CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction
Due to the rapid escalating cases of the COVID-19 virus across the globe, numerous
countries have shut down their borders and declared a national lockdown to protect the health
of their citizens. Education is one of the industries that has been greatly affected by this new
major event in human history. Consequently, physical classes were forced to be canceled, and
students were granted a significant sense of independence over their time through distance
learning.
Since the class were suspended, the notion that not all students were studying at the
same time has been established, considering the fact that this variable has a significant
influence on students' scholastic achievement. The amount of time spent studying varies from
student to student. Some valid factors may influence the variable, such as: other students may
be working; some students may have to spend more time at home fulfilling their
commitments; some students may do well at varying periods of the day; and many others.
Apart from evaluating the ideal time for students to study, this study also attempts to
determine the reasons for those study hours in order to offer teachers with a broad perspective
of the story so that they can completely comprehend the scenario that learners encounter
through distance education.
This study had to be carried out because it was so timely, especially today. According
to Ahmad et al. (2020), there is a considerable difference in academics between traditional
and web-based education. There is a physical barrier between the student and the teacher in
online learning. As a result, it is more difficult to manage time and achieve excellent marks in
distance education. Their research also discovered that time management is one of the
abilities that students must learn since it has a significant impact on their grades. Certainly,
the capacity to effectively manage time is tightly linked to educational excellence, whereas
bad timing leads to a high rate of failure. The researcher implies that this research will benefit
all students who are now battling to retain their marks due to inadequate study time
management.
Statement of the Problem
The general problem that this study will address is to find out if there is a universal
optimal time for students to study and its prescribe duration.
Additionally, this study seeks answers to solve the following sub-problems in
accordance with the overall problem:
1. Some fundamental data that needs to be gathered from the respondent.
1.1. Students
1.1.1. Time of day which students are usually studying
1.1.2. Amount of time spent of learners for studying
2. The attitude or character of every student towards dealing with time.
3. The prescribe duration for studying based on data collected from student’s time spent for
studying and their academic performance.
4. The prescribe study hours based on data acquired from students' preferred study time and
their academic accomplishment.
Significance of the study
This research will help to assist certain existing research projects that are closely
connected to the present research work. The researcher also consider that this research will
most benefit immensely the field of education, as it focuses on educators and learners.
Furthermore, the following individuals or institutions will benefit significantly from this
research, one of these are:
Department of Education. This research will surely assist the Department of
Education (DepEd), since it strives to contribute to the education industry. This research aims
to provide this government organization with a wide picture of the scenario that every student
is currently enduring in terms of time. Lastly, this research will try to provide an overview to
improve the educational system of the country and mitigate its educational crisis.
The school. Similarly to the DepEd, the goal of this research is to paint a realistic
image of the students' current position. The staff of the school may adapt better scheduling
strategies or approach to help students perform at their optimal time.
Students. As the main focus of this research, students will tremendously benefit from
this study. In accordance with the goal of this research, students will be given a prescribed
time for them to study effectively and help them to gain higher remarks.
Parents. Home is the new alternative environment where learners are studying. At
home, parents are responsible for guiding their own child, including the check-up of their
child’s academic status and performance on a regular basis. This study may provide parents
with some knowledge regarding factors that are affecting their child’s choice of their study
time and may possibly address some of those factors to maximize their child’s academic
performance.
Community. Our community consists of people with different jobs. The
interpretation of findings from this study may also be applicable to those workers especially
the one who works at office. Office work is relatively the same to student’s school works. So,
office worker may also find the results of this study as beneficial.
Scope and Delimitation of the Study
The primary objective of this study is to determine the impact of studying time and
the amount of time students spend studying in order to prescribe an appropriate study time
and amount for students. Not to mention, students may be given an analysis of their time
management behavior so that they can address some of their destructive characteristics.
Additionally, depending on the situation, teachers may gain insight into the reasons why
some students choose their own study time.
This is qualitative research that will employ a phenomenological research design.
Because this is a phenomenological study, data could be collected by survey questionnaires.
We can understand the relationship between time and students' academic achievement by
looking at how much time they spend studying, how many hours they spend studying, and
their grades from the previous semester.
 The time of the day and the amount of time spent studying of the students are the
variables considered in this study. The study also looks into the reasons behind those study
time and how students deal with it.
The information needed for this study will be acquired from several public schools in
the Philippines. Furthermore, the respondents are STEM students from various public schools
across the country who were chosen at random.

