarding educational institution. This is especially true as Chemers, Hu, and Garcia (2001) pointed out that tertiary-level students who are living away from their homes may be susceptible to uncontrolled and negative use of the internet. Hence, this study may serve as a basis for programs aimed to help students understand proper ways to use technology and the internet.
Methodology
The purpose of this study was to determine the Perceived Effects of Internet Usage on Southeast Asian College Students’ (SACS). This study was conducted at Asia-Pacific International University (AIU) – an international Seventh-day Adventist Institution located in Thailand. This study was conducted during the 2nd Semester of the Academic year 2013-2014. The study involved the responses of 72 SEA university-level students. There was a 100% return-rate for the questionnaires; a total of 72 questionnaires distributed and 72 questionnaires were collected. A total breakdown of the number of participants from their respective Southeast Asian country is summarized in Table 1 below.
Table 1. Countries and Number of Participants
Countries Number of Participants Cambodia 10 Indonesia 10 Laos 10 Malaysia 10 Myanmar 10 Philippines 2 Thailand 10 Vietnam 10 Total number of Countries: 8 Total number of participants: 72
96 Instrument
This study employed the use of a questionnaire for data collection. The questionnaire was used because it offered a means of gathering data from a large population quickly and simply as well as being relatively inexpensive (Jack & Clarke, 1998). The reason behind using the questionnaires as opposed to using interviews was that questionnaires offered a more straight-forward manner because respondents had to choose between a set of given scales and it was cost-effective. The questionnaire was composed of mostly Likert-scale questions with one open-ended question and seven demographic questions. Likert-scales offer reliable and valid results especially in instances where specific responses are intended by researchers (Tsang, 2012). Table 2 details the distribution and focus of questions in the questionnaire is below:
Table 2. Distribution of Questions in the Questionnaire
Sections Section I. Section II. Section III. Question Types Demographic General questions about internet Open-ended question usage; focus was on: importance of explaining why the internet usage, effects of internet internet is important usage, effects of internet usage on to the respondent(s) relationships and effects of internet usage on physical health; use of Likert- scale values No. of Questions 7 21 1
The questions in the questionnaire has four main categories which help to address the research objective of this study. These categories include:
1. the importance of internet usage to the respondents, 2. the perceived effects internet usage has on academic performance, and 3. the perceived effects internet usage has on inter and intra-personal relationships.
Findings
The following sections highlights the findings from the completed survey.
Table 3. Frequency of Logged Hours and Hours Spent on Internet
Statistics Times Logged Hours Spent on to Internet on the Internet N Valid 72 72 Missing 0 0 Mean 2.62 2.43 Std. Deviation 1.119 .853
Note. Times Logged on to Internet Daily - Scale: 1 = 0-2 times, 2 = 3-5 times, 3 = 6-8 times,
4 = 9-11 times, 5 = Over 12 times
Hours Spent on Internet Daily - Scale: 1 = 0-2 hours, 2 = 3-5 hours, 3 = 6-8 hours, 4 = 9-11 hours, 5 = Other
97 Table 4. Daily Times Logged-On and Spent on Internet
Times Logged on to Internet Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative Percent Percent Valid 0-2 Times 6 8.3 8.3 8.3 3-5 Times 37 51.4 51.4 59.7 6-8 Times 15 20.8 20.8 80.6 9-11 Times 6 8.3 8.3 88.9 Over 12 Times 8 11.1 11.1 100.0 Total 72 100.0 100.0
Table 5. Hours spent on the Internet daily
Hours Spent on the Internet Valid 0-2 Hours 7 9.7 9.7 9.7 3-5 Hours 36 50.0 50.0 59.7 6-8 Hours 21 29.2 29.2 88.9 9-11 Hours 7 9.7 9.7 98.6 Other 1 1.4 1.4 100.0 Total 72 100.0 100.0
Frequency analysis revealed that most of the respondents logged on to the internet 3-5 times a day (51.4%) followed by 6-8 times a day (20.8%), over 12 times a day (11.1%), 0-2 times a day (8.3%), and 9-11 times a day (8.3%). Furthermore, frequency analysis indicated that half of the respondents spent 3-5 hours online daily (50%). This was followed by 6-8 hours daily (29.2%), 0-2 hours (9.7%), 9-11 hours (9.7%), and other (1.4%).
Regression Analysis
Model Summary
Std. Error of the Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Estimate 1 .095a .009 -.006 .999 a. Predictors: (Constant), Perceived Level of Internet Addiction
Regression analysis was used to help determine the effects of the perceived effect of Internet Usage on the Academic Achievement of Southeast Asian college students? The details are presented in the tables that follow below.
