The Influence of Gender and Intellectual Ability on Students Time Utilisation and Academic Achievement

Abstract

The study investigated the time students in public senior high schools in the Northern Region of Ghana spend on academic related activities and their academic achievements by gender and intellectual ability. Five hundred (500) students from seven public senior high schools in the Northern Region of Ghana participated in the study. A combination of probability and non-probability sampling techniques were employed using a cross-sectional survey to get a sample of respondents from whom data was collected through questionnaire. The data was analyzed using One-way ANOVA and multiple regressions with factors that might influence the outcome of the study controlled. The results revealed that low and high intellectual ability students differ significantly with respect to the time they spend on self-study and class attendance. The study finds conclusive evidence that intellectual ability and gender have a significant impact on time utilization rates among students of senior high schools. The results also show significant intra and inter gender differences between males and females with respect to the time they spend on self-study and group study activities. The study recommends that educational authorities should take the time use disparities into consideration when designing curriculum activities so as to take care of these different student groupings.