Chapter V

Presentation, Interpretation and Analysis of Data

In this chapter, the data collected from the 40 respondents are presented,

interpreted and analyzed.

Respondents’ Profile

In this section, the profiles of the respondents are categorically presented. The

students were grouped by course and by year level in order to determine if the

difference in course and year level of students brings a significant level of difference in

tardiness – whether a student will be more or less likely to be tardy given his/her course

and year level.

 There is the same number of respondents per course and per year level. This is

to assure evenness and accuracy of the data gathered from the respondents.

Course Number

BS Computer Science 10

BS Management 10

BA Psychology 10

BA Mass Communications 10

Total 40

Table 1. Distribution of Respondents According to Course

Year Level Number

2nd Year 20

3rd Year 20

Total 40

Table 2. Distribution of Respondents According to Year Level

Tardiness of Students

The tardiness of a student is disadvantageous not just to the tardy student but

also to fellow students, teachers, the school and the community. The tardiness of a

student consumes his/her time that should be allotted to learning. In addition, it also

distracts the class and disturbs other students as well. Moreover, the tardy student also

poses as a threat to the school as an educational and professional institution and the
student may be one of the less productive members of the society (Nakpodia and

Dafiaghor, 2011).

In this section, the researchers will find out how many of our respondents are

considered tardy. The reasons and factors behind the students’ tardiness will also be

discussed.

Number of Respondents 40

Number of Tardy Respondents 24

Percentage 60%

Table 3. Number and Percentage of Tardy Respondents

As shown in Table 3, 24 out of 40 respondents consider themselves tardy.

The percentage or ratio of the tardy students is very significant, which is

considered as a high percentage of student tardiness for the school. This implies that

more than half of the students in UP Cebu are more likely to be tardy students.

Furthermore, it can be said that a lot of UP Cebu students miss their class or a part of

their lessons while disturbing other students at the same time. Additionally, a lot of UP

Cebu students are threat to the competency of UP as an educational institution because

of their tardiness.
Reasons/Factors

Watson’s Behaviorism states that any human behavior is a response to external

stimuli. Likewise, the tardiness of UP Cebu students previously presented is a response

to certain reasons and factors. This section will present these reasons and factors.

Reason/Factor Average Rank

Traffic 2.17

Woke up late 1.38

Preoccupied with other works 2.86

Kind of teacher 4.10

Boring subject 3.77

No sanction even if late 3.63

Table 4. The Reasons/Factors for Tardiness with their Average Rank

Table 4 shows the average rank of the reasons or factors given by the

respondents on why students are tardy on school. The reason that the respondents

ranked to be the most common is waking up late with an average rank of 1.38. This is

followed by traffic with an average rank of 2.17. Next is “preoccupied with other works”

with 2.86, then “no sanction even if late” with 3.10, “boring subject” with 3.77 and last is

“kind of teacher” with 4.10.

The data has shown that the most common and prevalent reason that UP Cebu

students are tardy is that they wake up late in the morning. This coincides with

Ohguvbu’s findings in his own study that also showed the same reason to be the most

common.
 The most prevalent reason that influences UP Cebu students to behave tardily is

that they wake up late. Some respondents, notably those who indicated “woke up late”

in their reasons, stated additional factors. Some respondents said that they trace their

lateness in waking up in the morning from sleeping late at night. Other respondents

stated that they are just too tired and lazy to go to school early. A few said that they

think overconfidently of the fact that their class is not too early before knowing that they

are already late for school. Nakpodia and Dafiaghor (2011) said that there is “more

pleasure in early morning sleep than the overnight sleep” (p. 59). According to them,

students with this habit wake up late and they have no choice but to hurry off to school.

Most times, chances do not favor them and they are inevitably late to school. Often,

these chances are the times when they are stuck in the middle of traffic. Oghuvbu

(2008) even revealed in his study that the most prevalent cause of tardiness of students

in Nigeria was, indeed, having woke up late in the morning.

Not far away next to “traffic” in rank was “preoccupied with works”. Oghuvbu,

Nakpodia and Dafiaghor said that additional activities in the morning inevitably cause

lateness to school. These untimely activities could be domestic or academic in nature.

The student could have been asked by his/her parents to do some chores or the

student, himself/herself, is running an errand.

