Study habits and attitudes of senior secondary school students

[摘要] ENGLISH SUMMARY: The aim of this study is to investigate study habits and attitudes of standard ten studentsin the former Department of Education and Training (D.E.T.) schools in Khayelitsha,Brown and Holtzman's Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes, Form H, (SSHA), adaptedand standardized for use in South Africa by L du Toit (1994), was administered to 1140standard ten students. This group consisted of 411 males and 729 females Xhosa speakingstudents in Khayelitsha.The 11440 students' responses were divided into two categories, viz. group 0 aged 20years and younger, and group 1 aged 21 years and older.The SSHA questionnaire measured seven dimensions, namely delay avoidance (DA),work methods (WM), study habits (SH), teacher approval (TA), education acceptance(EA), study attitude (SA) and study orientation (SO).The results of this survey indicate differences between students of' different sexes andages on the attributes being investigated. From a statistical viewpoint the results appearto be highly significant. According to ·F-tests, significant subgroup effects, i.e. eithermain effects or interactions, were found in five of the seven variables. The significantdifferences on delay avoidance, work methods, study habits, study orientation andeducation acceptance subscales for students of different sexes and ages are consistentwith findings. of other research on students' study habits and attitudes.All the students' mean scores were below the 50th percentile on the teacher approvalsubscale, the same with the study attitude mean scores with the exception of twoschools. A significant number of students externalize their motives and they havenegative study habits attitudes. 'Students aged below and equal to 20 years tended to have greater mean scores in workmethods, study habits, education acceptance, study attitude and study orientationsubscales when compared with students who are aged above and equal to 2l years.In the delay avoidance and teacher approval subscales, students aged below and equal to20 years tended to have lower mean scores when compared with students who are agedabove and equal to 21 years.On the students', Environmental Circumstances Questionnaire there are significantdifferences and the null hypothesis is rejected in four of the five aspects investigated,namely home circumstances, willingness of parents to visit the school, utilization of studytime and availability of school library facilities. The null hypothesis on Study Skillsquestionnaire was not rejected.The overall results indicate clear differences in the effects of study habits and attitudes onstudents of different, sexes and ages as measured by five of the' seven S SHA subscales,Findings confirm the importance of study habits and attitudes on academic performance.The need for further application of the SSHA on black South African students wasrecommended.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University