Keywords

Time management behavior; Academic achievement; Gender difference

Introduction

Time is an important and irreplaceable resource for the accomplishment of activities and daily tasks, on the condition that it is used wisely. Therefore, the more wisely we use time, the better we accomplish what we want to do. This is crucial for personal productivity and having healthy life [1]. Good time management makes individuals calm, confident, efficient, and enables them to do more work with less time. Tracy asserted that people feel good about themselves to the degree to which they can control their own lives and controlling life means simply using and saving time.

Time management is practical life management and personal management where an individual is expected to control the sequences of events in everyday life [2]. According to [3], time management is an important tool to enhance efficiency and better organizes our lives, which Wu (2010) also explained time as a primary factor to determine individual success. In addition to this [4], confirmed that good time management reduces stress and increases academic success.

Good time management differentiates between people who have equal talent and ability [5]. Forsyth recommended that time management is not a matter of choice; rather it is something that every person wants to work effectively in life. Indeed, time management plays a vital role in students’ academic achievement and performance [6]. It helps to increase their academic achievement and performance. Their research finding shows that students’ time management is highly related to the academic performances of university students.

Similarly, [7] pointed out that students who were effective in time management also effective in their studies and academic achievements. In general, many research findings showed that students’ time management behaviors positively correlate with academic performance Khatib, 2014 [6,8,9,10,11,12].

Effective time management requires examining personal values and destination to control the time [1], however. Tracy pointed out that human failure results from action without planning. Good time managers know who they are, what they want, and what to do when in every area of their lives.

Still, concerning time management, Forsyth (2007) explained that time management may include daily, weekly, monthly and annual plans with the list of activities, the time needed, and prioritized decisions. In line with this, Hoover (2007) also pointed out that time management has a long-range plan with long-range goals where it can be separated into a short-range plan with short-range goals that can be done within an hour, a day, or a week.

Britton and Tesser (1991) proposed three facets of time management: short-range planning, long-range planning, and time attitudes. Short-range planning is the ability to set out and organize tasks in the short-run within a day or a week. Long-range planning is the capacity to manage tasks over a long-time horizon (e.g., in a quarter or a year) by setting goals, keeping track of important dates, and limiting procrastination. Unlike negative time attitudes, positive time attitudes indicate that people are oriented towards using their time constructively and maintaining over how their time is spent.

Researchers were also interested in whether or not the sub-components of time management (i.e., short-range planning, long-range planning,and time attitude) would predict students’ academic achievement. For instance, research conducted by Khatib (2014) indicated that short-range planning, long-range planning, and time attitude collectively explain 26.9% of the variation in academic achievement. Pehlivn (2013) also found out that the same variables collectively account for 6.9% of the variation in students' academic achievement. Other researchers, however, pointed out that only short-range planning predicts about 3.3% of the variation in academic achievement [6].

In addition to the correlation of time management behaviors and academic achievement, researchers were also interested to investigate whether there is a gender difference in academic achievement or not. The finding of the research conducted on gender differences among returnee students shows that male returnee students show better academic achievement scores than their counterparts (Juma., Aloka, & Nyaswa, 2018). Other researchers also found out that males performed significantly betterthan females in English and overall academic performance (Musa, Dauda, & Umar, 2016). There were also contradictory research results, as other researcherspointed out those female students were better than male students in their academic achievement (Gayef, Tapan, & Sur, 2017; and Hdii& Fagroud, 2018).

On the other hand, a research finding indicated that there was no statistical difference between males and females in their academic achievements (Bereket, Yohannes, & Aklilu, 2019). Similarly, a research thesis conducted by Amsalework (2014) indicated that there is no significant gender difference in the academic performances of engineering students. This implies that further research should be conducted to see whether there is a gender difference in academic achievement.

As it was explained above, many researchers indicated that there was a positive significant relationship between students' time management behaviors and academic achievement. On the other hand, there was a research finding which stated there wasn't a significant correlation between students' time management scores and academic success (Alghaswyneh & Basri, 2015; and Gayef et al., 2017).

Having inconsistent research findings in the relationships of time management and students'academicachievementimpliesconductingfurtherresearchiscrucial.Furthermore, few pieces of research are conducted in the area in Ethiopian universities. Therefore, conducting research was important at the local level to examine the relationship between time management behaviors and academic achievements of First-Year Social Science Stream Students in Debre Berhan University (DBU).

Basic Research Questions

This study looked into the following research questions:

Is there any significant relationship between general time management behaviors, (i.e., long-range planning, short-range planning, and time attitude) and academic achievement ofFirst-Year Social Science Students in Debre Berhan University?

Is there any statistically significant gender difference in the academic achievement ofFirst-YearSocial Science Students in Debre Berhan University?

To what extent would long-range planning, short-range planning, and time attitude predict variation in students’ academic achievement of First-Year Social Science Students in Debre Berhan University?

Research Methods

The Study Design

The study was to examine the relationship between time management behaviors and academic achievements of First-Year Social Science Stream Students in Debre Berhan University. Correlational research design is used to test the relationships of two or more variables (Filed, 2009). Taking this into consideration, a correlational research design was used to correlate students' time management behaviors with their academic achievement.

Sample Size

The researcher obtained data about social sciences stream students from the College of Freshman in Debre Berhan University. A systematic random sampling method was used to select research participants. A total of 44 male and 61 female students were selected. The samples (105) were sufficient enough to examine the stated basic research questions statically.

