The Effects of Study Habits of Selected Marine Student Essay Example

Engineering, and Basic Merchant Marine Course. The maritime education in the country was faced by different stages of transition – from its challenging beginnings up to the current state of opulence. A news report from (1992) stated that maritime education is the oldest educational system in the country.

This claim is attributed to the geographic characteristics of the Philippines. Consisting of 7,107 islands and islets depending on tides, the country has a long coastline which is 235,973 square kilometers, longer than the United States (, 2002). With this fact, it is historically indicated that early ancestors already travel from islands to another by using boats and other water transportation made available at the early times. Thus, the Filipinos are culturally and historically innate or accustomed to marine navigation.

Maritime education also experienced downfalls characterized with downgrading quality of marine education and the need to meet quality standard requirements imposed by CHED and the IMO or the international maritime industry in general. The CHED, being the immediate institution that evaluates the quality of instruction in maritime schools, conducts evaluation procedures to see to it that both national and international requirements on maritime education are met. There have been controversies (, 2000) especially in the classification of marine schools and training centers who reached acceptable level of standards.

In March-April 2001, the published an online article specifying on 37 institutions who complied with Standards for Training, Certification and Watch keeping ( ’95) as based in a memorandum circular issued by the CHED on March 2. Based on surveys conducted by the MTC, there are an estimated 118 schools offering BS Marine Transportation and BS Marine Engineering courses today. MTC executive

director said the number is slightly lower than the 127 schools in 1996 and 15 less than the total 133 in the early 90s.

As the condition of general education in the country complicates, the marine education is not an exemption. News paper (2006) reported the 7th Asia-Pacific Manning and Training Conference at the Philippine Plaza Hotel, where Maritime Academy of the Asia and the Pacific (MAAP) president said that maritime education needs reforms. Such reforms must be centered to maritime academies all over the nation. The reforms include the following: inclusion of leadership training in their curriculum to boost Filipino seamen’s chances, lowering of attrition rate of enrollees and mixing out better trained graduates.

According to Palm Beach Community College (PBBC, 2008), they recommend that student’s study should have at least three hours outof class for every hour spent in class. They also said that a student must have a special place to study with plenty of room to work. And students should not be cramped. They presuppose that study time will go better if a learner take a few minutes at the start to straighten things up. A desk and straight-backed chair is usually best. “Don't get too comfortable--a bed is a place to sleep, not to study” as what they said.

A student must have everything close at hand (book, pencils, paper, coffee, dictionary, computer, calculator, tape recorder, etc. ) before starting to study. Students are not suggested to spend on time jumping up and down to get things. The PBCC suggests also that distracting noise should be minimized however they said that there are some people need sound and some like silence. In this

case, a learner must find what works for him or her. Culprits are family and friends. Consider a "do not disturb" sign and turning on your answering machine is the way also to have better study habits according to the PBBC.

Frank Pogue (2000) did a research project to determine why students fail. What he founds to be true in that study habits survey was that more than 30 years ago still rings true today--students fail because they do not know how to study . The best advice he can give is to develop sound study skills. He said that a student should make sure that he/she has a good studyenvironment, a good desk, a sturdy chair, good light, comfortable roomtemperature and a quiet atmosphere. That means he/she should eliminate allexternal and internal distractions.

Second, get a good overview of theassignment before starting the work. Know what skills, facts and ideas that are expected to master and the ground that are expected to cover. Start with most difficult subject first, while the mind is freshest and most receptive. Professors in the developing countries said that the undergraduate students should be fully equip with high level of analytical skills, the capacity for critical reasoning, self-reflection and conceptual grasp and ability to learn autonomously and exercise flexibility of mind (Simmons 2003).

Study habits are said to be improving because of the advent and wide use of the Internet, hypertext, and multimedia resources which greatly affects the Study Habits (Liu, 2005). Karim and Hassan (2006) also note theexponential growth digital information, which changes the way students perceive studying and with printed materials that are to be use in facilitating study. Liu

(2005) and Ramirez (2003) report that students print material from the Internet in order to study and read later on. Igun (2005) also found that Nigerians study from materials downloaded from the Internet.

