An Easy Guide To Teachers Action Research Aniver Vergara [PDF]

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AN EASY GUIDE TO TEACHERS’ ACTION About the Author

ANIVER M. VERGARA

“A Comprehensive Step

by Step Guide

On How to Create Stunning Action Research,

Made Especially for Teachers” ANIVER M. VERGARA

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About the Author

ANIVER M. VERGARA “WINNER OF THE 2017 INTERNATIONAL

CONFERENCE OF BASIC EDUCATION RESEARCH (ICBER) 1ST Place (Best Research Paper)” “WON AS BEST ORAL RESEARCH PRESENTER , AT 2017 DIVISION OF RIZAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE” “WON AS BEST RESEARCH CONCEPT , AT 2015 DIVISION OF RIZAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE” “FINALIST AT DIVISION OF RIZAL, NATATANGING MANANALIKSIK, GAWAD KAMPILAN 2018”

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Introduction After graduating from college, the teachers acquired tremendous knowledge of teaching. From learning principles up to classroom management, theories are finally put to the test. However, as we walk through the actual school situation, these theories become ambiguous because of many contextual differences the teacher encountered. The

“A Teachers Plants the seeds of Knowledge,

ideal classroom situation seems impossible, conducive learning

Sprinkles

environment become more difficult to achieve and school educational

them with

politics become more prominent. In the end, the poor teacher will struggle to keep up with the demand and forever lock up to her thoughts. When this happens, the most useful approach is to get help

love and patiently

from the tenured teachers and principals and then try their solution to

nurtures

different classroom problems.

their growth

Testing solutions to common classroom problems is almost

to produce

synonymous with Action Research (AR). What's beautiful is that

tomorrow’s

teachers had already use some of its basic concepts. Not only do they know but having their own solution to everyday challenges is really a research work. If this kind of skills are synced with AR techniques and steps, the struggle of teachers will likely end and restore his teaching standards in his or her own classroom. This book will guide teachers on how to do a very effective Action Research. Again, as said earlier, teachers are already using AR. They only need a guide on how to do it in a better way. This book is about it. They will know what it is, and create compatible connections with the most vague topics about it. This book was a culmination of years of my experience in research. From winning local school research conference up to International Conference this give me enough knowledge to motivate

Dream!!” Anonymous

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teachers to undergo research. From increasing the academic performance of my own students up to inspiring them to level up their dreams, AR help me to combat several hurdles. But don’t get me wrong, I started zero in it. I’ve been into numerous defeat in different

“A Teachers

conference and presentation. Sometimes, the result of my work didn’t

Plants the

do so well for my specific learners. However, experience shows us that

seeds of

perseverance combine with passion beats talent most of the time. At the heart of each chapter, each explanation was created with easy to understand topic in mind. As a side note, the term “Action Research” has been used 175 times in this book. The words

Knowledge, Sprinkles them with

“problem” and “solution” has shown up for 217 and 61 times

love and

respectively. Wow that’s a lot! But Science will tell us to repeat

patiently

words for clearer viewpoints especially in a scientific or

nurtures

educational paper. Each section will be read independently therefore repetition is necessary for purer definition.

their growth to produce

Each page is divided into two parts. The main text and the other one contain the summary. Below that is a thought provoking questions intended for teachers. These questions ranging from different situations the teacher encounters up to diverse circumstances we sometimes take for granted. The words of wisdom are found in each chapter. It was chosen with the aim of motivating teachers to carry out her teaching endeavor especially in research. Finally, the last part includes a blank template for teacher’s very own Action Research. If you are new here, do not hesitate to try it. If you make lots of it before, that’s good, and Congratulations! Help others and build stronger, more efficient and effective schools.

tomorrow’s Dream!!” Anonymous

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Contents CHAPTER ONE What is Action Research?..........5 What is the Difference Between Academic Research (Thesis) and Action Research? ..........7 What is the Importance of Conducting Action Research? ..........8 What are the Types of Action Research? ..........9 What Stops Teacher from Doing Action Research? And How to Solve It? ..........12

CHAPTER TWO The Process of Action Research..........15 The First Part is to Know the Problem..........16 Create a Plan or Strategy to Solve the Problem..........20 Implement the Plan..........21 Collection of Data and Reflecting on the Outcome..........21 How to Make Sure Your Data Collected is Accurate?..........22 Continue the Action Research Cycle with a Revised Problem..........24 Some Reminders on Doing Your First Action Research..........25

CHAPTER THREE Writing your Action Research..........27 Context and Rationale..........27 Review of Related Literature..........28 Research Questions..........30 Scope and Limitation..........31 Methodology..........32 Result and Discussion..........33 Action Plan..........34 How to Write References?..........35

CHAPTER FOUR Writing Your Action Research in Template Form..........37 Sample Action Research 1..........48 Sample Action Research 2..........60

CHAPTER FIVE How to Make an Effective Oral Research Presentation? ..........70 Tips for Making an Action Research Poster..........74 Tips on Presenting at the Conference..........76 Appendix..........78 References..........93

“Nothing can stop a man with the right attitude from P a g e | 5 achieving his goals. Nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong attitude” Thomas Jefferson

CHAPTER ONE What is Action Research? Action Research can be defined as a clever search for a solution to a problem that happens inside a group of people. In the context of teachers, this pertain to his or her own classroom. As for the Principal, it refer to the whole school. But you might ask, why you have to solve these problem using Action Research anyway? Is it obvious that teachers were solving already certain issues that pop outs in their school or classroom? Not to mention that these same teachers were

What is Action Research?  Comprehensive Search for Answer to a Problem  A disciplined process of inquiry  Analytical methods to diagnose a problems  It is focused to improve the quality and performance in an organization

given college and graduate studies to be prepared for such difficulties. Well the answer lies in the facts that every school and classroom is different from one to another. One teaching strategies might not work for some, or perhaps an explicitly research based methodologies won’t make any change to your school. Action Research will give answer to these perplex situation. Each teacher can customize their own problem and create a tailor made solution that not only works but efficiently decipher their difficulty. Richard Ragor author of “Guiding School Improvement with Action Research” define it as; “Action research is a comprehensive search for answers to problems that arise in an organization. It is also a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the action. The primary reason for engaging in action research is to assist the “researcher” in improving and refining his or her actions.” (2018, December 12), retrieved from: http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/100047/chapters/W hat-Is-Action-Research%C2%A2.aspx

What are your insights about Action Research?

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(“Action Research”, 2018) Define it as: “In schools, action research refers to a wide variety of evaluative, investigative, and analytical research methods designed to diagnose problems or weaknesses whether organizational, academic, or instructional and help educators develop practical solutions to address them quickly and efficiently” (2018, December 13), Retrieved from https://www.edglossary.org/action-research/

(“What is Action Research?” 2019) define it as: “Action research is inquiry or research in the context of focused efforts to improve the quality of an organization and its performance. It typically is designed and conducted by practitioners who analyze the data to improve their own practice.” (2018, December 13), Retrieved from https://gse.gmu.edu/research/tr/tr-action

The idea here is to polish or improve the current actions taken by the teacher using a well define investigation

What is Action Research?  Comprehensive Search for Answer to a Problem  A disciplined process of inquiry  Analytical methods to diagnose a problems  It is focused to improve the quality and performance in an organization

or inquiry. What are these actions? They are the daily teaching engagement between the students and the teacher. Prieto N., Naval V., & Carey T., (2017) define action research on the context of the classroom. According to them, this type of research involves the application of the steps of the scientific method in the classroom problems. This type of research is helpful to beginner’s researcher. Such questions as “How did teachers feel about the new curriculum? Or “What instructional strategies do students think are engaging?”, are some of the examples that Action Research can answer.

What are your insights about different classroom problems?

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What is the Difference Between Academic Research (Thesis) and Action Research? You might guess that Action Research is different from Academic Research. In addition, a clear distinction must be set up between the latter which is conducted by Universities sometimes called a Dissertation or Thesis. According to “Difference between Action Research and Academic Thesis” (2018) In Academic Research (Thesis) extensive training is needed. In Action Research, this training is not required. Moreover, In Thesis, knowledge produced is generalizable. In Action research, knowledge is being apply to local situation. In Thesis, there’s a need for Statistical tests and other qualitative techniques. In Action research its focus is on practical, not statistical significance and thus present raw data and graphs. In Thesis research, its method is rigorous and have long time frame. In Action research, simple procedures and can be change during study, quick time frame, and the data is control through triangulation techniques. (2018, December 20), Retrieved from http://openphd.blogspot.com/2012/01/differences-between-action-researchand.html

 Action research is different from the research conducted by academicians at universities.  The major difference is that Academic Research (Thesis) pertains to a general knowledge, requires tremendous statistical tools, have rigorous method and long time frame while Action Research do not have these characteristics.

In summary, Action Research can be slim down to the following rigid definitions, an individual search for a solution to a problem that happens instantaneously in a group, in the case of the teachers

is

his/her

own

classroom.

Problem

like

academic

performance, students’ behavior, and parents’ involvement are some problem that they can look into. Moreover, there is a big difference between an academic research (Thesis) and Action Research. The major difference is that the former pertains to a general knowledge, requires tremendous statistical tools, have rigorous method and long time frame while Action Research are not.

In your opinion, what are the difference between Action Research and Academic Research (Thesis)?

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What is the Importance of Conducting Action Research? Here are some benefits of Action research. First, it will allow the teachers to understand their students. She can recognize and diagnose their work and predict why different classroom scenario happen that way. For instance, if the students failed to submit paper works, the teacher know exactly why that is so. It will be easy for the teacher to notice difficulties the students encounter. Secondly, the teacher can assess whether her teaching works is acceptable or need improvement. Do they need to undergo more trainings or perhaps help others to improve theirs? Doing so can increase school collaboration and feedback between teachers. Third is to make their craft tailor fit to the needs of their students. Why a method that works for one school didn’t so well to another school? The answer is that different classroom needs different teaching approaches. Action Research can fulfill such by making your solution fits perfectly to one own problems. Fourth reasons is the accumulation of different knowledge related to the task. By doing research, one can gain so much information that she can use in teaching. Fifth reason is about being less dependent to other teachers because you can now solve your own problem using it. (“What are the benefits of Action Research”, 2019) give some more advantage, they are: 

Help you find solutions to particular problems arising in your classroom or school.



Underpin professional learning of knowledge, skills and understanding.



Connect you with sources of information and networks of professional support.



Clarify purposes, processes and priorities when introducing change – for example, to curriculum, pedagogy or assessment.

The Importance of Action research is summarized as follows:  It allow teachers to understand his/her students  Predict how classroom works that way  Assess whether the teachers teaching method is working  To make teaching tailor craft to student individual differences  Accumulation of different teaching methodologies  Being less dependent to other teachers Do you think Action Research is necessary to teachers? Why?

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

Improve understanding of your professional and policy context, and lead more strategically and effectively.

The Importance of Action research is summarized as follows:

Develop your agency, influence, self-efficacy and voice within



organizationally, locally and nationally, enabling you to teach 

your own school and more widely within the profession. (2019, January 21), Retrieved from https://uk.sagepub.com/engb/eur/what-are-the-benefits-of-educational-research-for-teachers





What are the Types of Action Research?



According to Calhoun, E (2019) there are three types of Action Research, The first, carried out by a single teacher, also called the individual teacher research. The second, conducted by two or more



teachers within the school, it is called collaborative action research. The third, involving an entire faculty in conjunction with a school stakeholders or district wide group of researcher which is called school wide action research. (2019, January 21), Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educationalleadership/oct93/vol51/num02/[email protected]

Individual Teacher Action Research Individual Teacher's Action Research typically corresponds to



It allow teachers to understand his/her students Predict how classroom works that way Assess whether the teachers teaching method is working To make teaching tailor craft to student individual differences Accumulation of different teaching methodologies Being less dependent to other teachers

There are three types of Action Research: 1. Individual Action Research 2. Collaborative Action Research 3. School wide Action research

the problems in a single classroom. A teacher explores the problems involved in his or her teaching. It consists of a variety of teaching strategies, teaching materials and students' behavior within and outside the school. After that, the teacher will find solution to different problems raised by her investigation. Most of the time, students and parents are also involved in these effort.

What are your favorite type of action research?

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According to Van Baren (2019) Individual action research is research conducted by one teacher or school staff member. This type of research is conducted to analyze a specific task. A teacher may wonder if implementing group activities within an English class for example will help improve learning. The teacher alone performs research by implementing a group activity for a certain length of time. After the action is performed, the teacher analyzes the results, implements changes, or discards the program if not found to be helpful. (2019, January 22), Retrieved from https://bizfluent.com/list-7608678-types-actionresearch-design.html

Collaborative Action Research Collaborative Action research focus on two or more teachers. They tackle problems related to several classrooms. Their solution pertains to multitude of answers that arise within a school or community. According to Van Baren (2019) Collaborative research involves

 Individual Action Research pertains to a single teacher conducting the research  Collaborative Action research pertains to 2 or more teachers within the school  School Wide action research is a collaboration of all teachers within the school or district mostly participated by principal and supervisors.

a group of people researching a specified topic. With collaborative research, more than one person is involved in the implementation of the new program. Typically, a group of students, larger than just one class, are tested, and the results are analyzed. Many times collaborative research involves both teachers and the principal of the school. This type of research offers the collaboration of many people working jointly on one subject. The joint collaboration often offers more benefits than an individual action research approach. (2019, January 22), Retrieved from https://bizfluent.com/list-7608678-typesaction-research-design.html

Which among the three approaches is best suited to your own research?

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School Wide Action Research According to Calhoun, E (2019), in school wide action research, a school faculty selects an area or problem of collective interest, then collects, organizes, and interprets the data. Data from other schools, districts, or the professional literature are funneled into the collective decision-making process of the faculty, who then determines the actions to be taken. The process is cyclic and can serve as a formative evaluation of the effects of the actions taken. (2019, January 22), Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educationalleadership/oct93/vol51/num02/[email protected].

