Chapter 2 Research

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Studying Strategies and Academic Performance of the Senior High School of Cor Jesu

Institute of Mabini Inc.

Questionnaire

Name: ____________________________ Date: _____________________


(optional)

Direction: Please check ( ) and rate yourself honestly based on what you actually do

given the statements using the following scales:

5 – always 4 – often 3 – sometimes 2 – rarely 1 – never

TIME MANAGEMENT 5 4 3 2 1
1. I do my assignments regularly.
2. I exert more effort when I do difficult
assignments.
3. I spend my vacant time in doing assignments or
studying my lessons.
4. I study the lessons I missed if I was absent from
the class.
5. I study and prepare for quizzes and tests.
6. I study harder to improve my performance
when I get low grades.
7. I spend less time with my friends during school
days to concentrate more on my studies.
8. I prefer finishing my studies and my
assignments first before watching t.v.
9. I see to it that extracurricular activities do not
hamper my studies.
REHEARSAL LEARNING 5 4 3 2 1

10. I have a specific place of study at home which


I keep clean and orderly.
11. I start reviewing for major exams at least a
week before the exam day.
12. I anticipate the possible questions that may be
asked on the tests.
13. I review the returned test papers and study
where I got wrong.
14. I take notes as I read books or during class
lectures.
15. I write my notes in my own words for better
understanding
16. I highlight or underline texts to emphasize key
facts in my lecture notes or books.
17. I think of examples on how a particular topic
might be applied or used.
18. I answer test questions in the book after
reading each chapter.
19. When I don’t understand the topic, I ask help
from a classmate or my professor.
20. I consult other review/reference materials
other than the prescribed book.

Research Design

This study considered as descriptive one because we indicated the situation

word-for-word. We fully described, stated, and studied the lived experiences of a

particular person based on her examination performance. It is a non-experimental type

of research because we did not perform any types of experiments when gathering data,

we just did survey through questioning our participant.

Data Gathering Procedure

We gather information coming from our participant through questioning her,

since we only have one participant to be asked and to get information with. Using our

research questions, we interrogated her by asking those five questions and by that, we

got some useful information that really helped our study a lot.
Review of Related Literature

Foreign Study

According to survey conducted by a leading psychologist in Indonesia, it was

revealed that 44% of Indonesian students feel stressed when they have quiz,

assignments and moreover examination (Maharani, 2015). Similarly, a study conducted

by Kinantie (2012) pertaining students’ stress in a public secondary school in Bandung,

Indonesia showed that 30% of students were experiencing high stress level prior to

national examination. Further, 35.35% students of a high school in Bali are reported to

face medium level of stress before exam as well (Wardana & Dinata, 2016). Therefore,

given the fact that exam stress is a major stressful experience for students, the elevated

exam stress has been also evident to be associated with underachievement (Elias, Ping,

& Abdullah, 2011; Ng, Koh, & Chia, 2003), less motivation to achieve better grade

(Austin, Saklofske, & Mastoras, 2010), increased level of tension and depression (Ang &

Huan, 2006; Dahlin, Joneborg, & Runeson, 2005; Dixon & Kurpius, 2008;

Kumaraswamy, 2013; Shaikh et al., 2004), self-control impairment (Oaten & Cheng,

2005), also negative influence on physiological indicators of stress and immune function

(Gilbert, Stunkard, Jensen, Detwiler, & Martinko, 1996). All together, these findings

suggest that certain negative occurrences like poor performance during exam and other

outcomes are also correlated with exam stress aside from other factors, this highlight

the necessity for further analysis and research as well as the need for effective

intervention for them. With respect to Madrasah Aliyah, in the jurisdictions of

Indonesia, the term of Madrasah Aliyah refers to statutory formal education of


secondary school which starting from grade ten to grade twelve in which its system and

administration is under Ministry of Religious Affairs (Department Agama, 1985;

Indonesia, 1994). Like any other senior high schools, Madrasah Aliyah offers a wide

array of study programs such as natural or social science, vocational and even language

programs. During final years, students of Madrasah Aliyah are also required to be

seated for National Examinations. Regarding their curriculum and states, Madrasah

Aliyah is the same as any public or private school, but the portions for Islamic

Education are relatively higher due to the additions of certain subjects like Al Qur’an

and Hadith, Tafsir, Fiqh, Aqidah, Arabic Language, Islamic History and many more

(Departemen Agama, 1985; Indonesia, 1994). Correspondingly, students of all

secondary schools encompassing Madrasah Aliyah have similar potential to experience

academic stress moreover during examination weeks, and specifically when their

resources to cope with certain perceived troublesome situations are not fully generated

(Hakiqi, 2013; Sholiha, 2013; Sulaeman & Joefiani, 2014). In such, many researchers have

documented a wide array of studies pertaining examination-related stress to be

prevalent among secondary school students, but little attention has been given to its

especially madrasah aliyah students whereas those students have to deal with

additional numbers of subjects examined compared to regular secondary school (Fuad,

2015; Hakiqi, 2013; Sholiha, 2013). Consequently, this starts to be deteriorating for

some schools have limited access toward mental health care due to the deprivation of

proper interventions, unavailability of counseling staff or any human factors dealing

with students’ wellness (Putri, 2013), and susceptible scarceness toward discussion

about these problems owing to cultural and traditional factors (Baruth & Manning,

2016; Jaladin, 2018; Pope-Davis, 2003). Finally, with the intention and goals to motivate

Madrasah Aliyah students to academically perform better and to encourage them to be

resilient students, this research is conducted with the focus on assessing the prevalence

of perceived level of stress during examination week. Next, coming from mentioned
reasons, the study was conducted to answer following research questions 1) What is the

perceived level of stress among Madrasah Aliyah students? And 2) Does the

pervasiveness of perceived stress level among Madrasah Aliyah students statistically

differ if associated to their gender and study year (level)? Further, the research

possessed only one hypothesis stating that there were significant differences of stress

level when linked to gender, age and year of study. The reason was that stress level

may vary from low to high level depend on several factors like age, gender, study of

years and many more. This study was descriptive and cross-sectional design in which

it applied qualitative method to collect the data and random sampling to determine

total of respondents. Prior to conduct the study, researchers asked for ethical approval

from the school director and management to conduct the research in this very school.

