Research Environment and Practices in Public Elementary School in San Juan West District

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

This study assessed the research practices, culture, and capability as basis for the development of research program of public schools in San Juan District. Specifically, the researcher sought to identify the profile of the respondents in terms of age, gender educational attainment, position, number of researches done, method of research used, how the research environment in each public school in San Juan District is best described.

METHODS

In this study, quantitative descriptive method was used to determine the research practices in the public schools in San Juan towards developing research culture and capability. Descriptive research involves the collection of data in order to answer questions concerning the current status of the study. It determines and reports the things as they were. This method of research has the advantage of studying individuals in their environment without the influence of the artificial aspects of an experiment. It could also be used to document rare events or conditions that could not be reproduced in a laboratory. The most common type of descriptive research is the case study, which provides an in-depth analysis of a specific person, group, or phenomenon.

RESULTS

The respondents have moderate disagreement on the description of the research culture among the public schools which means that better research culture must be established in order to ensure quality not only in research. A moderate relationship in describing research capability has been noted. Building research capability is necessary in sustaining the ability of research departments to produced more and better research output. There is no significant relationship between age, number of researches produced and research published in research journals to the research practices performed. Gender has found significant relation with motivation and incentives while the number of research findings utilized has significant relations with motivations.

DISCUSSIONS

Faculty members should be encouraged to conduct more researches with administrations providing fringe benefits such as wage increases and other incentives, regardless of their age, gender, academic status and position in school. Researchers on the other fields related to education may be the focus of the researchers. Schools may continue the efforts of developing the research environment culture by maintaining the ethical standards in research through the development of competent members of academic community into research competent faculty staff.