According to Nakpodia and Dafiaghor, the “lack of functional and effective

punctuality policy” (p. 60) can be a cause of tardiness. Students will see no problem

coming late to school “if they perceive that there are no consequences to it” (p. 60). If

tardy students receive no sanction or charges, then they will never be discouraged to be

continuously tardy.
 The next part discusses and presents the remaining three reasons and factors

with which the respondents were asked further questions. These reasons and factors

are the works, subjects and teachers.

Works

The fourth in the rank of the most common reason by the respondents was

“preoccupied with other works”. This section will present and discuss the nature of these

works.

Nakpodia and Dafiaghor (2011) listed the “engagement in untimely domestic

chores/activities” of students as a cause of tardiness. These necessary activities but

untimely ones inevitably cause students to be late. An example is when the mother asks

her child to clean the house, buy some goods at the market or look after the younger

sibling. Other activities that could cause students to be late are academic assignments

that they have to do in the morning before going to class. They could have forgotten or

simply weren’t able to do it the night before.

Nature of Work Number

academic 11
 household/domestic 3

Total 14

Table 8. Distribution of Tardy Students According to Nature of Works

Table 8 shows that 11 out of the 14 respondents are tardy because they are

preoccupied with academic works. The remaining three respondents answered that they

are preoccupied with household chores.

Students have to do academic works in the morning before going to class, like

assignments they forgot to do the night before, projects on deadline and quick

cramming for an exam. These untimely works consume their time and break their daily

routine. They need more time than they have to prepare and go to school. More often

than not, they arrive late at school.

Subject

This section will discuss the fifth most common reason for the tardiness of UP

Cebu students – “boring subject”.

Thirteen out of the 24 tardy respondents said that subjects influence their

punctuality in school because of the boredom they experience in these subjects. In this

section, the nature of these subjects will be presented and discussed.

Nature of Subject Number

Major 8

Minor 5
 Total 13

Table 5. Distribution of Tardy Students According to the Nature of Subject

Table 5 shows the number of tardy respondents per nature of subject, either

major or minor. The number of respondents that find major classes boring is 8 and 5 for

the minor classes.

This implies that UP students find major subjects more boring and it influences

them to come late to school. According to some respondents, major subjects are more

difficult than minor ones. Some respondents said that lessons in major subjects are too

hard to understand. They find themselves sleepy and bored in class and they are

discouraged to come early in the next meetings

The next table presents the classification of subjects according to its field and the

number of tardy respondents correspondingly.

 Field of Subject Number

Math 4

Arts 2

Science/Technology 5

Social Science 2

Total 13

Table 6. Distribution of Tardy Respondents According to the Field of Subject

Table 6 shows the number of tardy students per subject. Five respondents

choose Science and Technology. Four respondents consider Math subjects to be boring

and consequently influence tardiness. Two respondents each choose Arts and Social

Science.

More tardy students find science and technology subjects to be boring and

influence them to be tardy. According to some students, math and science subjects are

more difficult and complicated than others. Their difficulty in understanding these

subjects provokes their boredom. Respondents said that science and technology

subjects demand a lot of memorization and logic, while math subjects require a lot of

analysis.

Teacher

Ten out of the 24 respondents included the kind of teacher as an influence to

their tardiness. According to Reid (as cited by Farrar, 2010), “poor teaching” and
“unsatisfactory student-teacher relationships” are factors that can influence a student to

be tardy. These factors discourage the students to come to class.

Characteristic Number

Boring 8

Strict 0

Tardy as well 2

Total 10

Table 7. Distribution of Tardy Students According to Kind of Teacher

Table 7 shows the kinds of teacher and the corresponding number of students

that relates their tardiness to these kinds of teacher. Eight of the ten students answered

“boring” and two answered “tardy as well”.

A boring teacher influences the tardiness of students. This boredom discourages

them to come early to class. This feeling is an example of “poor teaching” and

“unsatisfactory student-teacher relationship” described by Reid. Respondents said that

even though they find the subject matter interesting, the teaching method of their

teacher is still lame and boring. They also added that their enthusiasm in coming to

class is affected by the enthusiasm of their teacher.

Course

This section discusses the correlation of the course of students to their tardiness.
 The next table below presents which course has the most tardy students from

our respondents.

Course Number Tardy

BS Computer Science 10 8

BS Management 10 5

BA Psychology 10 5

BA Mass 10 6

Communications

Total 40 24

Table 9. Distribution of Tardy Respondents According to Course

Table 9 shows the distribution of tardy students according to course. There are

ten respondents from each of the four courses. Eight out of the ten Computer Science

students are tardy. Five came from both Management and Psychology students. Six out

of the ten Mass Communication students are late comers.

