CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The quality of learning attained by the pupils is related to the quality of teaching done by the teacher.

The learning process of the pupils involves not only the aspect of teacher performance but also the characteristics they possess. Human beings started learning the moment they were born. They will continue to learn, the very heart of their entire life. Each of them has the unique ability to learn, to understand and to make use of ideas. They strive for their self actualization or to develop their own potentials, and so learning takes place. Individuals must have a style which will enhance their learning potentials. Education is for all. It prepares the individual to be competitive, interactive and knowledgeable in the world in which he lives. Educators have recognized this reality, hence there is a growing and continuous study of the learning needs and strengths of the students can be fully understand and studied by assessing their learning style. A learning style is an individuals preferred way of learning. It is the process of gaining and understanding that leads to the modification of attitudes and behavior through the acquisition of knowledge, skills and values by study and experiences. When an instructors style matches a pupils learning style, the pupil typically experiences greater satisfaction and more positive attitude toward the subject. However there is a considerable disagreement as to what degree of learning styles actually affect pupils ability to do well. The main context whereby the efficiency of learning process takes place in a school is measured in academic performance. It reflects among others, the internal efficiency of the school in providing its clients effective instruction and quality education. Inevitably therefore, academic performance relates to the teaching and his competencies. It connotes competent teaching, effective strategy, methods of

instruction and instructional materials. The role of the school in effective instruction and academic proficiency is thus underscored. Effective instruction requires not only the competencies of the teachers involve but also the adequacy of physical material and financial resources; presence of relevant and functional curriculum and a system that synchronizes the efforts of the teachers and learners along a continum where learning experiences provided the essential knowledge, values and skills needed in effective living. The effectiveness of the system on the organization encompasses the the management skill of administrators and educators. Their capacity for interpersonal relationship, communications, provision of appropriate working and learning conditions, innovations, dynamisms in keeping its educational system abreast with the changing demands of man and society. The external productivity of the school system in terms of graduates, personal development of the community is also a reflection of how effective the school system is in providing its educational services.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Science, as far as most of the pupils are concerned, is said to be one among the difficult subjects taught in the elementary. Many pupils hated Science due to the fact that they were expected to deal with several experiments. Not to mention that the subject also requires memorization and lectures that is pretty boring to the pupils. On the contrary, since the pupils have varied learning preferences the teacher must be cautious enough to help the pupils learn Science with ease and eagerness. Moreover, the teacher should be creative too in presenting the subject matter in a way that the pupils will be stimulated to appreciate the world of Science so as to gain the comprehensive knowledge that the aforementioned subject has to offer. On the premise, the researcher will be motivated to undertake this study because she often hears that a big number of pupils achieve poorly when it comes to the Science subject. The view of this case was an enigma to the researcher, who is a regular permanent teacher and at the same time, teaches Science, so she wants to find out if the learning styles have something to do with the academic performance of the grade six pupils

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM This study will aim to find out the relaionshipt of Learning styles to the Academic performance in Science and Health of the Grade VI pupils at Kapt. Eddie T Reyes Memorial School PALAR ANNEX during the school year 2011 2012. Specifically it will seek to answer the following questions: 1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of: a. Gender b. Age c. Section 2.What are the preferred Learning styles of respondents according to: a. Visual b. Auditory c. Tactile d. Kinesthetic 3. What is the Academic performance of the Grade VI pupils based on their general average? 4. Is there a significant relationship between the learning styles and the academic performance of the pupils in Science and Health?

HYPOTHESIS There is no significant relationship between the learning styles and the Academic performance of the pupils in Science Health VI.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Learner is the center of the educative process. Best and quality teaching of the teacher is reflected in the good performance of the pupils, thus it would also heighten the pupils learning potentials. This study is of great value for the pupils as well as for the teachers and the school administrators. The teachers will know if the strategies and learning materials they are using are still effective. So they can make some adjustments in their techniques and strategies to motivate the pupils to learn better. On the part of the pupils, being informed of their styles in learning will enable them to know their strengths and weaknesses so that they can make some changes and improvements. This may also encourage them to exert their best effort to attain satisfaction in learning. The School Administrators can also benefit from this study in a way that it will provide baseline information on what innovation or program can be initiated in order to strengthen the pupils interest and abilities. In addition, this study may serve as reference to be used by the education students taking student teaching for them to know the various learning styles and conditions their pupils are more

likely to learn. The student teacher will have some guide on how to act, adjust and develop a harmonious teaching- learning relationship with their pupils, by which the pupils will understand the lessons well.