Likewise, Van Baren, (2019) define it as programs that are generally created from a problem found within an entire school or district. When a program is researched for an entire school, it is called school-wide action research. For this type, a school may have concerns about a school-wide problem. This can be lack of parental involvement or research to increase students' performance in a certain subject. The entire staff works together through this research to study the problem, implement changes, and correct the problem or increase performance.

 Individual Action Research pertains to a single teacher conducting the research  Collaborative Action research pertains to 2 or more teachers within the school  School Wide action research is a collaboration of all teachers within the school or district mostly participated by principal and supervisors.

(2019, January 22), Retrieved from https://bizfluent.com/list-7608678-typesaction-research-design.html

Why do DepEd Promotes Research?

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What Stops Teacher from Doing Action Research? And How to Solve it? If Action Research is very useful, then why not many teachers are doing it? Well, the answer lies on several factors. Here are some. Negative Attitude Towards Research Many teachers have different perspectives on research. Some believe that everything you need to know had already been taught when studying at college. This concept aggravated the view that tenured teachers had gains much knowledge which any further research has no contest compare to their own experiences. Another reason for fear on it is related to academic thesis. It's hard to do an academic research and sometimes it's expensive. A thesis contains approximately hundred pages upwards. Moreover, it’s

Barriers to Action Research  Negative Attitude towards Research  Fear of being reviewed by other teachers  Action Research can focus on negativity of teachers and administrator  Time Consuming  Additional paperwork  Funding

very long which even take years or more to finish. To avoid this, there should be an open view of what's happening at present teaching experiences. Not everything is learned in college or at school. Most important knowledge and skills is experienced within the teaching job. If you think the difficulty or length of an action research is something to worry about, fear not because it's very easy and only takes little time. You just need an open-minded view so that it will start smoothly and can be finish marvelously. Fear of Being Reviewed by Other Teachers Teachers are afraid that other teachers or schools may figure out their current school situation. That is, your school's performance is being compared to other. The worse is they could think of a simple problem and yet you still need action research to solve it. This will probably result to embarrassment.

In writing an essay or story, the students had a hard time getting an inspirations. What is the best way to increase inspiration and motivation?

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If the teacher's fear is to be reviewed by peers, think the other way and be delighted. Because, the way you’re trying to solve your classroom problem is unparalleled to begin with. There’s nothing more amazing about a teacher who is trying to improve his or her own teaching craft.

Action Research Can Focus on the Negativity of Teachers and Administrator

Negatives are often expressed by others who are constantly searching and looking. This is embarrassing at best because most of us didn’t want to be exposed with our weaknesses. To avoid this, convert every problem to positive situation. Focus on the best things made by the teacher and not on its drawbacks.

How to overcome this Barrier?  Have an open mindset.  Its normal that other teacher will read your own work  Convert any problem into a positive one  Practice time management  Seek help from other teachers  Make your research as simple as possible

Time Consuming There are times when a thorough study takes place. If the teacher wants to know the answer to his questions through Action Research, the length of doing so will be longer and longer until he sees the solution. To augment this problem, take time in doing so. Don’t cram every chunks of your research. Create a timeline on when you will start and when you will end. Be mindful on the different phases of it. Additional Paperwork’s to Teacher A hardworking teacher works a lot. He has so much in her desk to start with. If you want to do Action Research it will certainly be an additional clerical task. Not to mention the included research-related matters such as topic finding or solutions gatherings associated with it. Here’s the key. If the teacher has plenty of paper works and this become a burden to her, then she must do an Action Research

Some students want to constantly see their academic grades on a daily or weekly basis. Do you think this is a problem to think about?

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pertaining to that specific problem. She could even ask other teachers to work hand in hand in solving their difficulty in non-teaching task such as this. Money There are times when teachers need to spend on making one. Aside from the computer to be used for typing data, another problem is related to printing of materials. Additionally, finding books and other researchable materials found in bookstore or the internet also requires money. To augment that, the teacher should be mindful of how an Action Research will be made economically. As mentioned earlier, just make it simple and do not spend huge amounts on creating it. If you need to borrow materials then don’t hesitate to do so. If you need to print tons of questionnaires, why not use a recycled paper (the one that has print on one side).

How to overcome this Barrier?  Have an open mindset.  Its normal that other teacher will read your own work  Convert any problem into a positive one  Practice time management  Seek help from other teachers  Make your research as simple as possible Some students are very eager to exercise their freedom of speech. Their disagreement from simple problem in school are very alarming. What is the best way to do?

“I would rather die of passion than of boredom” Emile Zola

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CHAPTER TWO The Process of Action Research Many authors and researcher have different interpretation on the process of Action Research. Nevertheless they do agree on the following stages; Problem Identification, Creation of a Plan, Implementation of the Plan, Collection of Data and last is the Continuation of the Cycle with a Revised Problem. This modified

What is the Problem?

Continue the Cycle with a revised problem

Collect Data and Reflect on the outome

Create a Plan or Strategy to solve the problem

Implement the Plan or Strategy

The Process of Action Research Hollingsworth, S. Nugent, G., and Malik, S., (2012)

problem is based on the data collected that will be feedback again to the initial part of the process (which is the problem identification). Remember that Action Research is a cycle. It means that after the teacher had reflect on the implemented solution, he/she must continue solving the remaining problem until the goal of the research is reach (that is, solving the root of the problem).

 Action Research is a cycle. It means that after the teacher researcher has reflect on the implemented solution, He/she must continue solving the remaining problem until the goal of the research is reach.

You want to instill reading habit to your low achiever students. But you don’t have many books that matches to their level. What can you suggest to solve this?

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The First Part is to Know the Problem In all classroom situations there is conflict. It’s impossible not find any. From student’s misbehaviors up to teacher’s clerical task, problems do exists. For starters, try to list at least 5 classroom problem you can think of. Any situations or scenarios you have bad feeling about. All uneasy circumstances you keep bumping into. List them all out. Then pick one which standout. Let’s say you list down the following problems. 1. The students are overly dependent on the teacher for specific task, in the long run it create more underachievers.

The Process of Action Research  Know the problem  Create a Plan or Strategy  Implement the Plan  Collection of data and Reflecting on the outcome  Continue the cycle with a revised problem

2. The teacher has a problem instructing the class on specific activity. This create noise and unnecessary behavior on the part of the students 3. The students are unmotivated and always not listening, this affect their academic performance. 4. The student’s tardiness and frequent absenteeism is very prominent in the classroom. This is bad for their academic standing. 5. Huge class size triggered low academic output 6. Uncooperative parents influence the students’ progress. 7. Lack of prior learning such as non-reader or frustrated readers divide the teacher’s attention 8. Teachers’ Inability to cope with stress and other external pressures that leads to exhaustion.

Many students do not engage in homework activity and even if they do, the output is not impressive. What is the best thing to do?

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Let’s assume the teacher choose the problem number two. It shows the following. “The teacher has a problem instructing the class on specific activity. This create noise and unnecessary behavior on the part of the students.” After that, list down all possible reasons for this situation. Reason number 1 Instructions were not suited to the contextual language of the students Reason number 2

The Process of Action Research  Know the problem  Create a Plan or Strategy  Implement the Plan  Collection of data and Reflecting on the outcome  Continue the cycle with a revised problem

Classroom management was not set beforehand Reason number 3 Pre requisite activity is not present Reason number 4 Majority of the students are not auditory learners Reason number 5 The students are preoccupied on other things

In a group activity, your class rely too much on their leaders. What is the best way to solve it?

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You can also create mind mapping techniques to magnify your The Process of Action Research

own reasons why the problem exist.

Instructional materials were not suited to the contextual language of the students

Classroom management was not set beforehand

The students are preoccupied on other things

The teacher has a problem instructing the class on specific activity. This create noise and unnecessary behavior on the part of the students.

Pre requisite activity is not present

Majority of the students are not auditory learners

Possible Reason for student’s unnecessary behavior

In the preceding example, the teacher choose “Instructions were not suited to the contextual language of the students. He choose this because he has some evidence in mind that the instructional materials is the culprit of the problem. As the teacher, you can choose any possible reason, but select only the one that feels right.

 Know the problem  Create a Plan or Strategy  Implement the Plan  Collection of data and Reflecting on the outcome  Continue the cycle with a revised problem

You are a grade 2 teacher and half of your class is nonreader. Reading assessment is two months away. What is the best way to do?

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After you identify the set of possible reason, you can change the problem identified or stay in to the selected problem. The reason for modifying this problem is to change it to a positive scenario. For instance if the problem is about teachers frequent absenteeism, it can be converted into the teachers coping mechanism to family problems. Here are some example. Problems stated negatively

Problems stated positively

Students are destroying the How to reward the students school ICT Facilities.

who

shows

responsibility

inside the school ICT Facilities. Students have low academic How performance.

to

improve

the

low

achievers study habit?

The Process of Action Research  Know the problem  Create a Plan or Strategy  Implement the plan  Collection of data and Reflecting on the outcome  Continue the cycle with a revised problem

Half of the class are always What are the strategy of the absent.

financially

challenged

Students to go to the school every day? Majority of the students are How

to

create

bullying each other, this create environment stress and depression.

that

a

positive promotes

cooperation, love and affection

Majority of the students are How to amplify the Cleaning throwing trash inside your habit of the students inside classroom.

your classroom?

Majority of the students are Respectful traits of selected very disrespectful.

students and how this can be model to other students?

The reasons for converting the problem into a positive one, is to make sure it won’t shame any students nor teachers when the issues are raised. But there’s always a time that you need to stick out with a negative problem. Just don’t disgrace other for the sake of solving it.

You are assign to the lowest section. What is the worst thing that could happen to you as a teacher? How about the best think that could happen?

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Going back with the problem. In the example, the teacher can deduce that the contextual language of the students were not match to the general instruction that exist in the textbook. These will tell the teacher to start creating contextualized instructional materials that match to the needs of the students. That’s it! The problem has been identified.

Listing down at least 5 classroom problems

identifying one problem that need to be solve the most

creating a mind map for possible solution to the problem

selecting one problem with a realistic solution

modify the problem if needed

How to know the Problem?

Create a Plan or Strategy to Solve the Problem After you identify your problem, the next question is what you should do to solve it. After you generalized the main problem you can now start analyzing the situation and think for a possible solution. Gathered all resources you can find about the topic you just selected. Internet Resources is one of the safest way to start. The top search engine result are mostly informative about the query of your research. Ask your colleagues about the issues you just raised in your problem. Tell every important details. Don’t afraid to ask questions. As a teacher, ask your Principal about his stand on the problem. Most of them are very eager to tell you their side. Most importantly don’t forget to ask your most trusted students on their insights about the problem. High achiever students can give informative data and experience on most challenging issues happening on them.

The Process of Action Research  Know the problem  Create a Plan or Strategy  Implement the plan  Collection of data and Reflecting on the outcome  Continue the cycle with a revised problem

Some of the students are not attentive to group activity, what strategy should be done to help them engage in the classroom work?

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Implement the Plan

The Process of Action Research

This is one of the most important parts of Action Research, the implementation of your plan. This section contains your chosen solution to the problem. Will you introduce new method to existing teaching practices? Or will you remove old educational practice which seems not relevant to current teaching context? Nevertheless, always keep in mind that the solution you first thought might not fit perfectly, and it is possible that the current school solutions or practices are already suitable to the problems. In implementing your chosen solution, always be ready to tweak small details of the plan. Don’t hesitate to repeat the whole process from knowing again the problem up to this part. Your chosen problem and solution can change overtime on the course of action research. The teacher researchers learns a lot during this part. It is when the theory are being contextualized to the individual classroom or

 Know the problem  Create a Plan or Strategy  Implement the plan  Collection of data and Reflecting on the outcome  Continue the cycle with a revised problem  Don’t hesitate to repeat the whole process from knowing again the problem up to this part.

school settings.

Collection of Data and Reflecting on the Outcome After the initial implementation of your plan, the teacher researcher can now reflect on the outcome of the Action Research. You can assess the outcome by looking on the following data sources like artifacts, observation and inquiry.

You know that the teacher must collaborate with parents for student’s sakes. But half of them do not cooperate well. What is the best way to do?

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Artifacts:

Teacher

Made

Tests,

Standardized

Test,

Written

The Process of Action Research

assignments, projects, student’s records, lesson plan, meeting notes, student portfolio, records of attendance, report cards and test reports Observation; Fields notes, Anecdotal records, checklists, audio and video recording. Inquiry: Interview with parents, students, parents and teachers. Focus group discussion, surveys/questionnaires, attitude scales, and selfassessments. (Practical guide to action research, adopted from Brozo as cited by Hollingsworth, 2011)

 Know the problem  Create a Plan or Strategy  Implement the plan  Collection of data and Reflecting on the outcome  Continue the cycle with a revised problem

In collecting data, it is only normal that the first outcome won’t agree on your initial view of your Action Research. To be exact, the methods or implemented changes to current teaching methodologies you impose isn’t suitable or did not work as expected. If this happens to the teacher researcher, always remember that this research is an ongoing cyclic process that goes on and on, (in other words, you have

Remember: 

DO NOT MANIPULATE THE DATA JUST FOR THE SAKE OF THE DESIRE OUTCOME!

to repeat the Action Research Process.) Sometimes, the researcher got tempted to manipulate her data for the sake of efficiency. In addition they do it for the sake of their desired outcome. Never to fabricate data nor facts and figures of your research. It will only solve nothing.

How to Make Sure your Data Collected is Accurate? At this stage, the data collected faces another problem of being inaccurate. This scenario is only normal and to some extent must be taken with care. William Brozo as cited by Hollingsworth (2011) proposed the Triangulation Method on solving for this kind of problem.

You have students who were always participate to different sports competition. As the adviser, you think this affect his academic performance. What is the best way to solve this?

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Triangulation is a process of verifying the validity of the data collected using three different approaches and viewpoints. This can be summarized as follows. Observation (What do I see?)

Assessments

Interview

(What does student works show me?)

(What do my students tell me?)