From studying the simple enumeration data above, it can be seen that the

Computer Science students are the tardiest students from our respondents. This

information can be related with the data shown in Table 6. The tardiness of students

from a certain course can be attributed to the subjects related to that course. For

instance, respondents from the Computer Science course showed to be tardier most

likely because they have a lot of math, science and technology subjects. These are the

subjects that also influenced the most number of tardy respondents. On the other hand,

Psychology students are the least tardy. Most of their subjects are related to social
science, which is the subject that influenced the least number of tardy respondents. This

implies that the course of a student is a factor for tardiness because of the subjects

related to it.

Despite of the results, if is still not safe to say that a Computer Science student

will be more likely to be tardy than other students from different courses. Now, the

researchers will find out if the courses of subjects are significantly enough for students

to be tardy in school. The next table shows the chi-square test for the number of tardy

respondents per course. The observed frequencies (fo) will be the number of tardy

students per course. The proportion, as found out earlier, is .60 (60%). Since there are

10 respondents from each course, the expected frequency will be 6. The significance

level is set to 5% and the null hypothesis is declared as:

Ho = The difference in the number of tardy students per course is not

statistically significant.

( fo - fe )2
Course N fo fe fo - fe (fo - fe)2
fe
BS Computer
10 8 6 2 4 0.67
Science
BS Management 10 5 6 -1 1 0.17
 BA Psychology 10 5 6 -1 1 0.17

BA Mass
10 6 6 0 1 0.00
Communications
Total 40 24 24     χ2 = 1.00

    df = 3 critical value of χ2 = 7.81  

Table 10. Chi-square Test for the Number of Tardy Respondents by Course

Since, the computed value of chi-square is less than the critical value (0.50 <

7.81), we accept the null hypothesis. The course of the students does not cause a

significant level of difference to tardiness. The courses may have certain effects or

influence to tardiness but this is not enough to cause a difference in the number of tardy

students. It cannot be told if a student will be more or less tardy with just the course as

basis.

Year Level

In a study conducted by Weade (2004), the difference in tardiness of students

from different year level is statistically significant in rural Wisconsin. The researchers will

find out if this is also true for UP Cebu students.

 Just as the same case as the course, students from different year level have

different sets of subjects and teachers. It is even often thought that higher years have

more difficult subjects, especially major ones.

Year Level Number Tardy

2nd Year 20 13

3rd Year 20 11

Total 40 24

Table 11. Distribution of Tardy Respondents According to Year Level

Table 11 shows the number of tardy respondents per year level. Out of the 20

second year respondents, 13 of them are tardy. From the third year respondents, 11 out

of the 20 are tardy.

There are more tardy respondents belonging to the second year level than the

third year level. Some of the respondents that we interviewed said that second year

students have shown to be tardier because they are more complacent about their

schedule and workloads. Respondents from the third year level added that students

from the lower years just take their time overconfidently and before knowing it, they

develop a habit of tardiness.

The researchers will try to find out if the difference in tardiness between the two

year levels is significant and if it is safe to say that second year students are indeed

more likely to be tardy. The table below shows the chi-square test for the number of

tardy respondents per year level. Since there are 20 respondents from each year level,
the expected frequency is 12. The same significance level is set to 5% and the null

hypothesis is declared as:

Ho = The difference in the number of tardy students per year level is not

statistically significant.

2
(| fo - fe| - .5)
Year Level N fo fe |fo - fe| - .5 (|fo - fe| - .5)2
fe
2nd Year 20 13 12 0.5 0.25 0.02
3rd Year 20 11 12 0.5 0.25 0.02
2
Total 40 24 24     χ = 0.04
2
     df = 1  critical value of χ = 3. 84  
Table 12. Chi-square Test for the Number of Tardy Respondents by Year Level

Since, the computed value of the chi-square is less than the tabulated value,

(0.04 < 3.84), we accept the null hypothesis. The difference in the tardiness of students

from different year levels is not statistically significant, which contradicts the result of

Weade’s study. Thus, it cannot be safely said whether a UP Cebu student will be more

or less likely to be tardy given only the year level.

Both the course and year level are not significant basis to know the tendency of a

UP Cebu student to be tardy in school.