REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter represents the related literature and studies that would provide the

background and analysis of the findings of the present investigation. Those were taken from

online internet with foreign authors. It helped the researcher to establish a clear concept of the

study.

Changes in College Time and Costs

Triumph in college has always been an opportunity unused of many (Kim & Rury 2011),

Once enrolled, working college students face a new realm of challenges including how they are

going to budget their time while attending school and how they are going to pay for their

education. As the education system has undergone changes, students’ options for how they are

going to face these challenges change as well.

The outlook of how much time is needed to attend college has changed since the1960s.

Kim and Rury (2011) describe the pattern of the falling time cost of college since 1961,

determining that college presents less of an opportunity cost for students now. They show that

college in the 1960s, continuing until almost the turn of the century, was like a full-time job for

students, costing students about 40 hours a week for class-work. Students were expected to

dedicate their time solely on their academics while in college. The priority for students in the

1960s was their education, which was reflected in the time they spent pursuing their degree. In

2003, the time students spent on academics was estimated to be about 27 hours a week, which

could be accounted for by advancements in technology. Although this is still a substantial

amount of time, this shows that students can now effectively attend college while pursuing more

time consuming activities, such as working.

The changes in college education have been even more dramatic in this present time. In

1970’s education system in college was change in an endeavour to suggest more opportunities

to those individuals, but as the number of students enrolled, so as the tuition fee increased.
 This atmosphere of obligation has created a new environment for current college

students, forcing them to choose how they are going to handle their responsibilities with help

from their parents, by living at home and commuting to school, by working while in school-

although these solutions are not all-encompassing and do not solve the whole of their problem.

These fiscal problems could all be factors explaining the downward trend in time on academics

since the 1960s (Kim & Rury 2011). Although the intricacies of the “why” behind the decisions

those students make with their time cannot be answered by this quantitative study, it is possible

to determine how students are spending their time, which could shed light on their priorities and

values.

Time Dedicated to Academics

Time management among college students is a broad topic that encompasses a wide

range of activities and trade-offs. The issue of how much time students are allocating for

academic work is a complicated area to analyze because of the variations in academic

assignments across different colleges and disciplines, as well as the differences in course work

from week to week and semester to semester, but it has been proven that, across the board, the

number of hours that students spend on academics fell from 40 hours a week in 1961 to about

27 hours a week in 2003 (Babcock & Marks 2011). Babcock and Marks speculate that this

reflects that enrolling in college has less of an opportunity cost in today’s world, as a result of

advances in technology allowing for easier access to academic information. It has not yet been

determined how continued technological improvements have affected this downward trend in

study time since 2003.

This technology, aside from aiding access to information, also presents a competing

share in students’ time that can take away from academics, according to Hanson et al (2011).

Students’ academic success is aided by and impaired by their reliance on technology, because

it provides “short cuts” for students with a time budget, but decreases their overall retention

rates and, with them, their human capital, which is a conclusion that Babcock and Marks share.
The issue of distractions from academics tied to technology, such as social media, has become

more of a problem in recent years. Panek (2014) argued that this is an issue, not because time

with social media is negatively associated with time on homework, but because of the strain it

puts on students mentally. The students with the lowest self-control experience feelings of guilt

and stress because of their lack of productivity, a point that Reynolds (2013) confirms. Reynolds

presents the issues that student affairs administrators across the country see the most often as

stressors and concerns for students, with stress management, time management, and

academic difficulties ranking high on the list.

