A study on the growth pattern of different types of CCA categories in Singapore Polytechnic (SP) and behaviour of students towards the CCA system

GROUP: THE CURIOUS

Title : A study on the growth pattern of different types of CCA categories in Singapore Polytechnic (SP) and behaviour of students towards the CCA system

Date : 9 January 2008, AY 2007/2008, Semester 2
Conducted by : Joseph Min Yi P0723349, DCP/1B/01
Wong Tze Hong James P0617417, DBA/2B/11
Jessica Tan Min Hui P0652113, DCHE/2B/02
Teo Serene P0712169, DASE/1A/24
Sartesh Pradeep P0746429, DEEE/1B/09
Nur Qurratuaini Bte Mohd Zuhri P0733081, DIT/1B/04
Teo Yilin Kelly P0763587, DCP/1B/01
Ng Si Leng P0645643, DTRM/2B/04

AIM OF STUDY
The aim of this study is to answer the main research question as below:
Why are some categories of CCAs in SP more popular than others?

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS METHODS
This study of Sports CCA popularity in SP had its approach made from a qualitative social-psychological perspective. The target sampling was selected from SP students only. All the information used for this paper was obtained from both primary and secondary data, i.e. the former served to identify a student’s level of awareness, motivation as well as their attitudes towards participating in sports CCAs relative to other CCA alternatives. Secondary sources would basically comprise of related internet resources such as web articles, personal recounts, speeches, of which extracts would be exhibited in Appendix D.

We employed the survey research method compared to qualitative means like focus group discussions and observational techniques. In particular, it was applied via an online survey using a virtual survey website known as SurveyMonkey. This particular website contained the suitable functions and capabilities to design typical surveys for diversified types of research disciplines.

An alternative of the preceding method was done through personal interviewing, in which students were randomly selected at a certain location to participate in the survey. The research took approximately a total of four weeks to complete, which involved checking and observing the progress of the survey responses as they were being updated online on a regular basis. The research stretched from 13 November 2007 to 10 December 2007, after which the results were tabulated and analysed in the next few following sections of this paper.

The forms of data collection for the research were as follows:
a) The respondents selected were mainly second-year students because of a handful of reasons. Firstly, this group of students were perceived to be more representative of the Polytechnic’s population, since most of them already have adopted specific CCAs during their first year, and probably possess a year of experience for answering the questions in a more balanced and comprehensive manner. The second reason arose from the fact that the email addresses of all second-year students could only be obtained via authorized means while those belonging to other students of different academic year were unable to be obtained.

b) It was considered that higher-year students (seniors) should also be included in the target sampling of this survey research, but the majority would naturally be busy preparing for their graduation examinations, which could be less receptive in checking their mailboxes. As much as they were also highly sought after for participation, the situational circumstances were not permissive of such increase in response rates.

c) There were a total of 418 students, of which 387 were sent through email links of second-year students. Of these figures, 31 had submitted their responses via a mixture of 24 online submissions and 7 hard copies.

d) There were no informal close-ended interviews for the purpose of this research project, as open-ended questions were used throughout the online questionnaire, as mentioned earlier.

Statistical procedures for analysing the survey questions was only possible for one specific question, which enquired about the willingness of students to join any desired category of CCA (see Appendix A). Frequency counting was most suitable, but similar mathematical methods were unfeasible for qualitative analyses of the remaining research findings.

There was a variety of methods which could be used for analysing socio-psychological research studies, and even though all accessible methods need not be employed, we had managed to utilise almost all to give a wide-ranging viewpoint of the issue on sports CCAs’ popularity in SP. The main descriptions and explanations for some of the significant analysis methods were indicated and elaborated to suit the context of this report. Note that the order of the methods was not chronological, i.e. they did not correspond with the flow of question numbers and the analysis under ‘Findings’. The rest of the methods would be indicated under their relevant headings.

The forms/strategies of analysis used were as follows:

a) Open Coding-where appropriate
This was not made in an observational characteristic. The reason was that the bulk of the responses received were amassed in an intangible form, i.e. there was no direct watching of respondents filling up their thoughts through the use of computers. Thus, the interpretation of open coding might be meaningfully changed into minimal transcriptions of selected participants’ answers. Such an approach would be more productive where longer length of responses per survey submission was accomplished.

b) Noting themes and patterns-Q10
When a question invites similar responses under logical conditions, there would bound to be common areas to the scope of answers, normally in repetitive occurrences. The identification of these responses allowed a more superficial understanding of respondents’ thoughts and perceptions of the topic, before other methods came into play for a deeper look.

c) Seeing plausibility-Q1
Answers to a specific question might be different, but if each has their own stand, and that both sides could be interrelated when necessary, they would still make sense.

d) Clustering-Q1
e) Counting-Q2 and Q7
f) Making contrasts/comparisons-Q3
g) Partitioning variables-Q9
h) Subsuming particulars into general-Q5
i) Factoring-Q8
j) Noting relations between variables-Q4
k) Partitioning variables-Q6
Classification of responses for certain questions in the survey are provided in the form of charts and tables in Appendix C.


