Acknowledgement:

Siti Farhah Fazira Binti Shamsudin (1016598) TEASL Institute of Education (INSTEAD) International Islamic University Malaysia

A Study on the Relationship between Optimism and Academic Achievement among TEASL Students of IIUM Success has been a dream for every people in this world in every field. There are many important elements of success and IQ has been viewed as the primary determinant of success. Another important element of success that emerges is emotional intelligence. It is being assumed that in order to be successful, people not only need to have high IQs, but also need to be emotionally intelligent. One of the emotional intelligence aspects is optimism. Optimism is a trait that helps individuals to be resilient and successful, even when faced with adversity (Merrell, 2008, p. 135). In other words, optimism is the habit of viewing things from a positive perspective even when dealing with a lot of problems. On the other hand, academic achievement is defined as the performance accomplished in learning. In a study conducted by Golman (1995), 20% of individuals success in the future is predicted with cognitive intelligent and 80% of it depends on their emotional intelligence. One theory that prompted the research on how optimism is necessary for a good academic achievement is the learned optimism theory. Seligman (1998) argued in this cognitive theory that optimism leads to the success of many elements in life including school as well as career. Being optimistic helps students to overcome depression which at the same time extract positive energy during learning process. Higher levels of optimism have been related prospectively to better subjective well-being and low levels of stress in times of adversity or difficulty and the perception of students towards success and failure especially in academics and

Acknowledgement:
Siti Farhah Fazira Binti Shamsudin (1016598) TEASL Institute of Education (INSTEAD) International Islamic University Malaysia

life in general, play a critical role in students attitude and behavior. However, the level of optimism among students may vary across gender, educational and demographic background and social status. It may lead one to be more confident than others.

Several literatures have been reviewed on the overall relationship between optimism, gender and students academic achievement. In terms of the relationship between optimism and academic achievement, researchers revealed that there is a significantly positive relationship between these two variables among US university students and Medical and Engineering students (Medlin, Faulk (n.d.); Singh, Jha (2013). Another study by Hoy, Tarter and Hoy (2006) that used a large scale-sample consisted of 96 high schools in a mid-western state claimed that academic optimism made a significant contribution to students achievement. On the other hand, McKinnon (2012) and Schumacher (2006) in their studies demonstrated no significant relationship between optimism and academic achievement among Georgian middle school students and senior secondary high school students. Furthermore, McCulloch (n.d.) in a study using first and second year University of British Columbia Okanagan students also found out that there is no significant relationship between these two variables. In terms of gender and optimism, Pritchett (2007) argued that females in general are more optimistic than males (p.20). In addition, Yates (2002) also mentioned that girls were more optimistic than the boys at the primary school level. However, an article by Newman (2009) reported that a research done by a group of team at the University of Wales Institute,

Acknowledgement:
Siti Farhah Fazira Binti Shamsudin (1016598) TEASL Institute of Education (INSTEAD) International Islamic University Malaysia

Cardiff that studied 112 psychology students over three years resulted a contradict argument. The team found out that male students were more optimistic than their female counterparts. In another study, Medlin and Faulk (n.d.) mentioned in a research done on US university students showed that students who are more optimistic tend to perform better than those less optimistic students. In terms of gender differences in academic achievement, Wentzel (1988) in a longitudinal study on high school students in San Francisco Bay area found that male students scored higher than female students in Mathematics. However, later studies provided different findings. In an article entitled Gender and Academic Achievement written by Zembar (2011), he mentioned Jacobs (2002) stated that females generally performed better than males as female students are more excellent in schools by scoring higher grades as well as having a better record of graduating rates in high school. In addition to this, a study on Human Resource Management Students in Sri Lanka also resulted the same finding. The study investigated two group of students from two different courses which are Bachelor of Business Management and Bachelor of Commerce students with respect to their gender. Thus, Weerakkody and Ediriweera (2008) reported: Exploratory data analysis indicated that in all the course units of Management degrees and Commerce degree, female students tend to perform better at the university examinations than their male counterparts. Hence, the study found that irrespective of the fact that students are Management or Commerce; female students have higher academic performance than the male students. (p. 201). On top of this, Evans and Johnson (n.d.) provided a research that was conducted due to the fact that the background of the research shows low level of Jamaican boys academic

Acknowledgement:
Siti Farhah Fazira Binti Shamsudin (1016598) TEASL Institute of Education (INSTEAD) International Islamic University Malaysia

achievement and the decreasing number of males pursuing education at the tertiary level compared to females. Despite numerous studies reported on the relationship between optimism and students academic achievement in schools, studies done on the relationship between optimism and academic achievement among university students are still limited. Therefore, the general intent of this study was to investigate the relationship between optimism and academic achievement among TEASL students of IIUM.

The questions that the researcher seeks to answer are as follows: 1. Is there any difference in the study of TEASL students optimism level between males and females? 2. Is there any difference in the study of TEASL students CGPA scores between males and females? 3. Is there a correlation between optimism scores and students CGPA?