SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Transcription

1 mmky m CONCLUSION

2 CHAPTER - V SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION In the previous chapter, the analysis and interpretation of data was presented in detail. In this chapter, the researcher presents a brief summary of the research which includes the need for the study, the objectives, hypothesis and methodology followed by the researcher, the tools and techniques used for collection and interpretation of the data. It also includes, educational implications, limitations under which the present investigation has been carried out and suggestions are made for further research. The destiny of any country is shaped in the classrooms. It is no exception to our country. It is not a mere saying but a reality (Kothari Commission ). In a world based on science and technology, it is the education that determines the level of prosperity, welfare and security of the pupil. Secondary Education commission ( ) stated that education must develop in its citizens habits, attitudes and qualities of character and equip them to bear the burden of life in the changing economic and social structure. Education has been regarded as a matter of primary natural importance. The major objective of modern education is to develop well informed and 202

3 intelligently active citizens. For, education has to impart knowledge, develop skills, inculcate proper study habits, interest, attitudes and values among its citizens (Kothari Commission, ). Secondary level of education is very important from individuals point of view in social, economic and education fields. It deals with the adolescence and that period is the most crucial period which requires utmost care for the healthy development of the students. It plays an important role in training the youth to take an effective part in social reconstruction and economic development of the country. It has to prepare the students for various vocational courses. For all these sufficient emphasis should be laid on inculcating proper study habits and study skills (Indira Sharma, 1992). Study skills play a decisive role in the academic achievement of the pupil. The first and the most important thing is to acquire the habit of studying systematically, doing one's own work regularly, staying at it until it is done and not getting behind it. It covers broadly individuals mode of regularizing study behaviour and sensitization to curricular and extracurricular work, books, art or any subject from which knowledge can be acquired. A student, whose main objective at school is to develop educational competence, must use those methods of studying which are most effective. Generally, students, knowingly or unknowingly, take over the methods of study from 203

4 parents, elder siblings. All these methods of study may not necessarily be the most effective (Kamalanabhan, 1987). The task of efficient learning depends upon independent factors such as study procedures, study habits and study skills rather, than on good teaching alone. Efficient learning depends upon the learners ability to reading skills, to scheduling his time, good plan of study, efficient methods of learning, development of clear thinking, concentration, memory, organisation of ideas, underlining, outlining and adequate skills in taking examination. Efficient learning involves proper formation of study habits and study skills. And these have to be learned and practiced to be successful in academic pursuits (Vishwanath Shinde, 1994). In the field of education, the most serious problem is the increase in the number of failures both at the primary and secondary school levels. The reasons for the failure rate at various examinations are many, but one of them is poor or ineffective study skills and reading habits. Among such students some are underachievers. The underachievers are those in whom there is a marked difference between potential (as shown by ability test) and performance (as shown by grades or achievement scores). The Research studies related to academic under- 204

5 achievement have found that study skills are the important factors which determine the level of academic achievement. Thus, success in study skills is a prerequisite to success in education.lt is the responsibility of our schools to identify and provide opportunities for the development of the full potential of every individual. In this process, if efforts are inadequate, the end products would be a large number of unsuccessful groups. While factors leading to under-achievement have been identified by many researchers, little evidence is available in respect of factors significantly associated with achievement. This prompted the researcher to make an attempt to study the impact of stud> skills on the achievement of underachievers of secondary schools. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM : "The effectiveness of training in study skills for high school underachievers in relation to their scholastic achievement". The purpose of the study is to help the teachers to identify such students. After identifying such students, they have to concentrate on those factors which in turn help them to improve their performance and to move from underachieving group to normal achieving group. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY : 1. To identify the over, normal and underachievers in VIII standard secondary school students studying in English medium. 205

6 2. To identify the study habits of underachievers. 3. To develop a study skills programme to inculcate study skills among the experimental group. 4. To guide the parents of Experimental group underachievers to provide possible facilities required for their children during the period of the study skills programme. HYPOTHESES : 1. There is no significant difference between pre and post scores of experimental and control groups on study habits. 2. There is no significant difference between pre and post test scores on achievement test. 3. There is no significant difference between post and post-delayed test scores on achievement test. 4. There is no significant improvement in the achievement level of experimental group and control group compared with the overachievers and normal achievers. In order to achieve the above objectives and to verify the hypotheses it was essential to identify underachievers. The sample consisted of 380 students studying in VIII standard English medium schools of Davangere city. Out of 206