Table 6. Model and Coefficients – Respondents’ Perceived Level of Internet Addiction on CGPA
Coefficientsa Standardized Model Unstandardized Coefficients Coefficients B Std. Error Beta t Sig. 1 (Constant) 2.047 .423 4.836 .000 Perceived Level of .108 .141 .095 .766 .446 Internet Addiction a. Dependent Variable: Cumulative Grade Point Average
98 According to Sykes (1993) regression analysis is used to determine the effect of one variable upon another. Simple linear regression analysis was used to test if the Perceived Effect of Internet Use significantly predicted Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). The results indicated that the Perceived Level of Internet Addiction explained 0.9% of the variance in CGPA (r2 = 0.009, f = 0.587, ß = 0.095, t = 0.766, p = 0.446 > 0.05). This means that the respondents’ Perceived Level of Internet Addiction does not significantly predict CGPA.
Table 7. Model and Coefficients – Respondents’ Perceived Effect of Internet Usage on Emotions and CGPA
Model Summary Model R R Square Adjusted R Std. Error of the Square Estimate 1 .103a .011 -.005 .998 a. Predictors: (Constant), Perceived Effect on Emotions Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Standardized Coefficients Coefficients B Std. Error Beta T Sig. 1 (Constant) 2.048 .391 5.231 .000 Perceived Effect .105 .126 .103 .835 .407 on Emotions a. Dependent Variable: CGPA
The regression analysis shows that the Perceived Effect of Internet Use on Emotions explains 1.1% of the variance in CGPA and that the Perceived Effect of Internet Use on Emotions insignificantly predicts CGPA (r2 = 0.011, ß = 0.019, t = 0.155, p = .88 > 0.05).
Table 8. Model and Coefficients – Respondents’ Perceived Effect of Internet Use on Social Life and CGPA
Model Summary Model R R Square Adjusted R Std. Error of the Square Estimate 1 .118a .014 -.001 .996 a. Predictors: (Constant), Perceived Effect on Social Life
Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Standardized Coefficients Coefficients B Std. Error Beta T Sig.
1 (Constant) 2.037 .357 5.707 .000 Perceived Effect on .127 .133 .118 .956 .343 Social Life a. Dependent Variable: Cumulative Grade Point Average
As for the respondents’ Perceived Effect of Internet Use on Social Life, the simple linear regression analysis indicates that it explains 1.4% of the variance on CGPA and insignificantly predicts CGPA (r2 = 0.014, f = 0.914, ß= 0.118, t = 0.956, p = 0.343 > 0.05).
99 Table 9. Model and Coefficients – Respondents’ Perceived Effect of Internet Usage on Morals and CGPA
Model Summary Model R R Square Adjusted R Std. Error of the Square Estimate 1 .199a .040 .025 .990 a. Predictors: (Constant), Perceived Effect on Morals
Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized B Coefficients Std. Error Beta T Sig. 1 (Constant) 2.041 .233 8.771 .000 Perceived Effect .156 .096 .199 1.626 .109 on Morals a. Dependent Variable: Cumulative Grade Point Average
Finally, the Perceived Effect of Internet Use on Morals insignificantly predicts and explains 4.0% of the total variance on CGPA (r2 = 0.040, f = 2.643, ß = 0.199, t = 1.626, p = 0.109 > 0.05).
Discussion
From the demographic information gathered, the internet appears to be an integral part of the respondents’ lives. Perhaps similar to the other studies mentioned, respondents use the internet as a tool to connect socially, on top of for information search. In terms of students’ perception on how the internet affects their academic performance, the respondents appear to perceive that the internet usage has little to no effect on their academic achievement. This was also the same for the effects of internet usage on inter- and intra-personal relationships, which were measured through social life and morals. That there were no statistically significant perceptions regarding respondents’ internet usage on their academic achievement gave rise to several assumptions. The first is that this finding may indeed indicate that college students may very well have become adapted to today’s technological era, as illustrated in the findings of Junco, Heiberger, and Loken (2011), and Mehmood and Taswir (2013), especially when the social aspect of internet usage is taken into account. This would help to confirm the Visconti (2013) report that outlined most of Southeast Asian internet users to be below 35 years of age. In addition, it would give aid to the findings of studies that showed that internet usage was a boost to education rather than a detriment (Kumar & Kaur, 2006; Simons, 2014). Although it was revealed that most of the respondents logged on to the internet 3-5 times a day and spent 3-5 hours online, it seems likely that the respondents had not spent enough time online to be adversely affected academically as 3-5 hours online is in sharp contrast to the Nielsen (2011) consumer group report which stated that individuals in the top six Southeast Asian countries (Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia) spent an average of 16.3 hours online daily.