SCOPE AND LIMITATION This study will be limited to finding out the Relationship of Learning styles to the Academic performance of grade VI pupils at the Kapt. Eddie T. Reyes Memorial Elementary School PALAR ANNEX for school year 2011 2012. The respondents will come from four sections composed of one hundred fifty (150) Grade VI pupils who will be chosen purposively. In order to gather data, the researcher will adopt the Learning Styles Instrument of the Abiators Online Learning Styles Survey. To determine the respondents Academic performance, the researcher will compute their grades during the first and second grading periods in Science and Health to get their average grades. This study will be conducted from November 2011 to March 2012.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK This study was anchored on the theory of Dunn and Dunn (1981), who identified twenty-one (21) learning style elements grouped into five (5) Stimuli areas (1) environment (2) emotional (3) sociological (4) physical and (5) psychological. According to them by identifying these learning style elements, the school administration and the classroom instructions could match the teaching styles to various related clusters of students learning styles.

Adams (2006), discussed briefly the six prominent styles of learning. First, the learning style of a scientist. He learns better by thinking first of what to do than by observing. He is quite weak as learner when it comes to planning and doing. Second, the preachers learning style. He learns better by thinking of how to express an idea than planning on how to express it. He learns slowly through doing and observing the process of oral discourse. Third, the learning style of an inventor. He learns better by planning what to do than thinking and doing. He is quite slow in learning the rough observation. Fourth, the executives learning style. He learns best by observing first the things he would like to do. He is quiet slow in learning by doing and thinking. Moreover, he is weak in learning how to prepare plans of activities. Fifth, the operators learns best both by doing and observing. He is slow in learning activities through planning and thinking. Last, the entrepreneurs style of learning. He learns better by doing first the activities he likes to do than by making plans on what to do. He seems weak in learning through thinking and observing. These seem a mismatch if classroom teachers would like to impose upon their learners the way they would like them to learn. Hence, we ought not to make comparison between us and our learners. Instructional psychologists point out that we learn most from either of the following thinking, planning, doing and sensing or observing. Perhaps, our learners learn most from observing first before thinking. Others may learn from doing first before planning. Based on these premises, we therefore should respect the individual differences and varied needs of our school learners. A synthesis of the studies, reviewed support the theory that academic performance is a product of interacting factors in the learner, is the learning environment, and the social milleu of all which play important roles in the process of transfortation and learning. Arnes and Archer( 1988) have found students who perceived their classroom as emphasizing mastery rather than performance goal are more likely to use effective learning strategies. Dunn and Griggs (1988) stated that the more students learn effectively and retain what they

learn longer when taught through their perceptual stregths and in instructional environmentresponsive to how they learn. Dunn, Dunn and Price (1977) stated that when students are taught with approaches that match their preferences as identifies by Learning Style Inventory, theydemonstrate higher achievement and attitude scores even on standardized testthan when they are taught with approaches that mismatch their preferences. Ornstein(1985) discussed that different teacher behavior and methods have different effects on different students, grades, subjects and classroom groups, and school settings. Also, it is often difficult to isolate teacher effects from the effects of the agents assess accurately changes in learning in shortterm intervals CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK From the view of related literature and studies, the researcher will surmise that each student develops a distinct learning style which serves as his basis for effective learning. Since the students, by nature, prefer their own ways of learning, their self-made styles provided them the opportunity to develop their potentials. Students are multi-faceted and multi dimensional learners and so this fact should be recognized. Obviously, their innate capabilities of learning under unique styles will be more upgraded under the guidance of teachers. Thus, the teachers main concern is to become flexile and creative enough to be able to adjust teaching style to that of the childs learning style for better teaching- learning situation.

