Janine Paliza

BEED - 2

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Related Literature

Extracurricular Activities

Extracurricular activities pertain to those activities which are not a part of the curriculum, but

which form an integral part of the curricular activities of the school or college life, as athletics,

campus publications, etc.(Webster’s Dictionary, 2003).

In Benedictine Institute of Learning, extracurricular activities are those activities done under

supervision of the Office in order to maintain a well-balanced academic training. These are also

program of activities that meet the needs, interest and capacities of the students. The scope of

extracurricular activities in Benedictine Institute of Learning include varsity, dramatic clubs

(artists), Dance groups (performing arts), Musical bands(performing arts). The activities provide

the students with opportunities to develop their skills and interest, discover new and exciting

talents and chance to meet their own needs.

Fisher (2007) found that those who become more involved in various aspects of high school life

tend to have better outcome, both in the short and long terms. This is referred to as input-

process-output model through which the quality and degree of involvement in their high school

experience is directly proportional to students’ learning and development.

Hamrick (2002) said that the involvement of students in extracurricular activities occasions

where in students learn more. Through activity, the students learn to develop their own selves

by experiences.

This is supported by love and strategies to ensure that experiences inside and outside of class is

complementary and contribute to student growth. However, he also stressed that the students

should give more of their psychological and physical energies to academic experiences. He also

added that activities such as working with a professor in a research, peer tutoring, completing

an internship and community service allow the students to go beyond what they do in class,

which is to pass. Engaging in extracurricular activities and activities done in class both lead to

greater learning. School is a central organizing experience in most adolescents’ lives. It offers

opportunities to learn information, master new skills and sharpen old ones; to participate in

sports, art and other activities; to explore vocational choices and to be with friends (Papalia,

Old and Feldman, 2006).

Extracurricular activities are activities performed by students that fall outside the realm of the

normal curriculum of school or university education. Extracurricular activities exist at all levels

of education, from4th-6th, junior high/high school, college and university education. Such

activities are generally voluntary as opposed to mandatory, on-paying, social, philanthropic as

opposed to scholastic, and often involve others of the same age. Students often organize and

direct these activities under faculty sponsorship, although student-led initiatives, such as

independent newspapers, are common. (Wikipedia.com)

Brown (n.d) explains that extra-curricular activities fulfill two (2) basic conditions: (1) they are

not part of regular school curricular program; and (2) there is a structure towards a pro-social

mission or goal. Furthermore, an extra-curricular activity becomes effective when: (1) students

have the opportunity to cultivate relationships with adults and pro-social peers; (2) the activity

has goals that encourage the students to achieve great things; (3) students are given the

opportunities to be leaders by having a committee to organize an activity; (4) the extra-

curricular activity is age appropriate— activities which are not too arduous; and most

importantly (5) the activity is enjoyable for the students (Brown, n.d).

Sharp (2012) states that students do extra-curricular activities that are relevant to their

specialization. In addition, students are also trained to handle multiple commitments—

balancing both academic units and extra-curricular activities. This is because job recruiters look

for graduates who have experienced work that involves their specialization. Sharp (2012) also

quotes from Yeates (n.d) that: “job recruiters are more interested in graduates who can balance

multiple commitments, build successful relationships, lead and manage projects, and solve

problems.”

Being a student is difficult because a student is in school for an average of 8-9 hours day,

maintaining good grades is challenging task as it leaves little time for other activities to be

pursued (Career India, 2014). Extra-curricular activities only become effective when: (1) they
are differentiated—a difference between commitments in academic and extra-curricular

activities is made; (2) what is more urgent and important is prioritized; (3) activities are

properly scheduled so as not to impede regular academic tasks; and (4) things are questioned—

whether or not the student can handle it or accomplish the activity together with regular

academic tasks (Career India, 2014).

Holloway (2000) also states that, “clubs, teams, and organizations support the academic

mission of a school” because Gerber (1996) found that participation in extracurricular activities

promoted greater academic achievement because school-related activities were more strongly

associated with achievement compared to outside-school activities. Moreover, when students

are not given enough opportunities to participate in extra-curricular activities they eliminate

the connection to creating a sense of belongingness towards the school (Gerber, 1996). Thus

the extra-curricular activities are effective as they promote greater academic achievement and

enable students to connect with the sense of belongingness towards their school.