Triangulation Method Hollingsworth, S. Nugent, G., and Malik, S., (2012)

After you collected your data, the teacher researcher must ask himself the following questions: What do I see? What do my Students tell me? And what does my students-works shows me?

 Triangulation is a process of verifying the validity of the data collected using three different approaches and viewpoints  After you collected your data, the teacher researcher must ask himself the following questions: What do I see, what do my Students tell me and what does my studentsworks shows me?

What Do I See? (Teacher Point of View of the Problem and the Data Collected) Does the collected data shows progress? Does it give a complete picture of the problem you want to solve? Did the collected data contradict your initial impression of the whole research? In other words, this part talks about the stand of the teacher-researcher on the problem. His point of view on why the data reveals differently, or why it won’t reveal any. At this point, the teacher-researcher must have in depth understanding of the topic, He should already read plenty of literature that lead him to different conclusion of his current research.

Some of your students are social media junkie. They keep on posting their problems on Facebook. What do you think this could means to their social behaviors?

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What Do My Students Tell Me? (Students point of view of the problem and the Data Collected) There’s some instances that the teacher-researcher doubt himself about the outcome of the data. Nevertheless even if the teacher are confident on the collected data, it is necessary to ask the students about their insights of the problem raised by the Action Research. Focus group discussion helps a lot in this area. Ask important topics like “why do they think this kind of scenario happens or why the new teaching strategy makes their learning worse?” Asking important questions directly to students will give significant intuitions about the what, why and how’s of the data collected. What Does Students Works Tell Me? (Tangible output of the students) Asking students about their insights sometimes give unreliable results. They might not tell the truth and worse it could confuse your results. Student’s output in class like project or homework gives an accurate description of their progress. Using rubrics in assessing student works give more reliable results. Some of these examples are

 Triangulation is a process of verifying the validity of the data collected using three different approaches and viewpoints  After you collected your data, the teacher researcher must ask himself the following questions: What do I see, what do my Students tell me and what does my studentsworks shows me?

the following. Result of Teacher Made Tests, Result of Standardized Test, Written assignments, projects, student’s records, student portfolio, records of attendance, report cards and test reports. At this point, you are now sure about the accuracy of your data. You can proceed to the next phases.

Continue the Action Research Cycle With a Revised Problem At this point, the teacher researcher has made all the first four steps, however as the terms implies, Action Research is a cycle. After implementing the plan and had collected data with careful evaluation of the outcome, it is the time to reflect again and made revision on the

Your grade 9 male students ask you about contraceptive. What is the best way to approach his inquiry?

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problem. This includes modification on how the first four steps must be conducted. A question like should the teacher changes his focus on one problem because it’s difficult to focus on another? Or should he add more so that the result become more accurate? These questions are likely to occur during this stage. Remember that Action Research undergoes through repeated action and reflection. There’s always minor and major tweak between all steps. In summary, the teacher starts with a problem. These could be anything that bothers or troubles him. Then he specify this into simplest definition. One way to do that is to list down all your classroom problems and choose one that bothers you the most. After that, he will look into different literature and studies to find some trends on why this happens. A possible solution could rise at this point. He will implement the solution and gather data on the effect of it. Reflection comes after. If the

Tips on Your First Action Research  Start Small  Let the teachers investigate though provoking issues  Take time in making Research  Read other completed research  Determine if you have the resources to finish it

solution works great, the teacher can continue doing it, otherwise repeat the process until the solution has been met.

Some Reminders on Doing You’re First Action Research It is easy to get frustrated the first time you got acquainted with Action Research. Just like having to write an essay and get stuck with the introduction. Making it feels the same thing. To crack that, you need to be reminded on the following. 1. Start Small. In every endeavor especially in Action Research, starting with simple topic won’t hurt. A participation of more than five teachers in a medium size school is too much for some. A group of three to four passionate teachers solving the most difficult problem in their school can be a good start. Don’t

1/3 of your class are product of broken family. You want to instill family values to them. What is the most efficient way to do this?

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hesitate to raise modest issues, because in the end these can be big if solve gradually. 2. Do not limit Action Research for exact topics only. Allow the teachers to investigate thought provoking issues that they find fun and worth doing. On the other hand, it doesn’t necessarily mean that if numerous action research focus so much to reading for example, then the teacher will evade such issues. Action research is fact finding and problem solving. Remember that Action Research were not made just for the sake of fancy research title. 3. Give ample time in conducting your research. Many Action Research were made just for the purpose of having one. It’s possible, however to create one research overnight, but unfortunately it won’t solve any noticeable problem.

4. Read other completed action research. I suggest to stay away from academic thesis although they are sure to help. Go online and look for specific topic you have some interest in.

5. Determine if you have enough resources to finish it. Technically it’s possible to make it in very limited budget and funds. But in the end, the quality of your work might suffer. Don’t risk your effort to inaccuracies and poor context for the sake of having one.

Tips on Your First Action Research  Start Small  Let the teachers investigate though provoking issues  Take time in making Research  Read other completed research  Determine if you have the resources to finish it Your school doesn’t have any computer lab. What is the best way to teach technology to your students?

“Success only comes to those who dare to attempt”

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Mallika Tripathi

CHAPTER THREE Writing your Action Research In this Chapter you will write your Action Research. It is assume at this point that you already implemented the steps of Action research and succeeds in solving your own classroom problems. All was left is to inscribe it in text. There are numerous format for writing and presenting it in printed form. Nevertheless they agree on the following parts.

According to Editage.com (2018), in writing your rationale, you should first write a background on what all research has been done on your study topic. Follow this with ‘what is missing?’ or ‘what are the open questions of the study?

Outline for Action Research (Modified and adopted from Basic Education Research Fund format) 

Context and Rationale



Review of Related Literature



Research Questions



Scope and Limitation



Methodology



Result and Discussion



Action Plan



References

(2019, January 22), retrieved from: http://www.deped.gov.ph/2015/09/16/do-43s-2015-revised-guidelines-for-the-basic-education-research-fund-berf/

Context and Rationale What are the goals of my Action Research? What is the basis of my interest in the topic I have chosen? What am I trying to know about the topic? And what is my objective in doing it? These are the question you need to answer when writing the Context. On the other

You have a junior high school student who confess his feeling to you. What is the best way to approach him/her on which it will not affect your status as his/her teacher?

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hand the rationale of your research is the reason for conducting the study. The rationale must answer why you are conducting such topic. According to “How to write your rationale” (2018), in writing it, you should first compose a background on what all research has been done on your study topic. Follow this with ‘what is missing?’ or ‘what are the open questions of the study? Identify the gaps in the literature and emphasize why it is important to address those gaps. This will form the rationale of your study. The rationale should be followed by a hypothesis and objectives. (2019, January 21) Retrieved from https://www.editage.com/insights/how-to-writethe-rationale-for-research).

Faltado, R., Bombita M., Boholano H., Pogoy., A.(2016), give the following idea about context and rationale. According to them, it must present a state of knowledge regarding the problem raised. Moreover it should include the following 1. Discussion of the problem in general and the specific situations as observed and experience by the researcher. 2. Concepts and ideas related to the problem including clarification

Related Literature must answer specific questions like “what studies are similar to current research?”, “What are the contexts contained in other studies that can be used as a guide to the present problem?”, “What content do other research have which can help you in overcoming ambiguities to the current problem?”, And “What theoretical frameworks used by other studies that are relevant to you?”

of important terminologies 3. Discussion of existing or present conditions and what is aimed to be the future or the gap to be filled in by the research. Review of Related Literature Related literature points out how other people treat your problem in their own approach. This can lead to many differences because the context of your study may not be the same as in other studies. Moreover, this should answer specific questions like “what studies are similar to current research?”, “What are the contexts contained in other studies that can be used as a guide to the present problem?”, “What content do other research have which can help you in overcoming

Your co-teachers are burnout in his/her teaching career. Any suggestion don’t seem to work. He/she is about to resign. What possible help you can give to him/her?

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ambiguities to the current problem?”, And “What theoretical frameworks used by other studies that are relevant to you?”

“Literature Review”, (2019) give some questions to help you analyze the related literature: 

What was the research question of the study you are reviewing?



What were the authors trying to discover?



Was the research funded by a source that could influence the findings?



What were the research methodologies? Analyze its literature review, the samples and variables used, the results, and the conclusions.



Does the research seem to be complete?



What further questions does it raise?



If there are conflicting studies, why do you think that is?



How are the authors viewed in the field? Has this study been cited? If so, how has it been analyzed?

(2019, January 21) Retrieved from: https://libguides.uwf.edu/c.php?g=215199&p=1420520

Related Literature must answer specific questions like “what studies are similar to current research?”, “What are the contexts contained in other studies that can be used as a guide to the present problem?”, “What content do other research have which can help you in overcoming ambiguities to the current problem?”, And “What theoretical frameworks used by other studies that are relevant to you?” The teacher take a picture of a page in a book and then project it to the projector. Do you think this can be considered ICT utilization?

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Research Questions The statement of the problem covers the questions that Action Research can answer. It should be simple and not too complicated ideas. There are not too many questions in Action Research. It’s a lot better if you can shorten it in two to four questions only. Khan, Khoso & Qureshi, as cited by Malik, N & Hollingswoth, S (2012), give the following guide on how to form an Action Research

Research Question must be simple and not too complicated ideas. There are not too many questions in Action Research. It’s a lot better if you can shorten it in two to four questions only.

Questions. 1. Identify the Problem 2. Why the Problem happening?

The Problem is_____________ is List several Possibilities a.__________________ b.__________________ c.__________________ d.__________________ e.__________________ Choose one or two that represent your best guess that you can do in a reasonable amount of time 3. Brainstorm all possible List several solution solution to solve the a.__________________ problem. b.__________________ c.__________________ d.__________________ e.__________________ Choose one or two that represent your best guess that you can do in a reasonable amount of time 4. Write your research What is _____________ (Effect, questions. used, importance ,etc) of ______________ (solution) to the ___________ (problem) After formulating your research questions, you can now modify your Action Research title.

You are assigned in a remote school. No electricity nor cellphone signal. As a teacher you missed your life before you were assigned to this school. What is the best way to do?

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Example 1. Identify the Problem 2. Why the Problem happening?

The Problem is the students don’t actively engage in classroom recitation is List several Possibilities a. Lack of motivation b. Poor study habits c. Lack of Support at Home d. Bullying e. Distraction from electronic gadgets f. Poor health g. Family problem

3. Brainstorm all possible List several Actions actions to solve the a. Use differentiated problem. instruction b. Utilize proper study habits c. Home visitation d. Counseling e. Utilization of classroom rules on electronic gadget f. Feeding program g. Counseling 4. Write your questions.

research What is the effect of differentiated instruction to student motivation? The use of differentiated instruction in increasing student Motivation Scope and Limitation The scope and limitation should include a short statement about the purpose of the Action Research. The topics studied and researched must be included and make a brief description for each. The locale of the study where the data were collected, this include the name of the school or the classroom grade level, must be stated clearly. Next is the target respondents of the study, this include the number of the

Scope and Limitation contain the following:  Purpose of Action research  Topic Studied  Local of the study  Target Respondents  Time frame of the study

Your class won a very difficult classroom competition. You want to celebrate by having a party. You know you can’t do this because of financial constraint. What is the best way to do?

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respondents and other criteria used on them. And the latter is the time when the study was conducted and how long it was done.

Methodology

This is the part where you express how you created your action research. This includes the sequence you made to find out the answers to the problems. It include the type of Research made, either quantitative or qualitative research. How you collected and analyze the data. The tools and materials you used in research and the reason why you used them. Type of Research Action research can be differentiated into two categories. The Quantitative Action Research and the Qualitative Action Research. Quantitative focus on exact value express in numerical figures. They are easier to collect and analyze. Example are academic performance like 90% etc., Age of the respondents. Quantitative data will answer questions like “How much?”, “How frequently?”, “How far? How long? Or how many? ”. These data can be answer efficiently with different statistical techniques. Qualitative Action Research on the other hand focus on interviews, focus group discussions, direct observations, written documents or artifacts. This can be measure using a scale or rubrics. In other words, Qualitative are measure using respondent’s opinions or feelings. Data Collection This is the how your data are being collected. In Quantitative data, the researcher can use the following: Paper and pencil test,

Action research can be differentiated into two categories. The Quantitative Action Research and the Qualitative Action Research You have a students who are overage for his grade level. His/her classmates makes fun on him/her. What is the best way to do as a teacher? .

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Experiments or Direct Observations. In qualitative data, you can use Focus group discussion, interview, and scale or rubrics.

Result and Discussion Writing the result of the data collected is no different than tabulating what you just observed. It must be simple and direct to the point. Forget unnecessary figures which only makes the presentation unclear and ambiguous. Makes a brief description for each tables or figures and relate them to your literature. This way, your audience will likely to understand concept that are less familiar to them. In discussing your result, make sure that you answer all question raised in the statement of the problem.

Common Statistical Tools and Data Presentation Mean or Average- This is perhaps one of the most common statistical tool used in Action Research. The mean/average are simply finding the central tendency of sets of data. These are useful when you are trying to evaluate a group of respondents and treat their response as one. For example; you want to find out whether the use of differentiated instruction is suited to the needs of unresponsive pupils during classroom situation. The teacher might give a posttest after giving a differentiated instruction and find the mean/average of the whole class. To find the mean or average, add all up the data and the divide them by how many these data are. For example, the score of the students are; 90, 95, 94 and 100. The total are 90+95+94+100= 379. Divide 379 by 4. The mean or average is 94.75.

It creating your result and discussion, forget those unnecessary figures which only makes the presentation unclear and ambiguous You are blessed with a very nice class of students. They keep on making you happy every day. As their subject teacher, what is the best way to thank them?

