Academic Performance of Filipino Students in United Arab Emirates and Overseas Filipino Workers' Children in The Philippines: Its Implication to Curriculum Development

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

This paper was intended to explore the significant difference of the academic performance of the Filipino students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the overseas Filipino workers’ (OFW's) children here in the Philippines. It delved on the four possible predictors of academic performance, namely, learning styles (LS), emotional intelligence (EI), multiple intelligences (MI), and cultural or situational adaptation.

METHODS

Student respondents came from two prominent schools in the United Arab Emirates, namely, The Philippine School (TPS) and New Filipino Private School (NFPS), and from the four private schools in Sta. Cruz, Laguna, namely, Laguna State Polytechnic University High School (LSPU H.S.), Southbay Montessori, United Evangelical Church School (UECS), and Union College School of Integrated Preparatory Studies (UCSIPS). A sum total of 532 students were part of this study. Researcher-made survey questionnaires were used to collect data.

RESULTS

Filipino students in UAE and OFW's children in the Philippines are mostly left-brain hemispheric. The EI of the students in the self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, and social skills dimensions are moderately high, while in empathy, it is moderate. On the other hand, the MI of the students in the area of linguistic, naturalist and interpersonal is moderately high, while in bodily kinesthetic, intrapersonal, mathematical, musical, and visual/spatial, it is moderate. The cultural adaptation level of the Filipino students in UAE is low while the situational adaptation of OFW's children in the Philippines is moderately high. The academic performance of Filipino students in UAE and OFW's children in the Philippines is average. For TPS, none of the predictors showed influence to students' academic performance. For NFPS, the predictor is LS. For LSPU H.S., it is EI. For Southbay Montessori, it is MI. For UECS, it is situational adaptation. While for UCSIPS, none of the predictors showed influence.

DISCUSSIONS.

Enduring understanding should be reiterated, enhanced or practiced with the equal use of cooperative learning style. There should be enough allotment of time for chapter readings, enhancing the skill of outlining, inclusion of phonics and decoding, sizeable number of worksheets, and more on verbal discussion of the topic for students to exercise social skill. Also, the concept of family unit should be strengthened as a distinct Filipino identity.