Academic Performance: The Effects of Burnout and Time Management Skills

Author(s):

Kubilay Ocal(presenting / submitting)Tolga Tek

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

18. Research in Sports Pedagogy

Format:

Paper

Session Information

18 SES 10 A, Issues and Controversies in Sport and Physical Education

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-10

15:30-17:00

Room:

326.Oktatóterem [C]

Chair:

Maud Hietzge

Contribution

Prediction of academic performance and the investigation of the factors related to academic success are very important area in higher education research (Ruban & McCoach, 2005). Recently, Karimi (2010) reported factors that have influence on academic performance as ability, motivation, self-efficacy, locus of control and goal orientations, self-regulatory learning strategies, personality traits of extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness-to-experience, international student status, prior academic performance, gender, and age.

Social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) explains the processes, through which people develop educational and vocational interests, make academic and occupational choices and having success and stability in their educational and work life. According to this theory, two important factors that can affect academic performance were academic burnout and time management.

Burnout is fatigue and diminished interest caused by long-term stress and workload. According to the Maslach (1982) it is characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of personal accomplishment. University life sometimes results in distress for some students who are constantly being forced to pass exams and acquire a degree. On the other hand, time management skills are important in the organization of study or course load. Time management skills can be defined as planning in advance, prioritizing work, test preparation, and following schedules performed by students (Kirscenbaum & Perri,1982). According to Powell ( 2004) higher academic performance can be achieved by balancing time management and study techniques effectively.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of academic performance with academic burnout and students’ time management skills among university students who were attending Physical Education and Sports Schools.

Method

The participants of the study were 215 university students from Physical education and Sport School in a public university in Turkey. Their ages ranged from 18 to 27 years (M= 21.41). Academic performance was evaluated with students’ GPAs which still remain the most common factor used by administrators to evaluate progression in an academic environment. The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey was used to measure academic burnout, (MBI-SS; Schaufeli, Martínez, et al., 2002), which comprises 15 items of which five items measure exhaustion (e.g. ‘I feel emotionally drained by my studies’), four items measure cynicism (e.g. ‘I have become more cynical about the usefulness of my studies’) and six items measure inefficacy (e.g. ‘I can effectively solve the problems that arise in my studies’, reverse-coded). Time management skills are evaluated by a questionnaire developed by Britton and Tesser (1991) and adapted to Turkish population by Alay and Koçak (2002). The scale has 27 items with three factors such as: time planning, time attitudes and time wasters.

Expected Outcomes

Correlation analysis results suggested that there was negative moderate correlation between exhaustion and GPA (.40); negative moderate correlation between cynicism and GPA (.43); and positive small correlation between inefficacy and GPA (.18). Results also suggested that there were no significant correlations between time management subscales and GPA.

References

Alay, S., & Koçak, S. (2001) Validity and reliability of time management questionnaire. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi. 22, 9−13. Britton, B. K., & Tesser, A. (1991). 'Effects of time-management practices on college grades', Journal of Educational Psychology, 83,405−410. Karimi, F. K. (2010) Factors contributing to the academic performance of students in a private university in Kenya: A case of Daystar University The International Journal of Learning, 17 (8), 63−76. Kirscenbaum, D. S., & Perri, M. G. (1982) Improving academic competence and adults: a review of recent research. J Counselling Psychol, 29,76−94. Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett (1994). Toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic interest, choice, and performance.Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45, 79−122 [Monograph]. Maslach, C. (1982). Burnout: The cost of caring. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Powell, D. H. (2004) Behavioral treatment of debilitating test anxiety among medical students. J Clin Psychol, 60, 853−65. Ruban, L. M., & McCoach, D. B. (2005). Gender differences in explaining grades using structural equation modelling. Review of Higher Education, 28, 475–502. Schaufeli, W.B., Martínez, I., Marqués-Pinto, A., Salanova, M., & Bakker, A.B. (2002). Burnout and engagement in university students: a cross national study. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, 33, 464−481.

Author Information

Kubilay Ocal (presenting / submitting)

Mugla Sitki Kocman University

Physical Education and Sports

Mugla

Tolga Tek

Middle East Technical University, Turkey

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