Extra-curricular activities are essential because they develop: (1) hobbies and interests, (2) skills

in working in groups, and (3) participation in athletics that lead to the discovery and cultivation

of talents (Lunenburg, 2010).

Fretwell (1931) believes that: “extra-curricular activities stem from co-curricular activities but

come back to enrich them more.” This is because as extra-curricular activities are products of

co-curricular activities that is an evidence of growth—extra activities being an addition to what

is already complementing the regular curriculum. For instance, varsity teams came after the

development of a physical education program. Thus, he argues that there is no valid excuse for
being unable to enrich a physical education program through the assistance of varsity teams as

an example.

A article published by Eccles and Barber (1999) in the Journal of Adolescent Research argued

that: “constructive, organized activities make better use of the adolescents’ time because: (a)

good use of time lessens the opportunity to get involved in risky activities; (b) engagement in

constructive activities can provide opportunities to learn good things—competencies and pro-

social values and attitudes; and (c) there is a greater possibility of creating positive social

supports and networks.” Moreover, constructive activities provide an avenue in which a person

can express their identity or passion in performing arts, sports, and leadership activities. This is

because constructive activities provide the opportunities: (1) to practice and form concrete

social, physical, and intellectual skills that can be used in a wide range of settings; (2) contribute

to the betterment of a community and cultivate a sense of agency as a community member; (3)

to belong to a socially valued and recognized group; (4) to create supportive social networks of

both peers and adults; and (5) to experience and handle challenges. The types of involvement

include: pro-social (church and volunteer activities), team sports, school involvement (student

council, literature clubs), performing arts (drama, marching band), and academic clubs (science

club, foreign language club) (Eccles & Barber, 1999).

Academic Performance
Academic performance really means three things: the ability to study and remember facts,

being able to think for yourself in relation to facts and thirdly being able to communicate one’s

knowledge verbally or practically (http:// www.hypnosisdownloads.com)

Tuckman (1975) posited that, “performance is used to label the observable manifestation of

knowledge, skills, concepts, understanding and ideas”. It is the acquisition of particular grades

on examinations that indicate candidates’ ability, mastery of the content, skills in applying

learned knowledge to particular situations.

A student’s success is generally judged on examination performance. Success on examinations

is a crucial indicator that a student benefited from a course of study stated by Wiseman 1961.

(www. able2know.org)

In his widely cited paper, Romer (1993) is one of the first few authors to explore the

relationship between student attendance and exam performance. A number of factors have

contributed to declining class attendances around the world in the last 15 years. The major

reasons given by students for non-attendance include assessment pressures, poor delivery of

lectures, timing of lectures, and work commitments (Newman-Ford, Lloyd & Thomas, 2009). In

recent times, students have found a need to seek employment while studying on a part-time

basis due to financial constraints. The numbers of part-time and mature students has also risen

sharply. The use of information technology also means that information that used to be

obtained from sitting through lectures can be obtained at the click of a mouse. Indeed, web-

based learning approaches have become the order of the day. Given all these developments
that either makes it impossible or unnecessary for students to attend classes, the question that

needs to be asked is whether

absenteeism affects students‘ academic performance. Research on this subject seems to

provide a consensus that students who miss classes perform poorly compared to those who

attend classes (Devadoss& Foltz, 1996; Durden& Ellis, 1995; Romer, 1993; Park & Kerr, 1990;

Schmidt, 1983). Based on these findings a number of stakeholders have called for mandatory

class attendance. Although the existing evidence points to a strong correlation between

attendance and academic performance, none of the studies cited above demonstrate a causal

effect. The inability of these cross-sectional studies to isolate attendance from a myriad of

confounding student characteristics (e.g. levels of motivation, intelligence, prior learning, and

time-management skills) is a major limiting factor to the utility of these findings (Rodgers &

Rodgers, 2003). Durden and Ellis, (1995) controlled for student differences in background,

ability and motivation, and reported a nonlinear effect of attendance on learning, that is, a few

absences do not lead to poor grades but excessive absenteeism does.

Educational services are often not tangible and are difficult to measure because they result in

the form of transformation of knowledge, life skills and behavior modifications of learners

(Tsinidou, Gerogiannis, & Fitsilis, 2010). So there is no commonly agreed upon definition of

quality that is applied to education field. The definition of quality of education varies from

culture to culture (Michael, 1998). The environment and the personal characteristics of learners

play an important role in their academic success. The school personnel, members of the

families and communities provide help and support to students for the quality of their

academic performance. This social assistance has a crucial role for the accomplishment of
performance goals of students at school (Goddard, 2003). Besides the social structure, parents‘

involvement in their child‘s education increases the rate of academic success of their child

(Furstenburg & Hughes, 1995).