Notes in Chapter 1
Ahmad, S., Batool, A., & Ch, A. H. (2020). Path relationship of time management and
academic achievement of students in distance learning institutions. Pakistan Journal of
Distance and Online Learning, 5(2).
 CHAPTER II
THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK
This chapter presents the relevant theories, related literature and studies, conceptual
framework, hypothesis and definition of various relevant terms used in the study.

Relevant Theories
The Pickle Jar Theory, pioneered by Jeremy Wright, formed the foundation for this
investigation.
According to Wright (2002), theories about time management have taken its place.
everyone has tried a lot of them, and the majority of them have failed because we needed to
devote a significant amount of time to the theory in order to save time. Wright made an
analogy that relates the pickle jar into our lives. That jar of pickle consists of the following:
rocks, pebbles, sand, and water. The rocks signify the most important tasks. The pebbles
symbolize urgent tasks that can wait as well as the tasks that can be postponed or delegated to
others. The sand in the jar act as a small or trivial task. The water represents our private life.
To get into more details on the mentioned thing, Wright provided realistic examples. The
rocks are tasks that have a huge consequence for not completing it like failing in a subject
where a student did not comply the requirement. Second, the pebble is like a task such as
making phone calls, answering emails, and holding meetings They appear to necessitate rapid
action, although they are not as serious as rocks. Third, the sand is a task like social
networking, chatting with colleagues, mind wandering, and other distractions that kill
productivity at work. The last one which is the water are tasks that include the spending of
time in family, friends, and self. This theory suggests - to better integrate the pickle jar theory
into your life, you must pay careful attention to the order wherein you organize your
activities. For instance, you begin your day by filling your jar with pebbles (i.e., urgent
chores that can wait) and then continue filling your jar with pebbles (i.e., urgent tasks that can
wait), your jar will be nearly filled in no time. There's no more room in your jar for the rocks,
which are the most significant activities of the day. As a result, your day would be
unproductive. This implies that everybody should prioritize the most important tasks over the
less important one.
Based on Wright’s theory, one of its advantages is that it helps us estimate our time.
This means it enables students to track their own time and see how they wasted it. By
tracking the time and seeing the report of how they wasted their time, students will be aware
of their behavior when dealing with time. This will help students adjust their time of studying
if possible to avoid some of the factors that kept them distraught. In simple terms, the pickle
jar theory is related to this current study because prescribing studying time will be useless if
students have ineffective time management.

