108 Alipato

High School Students’ Reasoning Skills and Their Study Habits and Attitude Towards Learning
Maricris B. Acido

Introduction
A major task of education programs is to come up with guidelines and tools to enable students to learn effectively. This is to ensure that students are able to acquire skills for them to carry out their academic and problem solving tasks. UNESCO acknowledges that: On the eve of a new century, there is an unprecedented demand for and a great diversification in… education, and for building the future, for which the younger generations will need to be equipped with new skills, knowledge, and ideals (UNESCO, 1998). The profusion of knowledge and information has led to an increase in the number of issues that students need to resolve inside and outside the school. Knowledge explosion also demands prudence and careful discernment from students who are to choose more relevant and sound data. This would require the acquisition of reasoning skills that would enable them to filter relevant information from irrelevant ones. Reasoning involves providing arguments, premises, justification, and evidence to claims or positions. However, acquisition of reasoning skills requires much from students. It requires good study habits and positive attitudes, as well as good contextual reinforcers and influences. Many educators have noted that learning is dynamic and that it does not occur in a vacuum. Learning happens due to various factors and influences.

It is, therefore, important to direct research efforts in education towards the study and analysis of how these variables facilitate student learning. For this reason, this article focuses on students’ study habits and attitude towards learning and how these influence their acquisition of reasoning skills. It is hoped that student learning can be effectively enhanced by tapping on what students