Hugot Lines: A Technique in Improving the Academic Achievement and Creative Thinking Skills in Science

Abstract

In this thinking world, teachers matter. The ability of a teacher to innovate and create techniques, strategies or tools to enhance the teaching and learning process ensures that problems in the educative process are taken into account. While students themselves are the most responsible for their own learning, good teachers accept the responsibility for the learning of their students. Teenagers are into using hugot lines as a means of getting something out from somewhere deep. Their lines may be related to the emotions they have for any situation. The researcher saw the connection of this pop culture to students, that’s why a strategy was devised to improve understanding of concepts in Biology by developing hugot lines. This action research is geared towards the improvement of the academic performance and creative thinking skills of select Grade 9 students at Bagumbayan National High School through the use of Hugot Lines. Purposive sampling was employed in the study. Section A was taught using the Traditional Method while those in Section B were the experimental group that produced hugot lines. A total of 91 students formed part of the research. Forty-four students comprised Group A while forty-seven were in Group B. The quantitative-qualitative design was used to measure the academic performance of the respondents, scores in pre-test, post test and long test were compared. Descriptive statistics was employed in this study. The creative thinking skills on the other hand were measured through the use of rubrics. Interviews and observations formed part of the data gathering procedure. The results of the study showed that the control group performed better than the experimental group during the pre-test but was outperformed on the post test and long test. After the experimental group was exposed to Hugot lines, a marked improvement on the post test and long test scores was noted. Furthermore, the students were able to better ignite their creative thinking skills by making their own hugot lines. The intervention was well received by the respondents who noted having fun while learning. It is undeniable that many students find Science difficult. Some might even claim that it is a boring subject, since it entails a lot of effort and perseverance. Learning Science should include fun and excitement especially in Biology which requires a lot of concepts to be understood. The use of hugot lines in Science is a cheap, but effective way of making students better learn the subject. It can then be concluded that the use of Hugot Lines is effective in improving the academic performance and creative thinking skills in Biology of Grade 9 students at Bagumbayan National High School.