Research Anxiety among Grade 12 Students

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Senior High School students are being prepared for college education, employment and/or entrepreneurship through different subjects included in the K to 12 Curriculum. Applied subjects including Practical Research 1 and 2 and Inquiries, Immersion and Investigations aim to train students in conducting research using different methods and enhance the research culture but mostly, they are less interested in these subjects and regard them as very challenging but with minimal application to their lives. This study determined the level of anxiety that students manifest due to research-related activities and its relation to their performance.

METHODS

The descriptive-correlation research design was used to determine the relationship between the student's research anxiety and their performance in Practical Research 2 with 130 Grade 12 students selected as respondents using stratified random sampling. The level of research anxiety is determined using a researcher-made questionnaire that explored the level of anxiety that they experience relative to the research processes, namely: initiation, execution and public presentation as well as their performance. Weighted mean, Pearson r and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used for data analysis and interpretation.

RESULTS

Grade 12 students of Southville 1 Integrated National High School manifest a high level of anxiety due to conceptualizing, conducting, and presenting their research. The possibility of failing the subject is the leading cause of anxiety among students as well as the demands of conducting a research on time, effort, and financial resources and their fear of public speaking. Moreover, the Grade 12 students have a satisfactory level of performance in Practical Research 2 but students from the TVL strand only gained fairly satisfactory performance. The level of research anxiety experienced by the students do not differ significantly when they are grouped in terms of strand and specialization and do not have a significant relationship to their performance in Practical Research 2.

DISCUSSIONS

Results imply that students experience similar levels of research anxiety but it does not extremely affect their performance in research. The students’ level of anxiety in conceptualization, conduct, and presentation of their research should be managed and controlled to prevent further problems and implication to their performance. Their performance in research should be improved through capacity building and peer/group research assistance program.