FINDINGS
Popularity of Sports CCAs in SP
Analysis methods: Matrix cluster and seeing plausibility


SP has implemented the Sports Elective Programme (SEP) few years ago, which also had a degree of impact in enhancing the popularity of sports as compared to the Student Personal Development Programme (SPDP), which consists of other varieties of recreational activities. Though specific statistics were absent, the experience related by one of the respondents was that SEP offers a wide range of sports selections, e.g. jogging and rock climbing conducted on a weekly basis over a period of eight weeks. This allowed a higher chance of developing the applicants’ interests in sports exercises compared to SPDP’s training sessions lasting only approximately two weeks.

There was an external survey with statistics compiled by Singaporean researchers regarding physical activity patterns of Singaporeans. This information was collected to give a better understanding of the general sports situation in Singapore, particularly how often people tend to exercise over a certain period of time. It allowed us to discover the trends of local sporting lifestyles.

Factors affecting Sports CCAs membership

Analysis method: Counting

The reasons for influencing the decisions of students whether to engage in sports CCAs were primarily classified under two groups, i.e. peer pressure and interest. Their ultimate choice relies either on their individual reasoning, or under interpersonal affections. This analysis method is possible when the supporting reasons were not extensive enough, but rather, judged by general responses to lead to numerical counting.

2.1 Peer pressure
There is one specific theory to justify such a truth, which is social identity theory. Friends resort to such pressure tactics by encouraging their counterparts to seek to enhance their self-esteem by identifying with specific groups and perceiving them as being relatively superior. Having ‘accessible rights’ to exploit a membership is a form of outward expression, which allows some scale of liberalisation to exercise mutual influence towards those who have the criteria to belong to a certain group (Tan, 2006). It seemed reasonable that the attribution theory was applicable, which describes the way in which people explain the causes of their own and other people’s behaviour. The more the number of people associated with the group, the stronger the conviction and persuasive efforts to invoke others’ interests in joining them.

2.2 Personal qualities
Individual interests are often imbued since young, and as their characteristics change, the perception of new interests also settle in, either adding on to, or even replacing their existing ones. As a result of unique personalities, the realistic conflict theory tells us about the idea that limited resources will lead to conflict between groups and result in prejudice and discrimination. For instance, a student might assume and perceive himself as superior to another in a certain CCA in areas of wealth and skills, but due to his lack of actual background knowledge of the latter, he could easily display narrow-mindedness.

Favouritism against certain CCAs
Analysis method: Making contrasts/comparisons
For the question of investigating the presence of favouritism for certain CCAs, there could be a few types of orientations experienced by different respondents, e.g. there were both social and resistance orientation present in the broad category of the responses. In addition, the type of contrasts could even exist within the responses of ‘yeses’, since a very small percentage of the survey participants disagreed with the presence of cronyism in a CCA. Hence, the focal point will be finding out the extent of differences among those who replied ‘yes’, but with the support of their reasoning in diverse manners.

3.1 Social orientation
Students tend to display a relatively strong social need to be with their friends not only for companionship, but perhaps for better and convenient approach to an age group similar to themselves. It was quoted that students tend to form their own cliques, i.e. they select friends based on a set of criteria which will be favourable to themselves (snowman_emily, 2007). Added with a possible reality that teenagers will want to have strong relationships established during their youthful age, such motives will prepare them for working life where mingling with clients require intense and effective interaction skills. This is where the social comparison theory can be applied, which reinforces the idea that people learn about their own abilities and attitudes by comparing themselves to others. From external sources, the ‘social network’ concept goes further to explain the difference between friends made in CCAs and classmates, whom the latter is considered ‘hi-bye’ friends with no long-lasting relationships (YounGunz, 2007). Nevertheless, this is a subjective point of view which will warrant a more thorough investigation in relation to the quality or durability of friendships shaped under different contexts.

