The relation between academic procrastination of university students and their assignment performances
Academic procrastination is one of the most common reasons for poor academic performance and despite students knowing that procrastination leads to poorer academic performance, we rarely try to overcome it and instead believe that the pressure to perform enables us to complete the assignments.
However, according to an experiment by Ferrari and Tice (2000) where time was limited, the results showed that the participants generally produce poor quality performance when under pressure (limited time was the stimulus for pressure). Thus, as it can be seen, academic procrastination is undoubtedly a common problem amongst students
Procrastination refers to ‘the lack of intention or willingness to take action’ (Ryan & Deci, 2000 as cited in Rakes & Dunn, 2010, p. 80) that is typically observed in the form of intentional and habitual delay of tasks (Elsworth, 2009). It indicates a discrepancy between a person’s intention to take action and the observed performance of that action (Blunt & Pychyl, 2005). Steel (2007, p.66) defines procrastination as ‘to voluntarily delay an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay’.
Academic procrastination in schools is frequently observed in tasks such as preparing for examinations, doing homework, and completing projects. Steel (2007) found that more than 80% of undergraduate students are involved in procrastination and up to 50% of them are consistent procrastinators. To make things worse, the Internet is a powerful attention distractor owing to its online and entertaining applications (Thatcher, Wretschko, & Fridjhon, 2008). Parallel to the changing technology and learning environments, procrastination in e-learning requires special attention (You, 2015).
Procrastination in simpler terms is putting off tomorrow what should be done today. As such procrastination is also defined as differing action due to indecisiveness or without good reason (Oxford English dictionary).
There are numerous reasons as to why students procrastinate, despite knowing the negative effect of doing so, and they attribute this to lack of self-confidence, feeling of being overwhelmed, peer influence, evaluation anxiety, task aversiveness, dependency and even fear of success.
1. Yilmaz, & Betul, M. (2017, August 31). The Relation between Academic Procrastination of University Students and Their Assignment and Exam Performances: The Situation in Distance and Face-to-Face Learning Environments. Retrieved February 1, 2020, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1151937
The relation between academic procrastination of university students and their assignment performances was investigated in this study. Empirical research carried out both in face-to-face and online environments have generally shown a negative correlation between academic procrastination and academic performance. However, the effect of academic procrastination on assignments in a distance learning setting has not been analyzed extensively. To understand the interaction between academic procrastination and the learning environment; assignment and exam performances of eighty-eight university students in face-to-face (FtF) and distance learning (DL) environments were investigated.
Participants of the research were students at Faculty of Education, Computer and Instructional Technologies Education Department of a state university in Istanbul, Turkey and taking “Information Technologies in Education I” course during 2015-2016 academic year. Course content included the usage of presentation, word processing, and electronic worksheet programs for educational purposes. A total of 88 students participated in the study. 79 (89.8%) of the students were freshmen, eight (9.1%) of them were sophomores and one of them (1.1%) was junior. 32 of the participants (36%) were female and 56 of them (64%) were male. Ages of students ranged from 17 to 30 and the mean age was 19.3.
According to the findings of the study, students’ academic procrastination and assignment scores were negatively correlated in both environments but especially in DL setting. Contrary to this, academic procrastination and exam scores were correlated to each other only in FtF environment. On the other hand, there was no correlation between total assignment and exam scores for the DL group, while a medium positive correlation was found in FtF group. The findings of binary logical regression analysis demonstrated that the predictive value of the DL environment for assignment score is much stronger than academic procrastination behaviour of students.
2. Tan, C. X., Ang, R. P., Klassen, R. M., Yeo, L. S., Wong, I. Y. F., Huan, V. S., & Chong, W. H. (2008). Correlates of Academic Procrastination and Students’ Grade Goals. Current Psychology, 27(2), 135–144. doi: 10.1007/s12144-008-9028-8
This study examined correlates of academic procrastination and students’ grade goals in a sample of 226 undergraduates from Singapore. Findings indicated that self-efficacy for self-regulated learning was significantly and negatively related to procrastination. High self-efficacy for self-regulated learning also predicted students’ expectations of doing well and low self-efficacy for self-regulated learning predicted students’ expectations of not doing well academically. Additionally, help-seeking predicted students’ expectations of doing well academically while academic stress predicted students’ expectations of not doing well academically. Implications for education and educational practice were discussed.
Some researchers have explained academic procrastination as a deficit in self-regulated performance (the Chu and Choi 2005; DeRoma et al. 2003). Thus, it can be understood as a type of “anti-motivation” wherein individuals decide not to move towards carrying out and finishing a chosen academic task. For example, 80%–95% of college students engage in procrastination (Ellis and Knaus 1977) and about 50% procrastinate in a consistent and problematic fashion (Day et al. 2000).
Academic procrastination has been found most widespread when writing term papers, studying for examinations, and completing weekly assignments (Solomon and Rothblum 1984), and such behaviour results in detrimental academic performance (e.g. poor grades and course withdrawal) and increased health risks such as depression and anxiety (Semb et al. 1979; Solomon and Rothblum 1984).
Eventually, these two researches helped me understand more about the definition of procrastination through different perspectives and what are some of the ultimate reasons behind it and how can we (students) try to avoid this habit in future. These researchers also gave me an idea to come up with a better research questionnaires for my future study to get better results with the current University students.
To sum up, my preliminary question is: What is the relation between academic procrastination of university students and their assignment performances?
References:
- Academic Procrastination And Academic Achievement. (2017, May 9). Retrieved February 1, 2020, from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/psychology/academic-procrastination-and-academic-achievement-psychology-essay.php
- Tan, C. X., Ang, R. P., Klassen, R. M., Yeo, L. S., Wong, I. Y. F., Huan, V. S., & Chong, W. H. (2008). Correlates of Academic Procrastination and Students’ Grade Goals. Current Psychology, 27(2), 135–144. doi: 10.1007/s12144-008-9028-8
- Yilmaz, & Betul, M. (2017, August 31). The Relation between Academic Procrastination of University Students and Their Assignment and Exam Performances: The Situation in Distance and Face-to-Face Learning Environments. Retrieved February 1, 2020, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1151937
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