CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

This study focused on the overt and continual student tardiness among grade 11 senior

high school student in ACLC College of Mandaue. The school is located at the heart of Mandaue

city and is one of the bottle-neck of traffic among motorist coming from Consolacion (North),

Lapu-lapu City (East), Talamban (West) and Cebu City (South). This is the main cause of student

tardiness during first period subject. The researcher observed that some late students walk faster

than others or even run when they are late, these are the type of students who are not habitual

late-comers and there are some who just relaxed, walk slowly like they are not late in their class,

these students are the habitual late-comers. They are the kind of students who already build their

bad habit due to their repeated lateness.

We know, the most critical learning hours of a school day are the morning periods

(Zeiger, 2010), this is the time were students are more alert and attentive. Late students often miss

this critical part of learning or if the teacher gives a quiz on the start of the period the students

will miss the chance to get higher score or even miss the whole quiz. Hence, some teacher

penalized the late students either deducting points or sending them home which is making the

problem worst. A student that has built an attitude towards tardiness is something that is rooted on

them internally. The researcher thought this problem very significant in the over-all growth and

development among students. Since, the problem is rooted internally it is a high time to address

this through intrinsic incentives and rewards. A lot of research papers and studies in the field of

education focus on addressing tardiness among students but to view the solution internally is

another thing that needs to be explored.

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Statement of the Problem

This study aims to solve the following:

1. Is the strategic reward system use as treatment in decreasing tardiness among senior high

school students in ACLC-College of Mandaue effective?

2. Is there an increase in performance among senior high school students in ACLC-College

of Mandaue after the treatment?

Hypotheses

Ho1: There is no significant decrease in the mean number of times the student is late for

school during the six-week intervention.

Ho2: There is no significant difference between the performance of the students before

and after the treatment.

Significance of the Study

This study may be useful for teachers, administrators and other educators who are

considering the implementation of intervention program thru strategic reward system that are

designed to reduce tardiness among students.

This information will be useful to the school that was selected for this study because of

the changes it may bring among teachers perspective in handling tardy students .
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Scope and Delimitation of the Study

Scope of the Study

This study is limited only to Block - M GAS (General Academic Strand) Grade 11 senior

high school students of ACLC-College of Mandaue morning class in their Physical Science

subject with Miss Jean Naparate.

Delimitation

For the purposes of this study, the gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status of the

students, teacher experience, and educational programs at the high school were not taken into

consideration.
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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE and CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Review of Literature and Related Studies

According to Lauby S. (2009), lateness or tardiness literally means not showing up on

time. Coming, occurring or remaining after the correct, usual or expected time; delayed (The

Free Dictionary, 2003). Hence, school tardiness means students coming late, not reaching school

on time, missing out initial time for the first period and primarily not being present in time set by

the school (Malik, Ladhani & Bhamani). According to Nakpodia and Dafiaghor (2011), student

tardiness can lead to students drop-out and also shows inefficiency and ineffectiveness on the

part of the teachers and school administration.

Many research papers and programs in education focus to lessen tardiness among

students, some of the treatments uses penalties like deduction of scores or close actively

monitoring about students, which (in my opinion) does not promote self-confidence among

students to solve tardiness problems on their own. There are also some uses strategic giving of

incentives and rewards like Densley, Young, Caldarella, and Christensen (2011) studied the use of

teacher written praise notes as an intervention method to decrease tardiness. Motivating students

to work on their own problems and rewarding them each time they accomplish or solve their own

problem is something that needs to be develop internally among students as it was stated by

Galotti, Kozberg, and Gustafon (2009) researched the impact of goal setting and decision

making on at-risk youth. The intervention showed that students could develop and refine their

goal setting and decision making process to establish clearer and more streamlined direction

regarding achievement of goals.

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Conceptual Framework

Though tardiness among students incorporates many external factors but it does not mean

that the only way to address this problem is thru external treatments also. Being late once or twice

in a week can be treated right away but being late once, twice or even trice every week is

something rooted inside, a habit that sticks into the system. Therefore with this kind of problem

teacher needs to shift their perspective to the intrinsic treatment as it was pictured on the figure

below.

Strategic Reward
System Decrease
Habitual (Posting Names Frequency of
Tardiness of Punctual Tardiness
Students)

Figure 1

Definition of Terms

Strategic Reward System A systematic program used to help tardy students thru incentives and

rewards.

Tardiness - Arrival to class after the final bell or the set time.

Habitual Tardiness committing tardiness 3 to 4 times every week.

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CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

Research Design

The action research design was determined for this research study. This study is

committed to improve the students punctuality and reduce tardiness by giving intrinsic reward by

listing the name of the punctual student on a space inside the classroom that can be seen by all

and also to acknowledge their improvement. Six weeks intervention cycle was planned for the

identified students.

The Sample

There were eight students identified for the research intervention. The students were

chosen from Block - M GAS (General Academic Strand) Grade 11 senior high school students of

ACLC-College of Mandaue 7:30 am class in their Physical Science subject with Miss Jean

Naparate.

The Instruments

A constant monitoring of the selected students attendance done by the subject teacher

and pre-test and post-test recording was designed to record the data of students performance

corresponding to the tardiness before and after the treatment.

