Chapter 1

Problem and its Background

Problem and its Settings
The problem of the study is the procrastination among grade 11 STEM students of SVCI in which the

researchers believe that the habit is being practice by the target subjects. The habit of procrastinating

strongly affects the outcome of academic performance of the students. Procrastination has been observed

by researchers to be practice by grade 11 STEM students of SVCI, especially because of the stress that

STEM students encounter in their studies as senior high school students. The study will be conducted in

the New Building of SVCI wherein grade 11 STEM students are located.

Introduction
As productivity and time management are the keys in academic performance. There is also an

obstacle in achieving good academic performance, the procrastination, it is one of the most

common problem in the students. It delays the student’s productivity, waste a lot of time, and

may cause a low or failed grade in the student that may affect their academic performance.

Procrastination is a behavior that delaying doing a certain task and chooses to do it later, usually

in last minute. However, procrastination is one of the unpleasant trait of the Filipinos. Mañana

Habit is the habit of postponing doing duty and decided to doing it later or in last minute. This

trait existed long ago in Spanish era, where Spanish generalize Filipino as lazy workers, the

reason why the folklore “Juan Tamad” was created and until now, many of us still practice this

habit.

The term “procrastinate” came from Latin word procrastinat, which means “deferred until

tomorrow”, that derives in Latin words pro, which means “forward”, and crastinus, which means
“belonging to tomorrow” (Lewis & Short, 1879). While the word “mañana habit” came from

Spanish word mañana, which means “tomorrow” or “specified future time” and habit, which

means “automatic pattern of behavior” (Padua, 2016) of habit, it will affect their work

performance and it may cause stress. According to Brian Farran, the result of his study supported

that academic procrastination has an inversely significant relationship to the self-efficacy, and

general self-esteem. The study shows that the students who have academic procrastination has

reported with higher depression and anxiety, and negative beliefs in their self-worth (Farran,

2004).

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to identify the causes of procrastination among senior high school

students for them to achieve good performance in their education and success this academic

endeavor. The result of this study will also produce answer on how certain activities affects

students’ academic performance that will provide vivid view on this practice and provide

solution to cease this habit among students.

Research Questions

The title of this study is “Causes and Possible Solutions for Academic Procrastination

among Senior High School STEM Students of SVCI”. In order to achieve the purpose of this

research and produce efficient results for the, the questions below are used as guide for the

researchers that are need to be answered

1.) Why do Senior High school Students of SVCI procrastinate?

 a) How do they manage their time?

b) How do they feel when they are given some tasks in school?

c) What are their views when it comes to academic?

d) What are the first things that goes into their minds when they are assigned to a

particular task?

2.) How can we prevent or avoid this habit?

a) What are the possible outcome of implementing this kind of solution?

b) What will happen if their parents remind them to do their task rather than letting

them aside their work?

c) What will happen if they are using planner for time management?

d) What are some of their motivations in life?

Theoretical lens
This study Temporal Motivation Theory, this theory suggests that there are four variables

related to our decision making or will to do a particular task, expectancy, value, impulsiveness

and delay. Researchers imply that the reasons why people do or do not perform their task can be

represented by the equation:

Expectancy x Value
Motivation=
Impulsive x Delay

The motivation indicates the preference to perform a task, usually the higher the utility means the

greater the preference for that action. On the equation, expectancy refers to the odds or chance of

an outcome occurring while Value refers to how rewarding that outcome is. Naturally, we would
like to choose pursuits that give us a good chance of having a pleasing outcome. On the bottom

of the equation, the denominator, we also have two variables. Impulsiveness refers to your

sensitivity to delay. The more impulsive you are, the less you like to delay gratification. Finally,

Delay indicates how long, on average, you must wait to receive the payout that is the expected

reward. Since delay is in the bottom of the equation, the longer the delay, the less motivated we

feel about taking action (Steel, 2010). TMT shows that procrastination is associated with

expectancy, and people who are less likely to be competitive with their academics and low self-

efficacy are more likely to procrastination and as what have the theory suggest, delay

gratification also affects the performance of the subject in doing his tasks. It also shows that our

value of the outcome can contribute to our sense of responsibility and time management. As

what have been explained above, subjects’ way of thinking, daily routine and habit can be

considered as factors that affects their academics, well-being and quality of their education.

