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INTRODUCTION
With the right people, someone can love a subject he or she hates. A social
Exchanging views and opinions about a certain topic and gaining knowledge through
Education is known all over the world. It has been studied since the beginning of
the century. Different research works regarding learners, their intelligence, their abilities,
and their thinking can be found (for an overview, see, e.g., Ausubel, 1968; Hilgard &
Bower, 1975). According Bauersfeld (1994), until the 1980s "interaction" was
understood mainly as an interaction between variable (Snow & Farr, 1987; Snow,
development. However, not all interaction done by the current 7 billion people in the
forced and no new knowledge, ideas, or skills are gained from the exchange (Azarola,
García & Buescher, 2015). As stated by Hurst, Wallace & Nixon (2013), “there is little
social interaction taking place in many of today’s classrooms from kindergarten through
college.'' There are times that the teacher or one dominant student does all the talking
and thinking in a group therefore the only one who is learning (Hurst, 1998 cited by
Though there may be ups and downs when it comes to interaction, a study
Folorunso, 2017). Moreover, a research done four years ago revealed that collaborative
learning paves the way for knowledge acquisition, building social skills and emotional
One way for learners to shoulder the responsibility of learning is for them to be
the readers, writers, speakers, listeners, and thinkers in the classroom through active
engagement in social interaction with others (Alvermann & Phelps, 2005; Vacca, Vacca,
& Mraz, 2011). For the purpose of this study, we define social interaction as meaningful
dialogue among learners. Socially interactive learners are engaged learners (Vacca et
al., 2011). Routman (2005) contends “students learn more when they are able to talk to
one another and be actively involved” (p. 207). In short, social interaction is vital to the
learning process.
In the past, studies on the Filipino learners focused on nutrition and intellectual
to be static, divided and unfit to give an entire image of who the Filipino students are. In
functioning of the unit. Beliefs such as not permitting children to give their opinions
when adults are talking would provide the children an understanding of the delineation
of their roles as children and the roles of those who are older take, however, when
children speak, the adults would say – “parang matanda magsalita” (she/he speaks like
a person of wisdom) which provides the child greater awareness of how he or she
be highly authoritarian. In this case, there will always be a dominant person inside a
group who will sometimes dismiss the ideas presented by their other groupmates or will
create an intimidating impression among themselves that will make their group mates
withdraw their perspectives. This manifestation of power will influence the discursive
practices.
With the attachment of Filipino learners to their values, toxic Filipino culture also
comes in play. Ironic aversion to offenses has made sugarcoating and employment of
basic transparency is what’s needed. Typical Filipino traits that we learned in grade
school such as ningas cogon is still prevalent among interpersonal relationships within
learners. Ningas cogon is a Filipino idiom which describes someone who is only doing
well during the beginning. Another trait that is still widely observed is procrastination or
the manana habit. These traits often hinder the productiveness of the Filipino learners
Tasks and Authentic Assessment Tasks form part of the Performance Tasks, which
contribute to quite a big portion of the learners' grades. These are often, if not, always
done in groups. Hence, they must not be taken lightly. In a classroom environment
where freeloaders and rather incompetent peers are unavoidable, equal distribution of
tasks and amount of effort put into the output can never be ensured. This leads to
academic frustration due to the learners knowing that they could have done better,
therefore affecting their perception of their peers, interaction in the classroom, and can
these tasks could play an extensive role on the output the learners produce. In order to
foster an effective and cooperative learning environment, certain ideal situations could
be applied regarding how learners work well with their peers. For instance, each
member in a group should put in equal amounts of effort on the task at hand to prevent
complaints and disagreements within the group. Even though problems like this could
be dealt with through peer evaluations, it is more ideal that everyone in a group
cooperates equally. Aside from carelessness, some members also cannot cooperate
because of external factors that won't let them cooperate (e.g. dominating members).
This being said, every member should be given a chance to cooperate and every
suggestions and opinions should be heard to ensure the definite agreement in all
not everyone would have the same resources and financial aid. Even though everyone
should contribute equally to the task, every member should ideally be considerate and
aware of how much or how little every member can contribute with what they have. This
would help the learners to level their output on how extravagant or how simple it can get
As what people commonly believe, the path for a pleasant life is education.
Worldwide information and knowledge can be acquired through education (Oak 2011).
By reason that education enables us to perceive information from external humanity and
receives critical information regarding the current (Experts Column 2010). It also trains
the human mind and trains people how to think, distinguish right and wrong, comes up
with a decision, and more aspects to consider (Gattani 2010). The success of an
individual depends on the quality of education it gets; thus, the government and some
institutions ensure that every entity receives this liberty by virtue of educational policies.
