Do seasonal changes and teaching time affect academic performance of pre-service teachers?

Abstract

Effects of time of day of being taught and the seasons on academic performance in students have received little attention by practitioners and researchers in the field of education. The aim of this study was to explore whether these factors were relevant to the academic success of a group of 2479 university students. The fall and spring semester grade point average (GPA) scores (a measure of academic attainment) of the students were collected. The results indicated that female students who were taught at different times of the day had different cumulative GPAs. Various factors might be responsible for this result, but the time of teaching might be one of them. It was also found that seasonal changes might affect academic achievement, since sophomore, junior and senior students had higher scores in the spring and a considerable number of students periodically obtained higher scores in this season.

Keywords:

• biological rhythm
• circannual rhythm
• pre-service teachers
• academic achievement
• melatonin
• season

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Ercan Masal, vice dean of the faculty of education, for his support in data collection.