Data Gathering Instruments

The researcher used a time management questionnaire developed by Britton and Tesser (1991) to measure the time management behaviors of research participants. The questionnaire consisted of 18 items of which 7 for short-range planning, 5 for long-range planning, and 6 for time attitude scales ranging from 5-to-1(where 5=always, 4=frequently, 3=sometimes, 2=infrequently, and 1=never).

Document analysis was also used in the research. The first semester cumulative GPA (2020) was obtained in a form of a self-report where students wrote openly which ranges from 0 – 4.00. The researcher also obtained students’ academic achievement (GPA) from the College of Freshman.

Data collection procedures

Before distributing the questionnaires, the researcher provided orientation for selected participants about the purpose of the research and got permission from respondents.

Participants wrote their GPA on the questionnaire as a self-report and later the researcher obtained a Grade Point Average (GPA) from the College of Freshman to cross-validate students’ self-report of their GPA that measure students’ academic achievements.

Data analysis

The study used Pearson’s correlation test to examine the relationship between time management behaviors (general time management, short-range planning, long-range planning, and time attitude) and academic achievements of First-Year Social Science Students in Debre Berhan University. Multiple linear regression and independent sampleT-test were also used to answer the basic research questions of the study. Items that are negatively stated in a time management questionnaire were reversely coded at the time of data entry. Data were computed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version 23. Homogeneity of variances and the distribution of data were checked for continuous data. In this study, Pearson’s correlation was used to examine the relationship among general time management, long-range planning, short-range planning, time attitude, and academic achievement of First-Year Social Science Students in DBU.

The study also tried to see how much the short-range planning, long-range planning, and time attitude explain variation in students' academic achievement (outcome variables). An independent sample T-test was also used to check if there is a gender difference in academic achievement or not.

Results

Respondent’s characteristics

Regarding the characteristics of respondents, there were 44(41.9%) males and 61(58.1%) female respondents from First Year Social Sciences Stream Students in Debre Berhan University.

The relation relationship between time management and academic achievement

In line with the basic research questions, the major research results of the study presented in the table along with its explanation.

Table 1: Pearson’s correlation matrix for variables (N=105).

GPA=Grade Point Average, SRP=Short-range planning, LRP=Long-range planning, TA= Time Attitude, and GTM= General Time Management

As it was indicated in Table 1, there was a strong and positive relationship between general time management with time management subscales. The result indicated that general time management, short-range planning, long-range planning, and time attitude scores have a strong and positive relationship with the academic achievements of First-Year Social Science Stream Students.

Gender difference and academic achievement

Table 2: Gender difference in academic achievement (N=105).

The result in Table 2, the independent sample T-test result showed that there was no significant gender difference in the academic achievements of First-Year Social Science Students male(M=2.65, SD=.58) and female (M=2.63, SD=.61; t (103) = .200, p= .842) respectively. The result implies that male and female studentshave more or less similar academic achievement.

Table 3: Multiple linear regression results on short-range planning, long-range planning,and time attitude (predictors).

The nature of the third research question was about how much short-range planning, long-range planning, and time attitude would explain variation in the academic achievements of students. As shown in Table 3, all the three sub-scales of time management collectively predict 81.3% variation in academic achievement. Thus, the result implies that the academic achievements of students were strongly and positively explained by short-range planning, long-range planning, and time attitude scores of time management.

Discussion

Relationships of time management and academic achievement

The study showed that there was a strong and positive relationship among general time management, short-range planning, long-range planning, time attitude, andacademic achievements of First-Year Social Science Stream Students. The result was consistent with other researchers where their finding stated that students’ time management behaviors highly correlate the academic achievements of university students [6,8,9,10,11,12]. Although [6] agreed that time management scores positively correlated with academic achievement, time attitude negatively correlates with academic achievement. Unlike the present findings, [9] found out that there was a weak positive relationship between time management behavior scores and academic achievement.

The present study result contradicts with other’s finding stating that there was no significant correlation between students’ time management scores and academic achievement (Alghaswyneh &Basri, 2015; and Gayef et al., 2017).

As shown in the regression table of the result section, short-range planning, long-range planning, and time attitude collectively explain 81.3% of the variation in the academic achievement of First-Year Social Science Students in Debre Berhan University. The finding is consistent with Khatib (2014) and Pehlivn (2013) as they found out that the same variables collectively account for 26.9% and 6.9% of the variation in students' academic achievement respectively. Off course, their finding is not consistent with the present study about the contribution of short-range planning, long-range planning, and time attitude to predict student’s academic achievement. Contradictory to this study, Nusrallah and Kahan (2015) pointed out that only short-range planning predicts about 3.3% of the variation in academic achievement. The result implies that time management behaviors strongly correlate and predict students’ academic achievement.

Gender difference in academic achievement

The current finding indicated that there was no significant gender difference in academic achievements. In line with the present study, [13,14] investigated that there was an insignificant gender difference in academic achievement. The result of this study was inconsistent with the previous study. For instance, findings were stating that male students do better than females [15,16]. The study was also contradictory with what other researchers [23,24]. Research results indicated that female students were better than male students in their academic achievement [17,18,19]. The research implies that both male and female students have more or less equal academic achievement even if stereotyping gender difference thought existed in the old literature regarding academic achievement [20,21,22].

Conclusion

In general, the objective of the study was to examine the relationship between time management behaviors and academic achievements of First-Year Social Science Stream Students in Debre Berhan University. The finding showed that general time management and its components (short-range planning, long-range planning, and time attitude) are strongly correlated and predict positively students’ academic achievement. Students who are good in time management also good in their academic achievement. Both male and female students more or less have similar scores in their academic achievement. .

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