Limitations
There were a number of limitations to this study. First, this study only looked at the perceptions of the respondents regarding their perceptions about internet usage and its effects on their academic achievement. It did not reveal whether or not the perceptions of the respondents were consistent with their reality. It would be beneficial to the university and other educational institutions to discover whether or not the respondents’ perceptions of the effects of internet usage on academic achievement are reflective of the reality of the respondents’ academic achievement. Second, due to the small sample size (n = 72) the results of the study may not be applicable to the general student body at AIU. Nevertheless, the results of the study do imply that SACS may not perceive themselves to be academically affected by their internet usage which could therefore indicate that SACS have adapted to
100 the technological era and are not affected academically by internet usage. However, their perception may not be necessarily reflected when it comes to the reality.
Conclusion
In summary, this study revealed that the respondents did not perceive that internet usage affected their academic achievement. For the stakeholders at AIU – teachers, administrators, staff, sponsors and student –this study reveals that many students do not think that they are affected academically by their internet usage habits. However teachers, administrators, dormitory deans and even students must be aware of this and keep in mind that the students’ perceptions may not necessarily be accurate. What could be explored is to teach students how the internet could be used in a beneficial manner to aid them in their studies. For future endeavors on students’ use of the internet could be done by looking at links between perceived effects of the Internet, or objects within the learning environment with the goals of students and their academic achievement (Meece, Anderman, & Anderman, 2006).
References
Anderson, K. J. (2001). Internet use among college students: An exploratory study. Journal of American College Health, 50(1), 21-26. Anh-Minh, D. (2013). Southeast Asia has more than 190 million internet users. Tech in Asia. Retrieved March 19, 2014 from http://www.techinasia.com/southeast-asia-internet-infographic/ Bush, M.d. (2008). Computer-assisted language learning: From vision to reality? CALICO Journal, 25(3), 442-470. Chappell, C., & Jamieson, J. (2008). Tips for teaching with CALL: Practical approaches to computer-assisted language learning. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education. Chemers, M. M., Hu, L. T., & Garcia, B. F. (2001). Academic self-efficacy and first year college student performance and adjustment. Journal of Educational psychology, 93(1), 55. Chen, Y. F., & Peng, S. S. (2008). University students’ Internet use and its relationships with academic performance, interpersonal relationships, psychosocial adjustment, and self-evaluation. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11(4), 467-469. Garett, N. (2009). Computer-assisted language learning trends and issues revisited: Integrating innovation. The Modern language Journal, 92(Focus Issue), 719-740. Hoskins, S. L., & Van Hooff, J. C. (2005). Motivation and ability: which students use online learning and what influence does it have on their achievement?. British Journal of Educational Technology, 36(2), 177-192. Internet usage statistics. (2013). Internet World Stats. Retrieved March 19, 2014 from http://www. internetworldstats.com/stats.htm Jack, B., & Clarke, A. M. (1998). The purpose and use of questionnaires in research.Professional Nurse, 14(3), 176-179. Jackson, L. A., Von Eye, A., Biocca, F. A., Barbatsis, G., Zhao, Y., & Fitzgerald, H. E. (2006). Does home internet use influence the academic performance of low-income children?. Developmental psychology, 42(3), 429. Jacobsen, W. C., & Forste, R. (2011). The wired generation: Academic and social outcomes of electronic media use among university students. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 14(5), 275-280. Joiner, R., Gavin, J., Brosnan, M., Cromby, J., Gregory, H., Guiller, J., Mara., P., & Moon, A. (2012). Gender, internet experience, internet identification, and internet anxiety: A ten-year followup.Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 15(7), 370-372. doi:10.1089/cyber.2012.0033 Junco, R., Heiberger, G, & Loken, E. (2011). The effect of Twitter on college student engagement and grades. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 27(2), 119-132. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2729.2010.00387.x Kirschner, P. A., & Karpinski, A. C. (2010). Facebook® and academic performance. Computers in human behavior, 26(6), 1237-1245. Kubey, R. W., Lavin, M. J., & Barrows, J. R. (2001). Internet use and collegiate academic performance decrements: Early findings. Journal of communication, 51(2), 366-382. Kumar, R., & Kaur, A. (2006). Internet use by teachers and students in engineering colleges of Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh States of India: An analysis. Electronic Journal of Academic and