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Median- If the data contain extreme scores which has huge impact on the average of data, the teacher can use the median. For example if the data consist of the following grades such as 90, 89, 91 92 and lastly there is one respondents who got 60. The use of median can fix the issue of unexpected lowest or highest scores. The

Action Plan are your solution to the problem raised during the conduct of your action research

techniques for median is to arrange all the scores from lowest to highest and then picked up the middle score. In the example given, we can arranged it as, 60,89,90,91,92. As you can see, these data are arrange from lowest to highest score, and the middle score is 90. The score 90 is the most appropriate representation for these set of score. Frequency

Distribution-These

tells

how

many

of

the

respondents fall into different categories. For example, how many male or female does the respondent have? The answer might be like; Male = 24, Female= 25. Or how many students like specific school subjects? It could be like; Math = 32, Science = 12, English = 21 etc. Action Plan The Action plan must consist of the following areas. Area of concern, objectives, Activities, timeframe, persons involved and performance indicator. Action Plan are your solution to the problem raised during the conduct of your action research. They are presented in the course of months or years. AREA OF CONCERN

OBJECTIVES

STRATEGIES / ACTIVITIES

TIME FRAME

PERSONS INVOLVED

PERFORMANCE INDICATOR

Your girlfriend/boyfrie nd is also your co-teacher. Your junior high school students are keeping you uncomfortable because of this. What is the best way to approach your students and the situations?

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How to Write References? It is important to acknowledge the authors where the original works were taken. Moreover, taking references isn’t just for plagiarism prevention. The truth is, when you source your research, you are respecting the intellectual property right of the original author. Another reasons is that citing will give weight to concepts generated by your own research. By quoting experts in different fields you are giving accurate and quality content to your own work. The most common reference style is the APA Citation. It is short for American Psychological Association. APA in text citation style uses the author’s last name and the years of its publication. Here are some example Many teachers prefer paper and pencil test than essay test in urban areas (Dela Cruz, 2009), this was supported by the study of Martinez, Marquez & Molina which they prove that majority of college instructor in University and State College in Urban School prefer objective test than subjective (Martinez, Marquez & Molina, 2009). On the reference part of the research the following format in APA style should be used. Citing a book in print Author, A. (Year of Publication). Title of work. Publisher City, Publisher. Example: Dela Cruz Michael L. (2009). School and the Community. Quezon City, Lorimar Publishing, Inc.

The truth is, when you source your research, you are respecting the intellectual property right of the original author. Another reasons is that citing will give weight to concepts generated by your own research. You feel you want to quit teaching. Your students tell you not to. Will you listen to them or not? Why or why not?

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Citing a general website article with an author Author, A. (Year, Month Date of Publication). Article title. Retrieved from URL Example: Sanchez, E. (2018, February 12). The Most Powerful Teacher in the Country, Retrieved from http://www.mostpowerfulteacher.org/believe-intro. Citing a general website article without an author Article title. (Year, Month Date of Publication). Retrieved from URL Example: The Most Powerful Teacher in the Country. (2018, February 12). Retrieved from http://www.mostpowerfulteacher.org/believeintro. Citing a photograph retrieved online Photographer, A. (Photographer). (Year, Month Date of Publication). Title of photograph [digital image]. Retrieved from URL Example: Chan, E. (Photographer). (2018, March 4). Smiling Students [digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=smiling+students&sourc e=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=: Tracking every sources and citations for your action research is very difficult. This is very confusing especially when you are tracking it from different sources. The best way and the most easiest to do is to put all sources in the text you just cited. Put a different font color on it so that it is easy to locate. In other words when you cite an information don’t forget to place the source on the same page of that same text. Moreover, when you are at the stage of finalizing your paper, be sure to transfer them to the reference part.

The truth is, when you source your research, you are respecting the intellectual property right of the original author. Another reasons is that citing will give weight to concepts generated by your own research.

What is the best moment you have in your classroom? Why do you think this event happen?

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”

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Steves Jobs

CHAPTER FOUR Writing your Action Research in Template Form In this part, you can write on the blank template your own Action Research. Remember that Action Research must be simple and direct to the point. Also keep in mind that the following are suggested format only. It can be modify to suit one own needs. ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ (Title)

(Authors Name) Context and Rationale (Give a general information about your action research)_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ (List down all supporting details or reason for the problem raised)_______________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________

Context and Rationale What are the goals of my Action Research? What is the basis of my interest in the topic I have chosen? What am I trying to know about the topic? And what is my objective in doing it? These are the question you need to answer when writing the Context. On the other hand the rationale of your research is the reason for conducting the study. The rationale must answer why you are conducting such topic You want to get out from paper and pencil assessment. As a biology teacher, you want your students to dissect a frog. But it cause some trouble to your students who are animal lovers. What is the best way to do?

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(State the most common solution to that problem)______________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ (Tell why the solution work or why it won’t)________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ (State your own solution or improvement to the common solution)______________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ (Relate your own solution or improvement to the common solution)______________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ Review of Related Literature (Look for the most common topic or study related to your own research)_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ (Give its importance or relation to the present study)________________________________________________

Related literature points out how other people treat your problem in their own approach. This can lead to many differences because the context of your study may not be the same as in other studies. Moreover, this should answer specific questions like “what studies are similar to current research?”, “What are the contexts contained in other studies that can be used as a guide to the present problem?”, “What content do other research have which can help you in overcoming ambiguities to the current problem?”, And “What theoretical frameworks used by other studies that are relevant to you?”

What is your best classroom management advice?

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_____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ (Look for the most common topic or study related to your own research)_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ (Give its importance or relation to the present study)________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ (Look for the most common topic or study related to your own research)_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ (Give its importance or relation to the present study)________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ (Look for the most common topic or study related to your own research)_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________

Related literature points out how other people treat your problem in their own approach. This can lead to many differences because the context of your study may not be the same as in other studies. Moreover, this should answer specific questions like “what studies are similar to current research?”, “What are the contexts contained in other studies that can be used as a guide to the present problem?”, “What content do other research have which can help you in overcoming ambiguities to the current problem?”, And “What theoretical frameworks used by other studies that are relevant to you?” What is the most difficult student’s problem you encounter as a teacher?

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(Give its importance or relation to the present study)________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ Research Questions (Khan, Khoso & Qureshi, as cited by Malik, N & Hollingswoth, S , 2012) Problem Number 1 1. Identify the Problem

2. Why the Problem happening?

The Problem is_____________ _________________________ _________________________ is List several Possibilities

The statement of the problem covers the questions that Action Research can answer. It should be simple and not too complicated ideas. There are not too many questions in Action Research. It’s a lot better if you can shorten it in two to four questions only.

a.__________________ b.__________________ c.__________________ d.__________________ e.__________________ Choose one or two that represent your best guess that you can do in a reasonable amount of time

You are an English teacher but you are assigned to grade 7 Mathematics. Your principal insisted you need to get out of your comfort that’s why he/she assigned you to this. Do you think this is right? Why?

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3. Brainstorm all possible List several solution solution to solve the a.__________________ problem. b.__________________ c.__________________ d.__________________ e.__________________

4. Write your questions.

Choose one or two that represent your best guess that you can do in a reasonable amount of time research What is _____________ (Effect, used, importance ,etc) of ______________ (solution) to the ___________ (problem)

After formulating your research questions, you can now modify your Action Research title.

Problem Number 2 (Must be related to problem number 1) 1. Identify the Problem

The Problem is_____________ _________________________ _________________________

The statement of the problem covers the questions that Action Research can answer. It should be simple and not too complicated ideas. There are not too many questions in Action Research. It’s a lot better if you can shorten it in two to four questions only.

What are your advice to new teachers in Public school?

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2. Why the Problem happening?

is List several Possibilities a.__________________ b.__________________ c.__________________ d.__________________ e.__________________ Choose one or two that represent your best guess that you can do in a reasonable amount of time

3. Brainstorm all possible List several solution solution to solve the a.__________________ problem. b.__________________ c.__________________ d.__________________ e.__________________

4. Write your questions.

Choose one or two that represent your best guess that you can do in a reasonable amount of time research What is _____________ (Effect, used, importance ,etc) of ______________ (solution) to the ___________ (problem)

After formulating your research questions, you can now modify your Action Research title.

The statement of the problem covers the questions that Action Research can answer. It should be simple and not too complicated ideas. There are not too many questions in Action Research. It’s a lot better if you can shorten it in two to four questions only.

You already graduated masters of education. All your co-teachers are not interested of having one. What do you think is the reason for this?

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Scope and Limitation The purpose of this Action Research is _________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ ___________________________________________ (State the topic studied and researched) _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ ___________________________________________ (State the locale of the study, the school, the grade level or section) _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________ (State the number of the respondents) _____________________________________________________

The scope and limitation should include a short statement about the purpose of the Action Research. The topics studied and researched must be included and make a brief description for each. The locale of the study where the data were collected, this include the name of the school or the classroom grade level, must be stated clearly. Next is the target respondents of the study, this include the number of the respondents and other criteria used on them. And the latter is the time when the study was conducted and how long it was done

_____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________ (State the time or duration of the Action Research) _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ Methodology The study use ____________________________ (type of research).

The

data

was

collected

from

_____________________________________________(respondents

What is your happiest moment in teaching low achiever students?

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) and analyze using ___________________________ (Statistical tools). The Research use _____________________________ _________________________ (other materials or equipment utilized

in

the

study)

_________________________________________________

for (State

the reason of using them)

Result and Discussion (First Problem) 1. __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ________? Table 1 __________________________________________ __________________________________________

Writing the result of the data collected is no different than tabulating what you just observed. It must be simple and direct to the point. Forget unnecessary figures which only makes the presentation unclear and ambiguous. Makes a brief description for each tables or figures and relate them to your literature. This way, your audience will likely to understand concept that are less familiar to them. In discussing your result, make sure that you answer all question raised in the statement of the problem. What is your best tool in combating least master skills?

It can be gleaned from Table 1 that _______________________________________________________

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_______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ The result is supported by the study of _________________________________________________ which shows that _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ (Second Problem) 2. __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ________? Table 2 __________________________________________ __________________________________________

It can be gleaned from the table 2 that _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

Writing the result of the data collected is no different than tabulating what you just observed. It must be simple and direct to the point. Forget unnecessary figures which only makes the presentation unclear and ambiguous. Makes a brief description for each tables or figures and relate them to your literature. This way, your audience will likely to understand concept that are less familiar to them. In discussing your result, make sure that you answer all question raised in the statement of the problem. Your classroom is constantly having plenty of trash. You are a grade one teacher. What will be your best weapon to combat this problem?

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The result is supported by the study of _________________________________________________ which shows that _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

Action Plan are your solution to the problem raised during the conduct of your action research. They are presented in the course of months or years.

It was find out that _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ __________________________________________ (State a summary of the result and how it solve the problem)

Action Plan AREA OF CONCERN

OBJECTIVES

STRATEGIES / ACTIVITIES

TIME FRAME

PERSONS INVOLVED

PERFORMANCE INDICATOR

Is it right to occasionally give a bonus item in a quiz? Especially if your students behave well or had done good?

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References Author, A. (Year of Publication). Title of work. Publisher City, Publisher. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Author, A. (Year, Month Date of Publication). Article title. Retrieved from URL _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Article title. (Year, Month Date of Publication). Retrieved from URL _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Photographer, A. (Photographer). (Year, Month Date of Publication). Title of photograph [digital image]. Retrieved from URL _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

It is important to acknowledge the authors where the original works were taken. Moreover, taking references isn’t just for plagiarism prevention. The truth is, when you source your research, you are respecting the intellectual property right of the original author. Another reasons is that citing will give weight to concepts generated by your own research. Is cooperative learning will work on low achievers?

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The following is a sample Action Research for Inclusive Education namely the Alternative Learning System. It won the Division of Rizal Research Conference (2017) held in Cainta, Rizal and in the International Conference on Basic Education Research (2017) held in Pasay City. The Statement of the Problem used in this Action Research had follow the format prescribe by the conference. DIGITAL LEARNING TOOLS FOR OUT OF SCHOOL YOUTH AND ADULTS OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE UNDER ALTERNATIVE LEARNING SYSTEM OF BARANGAY TINUCAN, TANAY, RIZAL 2017 ANIVER M. VERGARA ABSTRACT This action research was conceived from the prospective of digital learning technologies to improve instructional technique and student engagement. Specifically, it determined the acceptability and effects of digital learning tools among the out of school youth and adults of the indigenous people (IP) under the alternative learning system (ALS). The digital learning tools namely computer tablet, virtual reality headset and video were incorporated into their lessons for two- month period.

All IP-ALS learners enrolled in Tanay, Rizal during fiscal year 2017 participated in this study. Prior the implementation, they were asked to accomplish the personal data sheet and to take a test to determine their literacy level. The modes used to find out the acceptability of the learning tools were interviews after each lesson. A post literacy test was administered to determine their literacy progress.

Majority of the participants were 26 years old and older. Seventy-five percent had some elementary or not been to school at all. They are all below poverty line and live in a nipa hut.

Prior the implementation, 90% of them were within the basic to elementary literacy level. The posttest showed improvements in their literacy. None performed in the basic level anymore. Further, 45% more students have raised literacy to secondary level. Meanwhile in terms of the acceptability of selected digital learning tools, video based instruction was most preferred and virtual reality headset was least preferred.

Overall, there is potential in the use of the digital learning tools in the teaching learning of the IP- ALS learners. Future studies on other types of digital tools, extent of influence of the digital tool integration in other subjects, duration of use and impact on academic performance may be pursued.

