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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