Related Studies
Study Time. At different times of the day, different people perform better. Hartley &
Nicholls (2008, as cited in Wile and Shouppe, 2011) state that this can have an impact on
whether pupils perform at their best during instructional and assessment times in educational
environments. Students' high school class schedules are assigned at random, and as a result,
students have core lessons at different times of the day. Because most high school classes are
scheduled at random times, learners may not be learning at their best. The time of day when
academic courses are taught may have an impact on student progress. When compared to
afternoon or evening learning, morning learning is connected with better quick recall. On the
other hand, long-term memory recall is better with content learnt in the afternoon. This was
supported by the study of Davis (1987, as cited in Wile and Shouppe, 2011) indicates the left
hemisphere of the human brain dominates in morning hours giving humans best processing of
data, short-term memory and routine. Otherwise, Klein (2001, as cited in Wile and Shouppe,
2011) claimed that - in the afternoon, the right hemisphere takes over, allowing for visual
processing and long-term memory. This means that visual and auditory stimuli are processed,
and space is manipulated. Right hemisphere functions seem to be face perception and artistic
skill. Klein suggest gifted people do better in afternoons, and children who have difficulty in
reading would perform better in afternoon hours.
Hines (2004) states that numerous studies have already found out several results -
performance improves across the board; some have discovered that it diminishes throughout
the day; others have discovered that it rises until a midpoint before decreasing. Additionally,
he also stated in his study that morning chronotypes tend to get up early and believe they
perform their best work before noon, whereas evening chronotypes prefer to sleep later. They
prefer to complete their most demanding tasks later in the day. However, the findings of
some researcher as cited in his study led the researchers to the conclusion that the time of day
had no bearing on adult intellectual function.
Students who report having better study times and surroundings, as well as high levels
of awareness and monitoring of their learning, have higher academic delay-of-gratification
and performance (Thibodeaux, 2017)
Study Duration. According to Fleming (2019), you may find yourself studying for hours on
end without making any progress, resulting in frustration and burnout. She added that the
majority of good study sessions last at least an hour. However, because one 60-minute
session rarely covers a complete chapter or semester's worth of content, you'll need to plan
multiple sessions. Between one-hour and two-hour sessions, take a break. Short but frequent
bursts of focus, interrupted by frequent gaps, are how your brain operates best.
On the study of Ukpong (2013), the findings reveal that there is a substantial
difference in academic performance between students who study for lengthy periods of time
and those who study for short periods of time. Students who study for longer timeframes
perform better than students who study for short durations. According to Adeyemo (2005, as
cited in Ukpong, 2013), study time is a pattern of activity that extends beyond leisure reading.
A student who wishes to finish with a decent mark must read his or her books with
comprehension, which will take extra time. Students must develop effective study habits in
order to estimate how long they will need to study and comprehend their course of study. A
learner's high grades or marks are an indication of their competence. Poor grades are
perceived as utilizing less time for studying, whereas high grades are interpreted as taking
time to study well.
 The study of Adebayo (2015) discovered a link between the amount of time spent on
social activities and academic success. This means that students must limit or eliminate time
spent on activities such as attending meals and parties, chatting, phoning, and pinging, as
these activities have a significant detrimental impact on their academic performance. The
more time kids spend on social activities, the less time they have for academics. As a result, it
has an impact on pupils' achievement of educational goals.
The study of Young (1998) claimed that the amount of time spent studying by high
and low scorers was close, but the amount of time spent processing the data was vastly
different. This research backs up the premise that it's not how long a student studies a subject
that matters, but how they study it. It may be more useful to teach pupils how to study rather
than simply asking them to study longer hours.
Conceptual Framework
This research primarily focused at STEM students' preferred study times and the
amount of time they spend on it throughout their distant education experiences due to the
epidemic.
The data will be measured and interpreted by the researcher using surveys or
questionnaires. This is to analyze the preferred time of the day and the duration for studying
and how these variables affect a student’s academic performance. After gathering all the data
needed for this study, the researchers will then evaluate all the data before interpreting and
discussing the findings or results.
This research will test the researcher's hypothesis that there will be have a significant
difference between the time of day, the amount of time spent studying, and the academic
success of these pupils.