Keywords Alternative Learning System, Indigenous People, Educational Technology, Digital Learning Tools, Out of School Youth, Out of School Adults

P a g e | 49 INTRODUCTION Indigenous Peoples account for 14 million Filipinos, they are the least served in terms of quality education (United Nation, 2013). It is true that there are school who does cater the needs of the Indigenous but they are still in their early stage (DepEd, 2015) and they only accommodate the students and not their parents and dropouts. Moreover, parents and school dropouts that surround their ancestral community has little to no education at all, since they are the one that never go to formal school (UNDP, 2013). The situation become worst with the facts that the Indigenous are the poorest among the poor and have little economic and political rights (IWGIA, 2011). It seems the idea of a rich and intelligent indigenous people are hard to reach given the current situations. But should it be that way? Definitely not. Also if there is a term Intellectual Discrimination, these IP’s is most likely to be a candidate. This conundrum were supposed to be solved by the establishment of non-formal education which were presently called Alternative Learning System. As stated in Article XIV, section 2, paragraph 1 of the Philippine constitution; It declares that the State shall establish, maintain and support a complete, adequate and integrated system of education relevant to the needs of the people and society; and paragraph (4) concisely encourages non-formal, informal and indigenous learning systems as well as selflearning, independent and out-of-school study programs particularly those that respond to community needs. With this article in mind, some strategies was already been utilized in Alternative Learning System like the traditional barangay teaching and barangay literacy mapping to those illiterate. But to reach a solid goal, bold moves can be prove useful. One these are so called Digital Learning. Digital learning technologies can enable learners to grasp concepts more quickly and fully, to connect theory and application more adeptly and to engage in learning more readily while also improving instructional techniques. Digital learning technologies includes smartphone, computers, projectors and any other gadget that use electricity that can be utilized in teaching and learning (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014). Nevertheless, why the current educational system doesn’t employ such strategies such as digital learning to Indigenous People? One of the reason is the availability of other learning methods or sometimes called mainstream learning methods which is a lot cheaper and easy to produce such as traditional didactic teaching. Moreover, even if we solved the problem of financial constraint about this technology, giving out computers or any digital tools to the learners won’t solve the problem since we don’t know the best way to utilize it to their current learning schema. Digital learning is expensive compare to other learning tools likes books, posters and the like (NEPC, 2014), additionally digital learning is frequently associated to financially successful students (Porter, 2015). On the contrary, Indigenous people are commonly marked as poor and label as only just (UNDP, 2013). Moreover, the researcher believes that every Filipinos regardless of race and ethnicity are entitled for true quality education especially in the Alternative Learning System, and that’s one of the reasons the researcher conducted this study. The researcher also believes that we don’t only need to protect and invest on the culture of our IP’s but also on their future.

P a g e | 50 Statement of the Problem In this study, the researcher explored the feasibility, acceptability and effects of the use of digital learning tools into the lessons taught to indigenous people and ALS learners. Specifically, it sought answers to the following research questions: 1. What is the profile of the participants in terms of: a. age, b. gender, c. educational attainment, d. daily average income, e. number of family members, f. type of house? 2. What is the level of functional literacy of the participants before and after the implementation of the digital learning tool integrated lessons? 3. What is the level of acceptability of the following digital learning tool among the IP-ALS: a. computer tablet? b. virtual reality headset? c. video based instruction? 4. How do the IP-ALS learners experience the digital learning tools integrated lessons? 5. What are the different ways the IP-ALS learners learn with the use of the digital learning tools? Scope and Delimitation

This study is on the feasibility, acceptability and effects of the integration of digital learning tools into the lessons of IP-ALS learners during fiscal year 2017. The participants of this study were the 20 Dumagat-Remontado IP, ALS, out-of school learners from Barangay Tinucan Tanay, Rizal. The digital learning tools utilized in this study were the computer tablet, virtual reality headset and video based instruction. The project lasted for 2 months. The data analyzed were derived from the results of the pre and post functional literacy test, personal data sheet, and interviews on the acceptability and experience of the participants on digital learning tools.

Significance of the Study This study is a pioneer, at the very least in DepEd Rizal as regards 1) the use of the digital learning tools, 2) for the indigenous people, and 3) ALS learners. In addition, it shed light on the acceptability of the use of digital learning tools as well as its effects on the learning of the IP-ALS learners. It explored in what ways and how well do learners learn with the use of the digital tools. The findings of the study would contribute to the body of literature on the use of digital and mobile learning in the context of inclusive education. Furthermore, it would be relevant to the building of instructional design guidelines based on a solid theoretical framework for mobile learning, a need identified in the study by Park (2011). This research like any other researchers is an example that for the sake of their learners, educators would always find ways on how to improve instruction and student learning. It is the advocacy of the researcher to ensure entitlement of every Filipino regardless of status and ethnicity to authentic quality education, most especially for those who have been underprivileged like the learners in the Alternative Learning System and indigenous people. Furthermore, the researcher as IP-ALS teacher adheres that it is the moral duty of an educator not only to protect and invest on the culture of our indigenous people but also on their future.

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Related Literature Review Digital Learning Tools and Enhancing Learning According to MIT (2017) studies have proven the benefits to learners and educators of digital learning. They said that digital learning technologies help students to learn more efficiently, digital assessments offer students rapid feedback on their understanding, allowing both students and instructors (who can access this information) to concentrate their efforts on where further understanding is most needed. Learn more fully, rapid assessment, simulations, visualizations, games, annotation technology, and videos with multiple instructors provide a richer learning environment toward a fuller understanding of concepts. Learn with mastery, the ability to pace learning to one’s preference, to review material, and to be assessed on a section before moving to another leads to mastery learning. Learn the best way, active engagement, hands-on experiences, discussions and flipped classrooms allow students to experience learning that applies best practices and directly employs current theories of learning. Learn anytime, anywhere, asynchronous classrooms allow students to “go to school” where and when they are most ready to learn. This helps graduate student’s access advanced information needed for their thesis research when they need it. It gives flexibility to undergraduates to study abroad or pursue an internship. And, it allows lifelong learners to continue to pursue an education, while meeting work and family commitments. Digital learning makes education more accessible and affordable to students on campus and also worldwide. The meta-analytic study of Tanim et al. (2011) covered the last forty years of technology use in education and found that, the average student in a classroom where technology is used will perform 12 percentile points higher than the average student in a traditional classroom setting that does not use technology to enhance the learning process. Galatis and White (2013) conducted a study on mobile learning and the use of tablets. They pointed out the result of mobile learning, they said that these new type of technologies have been a catalyst for merging the boundaries of formal and informal learning. They also insisted that the current educational system must adopt to these technologies. ICT has been integrated in the Philippine education. However, based on the study by Manaligod (2012), revealed that public high schools in Metro Manila have a computer to student ratio of 1:63. Moreover, half of the students has never used the computer at all. Accordingly, 1 computer to 63 student’s ratio is not a good ICT integration. Digital Learning and Inclusive Education Although digital and mobile learning has wide applications from basic to higher education, formal and informal learning, and distance learning, Park (2011) pointed out that there has little researches conducted to categorize the numerous examples of mobile learning in the context of inclusive education. Additionally, there has a few instructional design guidelines based on a solid theoretical framework for mobile learning. Digital Learning Strategy One of the concerns on the use of digital learning, such that even when computers and other digital tools are doled out, is the lack of know-how and confidence on its application to the current learning schema. Guido (2017) listed the easy ways on how to use technology in the classroom. Strategies like running a virtual field trip, using videos for mini lessons, using computer manipulatives, running learning stations, game based learning, and play simulations have been very successful in teaching students specially the low achievers. Harvard researchers Quoidbach and Dunn (2013) explained how to combat hedonic adaptation or the tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes, in the light of using digital learning tools. They found out that the game Candy Crush Saga has a strategy known as a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement. In that

P a g e | 52 game you can predict when you’re going to win, but you win just often enough to keep you coming back for more. Another feature of the game that strongly affects how people respond is the limit on how much players can play at any given time. Candy Crush effectively puts you into "time out" after five losses. This means you can never be completely satiated when playing and always leaves you wanting more. And by not letting you play, the game actually becomes even more rewarding when you are get back into Candyland. This is also how Candy Crush makes its fun to use. This scenario is called hedonic adaptation. As a teacher of the IP-ALS, the researcher has observed that IP learners tended to get hooked to the tablet educational games every time they play it. They never seem to burnout on the educational game because of few breaks and immediate rewards given. The related literature cited provided the researcher ways on how and which digital tool to incorporate in the lessons for the IP-ALS. Notwithstanding the positive benefits of utilizing these tools into the instruction.

METHODOLOGY Participants This study included all the twenty (20) out-of school IP learners enrolled in the ALS program during the fiscal year 2017. They are the Dumagat-Remontado indigenous people from Barangay Tinucan Tanay, Rizal.

Data Gathering Procedure and Instruments The researcher prepared the lessons for the 2-month period incorporating the use of digital learning technologies based on the tips or guidelines gathered from the literature. The learning tools utilized in this study were the computer tablet, virtual reality headset and video based instruction. Prior the implementation, a personal data sheet were filled out by the participants. They also took a standardized functional literacy test. For the spread of two month period of class, the computer tablet was used 12 times, the virtual reality headset was used 12 times and the video based instruction was used 12 times. After each class session, focus group discussion and interviews follows. The discussion revolves on how the participants experience digital learning. A guide questions on how they experience digital learning was utilized. The 3 digital tools are measured using a 3 likert scale design. Upon completion of the implementation, the participants answered the post functional literacy test to determine the level of the learners.

Data Analysis Data particularly for research questions 1-3 were analyzed using frequency, mean and percentage distribution. On the other hand, the responses gathered from the interviews, observations and surveys on their lived experience and viewpoints on the use of digital learning tools employed a qualitative approach of analysis. They were organized into themes and subthemes using the thematic analysis method (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Three steps were undertaken: 1) providing some labels which refer to the collected open answers (Level 1- Coding), 2) identifying groups of labels which have similar meaning and clustering them into themes (Level 2- Coding), and 3) clarifying the relationships among themes into concise coherent narrative which connects the emerged themes.

P a g e | 53 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

I.

Profile of the Participants The profile of the participants with respect to age, gender, educational attainment, daily income, number of family members and type of house are presented in the following tables.

Table 1 Gender of the Participants N=20 GENDER Male Female Total

FREQUENCY 10 10 20

PERCENTAGE 50% 50% 100%

The participants are equally distributed in terms of male or female. As presented in Table 2 below, majority of them are within 26-35 age range. The youngest is 16 years old while the oldest among them is 55 years old.

Table 2 Age of the Participants N=20 AGE 16-25 years old 26-35 years old 36-45 years old 45 and above Total

FREQUENCY 3 9 6 2 20

PERCENTAGE 15% 45% 30% 10% 100%

Five out of twenty (25%) had not attended any formal education. Majority (50%) reached elementary but were not able to complete it. The remaining 25% were high school undergraduates.

Table 3 Educational Attainment N=20 EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT No Schooling Elementary Undergraduate High School Undergraduate Total

FREQUENCY

PERCENTAGE

5 10 5 20

25% 50% 25% 100%

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Table 4 Daily Family Income N=20 FAMILY INCOME Less than Php100 Php 100 - 350 Php 350 - 500 Total

FREQUENCY 18 1 1 20

PERCENTAGE 90% 5% 5% 100%

In terms of family income, 90% of them earn less than a hundred a day. Only one of them claimed to be earning more than Php 350 –Php 500 per day. Nonetheless, all of them said they live in nipa huts or non-concrete houses.

Table 5 Type of House N=20 FAMILY INCOME Nipa Hut Semi Concrete Concrete Total

FREQUENCY 20 0 0 20

PERCENTAGE 100% 0% 0% 100%

The IP-ALS learners in this study are typically mid-age adults, from low-income family with 4-6 members. The highest educational attainment is some high school; none had completed secondary education. A quarter of them never even had entered formal schooling. These data conform to United Nations Development Program (2013), that the Philippines IP have been subject to marginal processes and least educational and economic benefit.

II.

Level of Functional Literacy Before and After Implementation Before the implementation, 5 out of 20 (25%) had basic literacy. Majority performed within the elementary level, out of which 50% were within the lower elementary and 15% in the advance elementary range. Only 2 (10%) had literacy level at the secondary.

P a g e | 55 Table 6 Level of Literacy Before and After the Implementation N=20 LITERACY LEVEL AFTER Basic Lower Elementary Advance Elementary Secondary Total * Percent decrease

F 5 10 3 2 20

BEFORE PERCENT 25% 50% 15% 10% 100%

F 0 5 4 11 20

AFTER PERCENT 0% 25% 20% 55% 100%

PERCENT INCREASE/ DECREASE (25%)* (25%)* 5% 45%

There was significant improvement in their literacy of the IP-ALS after the implementation. None was retained in the basic level. Majority after the implementation were in the secondary level. From 2 there now has 11 students that reached the secondary literacy level which is an increase of 45%. The findings of this study confirmed the assertion of Guido (2017) that digital learning like running a virtual field trip, using videos for mini lessons, using computer manipulatives, run learning stations, game based learning, and play simulations increase the academic performance of the students. Additionally, it is similar to the findings by Tanim et.al. (2011) on increased improvement of 12 percentile points higher to those who didn’t use classroom technology. In the present study the increase reached as high as 45%. This study encompassed the inclusive education for indigenous people and out of school youth and adult. This therefore addressed the call by Park (2011) for more researches on mobile learning in the context of inclusive education. It was intended to have contributed to the few researches that would provide instructional design guidelines based on a solid theoretical framework for mobile learning. III.

Level of Acceptability of the Digital Tools by the IP-ALS

Table 7 shows the level of acceptability of the digital learning tools among the IP-ALS learners. According to rank, video based instruction ranked first- very much accepted, followed by computer tablet and virtual reality headset last. Virtual reality headset obtained a rating that is considered not accepted.

Table 7 Level of Acceptability of the Digital Learning Tools Digital Learning Tools Video Based Instruction

Mean Score 2.90

Verbal Interpretation Very Much Accepted

Computer Tablet

2.30

Much Accepted

Virtual Reality Headset

1.65

Not Accepted

These results were supported by Galatis and White (2013). They said that these new type of technologies have been a catalyst for merging the boundaries of formal and informal learning. They also insisted that the current educational system must adopt to these technologies.

P a g e | 56 IV.

IP-ALS Experience of the Digital Learning Tools

The experiences of the IP-ALS learners are mostly positive. They have transcended beyond their experience of the digital learning tools to the relevance of education in general. As such, it incited them with hope and promise of a better future and life- education is a way to combat poverty. Through interviews and focus group discussion, three separate themes were developed.