7 which 75 were identified as under achievers, 221 as normal achievers and 84 as over achievers. The tools used for the collection of data were as follows : 1) Group test of Intelligence - constructed and standardized by Ahuja. 2) Scholastic Achievement tests - constructed by the researcher. 3) Study Habits Inventory - constructed by Palsane and Sharma. 4) Check List - Developed by the researcher. The intelligence test and achievement test were used to identify the under, normal and over achievers by using the regression equation. The students who were above + 1 S.D. distance from the mean on regression line were considered as over achievers, those below - 1 S.D. distance from the mean were considered as under achievers and the rest as normal achievers. Scholastic Achievement test was used to assess the effectiveness of the study skills programme in improving scholastic achievement. Study habits inventory was used to identify the study habits of underachievers and also to find out the effectiveness of study skills programme in improving their study habits. 207

8 Checklist was used to get the feed back from the parents about the progress of their children during the period of study skills programme. DEVELOPMENT OF STUDY SKILLS PROGRAMME : The study skills programme consisted of 8 components. They are; 1. To schedule one's time to study. 2. Reading skills - involves to improve the reading rate, comprehension, vocabulary and reading of charts, map and graphs. 3. Note taking skills involves how to take notes in the class room and how to make notes from the text book/books. 4. Memory skills involve how to remember better with Mnemonic aid. 5. Concentration skill involves concentration by Yoga, meditation, visual imagery and digital numbers. 6. Look it up skills in dictionary and encyclopedia. 7. Group Learning 8. Examination and test taking strategies Each of these components were explained to the students by the researcher. The students had to accomplish practice tasks. And this was checked by the checklist provided to the experimental group parents by the researcher. The parents were requested to meet the researcher every Saturday 208

9 to take guidance, for those who could not come to meet were visited in their homes by the researcher. Impact of the study skill programme. The design of the experiment can be represented as follows ; Pretest : Measurement on study habits and achievement test for experimental and control group. Treatment: Administration of the study skills programme to Experimental group. Post-test: Measurement on study habits and achievement for Experimental and control group. Post-delayed test: Measurement on achievement of Experimental and control group. Further researcher was interested in comparing the experimental and control groups with overachievers and normal achievers on achievement level. Quantitative analysis was done by comparing pre, post and post delayed test scores on achievement and also on study habits for both the experimental and control group. 209

10 CONCLUSIONS: After identifying the under-achievers they were randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. The experimental group was subjected to the study skill programme developed by the researcher. This programme included the use of audio-visual materials like audio cassettes on time scheduling, to improve memory, note taking skill, preparation for examination and it also included a video cassette on study skills. The control group was not exposed to this programme. As a result of this exposure, the experimental group showed a lot of improvement in their study habits and also in scholastic achievement. The results revealed that there was significant difference in pre, post and post-delayed achievement test scores and study habits. Their success can be attributed to the study skills programme which included a detailed orientation to the parents, who in tern was co-operative with the researcher in strictly following the guidelines given to them in guiding their children. In addition to this they gave a lot of encouragement, instilled confidence and motivation to their children by providing all the needed facilities to work at home and at school regarding their study. The identified underachievers in the study were randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received the study 210

11 skills programme which include aids like audio cassettes on time schedule, preparation for examination, how to improve memory and note taking skills. And a video cassette on study skills. Whereas the control group was not exposed to the study skills programme. The experimental group showed improvement in the study habits and scholastic achievement after the study skills programme. The analysis of the data revealed that there was significant difference between pre, post and postdelayed test scores. Their success can be contributed to study skills programme given by the researcher and the parents co-operation in following researcher's guidelines, the encouragement, physical facilities, a good environment and a effective monitoring has helped the students to put their best efforts and to improve their scholastic achievement. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS: The findings of the study reveals that there is an urgent need for the promotion of study skills in the secondary school students. In today's world, our quest for knowledge is ever-changing and expanding, what one learns as fact today may be, in many areas of knowledge, obsolete tomorrow. For this reason, it is highly important that students should learn and develop the study skills needed to continue their learning independently. The close correspondence between under-achievement and failures are well known. If our valuable human resources are to be used in the services of 211