Related Studies

It is said in a thesis entitled “Perceptions of Students Regarding School Organizations of De La

Salle Emilio Aguinaldo College School Year 1991-1992” by Ma. Therese P. Pestano et.al. that

School organizations provide avenues for the so called co-curricular activities to produce

graduates who are somehow molded in the concept of total human development. These

graduates are expected to obtain good social traits, to the effect that the supposed role is

totally negated by the misdirected or ill-motivated doings. They also stated that School

organizations are to provide the education to students on the sense of cooperation, dedication

to service, self-reliance development of potentials, importance of communications and other

related traits necessary for being a member of an organization.

Students can build confidence, cooperation and organization upon joining any school

organizations. In the study of Astudillo et al.(2006) entitled, “The Level of Involvement of

Radiologic Technology Students in Extra-curricular activities” it was found out that the students

are involved to a limited extent in the following extra-curricular activities such as: (a) academic

related activities, (b) performing arts group activities, (c) service oriented activities and (d)

sports related activities. Males have higher level of involvement in performing arts activities,

service oriented activities and sports related activities than the females.
On the other hand, the study of Galarpe (1998) found out that involvement in extra-curricular

activities showed a significant relationship in the following areas: physical, moral and spiritual

but not with psychological and social areas. Males are more involved in co-curricular and extra-

curricular activities than their female counterparts. The non-Catholic respondents were more

involved than the catholic respondents.

In the study of Cabarles (2000) entitled, “Involvement in Co-curricular Activities and its

Relationship to Self-Concept of High School Students” they found out than the competitive co-

curricular activities most preferred and actually involved by the respondents were sports and

athletics, followed by cheering contest, group singing contest. The non-competitive co-

curricular activities most preferred by the respondents to be involved in were field trips,

followed by parades and playground demonstrations while symposia were the least preferred

and actually involved in by the respondents. The respondents had actually been involved as

participants in most of the non-competitive co-curricular activities.

In this study of Duenos (1998) entitled, “The Management of Extracurricular Activities at Talim

Point National High School: It’s Relationship to Total Development” almost half percent of the

respondents are more involved in athletics and science club got the smallest percentage. In

addition, the respondents are allowed to join in different activities despite the academic

assignments and values of the students are very much developed upon joining extra-curricular

activities.

On the other hand, the study of Remolona, Geneveo and Solis(2006) focused on the factors

associated with the academic performance of the third year radiologic technology students.
They recommended that students who are not committed in extra-curricular activities should

also learn to participate to those activities and join different school organization sand extra-

curricular activities, because it may enhance their God-given capabilities and talents and

improve as individuals, should make use of existing school facilities being tendered for them by

the school for resources to widen their knowledge for their development, and respect the

authority of teachers as well as classmates in school to maintain very good relationship with

one another.

The study of Bondoc et.al. (2007), they found out in their study that the participation in

extracurricular activities does not affect the academic performance of the students. Students

who are participating in extracurricular activities have satisfactory grades than those who are

inactive and being an active member does not hamper the academic performance of students.

In addition, the study of Manahan and Manalo (2002), found out that the students of Radiologic

Technology of De La Salle Health Sciences Institute were involved to a moderate extent in extra-

curricular activities and academic performance of the respondents. However, students should

know that participation in extra-curricular activities would improve their personality but should

not affect their academic performance. Students were encouraged to investigate into the kind

of lessons strategies that would help them attain higher grades.

In addition, the study of Floret Angelica G. Villaverde et al. with the title Social Adjustments and

Academic Performance of Selected High School Students of Del Pilar Academy Imus, Cavite

School Year 2004-2005 stated that most freshmen in Del Pilar Academy Imus, Cavite are still

childish and that some of them are having a hard time with the new curriculum in high school
and with the new environment. It stated there that social adjustments have an effect on the

academic performance of their respondents.

From the thesis of Pamela Gueco (2009) entitled “Effects of Co-Curricular Activities on the

Academic Performance of Selected High School Students in Jesus Good Shepherd School S.Y.

2008-2009” she found out that there is a significant effect between the two variables, academic

performance and co-curricular activities and most of the effects are positive towards the

academic performance.