3.2 Financial stability of CCAs
Another perspective gathered from those who agreed that some form of discrimination prevailed within a specific CCA could be in a practical sense, such that the respondent felt more reassured when the CCA’s operations have sufficient funds for various events like organising important, large-scale programmes where costs would be high. Those who contribute more money for the CCA’s administrative and other functional purposes may be perceived to be more well-respected than others, besides boasting a self-image of wealth. Such thinking can be considered as part of the distinctiveness theory, which suggests that individuals perceive themselves in terms of those attributes that make them different. It is analogous to a company which has a relatively strong annual financial performance, thus attracting more investors and prospects to invest in it. This would be translated into more generous funding from the polytechnic as it continued to earn more valuable awards per unique event (otw_89, 2007).

3.3 Support for greater CCA popularity
Another respondent had similar sentiments which seemed to be the case when a particular CCA becomes popular, it will probably sustain a reasonably high chance of being entitled to more overall support, including subsidies from the school. Yet another also reflected along this idea that ‘preferential treatment’ will be showered by certain groups of people like lecturers compared to other less-welcoming CCAs (parthibanr, 2007). This goes to prove a realistic truth that popularity in terms of monetary backgrounds and selective endorsements by teaching staff may affect a CCA’s destiny.

3.4 Degree of members’ involvement
On an objective side of those who answered ‘yes’, one participant was mentioned as saying that the ‘liveliness’ of a particular CCA can be evaluated based on the quantity and scope of activities being conducted for a selected period of time. However, this viewpoint was likely from an ‘activist’ in being continuously active for a specific CCA which he has keen interest. Such people are considered CCA loyalists, where they may chip in superior efforts in ensuring that not only do they want to see an improvement in the CCA’s running, but also satisfy their personal needs and wants (Loo, 2007). From the size of membership in a CCA, the social impact theory demonstrates that the idea which conforms to social influence depends on the strength of the group’s importance, its immediacy and the number of people in the group. The more members a CCA has, the stronger the impact of the group (club). As evidence from CCA.sg shows, an example of a CCA being widely discussed is animation club in SP. The forum allows both members and non-members to assess and express vested comments regarding the knowledge of anime, depending on the focus of which aspects of anime they often centralise in. Activities need not be exhaustive, so a CCA can employ a variety of programmes to motivate and develop its members’ well-being, e.g. combining and rotating certain types of work periodically, as seen in the probable mix of forums and competitions for anime club members (Lim, 2007).

3.5 Internal affairs
A CCA may play ‘office politics’, be it aggressive or mild. This occurs prevalently on members who hold exclusive positions or have special areas of contribution to the CCA which are hard to come by, thereby getting an above-average level of attention from its counterparts, e.g. juniors. The latter, oblivious to the CCA ‘behind the scene’, will be more easily influenced by word-of-mouth remarks, in this case, their seniors (Kim, 2007). Such a reality might be in accordance to the social dominance theory, i.e. societal groups (in this case, a CCA’s members) can be organised in a power hierarchy in which the dominant groups (club committee) enjoy a disproportionate share of the society’s (club’s) assets and the subordinates (ordinary members) receive most of the liabilities (club cleaning and petty funds provision). This problem is thought to be solved and only resolved when a member becomes part of the committee to truly understand the ‘full picture’, since seeing is believing. It has been studied that a person’s true colour will reveal when he communicates and behaves in a certain way towards familiar people. ‘CCA politics’ tend to occur just like how a president will run for his next term of presidency during upcoming elections via gaining firm support by issuing attractive, last-minute incentives. In CCAs, the severity of the situation may not be the same as real-life politics, but where relationships are concerned, almost anything can happen, even to the extent of stripping a person’s title in a sudden turn of events due to below-standards performance in managing the club well, as well as implicated by bad publicity in the campus or CCA itself (Toh, 2007). Such an ugly truth might stem from the social exchange theory, which describes the idea that people will seek out and maintain relationships in which the rewards exceed the costs, in terms of self-fame and ‘upper-class association’ with the seniors in the CCA.

3.6 Resistance orientation
Conformity can be a variation of resistance orientation, in which a member tries to steer clear of ‘formal group dynamics’ to avoid trouble. The bottomline is that such acts of ‘untrained governance’ will easily backfire and unintentionally inflict souring ties at a tender age (Sim, 2007). Every type of CCA needs to have some form of ethics e.g. in sports CCA, the chairperson has to make sure that all his members are always up and running not only getting engaged actively in training sessions, but also show due respect when necessary, such as facing a foul in soccer and compromising on the seriousness of the fault. The distraction-conflict theory might hold, i.e. the presence of others (popular figures) is a source of distraction that leads to conflicts in attention between an audience (prospective members) and a task that affects performance (selecting the right CCA). Some students detest favouritism; if it is practised and preached in a certain CCA, they shun from it, including avoiding the members associated with it.