Therefore, observation subject in this study is the relation between the students’ self-efficacy on

academic procrastination and what might be the effective motivation for them.

Significance of the study

This research aims to identify the possible causes of procrastination, why do procrastination

occur on senior high students, and the ways to prevent procrastination. The result of this research

is significant to the senior high school STEM students of SVCI because the benefits that this

research will produce can increase the awareness and academic performance of the students and

learn the importance of being responsible as a student, goal-oriented and time management. This

study is also significant to the future researchers for further studies and to produce more effective

solutions, and to conduct the study in other method which will result to more efficient result.

Scope and Delimitation

This research will focus on how senior high school students of SVCI procrastinate, why they

procrastinate and reveal the solutions on this particular practice. The study is only exclusive on

grade 11 STEM students of SVCI. So the sample of this research are the grade 11 STEM

students of Saint Vincent’s College in School Year 2019-2020.

Organization of the Study

In this part of the study, the researchers will present the problem of the research and its setting.

The chapter is consist of the introduction of the problem, purpose of the study that shows what

are the goals of the researchers with conducting the study, the research questions that also serves

as guide in order to fulfill its purpose, theoretical lens and the significance of the study towards

other researchers and subject of the research.

Chapter 1: Problem and its Background

Chapter 2: Review on Related Literature
Chapter 3: Research Methodology

Chapter 4: Presentations, analysis, and Interpretations of Data

Chapter 5: Summary of Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendation

Definition of terms

Procrastination – is the act of delaying or postponing a task or set of tasks

Temporal Motivation Theory- is an integrative motivational theory.

Delay gratification- refers to the ability to put off the receipt of an immediate reward in order to

gain a better reward later

Manana Habit- is a Spanish word meaning “Tomorrow” or “At a specified future time”

 References

Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) “A Latin Dictionary “, Oxford: Clarendon Press

(https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/procrastino)

Jean Anton G. Padua (2016) “Procrastination in Filipino College Students”

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140826185636-94150900-procastination-and-

ma%C3%B1ana-habit

Farran, Brian, "Predictors of academic procrastination in college students" (2004). ETD

Collection for Fordham University. AAI3125010. 

https://fordham.bepress.com/dissertations/AAI3125010

Steel, Piers “Procrastination and Science: About the Theory” (2010)

https://procrastinus.com/piers-steel/theories-of-procrastination/
 Chapter 2

Review on Related Literature

Related Literature

Procrastination is one of the big obstacles in academic performance. It delays and deprives the

student’s performance that can cause of their failed grades. This review of related literature’s

purpose is to know and understand thoroughly what the causes of procrastination are, and to find

possible solutions for procrastination in order to cease this bad habit and learn the importance of

being responsible when it comes to time management, deadlines and reminders.

Procrastination, consist of the intentional delay of an intended course of action, in spite of an

awareness of negative outcomes (Steel, 2007), as stated by Steel, procrastination is an

“intentional” delay of an intended course of action that also means that the choice whether you

would do the task you are supposed to do or not is in your will and you are aware of the

consequences of it.

According to (Steel, 2007), “Academic procrastination can be a substantive problem for some

students” procrastination can be defined as instant postponing an action. Studies found out that

students with low levels of conscientiousness exhibit higher levels of procrastination (Ferrari &

Pychyl, 2012) basically, procrastination is a strategy of emotional regulation to cope with

unpleasant emotions such as being stress, upset, guilt, anxiety, and regret.
Some scholars have also suggested that social media nowadays being popular to students such as

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube that also contribute to the percentage of

procrastinating their tasks. They also suggested that too much of time being used on social media

impair users’ well-being, particularly on students.

In order to provide facts and data, studies have been conducted that examined the predictors of

procrastination with Facebook as well as its effects on students’ academic and overall being.

