CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter gives a review of literature to the study of academic performance and
level of engagement in student organization of student leaders in Colegio de Dagupan. In
the present context, the interest of the researcher is to review the findings of past
researches. The previous researches help the researchers to conceptualize and
hypothesize phenomenon and do critical appraisal which may contribute with regard to
design appropriate methodology. The researchers reviewed literature in order to obtain
information and the status of work being done in this area. Therefore, literature from
various sources was extensively reviewed in the light of the present investigation.
Student engagement in the context of learning is often referred to as a condition in
which the learner is motivated to develop meaning about their experience and willingness
to put forth sustained effort to that end (Rotgans & Schmidt, 2011). A high level of
student engagement involves a combination of directed motivation and sustained effort in
a learning environment (Hoff and Lopus, 2013).
As Kuh (2003) indicated, hundreds of studies demonstrated that “college students
learn more when they direct their efforts to a variety of educationally purposeful
activities”. Higher education literature offers many definitions of student engagement.
One of the widely used in the literature to study student engagement in higher education
institutions is the definition measured and provided by NSSE (Korobova and Starobin,
2015).
According to NSSE, student engagement represents two vital features of
collegiate quality: “the amount of time and effort students put into their studies and other
educationally purposeful activities, and how the institution deploys its resources and
organizes the curriculum and other learning opportunities to get students to participate in
activities that decades of research studies show are linked to student learning” (National
Survey of Student Engagement, 2011).
Axelson and Flick (2011) suggested that level of student engagement at an
institution of higher education is increasingly seen as a valid indicator of institutional
excellence that is more meaningful than traditional education and has more easily
measured characteristics. Student engagement of American students has been studied
extensively (Korobova and Starobin, 2015). In addition, Kuh et al. (2005) stated that
“high levels of student engagement are necessary for and contribute to collegiate success”
and in a related study, Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) concluded that the “impact of
college is largely determined by individual effort and involvement in the academic,
interpersonal, and extracurricular offerings on a campus”, and that the best predictors of
whether a student will graduate are academic preparation, motivation, and student
engagement. Foot (2009) also found common success strategies of international students
changed as they adapted to academic climate and varied among students.
Moreover, outcomes of student engagement have been associated with test scores
and GPA. Gordon et al. (2007) conducted a study at a large university in the United
States using multiple years of National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) data and
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found that student engagement is positively and significantly correlated with academic
performance (GPA), retention, and post-graduation job attainment. Gordon et al. used
each item of the NSSE to investigate the relationships. For example, tutoring experience
explained 2.6% of the variance in first-year students’ GPA and 2.7% of the variance in
senior students’ GPA; and community service or volunteering work explained 10.3% of
the variance associated with job attainment for senior-year students. Although some items
predicted the student outcomes, overall results indicated that the NSSE benchmarks offer
marginal predictive power of the outcomes (Gordon et al., 2007). Carini et al. (2006) also
conducted an extensive study of the effects of NSSE scores on learning outcomes, using
two standardized tests, the RAND and the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), and
GPA, at 14 four-year colleges and universities. Although they found some positive
correlations between student engagement and these standardized test results, it is
important to note that the strength of the relationships between student engagement and
GPA was weak. (Niles, Yoon, Amudson, Smith &Mills, 2015).
Another study by the National Research Council & Institute of Medicine
(2004), concluded that the majority of 100,000 7th through 11th grade students in the
United States responded that their main reason to actively engage in school work is to
achieve good grades to enter university. The fact that some studies in higher education
settings (e.g., Carini et al., 2006; Gordon et al., 2007) still focus on test results seems to
reflect expectations established in secondary schools. In contrast, Astin’s study confirmed
that student engagement increases learning, retention, and cognitive and affective
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development, in addition to academic performance in a postsecondary setting (as cited in
Saenz et al., 2011). Although the setting is different from higher education, job and
organizational engagement predicted job satisfaction, organizational commitment,
organizational citizenship behavior, and intentions to quit (Saks, 2006). It is imperative to
find other outcome variables of student engagement in higher education settings than
academic performance.
Furthermore, student engagement could be used as a mediator between
antecedents and outcomes. Fredricks et al. (2004) argued that there is limited evidence
concerning the mediating role of engagement between context and achievement, and
engagement has been used as an outcome variable rather than a mediator leading to
student achievement. More recently, scholars such as Appleton et al. (2008) have
discussed the need to use student engagement as a mediator between contextual factors
and outcome variables. Perry, Liu, and Pabian (2009) examined the mediating role of
student engagement between career preparation and academic performance in a high
school setting. It seems, however, that there is still limited evidence related to the role of
student engagement as a mediator in a higher education setting. (Yoon et al., 2015)
Student engagement has been shown to be a relevant construct in explaining differences
in student achievement in large, cross-sectional studies (Willms, 2008) and at the school
and classroom level (Covington, 2008). These studies suggest that student engagement is
a possible predictor of student achievement in a variety of settings.
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Academic performance is frequently defined in terms of examination
performance, characterized by performance in tests; in course work and performance in
examinations of students and can indicate learners’ quality, the value of the curriculum,
quality of learning and teaching activity management, and ability to instructors.
Moreover, the students’ academic performance plays an important role in producing the
best quality graduates who will become great leader and manpower for the country thus
possible for the country’s economic and social development because this concern not
only to the administrators and educators, but also to corporations in the labor market
(Dela Cruz and Guido, 2013).
