STUDY HABITS AND CHALLENGES OF THE MEDICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE STUDENTS OF THE MEDICAL COLLEGES OF NORTHERN PHILIPPINES IN THE NEW NORMAL: RELATIONSHIP TO THEIR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Abstract

This study endeavored to determine Study Habits and Challenges of the Medical Laboratory Science Students of the Medical Colleges of Northern Philippines. Coronavirus affects the education system in the world. Schools, colleges, and universities are closed to control the spread of the coronavirus. School closure brings difficulties for students, teachers, and parents. Schools and Universities have had to rethink and reassess how they deliver effective learning with the use of digital technologies following physical restrictions on student travel. Due to the pandemic, students in the new normal has to adjust their study, work, and social lives. The study used a descriptive-correlational research design. The descriptive-correlational research design will be used to determine the Study Habits and Challenges of Medical Laboratory Science Students of Medical Colleges of Northern Philippines in the new normal and its Relationship to their Academic Performance. The study used Stratified Random Sampling in determining the samples of the study because we select random Medical Laboratory Science students in each year level. Data gathered, majority of the Medical Laboratory Science students learn better through experiencing or doing things. Which basically falls into a learning style called Kinesthetic learning style wherein, in order to learn more effectively, the learner has to experience it on his/her own. Generally, every learner has their own way of studying or learning depending on how effective it is for them. However according to our gathered data, most of the Medical Laboratory Science students has a study habit of highlighting important words and phrases in their book. The challenges of the Medical Laboratory Science students in the delivery of education are divided into three; the environmental, study materials, and the platform used. In terms of environmental challenges, most of the Medical Laboratory Science students are easily distracted when their environment is noisy and/or messy while studying. In terms of their study material, majority of them are easily distracted by their social media and/or online games when they are using their gadgets to study. And lastly, the challenges in online platform they used in delivering education is that, majority of them has a difficulty on taking online exams/quizzes properly due to the crashing of their Learning Management System (LMS). The result of the study shows that there is a significant difference on the type of learning, study habits and challenges of the respondents to their profile variables.