Perceived Stress

Not only the matter of time management bothers university students, but also the stress

created during the academic years (Dusselier et al., 2011). Stress can be defined as a process

in which environment demand strains an organism’s adaptive capability, resulting in both

psychological as well as biological changes that could place a person at risk for illness (Cohen,

et. al., 2013). University students might experience high stress due to academic commitments,

financial pressures and lack of time management skills. When stress is perceived negatively or

becomes excessive, it can affect both health and academic performance (Campbell & Svenson,

2010). In the literature, a negative relationship was found between time management and

perceived stress. For example, Macan et al. (2014) find that lower stress levels were most

strongly correlated to the factor perceived control of time. This suggests that regardless if one

undertakes time management activities and behaviors, such as writing lists and setting goals, if

they do not perceive to be in control of their time they will still feel stressed. Misra and McKean

(2012) found a negative correlation between time management behaviours and perceived

stress. They concluded that stress levels decreased among students who managed their time

well.
Multiple Intelligences

Theory of Multiple Intelligences Gardner’s (1983, 1999, 2004) theory is linked to

cognitive areas such as linguistics, psychology, anthropology, neuroscience, and technology,

incorporating various approaches to human potential. Gardner defined intelligence as a bio-

psychological ability to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve

problems or create valuable products. The multiple intelligences are bodily-kinesthetic

intelligence, existential intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence,

linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, musical intelligence, naturalistic

intelligence, and visual- spatial intelligence. According to Gardner, when students identify their

multiple intelligences, they can understand their individual strengths and weaknesses.

One definition of intelligence states that it is not directly observable, concrete and

fulfilled, but rather it can be observed through behaviours and is a complex structure that affects

our daily and future behaviours (Johnson, 2013). Intelligence is also defined as being able to be

discovered, adapted and formed, and has an ability to select context (Sternberg, 2014). Thus, it

should be noted that intelligence is continuously in interaction with real life circumstances

(Taylor, 2007). Encouraging students to develop their own multiple intelligences profiles can help

them become motivated to acquire the necessary skills for learning English. Teachers can use

the students’ multiple intelligences profiles to prepare customized activities to maximize the

learning opportunities inside and outside the classroom. Previous research (Batt, 2008; Branton,

2004; Campbell & Egawa, 2005; Chan, 2006; Christodoulou, 2009; Chen, 2004; Christion,

2004; Christion & Kennedy, 2004; Dylan, 2013; Savas, 2012) showed that Gardner’s theory had

important implications for teaching language skills because it helped to use cognitive and meta-

cognitive strategies to urge students to improve comprehension, attitude, and motivation,

consequently language proficiency.

For many years, educators have implemented traditional teaching methods in the

classroom that have tended to classify learners as a homogeneous group where teachers use
the executive approach to transmit knowledge to all the students with a similar set of teaching

methods (Sulaiman et al., 2011). As humans, our life is determined and influenced by various

dimensions: a biological inheritance and physical appearance that distinguish us from other

living beings; a psychological make-up which determines our mental, emotional, linguistic,

behavioural and moral aspects; a social need which affects all aspects of our existence and

lifestyle; and a spiritual dimension which helps us to distinguish right and wrong. (Motah, 2013)

According to Natasa (2010) she states that this Multiple Intelligence theory offers a

better understanding of students’ intelligence and a greater appreciation of their strengths. She

adds that MI theory has been considered a milestone for educational innovation not only in the

United States but throughout the world that forced educators not only to come to a recognition

of the diversity of the learners in their learning styles and learning potentials but also to

appreciate the development of learning strategies on the part of the learners in the form of

"individualized instruction" and "independent learning”. Baş, (2010), Şahin, Öngören and

Çokadar (2010) have found that students when being taught by methods based on MI are more

successful and highly motivated than students taught by traditional foreign language teaching

methods.

Stress Levels in College Students

Stress is common in every college student's life; not only because of the amount of

course work or the expectations to succeed, but also because of their lives away from the

classroom. The college years bring separation from home and parents, academic demands that

are greater than those demands in high school, and questions about personal identity and

career choice (Whitman, Spendlove, & Clark, 2016). Other determinants that may intensify

stress include financial concerns due to college expenses, increased competition, and an

uncertain job market (Whitman et al., 2011).

 Selye (2013) defined stress as a response elicited by a variety of external events. An

event or an environmental stimulus that makes a person feel tense or aroused is a stressor. The

experience of stress can be a mental state of tension and arousal in which interpretive, emotive,

defensive, and coping processes occur inside a person, possibly creating a mental strain.