Research Paradigm Independent Dependent Variable Variable

Fig. 1. The Learning Styles and the Academic Performance of Grade VI Pupils.

The paradigm shows the independent variable of the study which is the learning styles such as visual, kinesthetic, auditory, and tactile. While the dependent variable is the academic performance in Science and Health VI. The study is designated to determine if the learning style have significant relationship with the academic performance of the grade VI pupils in Science and Health.

DEFINITION OF TERMS The following terms are hereby defined conceptually and operationally: Academic performance pertains to the level of intelligence and ability of the pupils to excel academically or theoretically (Webster Universal Dictionary). In this study; it refers to the average grades in the first and second grading periods of the respondents. Pupils refer to the respondents who significantly are subject of this study. Auditory Preference refers to a style, by which pupils learn best through listening, Kinesthetic Preference refers to a stage by which the pupils learn best through practical application. Learning Styles are the different ways people can learn. It is commonly believed that people favor some particular method of interacting with taking and processing stimuli or information. Tactile Preference refers to a style by which pupils learn through the use of their sense of touch. Visual Preference refers to a style by which pupils learn through reading and also by using vision or sense of sight.

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES The researcher gathered some related literature and studies that will guide her in her study. An individual at any stage of his or her development is the product of organic and environmental factors working hand in hand, what he is, what he does, what he becomes, how he learns, and how he behaves in all situations are a product of those two interacting factors. LOCAL LITERATURE According to Gregorio (1976) learner is the center of educative process. He is the subject of teaching and learning. His intelligence, attitudes, interest and desires underlie the educative process. In order to have an effective learning, the school must provide the necessary things that can be used to develop the students. The teacher may know every thing about his or her other students by patient observation. They must have to put their feet on the shoes of the students. This means that the teacher will become a learner, for he has to study the minds of the young, their ways of looking at things, their habits, their difficulties, likes and dislikes. By means of these, teacher will know what are the developed learning styles of the students so that he can easily adapt his teaching style to that of the students. According to Macarayan (1993) learning style focus on strengths rather than on weaknesses as published in the modern teacher. The successful teacher presents new information in variety of ways thus helping to reach students who have a range of preferred learning styles. The teacher may also help the students stretch their abilities to learn through less preferred learning styles. In order for learning to be effective, lasting and enjoyable, educators as well as parents need to recognize students learning strengths and preferences. He stated further that, by understanding learning styles and abilities, teachers change as well. This will enable them to adapt methods and materials to their needs to give students the

opportunity to feel confident and successful. The way we learn is totally individualize process, our learning is reflected in the way we respond to environmental, sociological, emotional, physical and psychological stimuli. According to Macarayan (1993) todays youth are tomorrows leaders. In a world of high technology, it is no longer enough to have minimal educational habits and skills. To succeed in tomorrows world, children should have to be better prepared and most importantly should possess positive attitude toward the learning process. As learners we can help ourselves to be successful students, we can motivate ourselves with positive reinforcement. We can make a special effort to understand as we learn instead of simply memorizing information. When we memorize information, we can use memory tricks. If we do all of these things, we will become active and successful learners who are prepared for the demanding technological world. FOREIGN LITERATURE Piaget (2001), a Swiss psychologist, investigated the ways in which young people learn important concepts. As a result of his work, he determined that very young children cannot understand complex ideas until they are 5 or 6 years old. He also stressed that changes in how knowledge is represented and manipulated are not based on genetically programmed maturational changes in brain. Instead, he viewed children as young scientists who are driven to understand the world and to change their understanding in the face of mistaken predictions about what ought to happen in the world. As children develop, they acquire more sophisticated knowledge structures by which to interpret the world. Changes in knowledge structures cause changes in fundamental cognitive capabilities. Those cognitive structures undergo a series of improvements until they resemble the capabilities of the typical adult. The knowledge structures underlying cognitive capabilities are bound to emerge in an olderly

