SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILDREN'S BIORYTHMS. SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' PERCEPTION ABOUT THEIR SCHOOL TIME, AND OUT – OF SCHOOL TIME AND ITS RELATION TO SCHOOL ATTENDANCE

Abstract

In recent decades, there has been a strong interest in the relation between the biorhythms and school attendance. It is a fact that school attendance, and therefore school time, can largely determine students’ daily life, their biological functions, and their learning processes. The aim of this work is to investigate the relationship between students' biorhythms and their school performance. More specifically, the research focuses on students' perceptions of their time, school and non-school, as well as, how time is associated with school attendance. More particularly, emphasis is placed on students' time in extracurricular activities and how this time relates to their performance in school life. It explores students’ perceptions of various activities they can develop during their school time, as well as the emotions they experience while participating in the school program. The research sample consists of students attending schools of the Secondary Education of the Prefecture of Kozani. Specifically, students from A’, B', C' Gymnasium and A' Lyceum participated in the research (252 students in total). A written structure questionnaire was selected as a tool for data collection, which included closed-ended questions and it was completed individually by the students. The questionnaire included 22 questions. The statistical processing of the collected data was done with the SPSS statistical program and led to the finding that students prefer to manage a part of their school time on their own and that non-school time helps them acquire new knowledge with pleasure. They believe that the lessons should be alternated with practical activities and they do not prefer the school time to last 90 minutes. Additionally, they do not think that their performance in mathematics and language is better in the first hours. The thematic axes of the questionnaire are the following: a) the time in the daily life of the students, b) the wishes of the students in relation to the school time, c) the time in the school and the daily life of the students, d) the time in the school and activities within the school. The results of the research lead to the finding that students prefer the activities they do outside of school because they are more enjoyable for them, since they have chosen them. The activities that students do outside of school come from the personal choices of students, while the activities that students have outside of school have better performance in school activities. There is a positive correlation between school performance and math and language lessons, as students believe that in the early morning hours they can perform better in math and language. 
 
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