The Effectiveness of the Student Handbook in Developing Social Behavior to Grade 10 Students of St. Mary's College Quezon City

Abstract

The primary purpose of the student handbook is to provide students with information, guidelines, and policies that will enhance their adjustments as part of the community of their school. According to George Fox University (2015), "One of the key documents that outline the students experience is the Student Handbook. This defines our community who we are, what we're about, what we believe, how we live and journey together, and the expectations for those who have chosen to become members of our community," and stated that "the students handbook is important for student to read and understand, so they can fully engage in all facets of being a student." This research study determines the effectiveness of student handbook in developing the social behavior of students in St. Mary's College Quezon City (SMCQC). Specifically, this research sought to answer the following questions: 1.How useful is the student handbook in developing the social behavior of Grade 10 students in SMCQC? 2. What is the importance of having a student handbook to Grade 10 students? 3. Is the student handbook useful in developing the social behavior of Grade 10 students of SMCQC?. Data were collected by providing questionnaires to the respondents. The respondents were the Grade 10 student of SMCQCSY 2017-2018. Ten (10) boys and ten (10) girls were selected to answer the questionnaires. Tabular percentage analysis was used in this descriptive research. Majority of the respondents' age range from 14 to 17 years old who read only the policies (80%), rules and regulations (50%), student rules of conduct (20%), honors, awards, and requirements (20%), and grading system (10%). It was also found out that students read their desired part of the student handbook once a month only. Therefore, the student handbook falls short of its effectiveness since its being read only once a month and focusing only on the policies and rules and regulations. The part on student rules of conduct comes next to students' focus. Thus, character formation is fully grounded. It is recommended that the school provide the students with a more exciting student handbook, devise better approaches that would help in improvement of the student handbook in developing the social behavior of their students, provide an orientation atleast twice (2) a month regarding the student handbook so that the students will be updated on its essential parts, and enhance the creative design of the student handbook to gain the attention of the students in using it.