Having gained the approval from school director and management board, 107

respondents were recruited; those respondents are students of Madrasah Aliyah

Pasirjambu, Kab. Bandung from year 10 to year 12 who were proportionally recruited to

participate in this research whereby they were asked to fill up paper-based

questionnaire regarding their perception of stress in a designated class room

immediately after exam during examination week of second semester. The

questionnaire took around 15 to 30 minutes to be completed by the respondents. The

process of data collection required four days for completions in which respondents

were gradually recruited from year 10 to year 12, and within the fourth day, the data

were checked for completion and those found to be incomplete were replaced in the

same day. The questionnaire to assess perceived stress level among Madrasah Aliyah

students was divided into two sections; the first part covers demographic information

about the respondents whereby they were asked to report their age, gender, year of

study, and how many exams they had sat during recent exam period. As for

measurement, Perceived Stress Scale developed by Sheldon Cohen, Kammarck and

Mermelstein (1983; 1994) to measure the degree to which situations in student’s life are
perceived as stressful situation, or in this case is the degree to which students perceived

examinations as stressful events. The measure has been used in various studies such as

Academic Stress Impairs Self- Control by Oaten and Cheng (2005) or Stress, Social

Support and Health-related Behaviour by Steptoe, Wardle, Pollard, Canaan, and Davies

(1996). The reliability of the questionnaire was using Cronbach Alpha and the result

was quite reliable at .084.

This questionnaire is 0-4 likert-scale that has 10 questions in which each number asks

respondents about their feelings, thought, and assumption within last months. Next,

respondents were asked to rate and indicate how frequent they perceived in a certain

way like 0 – for Never, 1 – for Almost Never, 2 – for Sometimes, 3 – for Fairly Often, 4 –

for Very Often. Furthermore, to assess level of stress, score for number 4, 5, 7 and 8 have

to be reversed, and the change of score would be 0 = 4, 1 = 3, 2 = 2, 3 = 1, and 4 = 0.

Following that, all score should be added up for each item to obtain score total. In the

end of calculation, score obtained on this questionnaire can range from 0 to 40 in which

higher score indicates higher perceived stress. Score from 0 to 13 would be determined

as low stress, 14 to 26 would be considered moderate stress and score ranging from 27

to 40 would be considered high level of perceived stress (Cohen et al., 1983; Cohen et

al., 1994). Turning to the analysis, researchers used SPSSv20 to analyse collected data.

The prevalence and percentage of perceived stress level among Madrasah Aliyah

students was scrutinized using descriptive statistics while statistical differences

associated with gender, ages and study year were analysed non-parametric test in

which gender variable was investigated using Mann-Whitney U test, and both ages and

study year (level) were analysed using Krusskal-Wallis Test. (Akbar, 2018)
Local Study

Based from the teacher of San Isidro National High School, she realizes that students

are the most essential elements in any educational institution. They are considered as

the core of learning process. Their performance plays an important role in determining

academic achievements which are associated to what people value. If students achieve

their set academic standards and successfully attained high degree of education, the

probability of being employed in the future is high. This academic performance also

reflects the quality graduates who will become great leaders and manpower for the

country’s economic and social development. Hence, having good academic standing is

essential. School equips them with the necessary knowledge, abilities, and values to

deal with specific challenges they will be facing throughout their lives. Aside from

learning academics, students are allowed to progress in other aspects and develop

essential skills such as collaboration, good manners and unity through different extra-

curricular activities. But in dealing with different challenges and demands to perform

well in academics, students may feel stressful because of their inability to perform all

demands.

Stress is inevitable in any condition and situation. Even a person who is wealthy,

powerful, attractive, or happy experience stress. However, stress may take differently

depending on the situation and how one perceives stress. In education, stress may

happen when a student is taking a difficult or long examination, experiences an

accident, waits in a queue during a day on which everything goes wrong. Stress is

perceived as negative in different aspects: emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and

physiological process that occurs as a person tries to cope or deal with stressors.

Reactions to stressors depend upon the ability of a person to cope with various

instances and situations.

According to Associated Press/ MTV survey (2009), school is the most frequently

mentioned source of students’stress from 13 to17 years old. A child may be studying
always but if not studying effectively, all the time spent with books might actually be

causing more stress. A high school is might be way of building up a tolerance for stress

because of too much homework, testing, and pressure from peers.

In the educational field, the common sources of stress that may lead to fear and anxiety

among students are high expectations of parents, teachers, or even friends, academic

pressure, competition among classmates, physical set-up, limited opportunities, and

ambitions (Nakalema and Ssenyonga, 2013). Students in their high school level are the

ones who are going through the transitional phase which is an intermediate of

childhood and adulthood. Peer relations take on much more importance during

adolescence. It was found that most teens go through stress because of peer pressure.

The words “popularity” and “cliques” are frequently associated with this time in life.

Being accepted into desired social circles and keeping up with the ‘popular kids’is of

high priority for many adolescents to be accepted. (Santos, 2018)

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