Combination Classes and Its Effect on Pupils Academic Performance in Sitio Lawigan 1

Primary School: Basis For Intervention

CHAPTER 1

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Ensuring the right to educate is the heart of every Filipino people’s bearing the

right to quality education for all. In Philippines, and in other provinces, the main

structure for arranging classes in the formal school system is by grouping learners of

the same narrow age band into the same grade; this arrangement is known as the

single-grade structure. The single-grade arrangement is well established at all levels

of mainstream schooling in Philippines and will had a profound influence on many

aspects of schooling and school processes such as the way the curriculum is designed

and the way learners are taught and assess. It is the most favored arrangement among

teachers (Little, 2005). But whilst the school system is predicated on ‘gradedness’,

very large numbers of learners and teachers in mainly primary schools in rural areas

such as in commercial farm and township schools in different provinces in

Philippines, engage in teaching and learning in classes that are multigraded (Mathot,

1998; Joubert, 2007); that is, classes where two or more ‘official’ grade levels are

combined. Learners learning in a combined class thus retain their grade designation

and specific grade level curricula.

UNESCO has a special mandate to assist countries and guide them towards

achieving education for all. The backlog in meeting the target of basic education for

all, coupled with new demands for the expansion of other levels of education, places a

formidable burden on countries. In addition, many countries face severe budget

constraints and have little or no room for maneuvering. This is compounded by a lack

of qualified, skilled teachers. For small communities, often located in remote,

isolated, and poor regions of a country, schools with multigrade or combination

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Primary School: Basis For Intervention

classes become a viable alternative. However, while multigrade classrooms address

the right to education by providing more students with an education, quality becomes

harder for teachers to ensure when they need to work with more than one grade at the

same time. Multigrade teachers may find their work particularly challenging when

teaching a curriculum designed for monograde classes and when needing to react to

the varied students’ interests and abilities within their classrooms.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

The combination class, in which students from two adjacent grades are

grouped within one classroom under one teacher, is a tool that school administrators

can use to manage uneven class sizes and conserve scarce facility and personnel

resources. If combination-class membership has a nonnegative effect on student

outcomes, offering them could be an attractive strategy for schools looking to save

money without sacrificing educational quality.

From the nineteeth century up to the present around the world, there exist multigrade

schools that hold classes where one teacher is responsible for pupils belonging to

different age, groups, grade levels, and curricula.

In the Philippines, there are areas where enrolment is low or there is a lack of

teachers making it necessary for different grade levels to be combined. Thus, in areas

that are isolated and sparsely populated, geographically inacessible, or deficient in

educational resources, multigrade classes have been adopted as a strategy to ensure

Education for all.

Combination class (multugrade) is an extremely popular education reform

among many stakeholders, including students, parents, teachers, school

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Primary School: Basis For Intervention

administrators, and educationalists. With such broad appeal, reducing combine class

is also popular among policymakers. Intuitively, students in smaller classes should

have better learning outcomes than students in larger classes—for example, the

teacher can provide more individualized attention in smaller classes, and classroom

discipline is easier with fewer students

Research shows that, aside from providing access, multigrade instruction

delivers the same kind of education as monograde classes and in some cases,

improves the effectiveness of educational delivery and contributes to the social

development of pupils. It also indicates that the costs of reducing combine class are

more likely to exceed the benefits and that other education policies, such as tutoring,

early childhood programs, or improving teacher quality, would be better investments.

In addition, a simple comparison of achievement across classrooms of

different sizes will reflect the true relationship between combination classes and

student achievement, for a number of reasons. For example, in the US, where the

biggest source of funding is local property tax revenue, schools in wealthier areas

are more likely to have smaller classes and higher achievement due to students’ more

advantaged backgrounds, rather than being a casual effect of smaller classes. In

contrast, if a school provides smaller classes for its most “at-risk” students, the result

will be higher achievement in the larger classes, again for reasons unrelated to class

size.

And so according to some educators, for multigrade schools to perform better

and therefore improving learning outcomes, the curriculum will be made more

relevant and responsive to the abilities of the learners. Recently there has been much

concern expressed about quality teaching in educational institutions, while industries

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Primary School: Basis For Intervention

in the rapidly changing society have been concerned about the well educated person.

These concems have led to the issue of teaching strategies and their effectiveness in

multigradea classes. As a multigrade educators it is our responsibility to ensure

adequate teaching and learning as necessary to meet the changing needs of every

individual learns and the values of society. Accordingly teaching is the opportunity to

help others to live their lives fully, which means we help to give to our learners' lives

through their physical, emotional, intellectual and social growth. Anderson (1994)

concluded that student outcomes may heavily depend on the teacher's instructional

planning, teaching method selection, and having a variety of learning activities. The

Committee on Multigrade Education suggested that the teaching strategy becomes the

most critical element to educate students in learning activities.

Meanwhile, multigrade classrooms address the right to education by providing

more students with an education, quality becomes harder for teachers to ensure when

they need to work with more than one grade at the same time. Multigrade teachers

may find their work particularly challenging when teaching a curriculum designed for

monograde classes and when needing to react to the varied students’ interests and

abilities within their classrooms.

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Primary School: Basis For Intervention

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

In today’s global world, higher education institutions face new challenges to

provide timely and proper responses to an urgent needs for distributed learning

opportunities to all. Relevant knowledge, and good health considered to be the

most effective means for local empowerment and community for self-sustained

development, to assure better levels of life quality. According to Akanle, (2007)

academic achievement is important for elementary age children as a tool for

successful life as an adult. Academic achievement is also a crucial mandate for

schools. Proper nutrition on the other hand for our children is a construct in

which the individual as an indivisible being attains a positive state of integration

of mind, body, and spirit with the environmental contexts. Academic achievement

for children occurs within the construct of proper nutrition and wellness, as

there is mutual influence between academic factors and non-academic factors for

a child.