Results from the studies consistently indicate that low self-control, habitual Facebook checking,

and high enjoyment of Facebook use predict almost 40 percent of the variance of using Facebook

for procrastination (Meier et al., 2016) this study shows how social media nowadays cause

irrational delay of important tasks because of low self-discipline and a way of enjoying one’s

self.

“Irrational delay of important tasks increases student’s academic stress levels and contributes to

the negative well-being effects of Facebook use beyond the academic domain” (Meier et al.,

2016) social media or Facebook to be exact can make people lose track of time, they don’t know

how many hours they have wasted when they use Facebook leading to making their assigned

tasks with peer-pressure. “Facebook is a tool for procrastination (Lavoie & Pychyl, 2001, p.433)

Academic procrastination is the tendency to delay academic tasks to point of experiencing

anxiety associated with it, as defined by Rothblum, Solomon, and Murakami (1986),

Considerable number of studies have revealed that academic procrastination is adversely as

associated with academic performance such as course withdrawal (Rothblum et al. 1986),

academic life satisfaction (Balkis, 2013; Chow, 2011), satisfaction with studies (Gruschel,
Patrzek, & Fries, 2013), and demographic variables such as gender and age (Balkis & Duru,

2009; Prohaska, Morrill, Atiles & Perez, 2000). Although relationships between gender,

academic procrastination, academic performance and satisfaction with life are well-established in

the procrastination literature, the role of gender in these relations is not clear. But, the current

study aimed to investigate the gender differences in relation to academic procrastination,

academic performance and academic satisfaction.

Anticipated reminders, these can cause additional procrastination according to Ericson (2016)

Because we know that a reminder is coming-up we tend to be lazy and set another reminder and

another until it is delayed, but it can also induce additional procrastination and lower the

probability to complete the task if the person is not responsible enough. Unanticipated reminders,

there are precept as reminders that can lower the probability of us to procrastinate and higher

possibility to accomplish the task immediately but it also can revoke the sense of unpreparedness

that exacerbates fear of recurrence.

Deadlines seem to offer a simple solution to the procrastination problem, as they remove the

possibility of further delay (Ericson, 2016) some individuals find deadlines as the answer to

avoid procrastination but as for some individuals, deadlines are not effective for them because of

their busy schedule or it is just their choice not to do it. The interaction between present-bias and

limited memory can explain why people don’t act at deadlines and why providing reminders can

have a extremely large effects. This model offers guidance for empirical studies of reminders

despite huge gains to doing so. Prospective memory for action, and it’s distinct from prospective

memory Einstein (2007).

Sophisticated individuals who recognize their present-bias will wish to bind their future behavior

via commitment devices and deadlines, evidence indicates that individuals are at least partially

naïve about their present-bias, and fail to predict their future behavior (Della Vigna and

Malmendier 2006, Ackland and Lay 2015). For instance Gottlieb (2014) show how imperfect

recall memory interacts with self-image concerns to produce high levels of risks aversion.

It says procrastination don’t act the exact date, and the day arrives, they delay it again, deadlines

offers a very simple solution to the procrastination problem, as they move and the possibility

because of further delay.

Present-bias refers to the tendency of people to give stronger weight to payoff that are closer to

the present time when considering trade-offs between two future moments (O’ Donoghue &

Rabin, 1999).

Present-bias has been used to explain why individuals often do not take a beneficial action, such

as enrolling in retirement savings plan: naïve procrastinators do not act today because they plan

to act tomorrow, but when tomorrow arrives, they delay again.

A Present-bias may lower the chance of passing or finishing the task because of not acting to it

immediately whenever there is still an enough time to do it that may lead to delay of passing it.

For instance, you are aware that you have an assignment to be pass on the next day after

tomorrow because you are confident that it is not needed to be passed tomorrow and there is still

much time left to do it.