Republic Act (RA) 9155 known as the Governance of Basic Education Act of
2001, strengthens the principal and leadership goals, and local school-based
the overall framework for principal empowerment. This act aims to promote the rights of
every Filipino citizen for a free and accessible quality basic education. Another is the
acclaimed K–12 program, also known as the Enhance Basic Education Program, which
covers kindergarten and 12 years of basic education that intends to grant enough time
for the mastery of concepts and basic skills. It is also to mold and prepare the learners
country. Along these lines, are the principles and government policy-making in
educational sphere, in conjunction with the gathering of laws and rules that supervise
the education systems. It comes with analysis which is the scholarly study of education
policy that pursues answers to questions about the purpose of education, objectives
that’s made to achieve, the process of achieving them and the apparatus for measuring
Most of the schools today use the stand-and-deliver type of teaching style. This
is the type where the teacher does all the talking in front of the class while the students
just sit and listen. Sometimes this teaching style causes boredom, thus resulting to
inattentive students. This is very far from the ideal classroom situation where the
teacher and students are actively involved in the discussion. In here, the teacher would
talk for about 10-15 minutes then ask the students a question which would let them
think for about a minute or so. This method helps keep the students' minds sharp and
prevents them from getting distracted. There are also circumstances in the classroom
today wherein groupworks would turn into individual works due to freeloaders. Cases
like these would be prevented if there would be an even distribution of tasks among all
the members and everyone in the group would be responsible enough to cooperate and
The study aims to understand the internal or relational gap that hinders the
learners from achieving harmony within their group/class and determine whether, or not,
the system needs to make a change in order to establish and maintain a healthy
cognition (Mcleod, 2014). During this process, students interact with other students
overlaps of their social contexts (Littleton & Hakkinen, 1999 as cited by Almajed, 2015).
Furthermore, as stated by Fogarty (1999), “Vygotsky highlights that people learn first
process that leads to deep understanding”. Consequently, the present study is looking
In addition, Vygotsky also explains that through interaction learners can learn
from each other and from those people who knows more or those who are ‘well-
informed’ (Fogarty, 1999 as cited by Blake and Pope, 2008). He believes that social life
is primary in the learning process. Classroom interaction does not only involve student-
teacher relationship but also from student to student exchange of knowledge (Parker,
2015; Vygotsky, 1962, 1978). Based from this theory, the current study aims to bridge
the gap between the perspectives and influences of the students to classroom and its
High School STEM Learners’ perception and preferences towards collaboration, and
2. How does classroom interaction and learners' perception of their peers affect
their productivity and the way they participate during collaborative tasks?
3. What are the learners' coping mechanisms towards the struggles they have
experienced?
The results of this study can be primarily used for the benefit of finding proper
and plausible ways to promote a better environment between the learners inside the
Senior High School learners, which amply affects the academic performance of the
cultivating social relationships of learners, this study will provide great assistance in
creating strategies and solutions for this existing dilemma that will result to a more
productive and holistic environment for the senior high school learners to learn. This
research will also serve as a reference for future studies on the nature of
communication within senior high school learners. Moreover, this study can be a tool in
finding more efficient ways for learners to practice the 6 C's of Ateneo de Davao
The study focuses on the effect of how learners respond to whom they are
grouped with during collaborative academic activities, as well as the tasks given to them
regarding their productivity and output. The study is set within the Ateneo de Davao
University - Senior High School Campus. The systematic random sampling will be used
on 3 learners per section of the Grade 11 STEM who will be the respondents. The
process will be conducted through interviews in order to gather more in-depth data
Collaborative Tasks Tasks given to the learners for certain evaluations and
Classroom Interaction Communication that requires the teacher and learners to talk
Productivity The rate at which the group of learners complete their task
This part of the study presents the review of related literature in connection to the
interaction, collaborative learning that encapsulates its perspectives and influences, and
Looking into the worldwide vantage point, STEM education has been developed
in some countries for three decades, but now it is becoming more common and
significant (Williams, 2011). According to Gonzalez and Kuenzi (2012), this curriculum
refers to teaching and learning in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics. Morrison (2008) and Tsupros (2008) said that STEM is a “meta-discipline”
which means the “creation of a discipline based on the integration of other disciplinary
knowledge into a new ‘whole’ rather than in bits and pieces.” It aims to remove the
traditional barriers between the four mentioned disciplines and to prepare the 21st
century generation in a way that students can take what they learn in the classroom or
laboratory then apply it to their future jobs in the real world as what Ejiwale (2013)
However, many would argue that STEM is only introduced for the vocational and
and Howell, 2015). This assumption is also supported by Williams (2011) who cited that
the launch of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik satellite in the 1950s is the key turning point for
STEM education policy in the United States. In addition, through the highly skilled
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics workforce the United States have
gained economic and military advances ever since World War II. Still today, STEM
and have a broad application for workers in both STEM and non-STEM occupations
In order to support the present study which deals with STEM learners and their
Thinking Skills of Urban High School Students: Role of an IT/STEM Program’ is taken
into consideration. Conducted by Duran and Sendag (2012), the results showed a
significant improvement in the students’ critical thinking skills throughout the program. In
addition, inductive reasoning and inference skills of the participants also improved
during the first nine months of the study then a continued positive result in the second
nine months. The authors also disclosed that “the study design provides a unique
collaborative environment for high school students in which they work with a group of
experts from K-12, university, and industry to design and develop solutions to authentic
problems.”