Theme 1: Quality Education Majority of the participants believed that quality education is a must for them. They reaffirmed that most of their children who went to school had experienced discrimination. They added that when they were still studying, the same discrimination also happened to them. Contrary to this, their experience of the digital learning tools was new, exciting and positive.

Theme 2: Poverty Alleviation The IP work tirelessly to combat poverty. Over the years, they have been poor and seem to be being passed on or automatically acquire this status. Motivational video which consisted of success stories created a positive learning environment for them. They professed that they frequently shared their learnings from the motivational video to the other members of their community and have wanted that others would be inspired to achieve their dreams of a better life. Theme 3: Cooperation Their close ties within their community is reflected on how they solve everyday lessons. Thus they prefer to work on group when given a task. Learning with digital tools promote group activity. The learners were more confident when they are group to do learning task

V.

IP-ALS Ways of Learning with the Use of the Digital Tools

The ways of learning of the IP-ALS with the use of the digital tools emanate from the following major categories or themes: intrinsic motivation, self-assessment and feedback mechanism and hedonic adaptation. Theme 1: Intrinsic Motivation Majority of the IP view that their efforts to study hard would someday bear fruit. They are intrinsically motivated to complete their studies and have kept telling their children the importance of good education. For them, education is wealth, enabling, and would sustain them wherever they would be. Theme 2: Assessment and Feedback Immediate assessment, timely feedback and self-evaluation of academic score facilitated improvement and endeavor to be better and strive harder. Knowing their weaknesses and areas for improvement have been very useful. They welcome feedback and right away work on it and become better. Theme 3: Hedonic Adaptation Educational computer games can be addictive to the learners and thus keep them engaged to the activity. Learners are fastened to the activity, which lead them to improve their literacy like mastery of arithmetic and ability to read English sight words.

P a g e | 57 There is something in games that hedonic adaptation is maintained. Harvard researchers Jordi Quoidbach and Elizabeth Dunn (2013) found out that the game found mostly on android game has a strategy known as a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement. In that game you can predict when you’re going to win, but you win just often enough to keep you coming back for more. Another feature of the game that strongly affects how we respond is the limit on how much we can play at any given time. This means you can never be completely satiated when playing and always leaves you wanting more. In other words, when playing in computer tablet, the learner will want to play more thus increasing his chance of mastering basic arithmetic and communication skills which is found on the computer tablet that they are playing.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary of Findings The IP-ALS learners in this study are the out of school youth and adults who are predominantly 30 years old and older and have not completed elementary. They are all below poverty line and live in non-concrete houses. Prior the implementation, majority of the participants had basic to lower elementary literacy levels. After the implementation, majority have moved to advance elementary and secondary levels. There was an increase of 45% in the secondary level before and after the implementation. Among the digital tools, video based instruction obtained the highest acceptability followed by computer tablet. Virtual reality headset was not preferred. The experiences of the IP-ALS on the use of digital tools were all positive. They viewed the experiences to be part of quality education, education as a means to alleviate poverty and cooperation among IP to enable them to combat poverty and reach progress. The IP-ALS believe that what have been helpful in their learning with the use of the digital tools are because of the following: intrinsic motivation, self-assessment and feedback mechanism and hedonic adaptation.

Implications and Recommendations Overall, the findings of the study supported the advantages of the use of digital learning tools in instruction for the IP-ALS learners. Lessons integrated with digital learning tools enabled a new, exciting and positive experiences for them. Coupled with intrinsic motivation for learning and effective feedback and self-evaluation mechanisms and hedonic adaptation, significant improvement occurred. Digital literacy have been found effective and therefore recommended. Also, contextualizing video based instructions on the IP culture and level of the out of school youth and adults may prove beneficial. Furthermore, future studies on other types of digital tools, extent of influence of the digital tool integration in other subjects, duration of use and impact on academic performance may be pursued.

P a g e | 58 REFERENCES A. Public Documents 1987 Philippine Constitution B. Books Braun, V. and Clarke, V. Victoria. Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology, New York, Teacher College Press, 2005 Mack et al. Qualitative Research Methods: A Data Collector’s Field Guide New York, Teacher College Press, 2005 Quoidbach, Jordi & Dunn, Elizabeth, Give It Up: A Strategy for Combating Hedonic Adaptation, Vancouver Canada, University of British Columbia Publication , 2013 C. Published Research Materials Castillo, Mercy S. “A Phenomenological Study on Alternative Learning System (ALS) Teachers and Learners Interactions to Gain Functional Literacy”, Ateneo de Naga University 2015. D. Internet Sources Deped, “What is the difference between the Formal Education System and the Alternative Learning System (ALS) Non-formal Education?”,(2015) Retrieved on August 2, 2017 from (http://www.deped.gov.ph/als) Galatis, Helen and White, Gerry K., "Mobile learning - why tablets?" ,(2013). Retrieved on August Retrieved on August 10, 2017 from (http://research.acer.edu.au/digital_learning/9) Guido Marcus, “25 easy ways to use technology in the classroom”, (2017) retrieved on August 5, 2017 from (https://www.prodigygame.com/blog/ways-to-use-technology-inthe-classroom/) International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), “Update 2011-Philippines”,(2011), Retrievedon August 5, 2017 from (http://www.iwgia.org/regions/asia/philippines/890update 2011 Philippines Manaligod, Hector “Integration of Information & Communication Technology in Public Secondary Schools in Metro-Manila, Philippines”, (2012) retrieved on August 5, 2017 from (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Communications_Technology_education in the Philippines) Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “The Value of Digital Learning” ,(2017) Retrieved on July 19, 2017 from (https://odl.mit.edu/value-digital-learning) National Commission on Indigenous Peoples. Retrieved from https://www.ncipro67.com.ph/indigenous-peoples-of-the-philippines/NEPC-National Education Policy Center, ”Digital Learning is more cost effective, maybe not” (2014) Retrieved on August 10, 2017 from

P a g e | 59 (http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/11/25/366401940/is-digital-learning-more- costeffective maybe-not) Park, Yeonjeong, “A pedagogical framework for mobile learning: categorizing educational applications of mobile technologies into four types. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning”, (2011). Retrieved on June 4, 2017 from (http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/791/1699) Porter Eduardo, “Education Gap between Rich and Poor is Growing Wider”, (2015), retrieved on September 22, 2015 from (https://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/business/economy/education-gap-betweenrich-and-poor-is-growing-wider.html) SMART, “Smart Techno Cart wins International Awards”,(2017), retrieved on August 5, 2017 from (http://smart.com.ph/About/newsroom/press-releases/2016/12/06/smarttechnocart-wins-in-london) United Nation “Fast Facts: Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines”,(2013), Retrieved on July 10, 2017 from (http://www.ph.undp.org/content/philippines/en/home/library/democratic_governance/F astFacts-IPs.html)

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The following Action research was presented at Division of Rizal Research Conference (2015) held at Cardona, Rizal, which won as the Best Research Concept. It was also presented at Luzon Conference on Basic Education Research in 2015 held at Tagaytay City and in the 6th Midyear Convention of the Philippine Association for Teachers and Educators (PAFTE) in 2016 held at Baguio City. The Statement of the Problem used in this Action Research had follow the format prescribe by the conference. ABSTRACT ENHANCING THE RELEVANCE AND RESPONSIVENESS OF MULTI-GRADE CLASSES THROUGH INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) INTEGRATION 2015 ANIVER M. VERGARA PURPOSE: The researcher sets out to investigate the ICT integration on grade one and two pupils within the particularities of a multi-grade setting. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The method of research used is experimental. FINDINGS: The Profile of the multi-grade classes in terms of Ethnicity shows that from the 20 respondents, 10 were Dumagat learners and 10 were Non-Dumagat learners. The total average score of the pre-test from the control group (No ICT integration) is 54% while the total average score of the experimental group (With ICT Integration) 63%. The total average score of the post-test from the control group (No ICT integration) is 58% while the total average score of the experimental group (With ICT Integration) is 100%. There is significant difference between the performances of the control group and the experimental group in the post-test. The implication of ICT integration to pupil’s performance on Mathematics is that integrating Information and Communication Technology as a tool to aid learning will help the pupils in multi-grade setting achieve higher scholastic performance. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: The study focused on 20 pupils. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: ICT integration will improve pupil’s academic performance. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The researcher identified that ICT Integration in the teaching and learning process sets no boundaries even from the far flung areas. KEYWORDS: Multi-Grade, ICT Integration, Smart TV, Net book, and Ethnicity. TYPE OF RESEARCH: Research Paper.

P a g e | 61 INTRODUCTION About half of the Philippines’ 88 million people live in rural areas. Poverty is most severe and most widespread in these areas and almost 80 per cent of the country’s poor people live there 1. This is the current scenario our country is facing. Moreover, this was aggravated by the fact that Multi-grade teaching is often the only type of education to which this learners have access especially in far flung mountains. In many areas, parents do not have the opportunity to choose between sending their child to a school with multi-grade or mono-grade classes.2 If they choose not to place their child in a multigrade class, the child will remain uneducated. To add up, illiteracy, unemployment and the incidence of famine are higher among indigenous peoples and people living in the upland areas. 3 The poorest of the poor are the indigenous peoples, small-scale farmers who cultivate land received through agrarian reform, landless workers, fishers, and people in mountainous areas. 4 Can technology directly influence their lives? Indirectly indeed, the researcher believes that integrating ICT into education can help to bring quality education to everyone, everywhere – a key goal of the Education for All initiative. The citizens of the future must be equipped with sufficient knowledge to keep up with technological advances and demands of the 21st Century even if they are classified as poor, indigenous, live in remote areas, and learn in a multi-grade environment. The Philippine president, his Excellency Benigno Aquino III also believe that the Filipino students need to be armed with ICT tools such as computers instead of books. This was his speech during the launching of K-12 basic education program in Malacañang in 2012. He said, they just waiting for the price of tablet computers to go down before the government procures them. It clearly shows that the government believes in the power of this new type of learning. The president also added “Hinahabol po natin na yung mga reading materials ay magiging tablet based 5”. (Were working on the idea of converting school text book to tablet based book). On the other hand, this research begins with an appreciation of the fact that technology and pedagogy are complementary and offer the opportunity to enhance pupils’ learning. In this context, the researcher sets out to investigate the RELEVANCE AND RESPONSIVENESS OF MULTI-GRADE CLASSES THROUGH THE USE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) INTEGRATION, within the particularities of a multi-grade setting. The researcher points to the literature arguing that the use of this technology can positively impact student motivation, engagement and the social dimensions to learning. In teaching, the literature indicates the benefits of flexibility and versatility, and a move to a more interactive process away from the didactic, teacher-centred practice. The researcher also argues that many teachers in multi-grade classrooms feel that the use of ICT could be very beneficial given sufficient resources.

RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES Wolff and Garcia (2000) says that Technology can be a powerful tool to provide access to adequate education to students attending multi-grade schools because it is able to provide training to teachers in multi-grade methodologies and allow students to engage in innovative, participatory multi1

rural poverty portal

2

Centre for Multi-grade Education

3

rural poverty portal

4

Centre for Multi-grade Education 5

GMA News “PNoy wants tablet PCs for PHL students” by Amita Legaspi.

P a g e | 62 grade learning activities. Surprisingly, with one or two exceptions, multi-grade programs usually do not use technologies other than workbooks and face to face training. Jennifer Jilks of Ottawa-Carleton District School Board mentioned on her study that independent group work, self-directed learning, integrative and multimedia projects all have a place in the multi-grade class. Whatever works best for a particular subject and domain must be in the repertoire of the multi-grade classroom teacher and a place from which s/he may draw whatever works for the best. (Jilks, 2015) The field of education has been affected by ICTs, which have undoubtedly affected teaching, learning and research (Yusuf, 2005). ICTs have the potential to accelerate, enrich, and deepen skills, to motivate and engage students, to help relate school experience to work practices, create economic viability for tomorrow's workers, as well as strengthening teaching and helping schools change by (Yusuf, 2005). Harris (2002) conducted case studies in three primary and three secondary schools, which focused on innovative pedagogical practices involving ICT. Harris (2002) concludes that the benefits of ICT will be gained “…when confident teachers are willing to explore new opportunities for changing their classroom practices by using ICT. As a consequence, the use of ICT will not only enhance learning environments but also prepare next generation for future lives and career. People have to access knowledge via ICT to keep pace with the latest developments (Plomp, Pelgrum & Law, 2007). It improves the perception and understanding of the world of the student. Thus, ICT can be used to prepare the workforce for the information society and the new global economy (Kozma, 2005). Plomp et al (2007) state that the experience of many teachers, who are early innovators, is that the use of ICT is motivating for the students as well as for the teachers themselves. ICT improves the quality of education by facilitating learning by doing, real time conversation, delayed time conversation, directed instruction, self-learning, problem solving, information seeking and analysis, and critical thinking, as well as the ability to communicate, collaborate and learn (Yuen et al, 2003). Laval and Rehbein (2004) state that the literature contains many unsubstantiated claims about the revolutionary potential of ICTs to improve the quality of education. They also note that some claims are now deferred to a near future when hardware will be presumably more affordable and software will become, at last, an effective learning tool. ICT helps students to their learning by improving the communication between them and the instructors (Valasidou and Bousiou, 2005). Fuchs and Woessman (2004) used international data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), they showed that while the bivariate correlation between the availability of ICT and students’ performance is strongly and significantly positive, the correlation becomes small and insignificant when other student environment characteristics are taken into consideration. Fister et al (2008) depict the power of tablet PCs to improve mathematics instruction. ICTs have the potential for increasing access to and improving the relevance and quality of education. The use of ICT in educational settings, by itself acts as a catalyst for change in this domain. Students using ICTs for learning purposes become immersed in the process of learning and as more and more students use computers as information sources and cognitive. The Must Learn IT project targets primary schools in different European countries operating under special conditions such as multigrade and remote schools, where a few teachers (or even a single teacher) are responsible for teaching a small number of pupils of different ages and grades a variety of lessons and where often there are no “subject specific expert” teachers for a number of lessons, as

P a g e | 63 opposed to larger “standard” primary schools where several teachers of various specializations cater for classes, each of which consists of pupils of the same age and abilities. (mustlearnIT project 2015) The impact this project generates the following: On an educational level it will reinforce the teaching of special subject lessons for which a relevant "expert" teacher is not available to small/isolated multigrade primary schools. In the cases where there was previously no opportunity to teach the special lesson, now there is a prospect for these pupils to be provided by instruction in this lesson. In other cases, a chance is provided to upgrade instruction in lessons for which the teacher currently responsible is not suitably qualified. An interest in the concept of sharing resources among schools, be it personnel, educational material or infrastructures, all with the support of ICT On a social level teachers and pupils will feel less isolated and excluded from the school reality of larger "standard" central schools and the opportunities/facilities/etc. they offer their pupils. (mustlearnIT project 2015) Teachers will broaden their experience and outlook on using ICT within the particular conditions their small and/or multigrade school environment imposes. (mustlearnIT project 2015) The use of ICTs in education have a positive impact on teaching and learning. ICT can affect the delivery of education and enable wider access to it. Moreover it will increase flexibility so that learners can access the education regardless of ethnicity, type of community and scholastics performance. It can influence the way pupils are taught and how they learn.

