The Relationship of Reading Skill Level and Scientific Ability of Grade 10 Students of Centro de Naic National High School S.Y. 2018-2019

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Comprehension is the main goal when reading and is the key to answering questions. Reading is essential not only for school success but for post-secondary options like getting a job or going to college. Students’ performance should always be monitored by the teachers through different ways of assessment. Primarily, quarterly exams are the most reliable tool in measuring students 'learning. After administering examinations, teachers gather the results such as the raw scores and the mean percentage scores (MPS) to analyze the learning outcome of students in the competencies taught.

After analyzing the mean, standard deviation and MPS of the test results in Science, it was observed that the average MPS of the entire student population within the four quarters (SY 2017-2018) is 60.5 % which is being described byDepartment of Education Standards as "Moving Towards Mastery".” Based on the results of Learning Outcome Assessment (LOA), the study was conducted to identify if reading skill level has a relationship with critical thinking skills in Science (Scientific Ability). This could be a factor why students get low scores in the subjects having English language as the medium of instruction.

METHODS

Descriptive-correlational method was used to determine the relationship between the reading skill level and scientific ability of 400 Grade 10 students. The research participants were selected through convenience sampling method. McGinitie test and a standard scientific Ability test were used to determine the reading skill level and scientific ability of the participants, respectively. All data were checked, tabulated, interpreted using Pearson's correlation.

RESULTS

The average reading skill level of all the participants is 17.25 or is categorized as "Instructional.” This means that the students needed more assistance from a reading teacher to read and comprehend well. The average scientific ability score is 9.20 which can be described as "Fair.” The students possess a fair level of critical thinking in processing Science questions. The two variables were correlated and an R value of +0.59 was obtained. This means that the variables have a strong positive relationship.

DISCUSSIONS

The results show that there is strong positive correlation between reading skill level and scientific ability of Grade 10 participants. It also demonstrates the need for a reading remediation program so that students can perform well and answer tests in different subject areas using English language as medium of instruction.