Conflicts Between School And Work

Group A6 (Siam Hunter, Victor Ortiz, K. Vu)

EDT 180A - Problem Solving using Digital Technology Applications

Gary Lewallen

26 April 2019
 It is well-known that a lot of factors go into whether or not students contribute to their

responsibilities regarding their education. After given a list of a few said factors, our group

decided to narrow down our research to one very prominent factor: work. We asked ourselves,

“How common was it for student schedules to have conflicts between work and school?” In

order to collect data for our research question, we asked our respondents a series of questions

through Google Forms. Our questions included what year the respondents were in; how long

they might have been employed at their current job; whether or not they actively make time for

homework; the number of hours they spend in class; the average number of hours they work in a

week; their cumulative GPA; and how often school and work actually conflict. In total, our

group’s survey received ninety-one responses.

A large majority of the respondents--over fifty percent--turned out to be freshmen. Of the

ninety-one respondents, fifty-three were freshmen. As the class level went up, the number of

respondents decreased; there were twenty sophomores, thirteen juniors, four seniors, and one

graduate student replying to the survey. Due to the obvious fact that the data collected was

primarily representing freshmen, it was data only really accurate for this specific sample. With

that being said, all the data that the respondents had provided us with should be taken with a

grain of salt as the sample size is fairly limited.

 Surprisingly, a large number of respondents were employed. It’s especially impressive

when one might consider that many of the respondents are still freshman students. Of the

unemployed students, most are self-sufficient with twenty-three of them stating as such. The

remaining nine are unemployed, but likely actively looking for a job. As for the employed

respondents, most of them haven’t even been employed for a full year at their current job. The

chart below also indicates that there is a lower likelihood that any given respondent of the survey

has been employed at the same place for an extended period. Out of the ninety-one respondents,

only eighteen of them have been holding their current occupation for more than four years.
 The grade point averages, or GPA, reported by respondents had a surprisingly large range

to them. With the lowest GPA at 1.38 and the highest GPA at 4.25, it is clear to see that the

group of respondents for this survey had varying levels of academic ability. No definitive mode

can be ascertained from the data since the averages are measured to the nearest hundredth,

meaning a mode from the results could come from only two or three averages being exactly the

same. From the whole host of respondents, the average GPA turned out to be a respectable 3.31,

meaning that most of them are at a good place in school if they can all come together to provide

a decent GPA the way they did. Interestingly enough, the median of the GPA data was a 3.41,

meaning the average is quite close to the exact middle of the sample group.

The average GPA per class level all fell within a closer range of numbers, the lowest

being 2.95 and the highest being 3.47. The graduate student average should be seen with some

skepticism since there is only a single graduate student. The same goes for the senior class, with

a small sample size of four students--although, the fact that their class was the only one to fall

below a 3.0 average shows how having such a small sample number might skew results. Seeing

that the freshman class ended up with the highest average GPA, it can be deduced that this

particular group of freshmen is on top of their work.

 The chart below shows the number of students that either do or do not actively make time

for homework and studying, or are unsure about it. The data shows that most of the respondents

are very aware of their schedules and are given the opportunity to be good with time

management. Eighty-four respondents replied that they do, indeed, set aside time to study and do

homework.

The following chart compares time spent in class and the average time spent at work. For

the respondents that are currently employed, it can be seen that a lot of time is devoted to work.

Looking at the averages, class hours average at twelve while work hours average at fourteen. The
mode of each data set is what tells us that a majority of respondents are unemployed though, with

the most common work hour average being zero. Meanwhile, the most common amount of time

for class hours is ten, which isn’t too far off from the average. While the work time minimum is

zero, due to the unemployed, the class time minimum being three means that the respondent with

that answer likely only has one class across a whole week. As for the maximums of either group,

it is plain to see that work demands far more time with the class max being twenty-four and the

work max being forty-five.

As seen in the chart below, a large number of respondents reported having few schedule

conflicts. That can be attributed to the number of unemployed students as they have no

secondary priority to take up time in their schedules the way an employed student would. Despite

that, this chart still makes it clear that frequent conflict between work and school is not all that

common. A little less than fifty respondents reported that they had any conflict between their job

and their school life. Even when there might be a schedule conflict, most respondents indicated

that those issues arose at a rate that was not terribly frequent.
 When looking at scheduling conflicts with only the unemployed in mind, the graph

changes to show that most working students face only infrequent conflicts between work and

school. The more frequent conflicts become, the fewer respondents there are for that category.

Even when discounting the responses of unemployed students, the “Never” category of conflict

frequency is third compared to the other categories. As seen with the previous table, having work

and school conflict from “very often” to “always” is a minority, showing that many respondents

have schedules that tend to work out well enough.

 Looking at all the data and their respective charts, it can be said that once a student does

attain a job, whether they may be a freshman or a senior, their schedule does become more

demanding. Looking at the respondents, particularly those with a job, a good amount have stated

that they do not face an overwhelming number of scheduling conflicts. However, “occasionally”,

“very often”, and “always” are still positive responses in indicating that there is a work conflict.

After conducting this research, some new questions have risen, such as how much a student’s

GPA might drop if they were to take on more work hours. As a group, we decided that if this

project were to be done again, we would ask different questions to better hone in on what our

main topic is. Our group feels as though the questions we asked this time were too specific,

making the process of calculating and analyzing the resulting data a bit more difficult than we

anticipated. Overall, this was an interesting project to undertake and seeing the results from

respondents was fascinating with how varied they were. In conclusion, with moderation in class

hours, work hours, and the routine of studying or doing schoolwork, there would be less conflicts

between school and work.