When examining how college students were able to balance the demands of
academic responsibilities and extracurricular involvement, it is important to understand
the factors that impact their academic performance and success. Increasing the
understanding of factors that impact the performance of college students has both
theoretical and practical implications for the field of higher education (Friedman &
Mandel, 2010). Understanding what factors impact the academic performance of college
students enables educational institutions and student affairs professionals to better meet
the needs of their students, along with helping identify students who may be struggling to
attain academic success.
A study by Sali-ot, (2011) exhibited that obtaining higher academic performance
depends upon several factors but most importantly, the mental ability and study skills of
the students. The academic performance of students is based on how they spend time in
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performing the academic work. Results showed that the most prevailing competency was
communication with the learners, and the least prevailing is learner reinforcement –
involvement. The most prevailing factor was intellectual, and the least prevailing was
physical. Another study revealed that gender was one of the factors affecting academic
achievement (Sangkapan&Laeheem, 2011), while certain factors such as responsibility,
and environmental factors such as instruction quality also affected academic
achievement.
Moreover, a related study conducted in 2010 by Strapp and Farr examined the
relationship between level of involvement and the level of satisfaction felt by college
students. In their study, Strapp and Farr distributed surveys to 71 graduating seniors at
Western Oregon University. Results from their survey showed that involvement in
extracurricular activities led to an increase in the degree of satisfaction students had with
their college experience.
According to this study, there was no correlation between student satisfaction and
grade point average. Strapp and Farr also suggested that if an individual solely focused
on academics and excluded extracurricular involvement, then that may in fact lead to
decreased feelings of satisfaction with their collegiate experience. These studies provide
insight into the motivation behind the engagement of college students in extracurricular
activities and showed that students believe achieving success in college extends beyond
succeeding in the classroom. The research also helps highlight the importance of having
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faculty members who are supportive of student involvement outside the classroom
environment (Harper, 2005; Strapp& Farr, 2010).
In addition, Ullah and Wilson (2007) also conducted a study to understand how
student's academic success was associated with student engagement. They believed that
"pairing information regarding student engagement to academic achievement can provide
institutions with yet another perspective of what influences academic success" (Ullah&
Wilson, 2007). Through pairing student engagement and academic achievement and
success, Ullah and Wilson utilized Astin's (1984) theory of involvement, which states:
"students' involvement may take place in several forms such as academic activities, co-
curricular activities, and interaction with peers, faculty and administration"
(Ullah&Wilson, 2007).Understanding Astins' theory of involvement as applied not only
to student involvement, but also to the academic setting can help researchers to
understand how involvement impacts academic performance and the success of college
students.
In a related study, Yin and Lei (2007) focused on the clubs and organizations with
which students in hospitality programs were most involved. The authors expanded their
study to encompass all student organizations instead of organizations related to a
student’s course of study. Yin and Lei found that students who are involved in
extracurricular activities are typically engaged in more organizations than those related to
their course of study, if they are involved in academically related organizations at all.
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The analysis demonstrated a negative correlation between levels of extracurricular
engagement and student GPA.
Research has shown that participation in student organizations and co-curricular
activities on campus can help students stay engaged with school, get good grades, and
graduate. However, students often have competing obligations (family, work, student
leadership, health) which cause academic performance to suffer. A study carried out by
the Office of Institutional Research (2011) demonstrated that serving as club leader, no
matter how many terms served, had lasting impact and was a positive contributing factor
in relation to student academic performance, especially with regard to facilitating
graduation. The study revealed that remedial students who served as club leaders
outperformed non-club leader remedial students in terms of retention rate, GPA and
Good Standing rate at the second year. Remedial student club leaders continued to
maintain a significantly higher 3-year retention rate than non-club leader remedial
students while maintaining levels of GPA and Good Standing that were similar to those
non-club leader remedial students at the third year.
The relationship between extracurricular participation and GPA has been of
interest to many educational researchers (Strapp & Farr, 2010). To examine the
extracurricular-curricular relationship, Strapp and Farr (2010) focused on psychology
seniors at Western Oregon University. They defined extracurricular activities to including
participation in psychology club. Strapp and Farr’s (2010) conclusion was that
participation in organization related to students’ course of study will help them become
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more satisfied and engaged with their course of study while positively impacting student
GPA. Strapp and Farr’s (2010) conclusion was that participation in organization related
to students’ course of study will help them become more satisfied and engaged with their
course of study while positively impacting student GPA.
Moreover, Eagly and Carli’s (2007) research found that leadership is often
perceived or associated with masculinity, leaving women largely unseen and non-
masculine behaviors pushed to the margins (Kyriakidou, 2012). The behaviors associated
with conventional views of leadership align with agented behaviors, those of influence,
assertion, and power. As such men would presume to be more effective leaders than
women. According to Catalyst Organization (2007), report shows that women and men
have similar traits needed for leadership. Women interviewed by the organization shared
their perceptions that men have more flexibility in the acceptable ways they can lead than
women. The Catalyst Organization finds that people generally link leadership to
masculine domain, and it is link that keeps women from leadership as they are not seen as
capable. Acting leader-like and lady-like is odds with one another. Student involvement
in extracurricular organizations is an important part of the college experience.
The above literature review contained studies highlighting the importance of
engagement in academic performance. The literature review presented findings related to
academic performance (Dela Cruz & Guido, 2013; Sali-ot, 2011) and engagement
(Koroboya &Starobin, 2015). According to the literature, researchers are trying to
increase understanding of how college students’ academic performance is impacted by
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engagement in student organizations. However, there was no local literature that tackles
the topic, with this the researchers came up with a research that identifies if there are
significant relationship between engagement and academic performance within college
student leaders at Colegio de Dagupan.
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