Definition of Terms
Academic Performance. The performance of students in their academics usually measured
by their remark or grades.
STEM. This is a strand for students interested in majoring in Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics in college.
Study Duration. The amount of time spent on studying.
Study Time. The time of the day when students are usually studying or doing their school
works.
Notes in Chapter II
Wright, J. (2002). Time management: The pickle jar theory. A List Apart, 146, 1-5.
Wile, A. J., & Shouppe, G. A. (2011). Does time-of-day of instruction impact class
achievement?. Perspectives in Learning, 12(1), 9.
Hines, C. B. (2004). Time-of-day effects on human performance. Journal of Catholic
Education, 7(3), 390-413.
Thibodeaux, J., Deutsch, A., Kitsantas, A., & Winsler, A. (2017). First-year college students’
time use: Relations with self-regulation and GPA. Journal of Advanced Academics, 28(1), 5-
27.
Fleming, Grace. (2020, August 29). How Long Should You Study a Subject? Retrieved from
https://www.thoughtco.com/how-long-should-i-study-3974539
Ukpong, D. E., & George, I. N. (2013). Length of Study-Time Behaviour and Academic
Achievement of Social Studies Education Students in the University of Uyo. International
Education Studies, 6(3), 172-178.
Adebayo, F. A. (2015). Time management and students academic performance in higher
institutions, nigeria a case study of ekiti state. International Research in Education, 3(2), 1-12.
Young, William P., "A Study to Determine the Correlation Between Extra Study Time After
School to Grades Earned by Students" (1998). OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers. Paper
292.
 CHAPTER III
METHODS OF RESEARCH
This chapter presents the methods and techniques, population and sample, research
instrument, construction and validation of instrument, data gathering procedure, and data
analysis.
Methods and Technique of the Study
This is qualitative research which uses phenomenology as its research design. This
would help the researcher analyze the lived experience of every respondent since the
researcher wants to know the variety of preferences of students when it comes to the time of
day for studying and the amount of time that would be spent on it, and draw conclusions if
there's a significant influence between the time and the academic performance of students.
Morgan (2000, as cited in Gill, 2020) defined phenomenology as a philosophical
movement as well as a collection of qualitative research methods. The study of phenomena is
known as phenomenology, and a phenomenon is anything that occurs in a person's conscious
experience. While many philosophers have expanded and developed phenomenology, most
varieties of phenomenology are the same. The work of Edmund Husserl is mostly used in
phenomenology. Edmund Husserl is credited with being the "founding father" of
phenomenological philosophy, and his work had a direct influence on the field.
Phenomenological approaches that aim to describe the core of experiences. "A new form of
descriptive method, which made a breakthrough in philosophy at the turn of the century, and
an a priori science evolved from it," Husserl writes in a 1927 entry for Encyclopedia
Britannica. The analytical process of numerous phenomenological techniques is underpinned
by Husserl's descriptive method, which he calls'reduction. He covers many types of reduction
in his other works, the first of which is phenomenological reduction (or transcendental)
decrease. This involves the phenomenological epoché, or bracketing, in which a
phenomenologist suspends their ideas and preconceptions regarding a phenomenon. Husserl
thought his approach worked by separating from, or transcending, the natural attitude of
"everyday existence." The perspective of phenomenological reduction provides an outlook
"upon "transcendentally" purified phenomena," where "purified" meant "free of everyday
assumptions."
Population of the Study
The respondents will be chosen from a Facebook group called "STEM students,"
which has over 203 thousand members. However, it is reasonable to assume that the
researcher will make every effort to obtain data from all members of the aforementioned
Facebook group. The researcher will only survey a small number of people, at most 0.05
percent of the whole population, or roughly 100 people.
Respondents must be senior high school students participating in the Academic track's
STEM strand and must enrolled in distance learning in the first semester of S.Y. 2021-2022.
Research Instrument
The researcher will gather data from the respondents by conducting surveys or
questionnaires through Google Forms. The researcher's primary goal when it comes to data
collection is to gather some information about the respondent's preferred study time, study
duration, and student's grades. The survey or the questionnaire is composed of a combination
of both open-ended and close-ended questions to gather fundamental data needed in this
study and arrive at an accurate conclusion.
The researcher's method for selecting respondents is through purposive sampling
particularly under non-probability sampling since the criteria for the target respondent for this
study must be a STEM student who is enrolled in distance education.
Construction and Validation of the Instruments
The researcher will examine or analyze some existing study related to the field of my
research on how they formulate their own questionnaire. The researcher will also utilize
internet resources to construct better questions for the survey and to gather sufficient data
required for this study. Systematically, the researcher will first identify the research aims and
the goals of the questionnaire. Secondly, the researcher will then define the target
respondents. Afterwards, the researcher will then develop questions and design the question
sequence and its overall layout. Lastly, after constructing questions, the researcher will then
run a pilot test before finally giving it to your target respondents.
In terms of the validity and reliability of collecting the data, the researcher will try to
approach experts in the field in order to consult the survey or questionnaire. After the
approval, the survey through Google forms will now be released and shared.
Knowing that Facebook is full of intruders and dump accounts, the researcher will
ensure that the data that will be collected from the respondents are reliable and credible by
requesting their LRN, their school, and their full name.
Data Gathering
First and foremost, the researcher will create surveys that will be shared with the
"STEM students" Facebook community. The survey questionnaire was developed using
Google Forms, and once completed, it will be shared via a link in the indicated Facebook
group. However, before posting it, the researcher will first contact the group's administrators
and moderators to request permission to conduct the study within that Facebook group. The
researcher promises to keep all sensitive information collected totally discreet. The researcher
will also keep the identities of all participants in the study as confidential.
Data Analysis
The qualitative data analysis that are going to use through this study is the Interpretive
Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). IPA is designed to help us comprehend a subject's
personal experiences with a key life event, an experience, or a circumstance. Since the
researcher needs to collect information about preferences of students of their study time, their
study duration, and to illustrate their behavior towards dealing with time, the IPA is a great
help to analyze the data that will be gathered as its focused on the personal experiences of the
respondents. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is phenomenological in that it is
concerned with individuals' experiences, according to Brocki and Wearden (2006). It
recognizes that research is a dynamic process rather than the formation of objective accounts
through subjective reports. While the researcher makes every effort to gain access to the
participant's personal environment, IPA recognizes that this is complicated by the researcher's
own personal life. In order to make sense of that other personal world through interpretative
effort, conception is required. The name interpretive phenomenological analysis is thus used
to denote the dual aspects of the technique, and the analytic account produced is formed by
the shared thoughts of both participant and researcher. According to Smith (2004), IPA is
phenomenological in that it focuses on the individual's experience and is strongly linked to
interpretative or interpretive thinking tradition in recognizing the importance of the
researcher in analysis and research.
The study of Charlick et al. (2006) enumerated that there are three methodological influences
of IPA and one of these is the interpretive phenomenology which are going to be used in this
study for analyzing the collected data. The goal of interpretive phenomenology is to uncover
and explain the hidden significance in everyday life.
Moreover, there are seven steps of IPA and these are:
1. Transcript by reading and re-reading
2. Initial noting
3. Developing emergent themes
4. Searching for across emergent themes
5. Moving the next case
6. Looking for patterns across cases
7. Taking interpretation to deeper level