12 the individual and society the problem of under achievement requires systematic analysis and attention of the researchers. Therefore, a few recommendations may help interested people to undertake this study so that the problem of under-achievement may be tackled by inculcating study skills among the underachievers. The scholastic achievement is related to study skills, study skills are subtle and difficult to develop in them as it requires one's potential to mastery over any subject with persistence. Problems connected to study may seriously interfere with the students efforts to learn. Sometimes the teacher may not be aware of study skills and if they know, they neglect to promote these among the students. So the teachers should be oriented about the study skills and should make them understand clearly what is involved in study skills and how to apply the techniques more explicitly in class room and to demonstrate transferability of study skilly to the new situations. Therefore appointment of trained counselors is very necessary in secondary schools, which could do much to prevent or correct many of the problems that confront in their study. The point has been recommended by the education commission of and it states that guidance & counseling should be an integral part of education. So far it has not been given effect to. Therefore, the researcher recommends that the 212

13 services of trained counselor may be provided to some selected schools on an experimental basis. It should be carefully borne in mind that pupils learn these study skills not only from teachers but also independently without any help or guidance from the teacher. Therefore, the school authorities and parents must provide facilities required for the pupil's to study. Tutorial programmes may be organised with the help of the teachers. To create a link between the student and the library, resources must be strengthened. The authorities should make it as one of the rules that a library with sufficient reading materials and a trained librarian must be appointed to issue books regularly for the pupil and also help students to locate material required. Every school must have a separate room for the library and reading room. In our country a programme to develop effective study skills for the students has to be evolved. The schoolwise learning assistance centres to provide broad based services for all students should be adopted. A "how to study programme must be individualized to each students' needs. However, study programme has to go beyond helping a student discover what is wrong by giving them information through reading or lecture. To develop maximum 213

14 motivation and to increase transfer of skills to actual studying "how to study training programme should be allied as closely as possible to students lessons and other courses". How to study, programme must serve as a guide in terms of diagnosis, presentation of study technique and providing some practice tests. This training in study methods can not be of great value unless students realise its importance, and think it worthwhile to spend some effort towards improvement. The educational policy should include individualised instruction with modular scheduling and self placed modules closely integrated with basic skills training. Finally the study skill programme is a combination process, which involves the student, the teacher and the parents. In the present day the responsibility of the parents is of great importance as they have to create an atmosphere which is congenial for the students to develop sound study skills to pursue at home. Some of the suggestions to the parents could be as follows : 1. A separate study room to be provided for their son/daughter if possible. If not, they can provide a silent portion within the available accommodation for his/her study. 2. They have to encourage, motivate and monitor their child's progress by consulting the school authorities. This ensures the student that the parents are genuinely interested in their academic progress which in turn makes the student to achieve mastery in study skills. 214

15 3. As far as possible they should not disturb their son/daughter during his/her study to do any of the errands or household courses. 4. As far as possible they should give their son/daughter a free hand facilities, materialistic aids and a constant monitory of his/her study progress. 5. The educated parents can, not only help in terms of the usage of dictionary, encyclopedia, newspapers, magazines and related books. They can also help in solving the model question papers before the examinations and they can act as proxy teachers at home apart from being a parent. 6. At the beginning of the academic year the school should organize a brief orientation to the parents to enlighten them towards the need and importance of such a programme and also solicit their co-operation with the school and their children. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY : The researcher is quite aware of the limitations under which the present study was conducted. Hence suggests that no sweeping generalisations could be made as they have to be viewed in the light of the following limitations. 1. The present study is limited only to the secondary school students of Davangere city, whose medium of instruction was English. It has not taken into consideration the students of Kannada medium. 215

16 2. It is limited only to study skills and scholastic achievement. It has not included factors like socio-economic status, gender, type of school and other psycho-social factors. 3. The study is limited to the overall improvement in study skills and has not taken into consideration the improvement of each student in different components. 4. The study is confined only to students studying in private schools. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH : The researcher, by virtue of her experience, while studying the present problem, offers the following suggestions for further research. A few of them have been enumerated in order to indicate the possible studies that could be undertaken immediately in this important area of training in study skills for secondary school underachievers by prospective researchers. 1. A study may be under taken to compare the effectiveness of study skills training of students of Government and private school students. 2. A study may be undertaken to identify the underachievers in specific school subjects and develop a study skill programme related to that subject. 3. Study skill programme can be developed for the learning disabled children. 216

17 4. A study may be undertaken to compare the effectiveness of study skills training for over, normal and under achievers. 5. A study could be undertaken involving students studying with Kannada as their medium of instruction. 6. An orientation may be organised for the benefit of the teachers in order to help them to equip themselves with the technical know how of the worthwhileness of the programme. 7. Study skills programme can be developed for the backward community/sc/st. 8. Study skill programme can be implemented by their respective class teachers in the school. 217