Data Collection Procedure

The researchers identified the section who has the most number of tardy students and

with the help of their subject teacher, the researcher gather ten students who shows habitual

tardiness who will be the participants of the study. Later, the pre-test was carried out and the

treatment was executed in accordance. The treatment was made through giving the intrinsic
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rewards thru acknowledgement and praise to the students every time they come to school on time

or their name will be put on the list of punctual students. Finally, after six weeks, a post-test was

carried out to see the post intervention impact.

Data Analysis Procedure

t - test was applied to explore if there was significant difference between the number of

times the student is late for school per week before and after the treatment and if the trend of

student performance is being reduced or increased after the intervention.

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CHAPTER IV

PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

In this chapter, the data collected from eight tardy students from Senior High School

students of Ms. Jean Naparate, Block M (GAS AM1) are presented, interpreted and analyzed.

Results

The data collected from the six-week intervention was recorded. Clearly, the data below

shows that the frequency of the overall tardiness did decreased. Starting from 31 on the 1 st week,

down to 13 on the 2nd week, 14 on the 3rd week, 8 on the 4th week, 3 on the 5th week and 7 on the

6th week.

Table 1. Frequency of tardiness per student during the six-week intervention.

Student 1st Week 2nd Week 3rd Week 4th Week 5th Week 6th Week
1 5 3 2 2 1 2
2 4 1 0 0 0 1
3 4 3 4 2 0 0
4 4 0 2 0 0 1
5 3 1 0 0 1 0
6 5 3 2 2 1 2
7 3 2 4 1 0 1
8 3 0 0 1 0 0
Total = 31 13 14 8 3 7

The researcher also managed to get the previews month average number of tardiness of

the eight students, that is 3.2813 with the standard deviation of 0.2558, and compare it to their

present average number of tardiness during the six weeks intervention, that is 1.5833 with 1.1242

as the standard deviation.

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Table 2 shows the summary of the difference between average number of tardiness on the

previews month and the average number of tardiness during the six weeks intervention. At 99%

confidence level, it shows that computed value of t (4.17) is greater than the tabled value of t

(3.499), with 7 as the degree of freedom.

Table 2. The Mean Difference between Previews and the Six-week Intervention.

Group N Mean Std Dev SE Mean Computed t df Tabled t

Previews 8 3.281 0.256 0.09
4.17 7 3.499
Present 8 1.583 1.12 0.40

Since the computed value for t is greater than the tabled value, therefore the decision is to

reject the null hypothesis (Ho1). Hence, the difference between the number of tardiness on the

previews month and during the six-week intervention is statistically significant.

In table 3, it shows the mean difference of the pre-test and the post test before and after

the treatment. At 99% confidence level, it shows that the computed value of t (3.65) is greater

than the tabled value of t (3.499), with 7 as the degree of freedom.

Table 3. The Mean Difference between Pre-test and Post Test.

Group N Mean Std Dev SE Mean Computed t df Tabled t

Pre-test 8 12.88 3.18 1.13
3.65 7 3.499
Post test 8 17.50 4.54 1.60

Since the computed value of t is greater than the tabled value, therefore the decision is to

reject the null hypothesis (Ho2). Therefore there is a significant difference between the

performances of the students before and after the treatment.

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CHAPTER V

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter presents the summary of the findings of this research, the conclusions

derived from these findings and the researchers recommendations for future researches of similar

concern.

Summary

This action research focused on the implementation of Strategic Reward System among

the eight tardy students of Block - M GAS (General Academic Strand) Grade 11 senior high

school of ACLC-College of Mandaue morning class in their Physical Science subject with Miss

Jean Naparate. The intervention lasted in six weeks where each tardiness committed by the

participants in their morning class were recorded. The data was analyzed and interpreted and

found out that:

1. There is a decrease in the mean number of tardiness during the intervention and that the

treatment was found effective.

2. There is an enough evidence to prove that Strategic Reward System is effective in helping

to increase the performance of tardy students.

Conclusion

Habitual tardiness among students is a kind of problem which seeks not only external

solutions but also internal or intrinsic solutions. Thus, methods pertaining to this area needs to be

developed and practiced for the complete treatment of those tardy students. Hence, the strategic

reward system shows its effectiveness in decreasing the frequency of tardiness among the eight

tardy students under the treatment. It also helped the eight students to achieve better scores in the

written exam.
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Recommendation

Analysis of the data suggest that the treatment had a positive effect among its participants

during the six-week intervention, however the study neglects to determine if the treatment is still

effective in the long run and also the perceptions of teachers regarding tardy students . Therefore

the researcher suggest continuing the study may include:

A longitudinal study to determine if the treatment has an impact on students tardiness

over time.

A qualitative study on teacher perceptions among tardy students and how those

perception affect the students performance.

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REFERENCES

Caldarella, P., Christensen, L., Young, K. R., & Densley, C. (2011). Decreasing tardiness

in elementary school students using teacher-written praise notes. Intervention in

School and Clinic, 47(2), 104-112.

Galotti, K. M., Kozberg, S. F., & Gustafson, M. (2009). Goal setting and decision making

by at risk youth. The Prevention Researcher, 16(2), 17-20.

Lauby S (2009). Attendance and Punctuality. Retrieved 23rd September, 2010 from:

http://www.hrbartender.com/2009/comp/attendancepunctuality/

Nakpodia, E. D. & Dafiaghor, F. K. (April 4, 2011). Lateness: a major problem confronting

school administrators in Delta State, Nigeria. International Journal of Science and

Technology Education Research, 2 (4), 58-61.

Zeiger S. (2010, April 22). The impact of tardiness on school success. Retrieved from

www.ehow.com.