Reading is an attempt to absorb the thought of the author and know what the author is conveying (Leedy 1956). Studying is theinterpretation of reading materials. Study habits and skills are particularly important for college students, whose needs include time management, note taking, Internet skill, the elimination of distractions, and assigning a high priority to study. Fielden (2004) states that good study habits help the student in critical reflection in skills outcomes such as selecting, analyzing, critiquing, and synthesizing.

Nneji (2002) states that study habits are learning tendencies that enable students work private. The study conducted by Hope L. Graven (2008) on the relationship between an individual's amount of caffeine consumption during his/her study session and the individual's study habits showed that the main effect of drinking caffeine on exam preparation was not significant There wereparticipants, 20 male and 58 female college students (N=78), answered self-ratings on their personal consumption of caffeine as well as their study habits when preparing for a test/exam.

It was hypothesized that the more caffeine a student consumes while studying, the more accurately his or her study habits would be labeled as 'unhealthy', as determined by the researchers. Unhealthy study habits were operationally defined as low scores on amount of time per study session, time (in days) when preparation began, and amount of information the participants believed they had retained. High scores onanxiety level were included in 'unhealthy' study habits.

A Pearson correlationindicated no relationship between amount of caffeine consumed whilestudying

and the individual's effectiveness of studying and preparation. Marcus Crede and Nathan R. Kuncel (2008) in their research at the University of Albany said that Study habit, skill, and attitude inventories and constructs were found to rival standardized tests and previous grades as predictors of academic performance, yielding substantial incremental validityin predicting academic performance. The meta-analysis examined theconstruct validity and predictive validity of 10 study skill constructs for college students.

They found that study skill inventories and constructs are largelyindependent of both high school grades and scores on standardizedadmissions tests but moderately related to various personality constructs; these results were inconsistent with previous theories. Study motivation and study skills exhibit the strongest relationships with both grade point averageand grades in individual classes. They also said that Academic specificanxiety was found to be an important negative predictor of performance. In addition, significant variation in the validity of specific inventories is shown.

Scores on traditional study habit and attitude inventories are the mostpredictive of performance, whereas scores on inventories based on thepopular depth-of-processing perspective are shown to be least predictive of the examined criteria. Overall, study habit and skill measures improveprediction of academic performance more than any other noncognitiveindividual difference variable examined to date and should be regarded as the third pillar of academic success. According to the how-to-study. com (2009), students who are very successful in their desired career have good study habits.

It is stated in the website that students apply these habits to all of their classes. The websitealso recommends some tips in improving study habits. The website also suggests that the student should try not to study all the subjects in just a period. The website

also added that if you try to do too much studying at one time, you will tire and your studying will not be very effective. Space the work you have to do over shorter periods of time. Taking short breaks will restore your mental energy. A study conducted by University of Kentucky was to determine if the college success can be improved with the Student Attitude Inventory (SAI).

The inventory was developed in Britain and contains 47 items which attempt to identify students in higher education on the basis of: (1) motivation, (2) study methods, (3) examination technique, and (4) lack of distractions toward academic work. Students in six Kentucky community colleges were asked to express their attitudes toward study habits on the Student Attitude Inventory. There were 996 students in the sample population (413 males and 583 females). A measure of ability (composite American College Test score) and academic performance (cumula grade-point verage) were obtained for each student sampled.

The Student Attitude Inventory did contribute astatistically significant amount of variance beyond an ability measure for males and females. ( Mark E. Thompson, 2005). According to Mark Crilly (2000), Successful students are able to balance social activities with good study habits. A diversion from studies will alleviate stress and help prevent from becoming fatigued. He said that a student should make sure that he must take a break for an hour after studies to meet with friends, to play some cards, work out at the gym, or to gab with anew acquaintance.

For this way, that student will find concentration when he do study, if he plans a social activity afterwards. He said, “To develop a healthy social

life, develop routine study habits. After supper, lug your books and homework to the library, find a comfortable and quiet niche, and study for two or three hours, taking intermittent 10 minute breaks every 45 minutes or so. ” Making friends with whom you share similar study habits, and share a table or a study space with them would be a best way in developing study habits as what Mark said.