Enhancing Research Instruction in Stem Strand of Lemery Senior High Schoolthrough Intervention Activities

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Research skills are important among STEM students since they expected to be future engineers, medical professionals, scientists, and other science and technology related professionals. For these reasons, STEM students should be competent in writing research. On the other hand, not all STEM students have good skills in generating research paper easily. Most of them experience difficulties in different areas of research which impede their ability to produce a quality paper. Various strategies were used by the teacher in teaching important concepts and ideas of research but still most of them are experiencing difficulties. In order to solve this dilemma, this study should be conducted to formulate intervention activitiesthat may also enhance the research instruction in STEM strand.

METHODS

This research adopted the descriptive design where the researcher collected data using a validated researcher's made questionnaire which composed of 2 parts. The first part assessed the level of performance of STEM students in Practical Research 1 and 2 and the second part measured their difficulties they encountered in making research paper. Overall, it involved a total of 125 STEM students where 41 came from STEM 12-1, 41 from STEM 12-2 and 43 from STEM 12-3.

RESULTS

The study revealed that STEM students performed very satisfactorily in Practical Research 1 and 2 as supported by the mean score of 86.67 and 87.68 respectively. The study also showed that there is significant difference in the level of performance of the three sections of STEM students in Practical Research 1. However, there is no significant difference existed between the performance of STEM students in Practical Research 2. The average weighted means of 2.78 and 3.31 showed that STEM students encountered difficulties in making research paper with respect to personal and school facilities-related factors to moderate extent. Some experienced difficulties in making research paper due to teacher -related factors as reflected in the average weighted mean of 2.30.

DISCUSSIONS

The findings of the study showed that the STEM students still needed enhancement in writing research paper. This can be done by addressing the difficulties that they encountered in Practical Research 1 and 2 through formulating an enhancement program.