Deadlines seem to offer a simple solution to the procrastination problem, as they remove the

possibility of further delay (Ericson, 2016). Some individuals find deadlines as the answer to

avoid procrastination but as for some individuals, deadlines are not effective for them because of

their busy schedule or it is just their choice not to do it. The way individuals attempt to complete

tasks that involve costs in the present but benefits in the future depends on whether individuals

are time-consistent or present biased (O’ Donoghue & Rabin, 1999a, 1999b, 2001).

Psychology makes a rich picture o individual decision making. Considering a single event in

isolation can be misleading, which has implications for measuring present-bias from task

completion behavior. When procrastinators do not complete a task and it could be a result of

result from either present bias or making inferences sophistication should take into account the

effects limited memory may have on individuals’ behavior, or estimates will be biased.

Self-Efficiency, the belief in a person’s ability in a specific scenarios such as believing in the

capability to perform a task or learn given information. (Prat Sala and Reelford, 2010) showed

that students with high levels take on school with a strategic style and those with low levels take

on school with a lax and carefree style.

Procrastination can lead to poor time management, and if the students never eradicate this kind

of habit. It will affect their work performance and it may cause stress. According to (Farran,

2004) the result of the study supported that academic procrastination has an inversely significant

relationship to the self-efficacy, and general self-esteem. The study shows that the students who

have academic procrastination has reported with higher depression and anxiety, and negative

beliefs in their self-worth (Farran, 2004).

 In this task completion frame work, memory and present bias interact in ways that are

interesting, welfare relevant, and that affect reminder and deadline design. Other work could

explore how additional biases interact in this framework.

Media users struggling with frequent media-related procrastination could thus attempt to

implement restraint standards that reduce their dilatory media use, recent research suggests that

behavioral interventions, for example, temporary reductions in Facebook use, are effective in

decreasing overall procrastination and in increasing life satisfaction among students (Hinsch &

Sheldon, 2013). As stated here, one can implement his/her own way in order to lessen this

negative habit and achieve greater chance of finishing the assigned tasks because it is always our

choice.

Moreover, many users seem to voluntarily commit to such “Facebook vacations” during periods

of increased work demand (Rainie, Smith, & Duggan, 2013), it is consistently stated by

researchers that we tend to have fun whenever we face challenges and our responsibilities,

especially for students who are more prone to academic challenges and do not have a stable point

of view in life that makes them mentally weak and unable to withstand their responsibilities but

according to Hofmann & Kotabe (2012), same as having diet in our everyday meal, there are also

what we can call as ‘media diets’ and ‘media hiatus’ that can be practice by students and served

as preventive way that aim at reducing procrastination.

Based on the findings of Eric Scott Cerino (2014), it is clear that students should focus on

identifying ways to motivate themselves internally that could help them generate a better
understanding of important ways to motivate students toward procrastinating less and hopefully

increase academic success especially to male students.

A solution is suggested by Cerino (2016), having an psycho education workshop could be

offered specifically to male students to help them gain strategies to cope with their dilatory

behavior and in addition, it may also improve their opportunity of successfully and satisfyingly

completing their courses.

Procrastinating habit has to do with our being present-bias Ericson (2016) and the influence of

social media with us nowadays especially if we lack the self-control, discipline and

consciousness of the tasks we are assigned to do but Ericson (2016) stated that deadlines can

help lessen the chance of procrastinating a task but it is not relevant to everyone for some people

just ignore it and even if they have deadlines, they still choose to delay it. And (Rainie, Smith, &

Duggan, 2013) defined the cause of our habit of delaying things as our mechanism that we tend

to ignore our responsibilities when we it is hard for us so we can just enjoy and avoid the stress

of doing it.
 Chapter 3

Research Methodology

Research Design

Qualitative research is a study of a certain social phenomena in which requires the researcher to

be with the subject’s natural setting to thoroughly understand the reason behind their behavior.

This qualitative research study used the phenomenology approach. The study focuses on why the

grade 11 STEM students of SVCI procrastinate by asking their daily activities and way of

thinking regarding to academics. The answers of the respondents of the study are then interpreted

to construct hypothesis and produce solution for the problem.