THEORIES OF THE STUDY This study follows the Cognitive Load Theory, cognitive load refers to the total amount of mental effort being used in the working memory. Cognitive load theory was developed out of the study of problem solving by John Sweller in the late 1980s. Sweller argued that instructional design can be used to reduce cognitive load in learners. He devised several principle of this theories based on the following: Multimedia principle: Deeper learning is observed when words and relevant graphics are both presented than when words are presented alone (also called the multimedia effect). (Clark, etal 2011) Simply put, the three most common elements in multimedia presentations are relevant graphics, audio narration, and explanatory text. Combining any two of these three elements works better than using just one or all three, in the study, computer tablet and the Smart TV act as the multi-media devices. Modality principle: Deeper learning occurs when graphics are explained by audio narration instead of onscreen text. Exceptions have been observed when learners are familiar with the content, are not native speakers of the narration language, or when only printed words appear on the screen.(Clark, etal 2011). In the study, the computer tablet and the Smart TV both have loud speaker for the pupils to hear the multimedia. Signalling principle: The use of visual, auditory, or temporal cues to draw attention to critical elements of the lesson. Common techniques include arrows, circles, highlighting or bolding text, and pausing or vocal emphasis in narration (Clark, etal 2011) in the study, colorful and engaging images draw the pupil’s attention toward the computer tablet, with this attention of the pupils is prioritized. Learner control principle: Deeper learning occurs when learners can control the rate at which they move forward through segmented content. (Moreno 2007) Learners tend to do best when the narration stops after a short, meaningful segment of content is given and the learner has to click a "continue" button in order to start the next segment. Some research suggests not overwhelming the learner with too many control options, however. Giving just pause and play buttons may work better than giving pause, play, fast forward, reverse buttons (Savoji 2011), In this study, computer tablet can be manipulated by the pupils at their own pace, thus individual learning is established.

P a g e | 64 METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH DESIGN The method of research used is experimental. In this method, the group is exposed to a certain experimental factor (ICT integration), however before the start of the experiment, this group is given a pre-test about the subject matter (Mathematics) to be covered by the experiment. Then after the experimental period, the group is given the same pre-test but in different form. The excess of the result of the post-test over the result of the pre-test is considered caused by the experimental factor. Moreover, the level of excess found is matched from the control group (Without ICT integration) who by the same method but without the influenced of the experiment. With this in mind, the study focus on 20 pupils, taken from grade one and grade two of Nayon Elementary School using their general weighted average from Mathematics. 10 pupils were selected from grade one and 10 pupils were selected from grade two. Ranking method were used and the top performer from each group were selected as the respondent. From the 20 respondent, 10 from grade one and 10 from grade two went to the study. From this 10 respondents of grade one, 5 pupils has been taught using ICT integration (Experimental group) and 5 pupils has been taught using the usual practice of teaching (Control Group) From the 10 respondents of grade two, 5 pupils has been taught using ICT Integration (Experimental group) and 5 pupils has been taught using the usual practice of teaching (Control Group) STATISTICAL TREATMENT To determine the performance of the control group and experimental group in pre –test and post-test, average and percentage score was used. RESEARCH RESULT AND DISCUSSION RESULT AND DISCUSSION 1. What is the Profile of the multi-grade classes in terms of Ethnicity? From the 20 respondents, 10 were Dumagat learners and 10 were Non-Dumagat learners. TABLE 1 Profile of the Multi-Grade classes in terms of Ethnicity GRADE LEVEL

DUMAGAT LEARNERS

NON-DUMAGAT LEARNERS

TOTAL

GRADE ONE

5

5

10

GRADE TWO

5

5

10

TOTAL

10

10

20

The table reveals that there is an equal number of grade one and grade two respondents and equal number of Dumagat learners and Non-Dumagat learners. This implies that in academics, Dumagat learners compete in terms of academic performance to nonDumagat learners.

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2. What is the average score of the control group and experimental group in the pre-test? TABLE 2 PRE-TEST AVERAGE SCORE OF THE CONTROL GROUP (NO ICT INTEGRATION)

The average of the pre-test from the control group (No ICT integration) is 13.6 or 54%. PRE-TEST

GRADE ONE

AVERAGE

PERCENTAGE SCORE

GRADE TWO

AVERAGE 12.2 15 13.6 This implies that the average percentage score is below the mastery level.

54%

TABLE 3 PRE-TEST AVERAGE SCORE OF THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP (WITH ICT INTEGRATION) PRE-TEST

AVERAGE

GRADE ONE

GRADE TWO

16.2

15.6

AVERAGE

PERCENTAGE SCORE

15.8

63%

The average of the pre-test from the experimental group (With ICT Integration) is 15.8 or 63%. This implies that the average percentage score is below the mastery level.

P a g e | 66 3. What is the average score of the control group and experimental group in the post test? TABLE 4 POST-TEST AVERAGE SCORE OF THE CONTROL GROUP (NO ICT INTEGRATION)

The average score of the control group (No ICT integration) is 14.5 or 58%. POST-TEST

(GRADE ONE)

AVERAGE

PERCENTAGE SCORE

(GRADE TWO)

AVERAGE 13.4 15.6 14.5 This implies that the average percentage score is below the mastery level.

58%

TABLE 5 POST-TEST AVERAGE SCORE OF THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP (WITH ICT INTEGRATION) POST-TEST

(GRADE ONE) 25

AVERAGE

PERCENTAGE SCORE

25

100 %

(GRADE TWO) 25

AVERAGE The average score of the experimental group (With ICT Integration) is 25 or 100%. This implies that the respondents got the highest mastery level on the post test. 4. Is there a significant difference between the performance of the control group and experimental group in the post test as revealed by their average scores? There is a significant difference between the performances of the control group and experimental group in the post-test. The total average of the control group (No ICT Integration) is 58% while the experimental group (With ICT Integration) 100%.

P a g e | 67 TABLE 6 AVERAGE PRE-TEST SCORE AND POST TEST SCORE OF THE CONTROL GROUP AND EXPERIMENTAL GROUP

RESPONDENTS

PRE-TEST PERCENTAGE SCORE

POST-TEST PERCENTAGE SCORE

CONTROL GROUP (NO ICT INTEGRATION)

54%

58%

63%

100 %

EXPERIMENTAL GROUP (WITH ICT INTEGRATION)

The table reveals that the experimental group (With ICT Integration) have a higher percentage score as compare to the control group (No ICT Integration). This implies that ICT integration improves the score of the post-test as compare to the group with no ICT integration.

Implication of ICT integration to pupil’s performance on Mathematics The respondents from the experimental group who undertook the ICT integration shows a bigger increase in their grade compare to the group who did not receive the ICT integration. This implies that integrating Information and Communication Technology specifically the smart TV, netbook, computer tablet as a tool to aid learning will help the pupils in multi-grade setting achieve higher scholastic performance. CONCLUSION There is significant difference between the performance of the control group and experimental group in the post-test. The experimental group with ICT integration performs better in post-test compare to control group with no ICT integration. RECOMMENDATION 1. Continues use of ICT tools in teaching must be implemented. 2. Conduct similar research using other respondents and variables. 3. Intensify networking to other agencies, institutions, Government Organization, Non-Government Organization for the provision of computer technology tools.

P a g e | 68 REFERENCES http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/country/home/tags/philippines http://www.centre for multigrade education - CMGE.html Amita Legaspi April 2012 GMA News “PNoy wants tablet PCs for PHL students” http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/256066/scitech/technology/pnoy-wants-tablet-pcs-for-phlstudents Clarke, Ruth C.; Mayer, Richard E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. (3rd ed.). John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-learning(theory) Laurence Wolff and Norma Garcia (2000) Multi Grade Schools and Technology. Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. http://www.TechKnowLogia.org (retrieved December 4, 2014) Fister, K. R., & McCarthy, M. L. (2008). “Mathematics instruction and the tablet PC”. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, Vol. 39 No. (3), Pp; 285-292. http://www.eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ789605 Fuchs; Woessman, l. (2004). “Computers and Student Learning: Bivariate and Multivariate Evidence on the Availability and Use of Computers at Home and at School”, CESifo Working Paper. No. 1321. November. Munich. http://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/6485932.pdf Jilks, J. (2015, April 28). Ottawa-Carleton District School Board . Retrieved from Split Grade Classes: http://oar.nipissingu.ca/PDFS/V732E.pdf Harris, S. (2002). Innovative pedagogical practices using ICT in schools in England. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, No. 18, Pp;449-458. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.0266-4909.2002.00256.x/abstract http://mustlearnit.cti.gr/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=19 S.E., Laval, M.E., Rehbein, L. F. (2004) "Technology in Schools: Education, ICT and the Knowledge Society "OECD. www1.worldbank.org/education/pdf/ICT_report_oct04a.pdf. Kozma, R.(2005), 'National Policies That Connect ICT-Based Education Reform To Economic And Social Development', Human Technology Vol.1, No. (2), Pp; 117-156. https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/handle/123456789/20179 Moreno, R., “Optimizing learning from animations by minimizing cognitive load: Cognitive and affective consequences of signaling and segmentation methods.” Applied Cognitive Psychology, 21, 765–781, 2007 retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_load MustlearnIT project retrieved from http://mustlearnit.cti.gr/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=19 Plomp, T.; Pelgrum, W. J. & Law, N. (2007), 'SITES2006—International comparative survey of pedagogical practices and ICT in education', Education and Information Technologies Vol.12, No. (2), Pp; 83- 92. http://www.iea.nl/fileadmin/user_upload/Publications/Electronic_versions/SITES_2006_Technical_ Report.pdf

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Savoji, A.P.; Hassanabadi, H.; Fasihipour, Z. (2011). "The modality effect in learner-paced multimedia learning.". Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 30: 1488–1493. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_load Sweller, J (June 1988). "Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning". Cognitive Science 12 (2): 257–285. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_load Valasidou A, Sidiropoulos D, Hatzis T, Bousiou-Makridou D (2005).”Guidelines for the Design and Implementation of E-Learning Programmes, Proceedings of the IADIS”. International Conference IADIS E-Society 2005, 27 June- 30 June, Qawra, Malta. http://www.nyu.edu/classes/keefer/waoe/amins.pdf Yusuf, M.O. (2005). Information and communication education: Analyzing the Nigerian national policy for information technology. International Education Journal Vol. 6 No. (3), Pp; 316-321. http://www.nyu.edu/classes/keefer/waoe/amins.pdf

DON’T LIMIT YOUR CHALLENGES, CHALLENGE YOUR LIMIT

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Anonymous

CHAPTER FIVE How to Make an Effective Oral Research Presentation?

Now it’s time to make your hard work pay off. You want other teachers to see your craft and let them decide whether they can use it or not. You want other researcher to evaluate it and make some suggestion afterwards. But no matter how easy it might look, an oral presentation still brings panic to many teachers. To mitigate that, here are some suggestions.

Review your Paper Well Analyze your work again and again. There’s nothing more important than having a well-reviewed paper. Teachers fall into a trap of relying so much to index card for reference guide. That little notes you have in hand while you are presenting is sure to help. But if you will look like a person which read everything he says, you will be view as less prepared. If you need to memorize important details of your work then so do it. Things like a good introduction that elicit excitement to the audience must be recall in head and not read on notes. Important data and figures are equally important as well. Sometimes when you lost track of your presentation, details like these seems difficult to look in your slides. Its better that you too memorize them.

 Review your Research Paper well before the Presentation  Know and understand your audience  Trim down your presentation to a manageable time  Organize your topic  Use cues and body language when hitting important detail  Provoke curiosity to your audience You have a students who sell banana que and palamig in your class. You know that the student are very poor and you allow him to, but the school canteen insisted otherwise. What will you do as a teacher?

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Know your Audience No two audience are alike, nor two group of crowds. In other words, executing your works to any audience won’t bring same results. An applauded presentation from your co-teachers might not do so well to a group of school heads and principals. Always ask beforehand what could your audience needs from you? And then try to amplify that needs in your presentation. There’s no need to highlight information that eventually common to your listener. Just the complicated topic which support your ideas. Limit your Presentation to Manageable Time If you rushed your presentation you’re sure to fail. Don’t bring everything to the table of your audience. Don’t make yourself sound like a broken CD. Things like these happens when you try to cram all details to your presentation. There’s no need to put every text and figure to your slides. Sure it look like a well-made PowerPoint™ but what’s the deal? Do you think they will listen to it? Unfortunately they will become bored and might say “I understand nothing!” So to avoid such problem, make your presentation match to the given time. Trim down all less important and amplify the topic that’s suited to the taste of the listeners. Organize Your Topic Let your audience feel the same way as making a completed research. Start with a good introduction, followed by a well cited literature and study reviews. Methodologies and Result and Discussion comes after. Make your presentation look like you start with a problem that ended with a solution formulated specifically for that problem. This way, your audience can follows you and eventually make some great insights about your works.