However, there are effects that influence the academic achievement of

students through having a multigrade classes. From the study of Murray et al. (2013),

proper nutrition, teacher characteristics and experience, students behavior, school

facilities as well as learning materials are identify as key elements that will affect

children’s academic performance. Likewise, living condition and school related

effects on instructional facilities, equipment available and training of teachers, and

students participation identifies as factors that influence pupils’ academic

performance in a combination (multigrade) classes. Basil (2007), identified

encouragement from parents and influence of people surrounding an individual

that can affect children’s academic performance. Pupil’s life contains many
Combination Classes and Its Effect on Pupils Academic Performance in Sitio Lawigan 6
Primary School: Basis For Intervention

important effects that may hinder or improve it. It has been recognized that

nutrition and the health of an individual influences more than just their physical

well-being. It also influences academic performance. Academic achievement is

extremely important for the pupils, as it is a main determinant of their future,

(Clark, M, Fox, M, 2009). Similarly, Kundu and Tutoo (2000) believed, that home

background is the most significant primary factor which influences and shapes

children’s attitudes, personality and behavior patterns that lead to good

performance in schools. Likewise, Maani (1990) observes that pupils’ success in

school is closely related to their home backgrounds. These include; level of

education of parents, family income, parents’ marital status, and attitudes of

parents towards education of their children and the children’s attitudes and the

quality of learners admitted in school. From the work of Omizo (2008), external

factors were considered as having a kind of role to play on pupils’ academic

performance. Also Omizo reported that a young person’s belief about pupils’

academic performance is influenced by their perceptions, food intake and

expectations of others such as parents and teachers.

The researcher has indicated that the conceptual framework in this study is

designed to illustrate how the multigrade teachers perceive benefits and challenges of

learning and teaching in multigrade settings. Perception can be understood within a

framework of the Gestalt theory. The Gestalt notion explains theories of perception,

perceptual experience and measurement of perceptual experiences.

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Primary School: Basis For Intervention

COMBINATION CLASSES

Factors that effect on

Academic Achievement

Students’ Profile  Personal Factor  Learning

 Proper Nutrition Achievements
 Age  Living Condition in all aspect
 Student behavior of education
 Sex  Instructional factor
 Instructional
 Economic facilities
Status  Learning material
 Equipment
 Family available
Background  Teacher Factor
 Teacher
Experiences
 Teacher
Characteristics
 Student
participation
 Environmental factor
 Parent Factor

Figure 1. Schematic Diagram of the Study

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Primary School: Basis For Intervention

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The aims of this study is to identify combination classes and its effect to pupils
academic performance
Specifically, this research study try to answer the following questions:
1. What is the profile of the pupils in terms of:
1.1. Age,
1.2. Sex,
1.3. Economic Status,
1.4. Family background.
2. To what extent do respondents perceive the effect of the academic performance in
the subject among the combined class as to:
2.1. Personal Factor
2.2. Instructional Factor
2.3. Teacher Factor
2.4. Environmental Factor
2.5. Parent Factor
3. What is the level of learning performance of the children in Basic English,
Filipino, Science, and Mathematics as to their GPA?
4. What tools are recommended for promoting quality teaching and learning in a
multigrade classroom setting?
5. Is there a significant difference in the perceived effect in academic performance
among children when they are grouped according to their profile variables cited in
problem 1?
6. Based on the result of the study, what developmental program maybe proposed?

HYPOTHESIS

In this study, a null hypothesis will test for significance level at 0.05 margin errors.
This is:
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Primary School: Basis For Intervention

H1: There is no significant differences in the perceived factors that affect the academic
performance among the children when they are grouped according to their profile
variables cited in problem 1.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The findings of this study are deemed particularly useful to the following

users:

Curriculum Planner. This study may enable the Curriculum Planner to

innovate a program on how to deal with the combination classes and its effect on

pupils’ academic performance so that it brings good influence to the students.

School Administrator/Principals. The study may provide information to the

administrators on the learning achievement of the participants and will provide a

clearer view regarding the effect of combination classes. Negative feedback of the

study will elicit administrators' response to counter the problem.

Teacher. Result of this study may lead the class teacher to determine and

understand how crucial their duties and obligations to the pupils since they are the

contributor on the students learning achievements and using combination classes.

Depending upon students responses, this study can identify specific teacher behavior

is that either promote or inhibit positive attitudes.

Pupils. As the main recipient in this study, the pupils will benefits for an

improved curriculum, trainings, upgraded facilities and the refinement towards quality

education of student learning centered.

Department of Education (DepED). As the overseer of quality education, this

kind of study would bring benefit to the DepED in terms of identifying problems and
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Primary School: Basis For Intervention

providing them solutions on matters relevant to the overall welfare of education and

its stakeholders.

Future Researchers. This study will serve as a reference material and as a

source of inspiration for future researchers to come up with a lot of better reasons why

the need to continually assess the programs and projects the school & government are

implementing.

Definition of Terms

The key terms use in this study are conceptually and operationally define in the text

that follow. Understanding these terms will help the reader have a clearer idea of this

study.

Achievement: According to Oxford Advance Leaner’s Dictionary of current English,

achievement means a thing that somebody has done successfully, especially using

his/her own effort and skills. In this study, achievement refers to the score obtained by

the criterion-reference test after learning a conventional teaching.

Children needs: This refers to the children