The relationship between social media and academic performance: the case of high school students in a Nigerian private school.
Year: 2019
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This research explores in detail the relationship between social media and academic \nperformance of students, using a case study approach with a sample of 12 Nigerian students. \nThis study was driven by the perception that students immersed themselves in social \nmedia activities to the detriment of their academic function. The qualitative data generated \nfrom emic accounts of participants revealed three factors that may address the inconsistencies \nfound in previous studies. The first is tied to the longstanding historical and socio-cultural \npractices of schools that informs curricula definition of academic activities. The traditional \ndefinition of academic activity is narrow, and disregards digital natives’ definition of what is \nconsidered to be academic activity, thus hindering their performance. Academic performance \nis a relative concept; if the curriculum defines academic activity in an inclusive way, then there \nis a positive relationship, but if it excludes learning areas that participants find on social media \nand consider relevant, there is no relationship. Therefore, the relationship between social media \nand academic performance depends basically on the philosophy of each school and how they \nchoose to define, interpret and implement academic activities from which academic \nperformance is derived. Secondly, the data revealed that participants regarded a combination \nof both social media context and academic context as yielding more academic benefit than a \nsingle one. However, it is only when the academic instruction supports students’ needs that the \nacademic gap between both contexts is bridged. Thirdly, participants reported that social media \nenabled them to learn more, know more, think deeper, do more and achieve more, making them \nmore able to adapt their knowledge and be efficient in solving academic problems. \nA major concept that surfaced in the data is personal effort. Participants all attributed \ntheir academic success to hard work, meeting teachers, researching books and social media and \nthat neither social media nor traditional settings on their own contributed to their good grades. \nThis suggests that academic performance depends mainly on an individual student’s mind-set, \nintrapersonal values, skills and interests. In the game of soccer, the field does not produce goals. \nRather, it is the ability of players to collaborate, coordinate, perceive and utilise available \nspaces to their advantage. The same goes for the relationship between students’ social media \nusage and their academic performance. This means that the value that students place on their \nacademic activities has a significant influence on how they use social media.
Author: Roselyn Lebari. Ngelale
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3014950977