Management Of Academic Distrations Among Undergraduates For Educational Goal Attainment In Universities In Rivers State.
- March 13, 2022
- Posted by: rsispostadmin
- Categories: IJRISS, Social Science
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue II, February 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186
Dr. PATRICIA C. UKAIGWE, Dr. JONATHAN EFE EMENI
Department of Educational Foundations,
University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria
ABSTRACT
This study investigated management of academic distractions among undergraduates for educational goal attainment in universities in Rivers State. Descriptive survey design was used. The population of this study consisted of 3806 academic staff of the three Universities in Rivers State. A sample of 788 teaching staff of the three Universities representing 20.7% of the population served as respondents. The stratified random sampling technique was used to select the teaching staff. A 20-item questionnaire titled Management of Academic Distractions Among Undergraduates for Educational Goal Attainment in Universities Questionnaire (MADAUEGAQ) was used. A test re-test method was used to ascertain a reliability coefficient of 0.77. The mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions while the z-test statistics was employed to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result among others revealed that,the factors responsible for academic distraction among undergraduate students are students engagements in romantic relationships, undue school politics/ unionism, excessive internet surfing during class periods/at home like face booking or chatting among others and the ways to manage academic distraction is for school management to advertise all sorts of prohibitions via the notice boards, organizing periodic seminars and talk shows to quell distractions during institutional occasions like matriculation, moral restraint by parents through the reformation of religious and moral education as component of GES courses. It was recommended that administrators should establish specific laws, rules and regulations to guide the conduct of students in their academic pursuit.
Key Words: Management, Academic Distraction, Educational, Goal Attainment, University.
Introduction
The university environment is full of ups and downs as there are uncountable activities that tend to tract or distract students in their academic pursuit. The programmes of every university are designed rationally to impact skills and knowledge to students to better themselves and the society at large. Nevertheless, because of many extra-curricular activities that cannot be cut off totally from academic activity, students sometimes tend to deviate from their normal routine programmes by being overwhelmed by the uncertainty they found them within and outside the school environment. Sometimes university life can be stressful, although it is undoubtedly one of the most memorable experiences in one’s life that define a reasonable level of awareness and enlightenment in the life of the individual. Therefore, the period of schooling at this level represents a critical developmental period for both adolescents and young adults. So, the extent to which the quality of education succeeds depends upon the ways the programmes and activities of the school are lawfully, economically, socially, religiously and politically handled. It is thus imperative that any nation that desires to achieve the objectives of its educational system must recognize the staff and student’s factors and also make the environmental conditions to be conducive for teaching and learning.
Generally, the school environment which includes infrastructural facilities, such as school building, staff offices, laboratories, libraries, conveniences for staff and pupil’s, recreational facilities etc., defines to a great extent how students ought to concentrate or be distracted in their academic activity. Therefore, if the presence of the aforementioned is in good conditions it will have positive influence on teachers’ attitude towards their academic work and student’s performance. According to Jack (2014) if such facilities are poor or not provided, the teachers’ morale will be low and their level of commitment will be very minimal which also affect students’ performance as the case maybe. In a nutshell, if the school activities are not well controlled and coordinated it might lead to academic upheaval or unproductiveness. Meanwhile, some of the likely distracting factors practiced by students are: Social factors such as romantic relationships, organizations and clubs, over indulgence in school activities, over indulgence in all kinds of social activities in the school at the detriment of their academics network activity like excessive “face-booking” which promotes social but not academic engagement, putting on seductive dresses that tend to distract opposite sex during leisure (Nwachi, 2017).