way, as the kinds of knowledge the universe efforts require that certain ways of thinking be mastered before other ways of thinking become possible. Hunt (1979) defined learning style as a way of describing a student in terms of those educational conditions under which he is most likely to learn and how much structure a student requires to learn best. He sees learning style describing how a student learns and not what he has learned. If a student differs in personal learning style, he stressed that certain educatinal approaches are more effective than those for that particular learner. Every child is unique, Dunn and Dunn (2004) developed the internationally acclaimed Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Model. The defined learning style as the way in which each individual learner begins to concentrate on process, absorb and retain new and difficult information. They illustrate the four elements that correlate to their style. Element of Environment including sound, light, temperature and design. Elements of Emotion including motivation, when using multi-modal strategies, students are motivated to achieve in the areas of their specific interests. It is the more important to provide frequent feedback, especially those that elicit feeling of motivation, encouragement and self affirmation than to discourage or harass the students. Another is the Element of Responsibility. Students who work on project that hold their personal interests minimal supervision from the teacher, and the last is the Element of Structure. Some students work with specific reactions while others work without them doing tasks with the need for directing students find accomplishment and information in the successful competition of the task following their own structure. However there are some students who depend on structures and directions given then before starting the task at hand. It was Adams (2006) who said that a teacher affects eternity; he can never tell when his influence stops. This statement poses a big challenge to us, if not good opportunity for us to think of and change our undesirable teaching behavior, and consequently improves our classroom instruction. Many educators already have suggestions for improving classroom work. Some of these have been

implemented and have effected changes in the classroom. Of these suggestions it happens that the teacher is the key decision-maker to make himself effective worker. Under the teachers control, learning style is one of the important factors that can promote effective teaching. RELATED STUDIES LOCAL STUDIES The finding of Sr. Mentilla (1996) showed that the 3rd year students of Liceo de Majayjay have visual preference to learn. This style was ranked first followed by auditory preference. Both the combination of visual auditory tactile and visual auditory were ranked fifth and fourth, respectively. Visual preference was ranked first by both sexes. The computed chi-square value 55.83 which was found to be lower than the tabular value of 9.488. This indicates that there is no significant difference between the learning styles and their sexes. The findings of Cantos (1996) showed that grade V pupils have dependednt learning style. This ranked first followed by participant learning style. The third is independent learning style and collaborative, avoidant, and competitive as fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. It indicates that there are pupils who learn most based on what the teacher gives them, explains to them, or tells them, these are the learners who learn with the help of others. FOREIGN STUDIES In a study conducted by Treacy (1996) and Biggs (1985) on learning styles, feelings and beliefs about technology and Mathematics achievement results show that significant differences exist between feeling, beliefs based on students grade level and gender and learning styles. On the other hand the results of Rasmussen's (1996) study on the learning styles and adult intellectual development indicate that there is a significant two-wy interaction among the factors of the

processing dimension of learning styles, adult intellectual development and learner control. The study suggests the teachers should consider the learning styles of the lower achievingstudents for the latter to have improvement in educational outcome. Dunn and Dunn (1999) in his study of the relationship among first year students learning styles and achievement results show tha learning styles correlated significantly with achieve. Riding et. al. (1982) findings in the relationship between achievement and the learning styles and personality of the students has implications on the nature and validity of assessment. Students vary along several personality and learning style dimension which have considerable bearing on their performance. Riding et. al. Further stated that the set of written examinations favor students of a more extrovert and stable personality while more introvert and nervous students do not perfom so well in the pressured examination situations. Mason, McKimmey and Clifford (1975) investigate the relationship between behavior patterns and academic performance. Multiple correlation procedures are carried out in which the frequences of 12 behavior are used to product achievement scores of 90 student samples. The findings of this study support the assumptions that classroom behavior patterns not only contribute to the understanding of the students present progress but also predicts his progress later in higher year. Bloom (1976) reveals that positive attitudes correlated high with achievement in Science. The studies of Jonhson and Jonhson, (1989), Slavin (1990), indicate that cooperative learning improves achievement, self-esteem and social skills. In conceptual change models of teaching, there are many opportunities for cooperative learning. Students learn to compare ideas, consider different interpretations and responses, achieve consensus and agree on an approach to a problem. Interpersonal relationsip among students will continue to develop when group members freely share their ideas about science concepts. They can also collectively set goals to conduct investigation and report on scientific