 Review your Research Paper well before the Presentation  Know and understand your audience  Trim down your presentation to a manageable time  Organize your topic  Use cues and body language when hitting important details  Provoke curiosity to your audience Your school MOOE is given properly to the school and teacher’s needs. Unfortunately this is not much. Is it appropriate to make a teachers contribution to patch up the financial shortages?

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Use Cues and Body Language When Hitting an Important Details One of the difference between a good speaker and an average one is the way the former hit several words that triggered motivations. Every emotions is matched with language cues and body movement. Used that to pin point important matter. It will be easy to your audience to catch your ideas that way. Hand gesture and eye contact are some prime example. Provoke Curiosity To Your Audience Tease your listener about your works. The same way as a movie trailer excite the moviegoers, curiosity increase their profits. To do it, think of the things your audience don’t usually heard or seen. If it is something new it will sure give some interest. Make your presentation a dire need to your listeners.

Tips on PowerPoint™ Presentation Less is Better People assume that more is better. Well in the case of PowerPoint presentation it’s the opposite. Look at any billboard Ad or any promotional poster. You’ll see that it contain the most important details and contain less text. Your audience hate reading long words and figures. They prefer straight to the point slides and less distraction. If everything can be seen on your slide then what’s the use of the person who will present? That is, memorize important details and practice your works in order not to tempted to read everything written at your slides

 Less is better when using powerpoint presentation  Lighter background and less animation is good for presentation  Always practice with a friend Some of the students watch a porn video on their lunch time. This create commotion and noise in the canteen. You are the only teacher in the area. What is the first thing you will do?

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Use Light Slide Background and Less Animation Don’t put your luck on fancy animation and striking background. Your audience are after on the content of the research not on the pleasure of watching flying clipart or moving objects. In addition make your slide background on the lighter side. This give emphasis on the content especially when it is use on a projector.

Practice with a Friend A common mistake of beginner presenter is about his/her

 Less is better when using powerpoint presentation  Lighter background and less animation is good for presentation  Always practice with a friend

mannerism. They fall into the trap of constantly looking at their slides hoping all their fear will vanish right away. This could be avoided when you practice with a groups of friends. Your audience want you to look at them at all times and not on your slides. Moreover, your colleagues can point out your weakness and at the same time your strengths. You can easily magnify your good points with their feedbacks.

You have one student who sings very well. She even know how to play some musical instruments. Because of this, her parents thinks she should work for a singing career right away. Do you think their decision is correct?

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Tips for Making an Action Research Poster It’s very common for a Research Conference to have a poster presentation. This type of exhibition are intended to teachers who need to grasp the concept immediately. The main purpose of it is for easy communication of ideas and research designs made by the author/s. The next page shows an example of Poster for Action



Your Poster must not contain everything your paper has. You should include only all necessary details and ideas.

Research. Note that each text is clear and easy to read. Your Poster must not contain everything your paper has. You should only include all needed details and ideas. In terms of aesthetic, use complementary colors and different shades of the same color for easy readability and artistic feel. “How to Create a Research Poster” (2019) give some tips on what makes a good Research Poster. 

Important information should be readable from about 10 feet away



Title is short and draws interest



Word count of about 300 to 800 words



Text is clear and to the point



Use of bullets, numbering, and headlines make it easy to read



Effective use of graphics, color and fonts



Consistent and clean layout



Includes acknowledgments, your name and institutional affiliation

2019, January 20, Retrieved from (https://guides.nyu.edu/posters)

You want to implement inquiry based instruction. But your students are not cooperative. They hate to ask question and insisted to spoon feed all info that they need. What is the best way to do?

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A good introduction start with what your study is all about, Excite your audience by using positive words and energetic phrases.

Make only 2 to 4 questions.

Identify relevant information about how the research was made

Don’t use irrelevant words. Make your Result Straight to the point.

Simplify your conclusion and recommendation Don’t forget to acknowledge your references

 

Note that the Text has been reduced to portray readability. A common poster has a larger size which could accommodate smaller text. The clipart of smiling students was sourced on the following site: (2018, March 4). Child hands [digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/search?q=child+hands+clipart&client=ms-androidsamsung&source=androidbrowser&prmd=insv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2a hUKEwiyrLKfgp3iAhWPGqYKHXMJB8Q_AUoAXoECAwQAQ&biw=360&bih=544#imgrc=8 nzwvla2ehQvYM&imgdii=9VTn8yr_M8QKnM

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Tips on Presenting at the Conference In contrast to Oral Research presentation, poster on the other hand is a tad simpler and relaxed. Don’t get me wrong, it still needs some cues and reminders for it to be successful. Now, here are some recommendations.

Tips on presenting at the Conference  Be Attentive  Tell them how you did it  Be open for future collaboration

Be Attentive Your audience want to hear a lot from the authors themselves. Your mere presence must dictate the quality and substance of your work. Give them the impression that you are knowledgeable about your topic and you know every detail of building it. Always acknowledge every queries raised by the viewers no matter how simple or complicated their questions. Point your strong qualities. Tell them how you come up with the study and how you did solve daunting problems related to your work. If you are not sure about their questions, don’t get embarrassed to ask again. You can even tell them to rephrase it if necessary. This will prompt them that you are very interested. And lastly always have a spill to tell. Memorize certain phrases or words that will be remembered by your audience. Tell Them How You Did It Create a narrative on how you come up with your Action Research. Did it start immediately or its ideas originates from a long time ago? Excite your audience from your setbacks and excruciating challenges. Let them feel that you love your work and this give you wisdom on your current careers. The easiest way to do this is to build a scenario where your current problem lies and then let your audience guess a possible

You implement differentiated instruction by using station based lesson. What do you think will be your prime problem in implementing it?

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solution to it. Acknowledge that solution and tell them you just come up with a good substitute. Tell them that your alternative is the product of the action research. Tell also some possible future topic which is related to your existing research. In that sense, they will have some ideas to work with in their own school. Be Open For Future Collaborations

Tips on presenting at the Conference  Be Attentive  Tell them how you did it  Be open for future collaboration

If someone is very eager to know your work, you should suggest a separate meeting with them. If that wasn’t possible, at least be sure to communicate right after. Who knows, they might have the resources that could fuel your endeavor to a higher level. A good collaboration means you’re not alone in your problem. Research conference don’t stop the moment the programs end. Most of the time the teachers and principals who participate become more interested on research which leads to unprecedented output.

How graphic organizer can help to develop ideas and creativity?

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APPENDIX TEMPLATE FOR ACTION RESEARCH (Suggested Format) ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ (Title)

(Authors Name) Context and Rationale (Give a general information about your action research) ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ (List down all supporting details or reason for the problem raised) ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ (State the most common solution to that problem) ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________

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(Tell why the solution work or why it won’t) ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ (State your own solution or improvement to the common solution)_____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ (Relate your own solution or improvement to the common solution)_____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Add your final thoughts to the problem ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________

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Review of Related Literature (Look for the most common topic or study related to your own research)____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ (Give its importance or relation to the present study)_______________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ (Look for the most common topic or study related to your own research)____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ (Give its importance or relation to the present study)_______________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ (Look for the most common topic or study related to your own research)____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________

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(Give its importance or relation to the present study)_______________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ (Look for the most common topic or study related to your own research)____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ (Give its importance or relation to the present study)_______________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ (Look for the most common topic or study related to your own research)____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ (Give its importance or relation to the present study)_______________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________

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Research Questions (Khan, Khoso & Qureshi, as cited by Malik, N & Hollingswoth, S , 2012) Problem Number 1 1. Identify Problem

the The Problem is ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ 2. Why the Problem List several Possibilities is happening? a.______________________________________________ b.______________________________________________ c.______________________________________________ d.______________________________________________ e.______________________________________________ Choose one or two that represent your best guess that you can do in a reasonable amount of time.

3. Brainstorm all List several solution possible solution a.______________________________________________ to solve the problem. b.______________________________________________ c.______________________________________________ d.______________________________________________ e.______________________________________________ Choose one or two that represent your best guess that you can do in a reasonable amount of time

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4. Write research questions.

your What is __________________________________________ ___________________________ (Effect, used, importance ,etc) of _________________________________________(solution) to the ______________________________________ (problem)

Formulate your research question _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ Problem Number 2 1. Identify Problem

the The Problem is ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ 2. Why the Problem List several Possibilities is happening? a.______________________________________________ b.______________________________________________ c.______________________________________________ d.______________________________________________ e.______________________________________________ Choose one or two that represent your best guess that you can do in a reasonable amount of time

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3. Brainstorm all List several solution possible solution a.______________________________________________ to solve the problem. b.______________________________________________ c.______________________________________________ d.______________________________________________ e.______________________________________________ Choose one or two that represent your best guess that you can do in a reasonable amount of time 4. Write research questions.

your What is __________________________________________ ___________________________ (Effect, used, importance ,etc) of _________________________________________(solution) to the ______________________________________ (problem)

Formulate your research question _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________

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Problem Number 3 1. Identify Problem

the The Problem is ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ 2. Why the Problem List several Possibilities is happening? a.______________________________________________ b.______________________________________________ c.______________________________________________ d.______________________________________________ e.______________________________________________ Choose one or two that represent your best guess that you can do in a reasonable amount of time

3. Brainstorm all List several solution possible solution a.______________________________________________ to solve the problem. b.______________________________________________ c.______________________________________________ d.______________________________________________ e.______________________________________________ Choose one or two that represent your best guess that you can do in a reasonable amount of time

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4. Write research questions.

your What is __________________________________________ ___________________________ (Effect, used, importance ,etc) of _________________________________________(solution) to the ______________________________________ (problem)

Formulate your research question _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________

Scope and Limitation The purpose of this Action Research is ________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ (State the topic studied and researched) ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ (State the locale of the study, the school, the grade level or section) ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ (State the number of the respondents) ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ (State the time or duration of the Action Research) ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________

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Methodology The study use ____________________________ (type of research). The data was collected from _____________________________________________ (respondents) and analyze using ___________________________ (Statistical tools). The Research use __________________________________________________ __________________________ (other materials or equipment utilized in the study) for _________________________________________________ (State the reason of using them)

Result and Discussion (First Problem) 1. _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ ____________________________? Table 1 __________________________________________ __________________________________________

It can be gleaned from the table 1 that ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

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The result is supported by the study of ______________________________________ which shows that _______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ (Second Problem) 2. _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ ____________________________? Table 2 __________________________________________ __________________________________________

It can be gleaned from the table 1 that ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ The result is supported by the study of ______________________________________ which shows that _______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

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(Third Problem) 3. _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ ____________________________? Table 3 __________________________________________ __________________________________________

It can be gleaned from the table 1 that ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ The result is supported by the study of ______________________________________ which shows that _______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

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Action Plan AREA OF CONCERN

OBJECTIVES

STRATEGIES / ACTIVITIES

TIME FRAME

PERSONS INVOLVED

PERFORMANCE INDICATOR

References Author, A. (Year of Publication). Title of work. Publisher City, Publisher. ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ __________ Author, A. (Year of Publication). Title of work. Publisher City, Publisher. ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ __________ Author, A. (Year, Month Date of Publication). Article title. Retrieved from URL ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ __________ Article title. (Year, Month Date of Publication). Retrieved from URL

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______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ __________ Article title. (Year, Month Date of Publication). Retrieved from URL ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ __________ Article title. (Year, Month Date of Publication). Retrieved from URL ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ __________ Photographer, A. (Photographer). (Year, Month Date of Publication). Title of photograph [digital image]. Retrieved from URL ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ _______

P a g e | 92 ABSTRACT This Action Research was conceived from ________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ (State the general problem) Specifically it determined the (effectiveness, used or effect) of_____________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ (State the solution created) The methods of research use is/are ____________________________________ (Quantitative or Qualitative). The researcher utilized _______________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________ (state the tools or equipment used such as questionnaire or interviews) It is used for ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ( State how the tools and equipment has been used) The respondents are ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ (State the characteristics of your respondents). The study shows that ______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ (state the summary of your findings)

Keywords _______________, ________________, ________________, ________________ (List down all related topic or words from your research)

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REFERENCES Books Faltado III, R., Bombita, M., Boholano, H.,& Pogoy, A.,(2016). Practical Quantitative Research. Quezon City, Metro Manila,

2,

Lorimar Publishing Inc.

Hollingsworth, S. Nugent, G., and Malik, S., (2012). A Practical Guide to Research for Literacy Educators. Washington DC,

Research

Action

International

Reading

Association Inc. Prieto N., Naval, V., & Carey, T., (2017). Practical Research for Senior Qualitative. Quezon City, Metro Manila, Lorimar

High School 1,

Publishing Inc.

Electronic Sources

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/100047/chapters/What-Is- ActionResearch%C2%A2.aspx https://www.edglossary.org/action-research/ https://gse.gmu.edu/research/tr/tr-action https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/what-are-the-benefits-of- educational-research-forteachers http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational- leadership/oct93/vol51/num02/ActionResearch@-Three- Approaches.aspx https://bizfluent.com/list-7608678-types-action-research-design.html

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http://www.deped.gov.ph/2015/09/16/do-43-s-2015-revised-guidelines-for-the-basiceducation-research-fund-berf/ https://www.editage.com/insights/how-to-write-the-rationale-for-research). https://libguides.uwf.edu/c.php?g=215199&p=1420520 https://guides.nyu.edu/posters https://www.google.com/search?q=child+hands+clipart&client=ms-androidsamsung&source=androidbrowser&prmd=insv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiyrLKfgp3iAhWP GqYKHXMJB8Q_AUoAXoECAwQAQ&biw=360&bih=544#imgrc=8nzwvla2ehQvYM &imgdii=9VTn8yr_M8QKnM) http://openphd.blogspot.com/2012/01/differences-between-action-research-and.html