An analysis of the home study program of Angelicum College, Quezon City : basis for a proposed policy guidelines / 6
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Josephine P. Cabrera.
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- xiii, 170 pages : illustrations 26 cm.
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Thesis (M.A.) -- Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, 2010.;A thesis presented to the Graduate School of arts and Sciences and Education, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree in Master of Arts in Education Major in Educational Administration.;Includes bibliographical references.
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The separation of the student and the teacher is a fundamental characteristic of distance education. In any distance education process there must be a teacher, one or more students; a curriculum that a teacher is capable of teaching and a student who is trying to learn. Every instructional process involves a strategic assessment system for a complete teaching-learning circle. There may be researches showing that distance education is an effective method for teaching and learning. An analysis or evaluation could be undertaken to improve distance education and determine the worth of distance education activities. This study was an attempt to analyze the effectiveness of the implementation of the Home Study Program of Angelicum College, Quezon City which has been in existence 1996. The analysis focused on the three aspects of the Home Study Program namely; the Home Study Program system, the facilitators and their facilitating skills and the testing and evaluation process. The descriptive method was used in the study. The research which used the survey technique had a total population of 276 respondents. The respondents were composed of the following: 11 administrators, 13 learning facilitators, 56 parents/guardians and 196 learners. A focused group discussion was also used to validate other information gathered in the survey. The profiles of administrators and learning facilitators were determined using frequency and percentage. Likewise, the learners' entry level in HSP and the number of years in the program were determined to prove the reliability of the respondents' perceptions. In order to get the perceptions of the groups of respondents a survey questionnaire using a five point Likert-scale was used. Weighted means of the responses were computed and interpreted. To determine the significant differences of respondents' perceptions, a one-way analysis of variance was used. The findings of the study revealed that the four groups of respondents namely, the administrators, learning facilitators, parents/guardians and learners had similar opinions on the implementation of the Home Study Program. The computed grand weighted mean of the learning administrators' perceptions was 1.84, the computed mean of the learning facilitators' perceptions was 1.59, the parents/guardians' perceptions had 1.96 computed mean and the learners had 1.94. All had a verbal interpretation of Agree. The administrator-respondents doubted that the system made learners feel that what mattered more was what he/she learned than the judgment of someone. There were also doubts on the perceptions of parents and learners on the indicator that the Home Study Program would encourage procrastination. They even stated that the Home Study Program helped them focus more on difficult subjects like Math and Science and allowed them to spend more time on those subjects. With regard to the area of facilitators and their facilitating skills, the four groups of respondents had similar perceptions. The computed grand weighted mean of the administrators' perceptions was 1.92, the learning facilitators' was 2.00, the parents/guardians was 2.03 and the learners' was 1.73 with Agree on verbal interpretation. The study also revealed that there were ambiguities on the perceptions of parents and learners especially on the aspects of facilitators' utilization of electronic gadgets and multimedia devices. In the same manner, the learning facilitators, expressed hesitation on the part where they encouraged learners to engage in cooperative learning activities. It was revealed in the focus group discussion that learners participated in cooperative learning activities only in a limited manner. This was also affirmed by the administrator-respondents. On the part of guiding, monitoring and recording of learners' progress, the study revealed a Strongly Agree perception of the learners. This was further confirmed in the focus group discussion. Majority of the learners mentioned that the learning facilitators really kept track of each and every learners' performance. On the aspect of testing and evaluation, all the groups of respondents were united in their perceptions. The computed weighted mean of administrators' perception was 2.43, the learning facilitators' was 2.43, the learning facilitators' was 2.33, the parents/guardians' was 2.19 and the learners' was 2.44 with a verbal interpretation of Agree. There were doubts on the perceptions of learning facilitators and parents on the indicator that learners developed complacency because they would not fail. This part negated by the learners during the focus group discussion. They even stressed that they liked it because they were given many opportunities to pass. The study also revealed that the three groups of respondents (administrators, learning facilitators and parents) expressed uncertainty on the indicator that retests delayed normal class schedule and it encouraged dependence on re-testing. This was confirmed during FGD that there were learners who took advantages of re-testing but finding these would signal a learning to provide interventions. The administrators and learning facilitators even explained during the focus group discussion that re-testing was part of the unique system of the Home Study Program and it was part and parcel of the mastery learning program. This was probably the reason why facilitators and parents/ guardian disagreed on the indicator that re-tests encouraged laziness. Administrators and learners were also not sure if peer teaching was an effective strategy while parents and facilitators perceived this as effective. On the possibility of having collaborative project among learners, the study revealed that the facilitators were not sure if this could be done. Looking at the significant difference on the perceptions of the four groups of respondents, the two variables namely, the Home Study Program System and the facilitators and their facilitating skills, had a computed F-value of 2.11 and 0.70. These were less than the critical value of 2.63 at 0.05 level of significance. Therefore, the null hypothesis was accepted. The third variable, the testing and evaluation processes had a computed F-value of 3.26, greater than the critical value of 2.63 at 0.05 level of significance; therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected. The study recommends policy guidelines that include the following areas of concern: A. A mechanism on re-testing practices that will develop the learners' sense of mastery and self-direction. B. Utilize multimedia and other gadgets to make instruction meaningful and engaging to learners. C. Provide supplementary materials like books and website references for better delivery of instructions. D. Arrange learners' schedule to include cooperative learning activities and collaborative projects. E. Give premium to learners who engage in peer-tutoring. 2. A continuing development program for administrators and learning facilitators to internalize and develop the owning of the system 3. A continuous orientation/re-orientation of the learners to make full use of the system to their advantage. 4. A program for parents/guardians to better understand the Home Study Program system and be partners with the college in the holistic development of learners.