A Survey on the Study Habits of the Taiwanese University Students: Comparison of the Four Years of Undergraduate Education

Abstract

This study was conducted in order to examine the probable differences among the study habits of students on different academic levels: freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors in Taiwanese universities. Thus, 14 departments were randomly chosen in three universities in central Taiwan. In total, 964 respondents were considered in this study. The research instrument was a 24-item questionnaire adopted from the Study Skill Assessment Questionnaire, originally developed by University of Houston Clear Lake, Texas. The questionnaire items used in this study clustered three study habits/skills constructs (eight items each) which were: time management and procrastination, study aids and note-taking, and organizing and processing information. Applying a Pearson Chi-square test (a ≤.05) for each of the 24 items of the questionnaire, it was revealed that there is no significant difference among students of different years with respect to item 4 (preparing a “to do” list), item 18 (breaking assignments into manageable parts), and item 22 (using questions to better organize and understand studying material). As for the other 21 items of the questionnaire, the subjects’ responses varied with a low significance, showing a little difference in study habits among the students of four levels of undergraduate education. Furthermore, and using the rubrics suggested by the original questionnaire developer, it was measured that the lowest score for all of the surveyed constructs was 18.74 (low range) for sophomores on “study aids and note-taking”, while the highest score was 26.26 (medium-high range) for seniors on “organizing and processing information”.