issues such as the origin structure of the universe, the ethics of cloning and transplanting organs. The shared goals are then accomplished through a negotiation process that requires group planning, decision-making and action taking-open communication and dialogue are fundamental when students work as community of researchers. Students can learn each using their knowledge and skills to do the task at hand. The study will be conducted by the researcher has something in common as compared to other research studies about learning styles. The similarities can certainly be observed in the related literature and related studies they obtained. However the only difference lies on the prospective respondents and the locale of the study that the researcher will choose.

CHAPTER II This chapter discusses the locale of the study, research design, population and sample, instrumentation, data gathering procedure and statistical treatment which are necessary and valuable to the study.

LOCALE OF THE STUD The study will be conducted in one of the public school in Taguig City. The target school is Kapt. Eddie T. Reyes Memorial Elementary School Palar Annex.

RESEARCH DESIGN In this study the researcher will utilize a descriptive method to be able to make the study comprehensive. The researcher will gather the important data for the problem thru the use of questionnaire as her main instrument.

POPULATION AND SAMPLE The respondents of the study will be the grade VI pupils of Kapt. Eddie T. Reyes Memorial Elementary School Palar Annex, Taguig. They will come from four sections consisting of one hundred fifty (150) grade VI pupils who will be choosen purposively.

INSTRUMENTATION (1) Learning Styles Questionnaire The researcher will adapt the Abiator's Online Learning Styles Survey. It is compose of four (4) types of learning styles, the Auditory, Visual, Tactile and Kinesthetic. The questionnaire contains forty (40) statements with ten (10) statements for Auditory, ten (10) for Visual, ten (10) for Tactile and another ten (10) for Kinesthetic. The instrument, already validated, will be administer directly to the respondents.

(2) Academic Performance The researcher will furnish a copy of the pupils' grades in the first and second grading periods. These will be analyzed in relation to the learning styles of the aforementioned pupils. DATA GATHERING PROCEDURE The researcher will first seek permission from the principal of Kapt. Eddie T. Reyes Memorial Elementary School Palar Annex to conduct her research study among grade VI pupils. Upon the approval, she will administer the Learning Styles Questionnaire. The researcher will explain first to the respondents the directions on how to answer the instrument. The researcher will retrieve the answered questionnaire copies. Then she will furnish a copy of the pupils' first and second grading period grades in Science and Health. The data that will be gathered by the researcher will be tallied, tabulated, analyzed, and will be interpreted. STATISTICAL TREATMENT The following statistical formulas will be used for the analysis of the data. To determine the preferred learning styles of the grade six pupils, weighted mean will be used: WM = 4f + 3f + 2f + f N Where: F = frequency N = no. of respondents

The following scale distribution will use to provide a description for the results of the computation of the weighted mean. Description 3.20 - 4.00 2.40 3.19 1.60 2.39
. 80 1.59 0.00 0.79

Always (A) Frequently (F) Occasionally (O)

Sometimes (S) Never (N)

To determine the average grade of the grade six pupils in Science and Health during the first and second grading periods, the formula to be used will be: Average = GF + GS 2 Where: Gf = grade in first grading period Gs = grade in second grading period

On the other hand, the researcher will use the Kendall Order Correlation Coefficient in determining the relationship between learning styles and academic performance in Science and Health. The formulas are express as follows: Txy = S (n) 2 Where: N = number of respondents Y = academic performance in Science during the first and second grading period X = learning style = 2s n(n-1)

Polytechnic University of the Philippines OPEN UNIVERSITY SYSTEM SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION Taguig Campus, Taguig City

A Thesis Proposal In

RESEARCH I

Prepared by: JEAN RITA M. SABEROLA OU- MEM Submitted to: DR. MARISSA FERRER