3.7 Disagreement of presence of favouritism
This group of students may happen to be involved in the operations of the particular CCA they join, and everything looks peaceful and smooth-sailing. There could be other reasons, i.e. their attendance records may be poor, probably caused by personality factors like laziness to attend the weekly practices or meetings, joining for the basic sake of earning CCA points the easy way. Furthermore, it is logical to consider their mounting academic workload, depending on their specialisation. From looks, they may tend to be easy-going and flexible in complying with instructions from the upper level. For instance, using the soccer sport CCA, the leader may order X to carry a basket of soccer balls out to the field, and there are no qualms. X may be displaying his personality of an ‘anything’ mindset, or that he seems to be a ‘law-abiding’ citizen, such that the willingness to perform requests is naturally within him.

3.8 Uncertainty of presence of favouritism
Some of the explanations were seen to be a feeling of indifference or neutrality towards the ‘domestic affairs of the household’. Such thoughts can be implied to show conservatism, i.e. they chose to remain silent for fear of being implicated with future-related issues. Nonetheless, the reality that they did not have sufficient information and background knowledge about CCAs and the system should never be dismissed in an unconscious attitude. If this survey were quantitative, excluding the responses of ‘don’t know’ will result in data loss and less useful understanding of the real circumstances embattling certain CCAs (Joe, 2007). One participant had substantiated his reaction of not being proactive in the CCAs he engaged in, some do not have any CCAs. Take the example of sports CCAs, consistence and patience, together with perseverance, can enable individual members to exercise their energy under mutual affections of such behaviour, which may lead to better performance during matches and competitions via binding teamwork.

3.9 Membership under favouritism
If favouritism goes to the hands of the majority in a particular CCA, which brings up its popularity, then this is indeed an inflated perception of the CCA in front of potential members during CCA Drives. Cross-checking with question one, in the case of sports CCAs, when a new member gradually realises the truth that training sessions tend to be replaced with internal or non-physical activities, the objectives of him signing up for it initially were not only screwed, but also leave him to generalise sports CCAs are ‘unclean’ CCAs, which certainly prove disastrous in future recruitments of ‘new blood’ for different sports. Favouritism though seems superficially pleasant, will invite long-term criticisms by prospects and may spark off a total drop of memberships throughout other categories of CCAs.

DISCUSSION
From what we see, peer pressure is the main reason affecting students’ choice of CCA. Students may join a CCA not because of interest, but just because their friends are there. This phenomenon arises due to the social identity theory, which is the idea that people seek to enhance their self-esteem by identifying with specific groups and perceiving these groups as being better than other groups. For example, inactive participation in the CCA will make them feel left out if they do not do the same things as their group of friends. Hence in a way, the presence of friends “forces” them to join a particular CCA.

Other social issues we see are that students feel the need to know more friends. They realise the importance of social network as it makes them look popular and in turn give them some confidence. They can also at the same time build up their socialising skills which is important for them when they work in the society e.g. mingling with clients. Therefore, joining a CCA which already has many members is portrayed as a “ready-made” social network, only waiting for you to join in. On the other hand, joining a CCA with only very little members inside would mean that you have to start everything from scratch. Asking for more members, promoting your CCA to others and finally expand to a CCA which is popular in the school; isn’t that too much of a hassle? Obviously one would go for the popular one.

Not only so, popular CCAs tend to come with more benefits. They tend to receive more support from SP in aspects of funding and also support when events are organised (The number of people who turned up for event). This would definitely make one feel more secured and confident. Some other personal reasons as to why students choose that particular CCA would be due to time, CCA points and interests.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion from what we can see is that, CCAs is one of the important factors in a school that is needed to be taken into account, as it is an important part of SP itself. Therefore, it is important to some of the students too. To solve any problems that arise regarding CCAs, for example on how the growth of each different CCAs can varies from each other, there should be at least one person in each and every CCA to be aware on what is the main catch that students are looking for. This is so as to make the unpopular CCAs achieve a greater understanding on why they have such a low popularity rate. They should be well-aware that there are many various possible reasons why students join a particular CCA. Thus, they need to study on what the ‘in-thing’ is that presently attracts students. By doing some research, they will be able to maintain the good standards of CCAs in SP such that terminating existing CCAs due to unpopularity will never be the solution to the problem. The contents of this report will appeal to the readership of teachers and the relevant personnel in getting a sense of consciousness towards the fluctuating situations happening within the different CCA categories. By reading it, students can also truly discover the benefits and opportunities of CCA events in allowing them to unleash their potential abilities, thereby contributing to the unique levels of popularity of each CCA category.