Figure 1. Seven steps of IPA analysis (Charlick, McKellar, Fielder, & Pincombe, 2015
adapted from Smith et al., 2009) 

After all of the methods of analyzing the data, the researcher will then draw a conclusion if
time of studying and its duration have a great impact on student's academic performance.
 Notes in Chapter III
Gill, M. J. (2020). Phenomenology as qualitative methodology. Qualitative Analysis: Eight
Approaches, 73-94.
Brocki, J. M., & Wearden, A. J. (2006). A critical evaluation of the use of interpretative
phenomenological analysis (IPA) in health psychology. Psychology and health, 21(1), 87-
108.
Charlick, S. J., Pincombe, J., McKellar, L., & Fielder, A. (2016). Making sense of participant
experiences: Interpretative phenomenological analysis in midwifery research. International
Journal of Doctoral Studies, 11, 205.
THE IMPACT OF THE TIME OF DAY AND AMOUNT OF TIME SPENT
STUDYING ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG CHOSEN STEM
STUDENTS ENROLLED IN DISTANT EDUCATION

________________________________

A Research Proposal Presented to the

Faculty of the Hilongos National Vocational School
Senior High School

______________________________

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Academic Track

STEM Strand

______________________________

by:

KEN CEDRICK A. JIMENO

JUNE 11, 2022