101 Special Librarianship, 7(1). Retrieved April 15, 2014 from http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/ content/v07n01/kumar_r01.htm Lei, J., & Zhao, Y. (2007). Technology uses and student achievement: A longitudinal study. Computers & Education, 49(2), 284-296. Li, N., & Kirkup, G. (2007). Gender and cultural differences in Internet use: A study of China and the UK. Computers & Education, 48(2), 301-317. Lizzio, A., Wilson, K., & Simons, R. (2002). University students’ perceptions of the learning environment and academic outcomes: implications for theory and practice.Studies in Higher education, 27(1), 27-52. Manoj, M., & Jacob, E. (2008). Information retrieval on Internet using meta-search engines: A review.Journal of Scientific & Industrial Research, 6,739-746. Meece, J. L., Anderman, E. M., & Anderman, L. H. (2006). Classroom goal structure, student motivation, and academic achievement. Annu. Rev. Psychol., 57, 487-503. Mehmood, S., & Taswir, T. (2013). The effects of social networking sites on the academic performance of students in college of applied sciences, Nizwa, Oman. International Journal of Arts and Commerce, 2(1), 111-125. Purcell, K. (2011). Search and email still top the list of most popular online activities. Pew Research Center. Retrieved April 14, 2014 from http://www.pewinternet.org/2011/08/09/search-and-email-still-top- the-list-of-most-popular-online-activities/ Smith, A., Rainie, L., & Zickuhr, K. (2011). College students and technology. Pew Research Center. Retrieved December 29, 2013 from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/College-students-and-technol- ogy/Report.aspx Sykes, A. O. (1993). An introduction to regression analysis. University of Chicago. Tsang, K. K. (2012). The use of midpoint on Likert Scale: The implications for educational research.Hong Kong Teacher’s Centre Journal, 11, 121-127. Visconti, K. (2013, August 1). PH Internet audience growth fastest in Southeast Asia. Rappler. Retrieved March 19, 2014 from http://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/technology/35384-philippine-internet- audience-growth-comscore Zhou, R., Fong. P. W., & Tan, P., (2014). Internet use and its impact on engagement in leisure activities in China. PLoS ONE, 9(2), 1-11. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0089598 Zickuhr, K. (2014). Teens and Tech: What the research says. Young Adult Library Services, 12(2), 33-37.
About the Author
Gabby Jed Catane Galgao is an instructor at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand.
102 Catalyst Publishing Guidelines
Institute Press (IP) (Revised 2015)
Following are some general guidelines for Catalyst article writing and submission.
1. Catalyst Publishing Guidelines
1.1. Manuscripts should be no more than 12-15 pages in length. 1.2. Manuscripts should be written in correct and standard UK English. 1.3. Manuscripts should be single-spaced. 1.4. Manuscripts should use Calibri font size 11. 1.5. Manuscripts should contain minimal formatting (bold and italics commands are acceptable). 1.6. Manuscripts should not contain editorial controls of any kind. 1.7. Manuscripts which involve tables/diagrams should submit the tables/diagrams in JPEG files and send the files as separate attachment (use a separate JPEG file for each table/diagram). 1.8. Manuscripts should also contain a 150-200 word abstract of the article, a list of key words (optional) and a brief descriptor of the author.
2. Referencing Format
2.1 In order to maintain a consistent look for Catalyst, the APA format is mandatory. While authors may be accustomed to formats that are specific to their particular disciplines, Catalyst would have greater consistency if one format is followed. This APA format would provide the consistency that IP is aiming for. 2.2 Catalyst follows the APA style for endnotes (preferred), in-text citations and references. 2.3 Referencing Samples: Please refer to http://www.apastyle.org/ for questions about referencing, heading and serialisation on the APA format.
3. Submissions Procedure
3.1 Manuscripts should be in MS Word format and should relate to one of the relevant disciplines. 3.2 Manuscripts should adhere to the Catalyst Publishing Guidelines; failure to comply with the guidelines may result in the rejection of a submission. 3.3 Manuscripts may be submitted through the online submission system found in "submission request." 3.4 Manuscripts should be submitted by the 30th of April for the July issue, or the 30th of September for the December issue.
4. Review Process
4.1 Manuscripts will undergo a blind review process that may take 1-2 months (depending on the response rate of individual reviewers). 4.2 Authors will be informed of reviewers’ comments as soon as they are available. 4.3 Authors will be given about 1 month to revise their papers (should that be necessary) and should return the revised papers to IP by the 1st of July/December.
103