Phenomenology is an approach to qualitative research that focuses on the commonality of a lived

experience within a particular group. The fundamental goal of the approach is to arrive at a

description of the nature of the particular phenomenon (Creswell, 2013).

Research Local

This study was conducted in the different rooms of the new building of SVCI because this is the

place where the researchers observed that procrastination among grade 11 STEM students is a

phenomenon. Procrastination of students is also associated to the increase of their stress levels

because of academic pressure and failed grades.

Research Instrument

The instrument used was the questionnaire that the researchers made to gather the needed data.

The questionnaire contains 7 questions and was made by definitions of the variables that are

found in their theoretical lens to illustrate what the researchers are to expect to find related to the
topic and making sure that the questions that they created were related for the chosen subjects to

answer.

Informants

Research participants

The participants of the study are the grade 11 STEM students wherein students from different

sections of grade 11 STEM are chosen. The chosen subjects are prone to procrastination that may

result to the failure of their grades and practice the habit, procrastination, which affect their sense

of responsibility and time management as a student.

Sampling Technique

The researchers chose the simple random sampling technique as their sampling design for they

believe that their randomly selected subjects could provide the appropriate data that they need to

be gathered for their study and also to be unbiased when it comes to gathering information.

A random sampling is is a subset of a statistical population in which each member of the subset

has an equal probability of being chosen. A simple random sample is meant to be an unbiased

representation of a group as defined by Adam Hayes (2019).

Data Collection Procedure

The researchers went to the 4 sections of grade 11 STEM namely the Peace, Wisdom, Hope and

Patience. To gain permission from the teachers handling the target subjects, letter of permission

has been presented to them that sincerely asks their full cooperation and kind consideration on

the study being conducted. Questionnaires are then distributed to start the survey and the

researchers wait for the respondents to finish their answers. After the respondents finished
answering the questionnaires, the researchers thanked the teachers and the respondents for

cooperating on the study.

Permission

The researchers presented a letter to the concerned teachers of the students in order to acquire

their permission for the researchers to conduct a study on his/her class regarding to the topic of

the study. The letter of permission was also signed by the researchers to support the letter and

show full dedication on their study.

Non-participant observation

The researchers chose non-participant observation. The researchers conducted a survey and

gathered information by providing questionnaires to the subjects and granted them enough time

to fill-in their answers to the questions for them to realize their personal activities that can be

associated with the researchers study.

Internet and Library Research

The researchers did not use the internet nor the library to gather information and collect data on

their research. Instead, they only use questionnaires to collect data from grade 11 STEM students

of SVCI.

Data Analysis

The data are analyzed by the researchers by constructing a Data Matrix in which the answers of

the respondents are vividly analyzed and filtered accordingly based on what are the similar,

relevant and irrelevant responds of the subjects and filling it on a table. The construction of Data

matrix contributes to the easier interpretation of data that are supplied by the respondents. The
researchers use the method of Data Matrix in order to identify which responds are similar and

common among the subjects.

Role of the Researchers

The role of the researchers in the study is to gather data by distributing questionnaires to the

target subjects with respect to their personal profile as respondents of the study. The researchers

will also analyze the data that have been acquired from the subjects efficiently and with high-

level familiarity to produce reliable information for the future researchers.

Research Ethics

The researchers conducted the study on subjects and designated area of their study with respect

and consideration of their rights. The researches presented a letter of permission to the concerned

subject teachers of the students that has been shown in page 16 before they started handing out

questionnaires to the subjects in order to gain proper permission and also to assure to them that

their personal information and the information that they supplied will be treated with utmost

confidentiality

Ethical Considerations

Letter of permission has been shown to the subject teachers of every section to show full

sincerity as researchers and guarantee that the personal information and responds of the subjects

will be confidential and will not leak to the public. As the researchers conduct the survey, some

subjects declined to provide information by fill upping for they are not available at that time but

their decisions were respected by the researchers and randomly chose another subject within

their section. Late submission of the questionnaires are also one thing that the researchers
considered and granted them more time to subject for them to fill-up with less pressure and be

able to produce effective answers that will highly-contribute to the result of this study.