Does Working While Attending School Affect Your Performance in the Classroom?

Group D4: Jay Terrazas and Giovana Donati

EDT 180 D
Mr. Lewallen
21 April 2019
 Group D4: Does Working While Attending School Affect Your Performance in the Classroom?

Our research question was “Does working while attending school affect your
performance in the classroom?” We wanted to research this question because we know a lot of
college students who in fact work while attending school. We asked a total of 8 questions: 1.
What year are you in school?, 2. How many credit hours are you taking?, 3. Do you work?, 4. If
you work, where do you work?, 5. On average how many hours a week do you work?, 6. What
shifts do you usually work?, 7. On average, how many hours do you have available in a day to
work on assignments?, and 8. On a scale from 1-10, how do you feel you work schedule affects
your school performance? To collect our data, we used a Google Form in which students could
respond to our questions via different modes of surveying like multiple choice, short answer,
linear scale, etc. In total, we received ninety responses to our survey.
The first chart we created displays the percentage of students who are either working or
not working. Fifty-six students responded that they are working while attending school, and 34
students were not working. To find the percentage of students working, we took the amount of
students working and divided it by the total number of students in the survey, ninety. Then to
find the percentage of students not working, we took the amount of students not working,
thirty-four, and divided it by the total number of students in the survey. We found that sixty-two
percent of respondents in our survey are working, and thirty-eight percent of respondents are
not working.

The second chart we created shows where the students in our survey work. We gave
our respondents the options of on-campus, off-campus, both, or not working. Our column graph
expresses where the students were working. Nine students reported that they work on-campus,
forty-six students reported they work off-campus, one student reported they work both on and
off-campus, and thirty-four students reported they are not working. The most common
workplace for students in our survey is off campus.

1
 Group D4: Does Working While Attending School Affect Your Performance in the Classroom?

Our third chart represents the amount of hours students responded they have to work on
assignments per day. For this chart, we wanted to show the hours available to work on
assignments whether or not they work. The average assignment time students reported was
between five and six hours per day. It was interesting to note that regardless of work schedule,
a student still only has between five and six hours a day to work on assignments. Sixteen
students reported five hours to work on assignments and sixteen students reported six hours to
work on assignments. The second most common time chosen was three hours and twelve
students reported that. Only one student reported they have twenty-four hours in a day to work
on assignments.

2
 Group D4: Does Working While Attending School Affect Your Performance in the Classroom?

Our fourth chart shows a correlation between students who are working and how they
ranked their work schedule interfering with school. Twelve students out of the fifty six working,
responded with a “1,” meaning their work schedule has no interference with the school. The
next most common number chosen was “7,” meaning a significant interference, and ten
students who reported they were working chose “7.” The difference in the two answers was
vastly different, even for just a broad question, not getting into specifics.

The fifth and final chart just shows how the largest group of working students in our
survey, freshman, feel their work schedules affect their school performance. The total number of
freshman in our survey totaled to be fifty-one, and out of those freshman, twenty-seven reported
they are working. This chart displays that most common answer for working freshman is that
there is no interference between work and school. It is interesting to note that there was no
response for a “10” which means severe interference.

3
 Group D4: Does Working While Attending School Affect Your Performance in the Classroom?

  
In conclusion, when reviewing our data we found out that working, whether it be
on-campus or off-campus, does not affect the students’ performance in the classroom.
Although it was a bit odd because you would actually think that working while being a
student would have some type of effect on the students work performance, the majority
of students surveyed chose number 1 which means there is no relationship with the
amount of work and the students personal in-class performance. Now that we have
completed our research there are other questions that seem relevant to our research
like, does the amount of credits you take affect your work schedule or does the number
of hours you work affect how much time you have on assignments? It would also be
interesting to research if students place more emphasis on designing a work schedule
around school, or a school schedule designed around one’s work schedules. If we were
to do this project differently, we would definitely try to incorporate assignment time into
our data—see how their assignment time is linked to their ranking.