Stress can also be defined as the body's response to physical demands of the environment

(Rice, 2014).

Although there are various sources of stress outside of the university setting,

requirements of the university – such as exams, papers, and projects, along with the pressure to

earn good grades – can cause mental stress (Ross, Niebling, & Heckert, 2013). In addition to

the demands of college classes as well as other college stressors, many students are also

working at jobs outside of school. Kramer (2011) stated that college-board data revealed that 75

percent of all traditional college students are employed and suggested that high tuition rates

may account for the increase employment.

An increasingly popular strategy among working students is to combine work and

education by finding work during their college years that has a connection to their long-term

plans (Misra & McKean, 2016). Although these jobs also come with more responsibility, they

also may demand more hours and increased accountability – which can ultimately increase

stress. One traditional manifestation of increased stress among college students is a

corresponding drop in grade-point average. However, many students working in jobs connected

to their long-term plans achieve grade-point averages higher than do those students not

working. It may be that students who have to pay for some or all of their education themselves

will work harder because of the monetary sacrifice they are making to attend college.

In addition, Misra and McKean (2016) discovered that, although women had more

effective time management behaviours than men, they experienced higher academic stress and

anxiety. Stress in small amounts can be positive for some people but stress also can be

negatively associated with a student’s self-concept. A survey on stress at college and the effects
on health habits, health status, and self-esteem found that stress was especially high among

college females (Hudd et al., 2000). The researchers also found that students with higher levels

of stress were much less satisfied with several life factors that contribute to self-esteem.

Working and Commuting Students

Students who hold a job during their enrollment in college have an experience that is

distinctive from that of their peers. Bozick (2010) analyzes the impacts of a student’s economic

background and how that affects whether or not they hold a job during college, and further, how

having a job can be a driving factor behind whether or not students continue in their college

career.

The students who fall into the middle of the income distribution are too wealthy to

receive full financial assistance and too poor to have their families pay for their enrollment, they

are most likely to spend a significant amount of time working off-campus to pay for their college

expenses. The students who work more than 20 hours a week and also live at home are the

most at risk for suffering damaging impacts on their collegiate success due to the competing

demands for their time and the stress that comes with it (Bozick 2010).

Many of them were unaware of the financial toll that enrolling in college would take, and

thus their behaviors were purely reactive and did not leave them the time or the capability of

being proactive about managing their financial situation for future years. Salisbury et al. (2012)

highlighted the leadership benefits that working students attain from their jobs, but also agreed

that curricular involvement can suffer, as well as peer interaction, by working too extensively off-

campus.

Information on the college experience of working students is limited. Kim and Rury

(2011) show that a larger number of students are now working, and the ability to work has

opened the door for social groups previously unable to attend college to participate. Each

student’s social and economic background contributes to their development in college. How

these students manage their time and how it differs from students living on campus is not
discussed, and there is no information about how this particular variable can impact stress or

success in college. Although all of these researchers have proven the harmful effects that

greater amounts of time spent working can have on students’ college experiences, they have

not gone deeper into analyzing the specifics of how these students spend the rest of their time.

With the extra burden of having to allocate large portions of their day to working, these students

are faced with a tighter budget of time that they have to divide between many activities other

than academics, including family, friends, and personal care. Understanding what decisions

working students make when it comes to their time is valuable information to better describe this

sector of the college population.

Working Students

This information pairs with Galbraith and Merrill’s (2012) argument that cynicism is a side

effect of working and attending college at the same time. These both can explain the trend that

Hornack, Farrell, and Jackson (2010) saw in dissatisfaction in college students who were

working, because their financial hardships negatively impacted their engagement, well-being,

relationships, return rates, and, ultimately, their graduation rates. This situation is exemplified by

Svanum and Bigatti (2014) and their study that showed how students who spent more time on

job activities had less time to dedicate to course effort, achieving lower course grades than their

non-working peers. It can be argued that many of these students were experiencing what Serido

et al. (2014) saw in their study of stress that was unperceived ahead of time.