Wang (2013) suggests that choosing a STEM major is directly influenced by the
intention to major in STEM, high school math achievement, and initial postsecondary
experiences, such as academic interaction and financial aid receipt. Due to this, the
demand for graduates in STEM fields continues to grow at a relatively rapid rate.
According to the National Science Foundation (2010), the employment rate in science
and engineering fields rose an average of 3.3% annually between 2004 and 2008
this estimated growth rate is consistent with long-term national trends (U.S. Department
of Labor, 2007). The Philippines, however, only have 189 researchers per million that
scientist which is 380 per million, the country is behind by 191 STEM workforces per
bachelor’s degree will depend on significant math or science training, and many science
and engineering occupations are predicted to grow faster than the average rate for all
These data document the need for greater participation of qualified college
graduates in the STEM workforce. Due to these, the Philippines is currently boosting its
workforce for research and development (R&D). The Department of Science and
levels. In addition, the ‘Science for Change’ bill has been approved that aims to address
the country’s shortage of scientific innovations and inventions. The bill sets a budget of
Php 21 billion for R&D in 2018, which will double yearly for the next five years, capping
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education is one way to make learning more
connected and relevant for the younger generation (Stohlmann, Moore & Roehrig,
2012). However, there is also an evident declining rate of students who are interested in
STEM subjects (Gough, 2014). According to Stohlmann, Moore & Roehrig (2012), this
calls for further studies and discussion. Along with the need to conduct studies looking
into lived experiences, influences, and background that teacher and learners need in
Classroom Interaction
Virtanen et al. (2015), the associations between emotional support and organizational
and instructional support imply that emotional support operates “in the background”,
investment in learning and school life, is believed to be the main contributor to students’
concurrent and subsequent academic success (e.g., Skinner, Furrer, Marchand, &
school (Finn & Rock, 1997). A decline in student engagement with schooling appears to
take place during the transition from primary to secondary education (Skinner et al.,
represents one domain of overall classroom quality (Pianta, Hamre, & Mintz, 2010).
Classrooms with high overall task orientation increase student opportunities to learn
(i.e., engaged time of students) which is a necessary condition for learning to take place
behavioral engagement (Virtanen et al., 2015). The classroom quality domains operate
in concert and have potentially different roles with respect to student engagement.
learning patterns among students (Beilock & Ramirez, 2011). Emotional experience is
an integral component of all school activities and plays a key role not only in relation to
learning but also with respect to achievement over time (Pekrun & Schutz, 2007). In
academic contexts, individual self-perceived emotional intelligence (EI) has been shown
(Balluerka et al., 2013; Pedrosa et al., 2014) and to school performance (Ferrando et
al., 2011). The classroom emotional intelligence represents a group-level construct that
emotional experience (Wolff et al., 2006). The group EI examined her is, therefore, a
consequence of the type of interaction that occurs between students and generates a
group construct different from group members’ traits and thus, it can be considered a
“collective construct” associated with the classroom (Morgeson & Hofmann, 1999).
Specifically, and based on Salovey et al., (1995), the group EI examined here
measures: the level in which students consider that their class (reference group) pays
attention to and values the feelings of classmates; whether is clear rather than confused
about the emotions felt in the classroom; and uses positive thinking to repair negative
moods in the class. Other collective emotional constructs such as group climate also
have been shown to be significantly related to students’ adaptive behavior. Positive and
associated with avoidance, disruption and cheating behavior (Patrick et al., 2003). The
emotional responding that might influence students’ learning processes (Meyer &
Turner, 2006). Indeed, the same student may, in two different classes, receive different
emotional responses to a dramatic situation, and these responses might influence the
affective context might help us to explain and predict classroom experiences in more
Collaborative Learning
achieving the goal that they have agreed together (Baharin & Yusop, 2011). Throughout
the collaborative learning style, learners would have the option to give and acknowledge
helps from their co-learners. This exertion is significant for the learners to construct trust
in explaining different issues that are happening inside their education scope.
Cooperative learning refers to learning process that occurs throughout cooperation of a
group of students, usually in the classroom (Sang, 2011). There are still many studies
that showcase the discrepancies of collaborative learning within learners. Thanh et al.
(2008) found that groups sometimes did not work as expected if their learners have a
strong culture of competition and dedicate much time engaged in individualistic learning.
Another meta-analysis (Kyndt et al. 2013) concurs with this conclusion as it found that
individualistic cultures often were less likely to obtain high effects under collaborative
conditions. Other authors have found negative factors at individual and group level that
hinder collaborative learning such as social loafing, social pressure, group conformity,
the free-rider effect, and the sucker effect (Pereira-Pasarin 2010). To untangle the
have suggested preparing groups for learning collaboratively (Jurkowski and Hänzea
2016).
should include investigating the causes that led to the hindrances. Aside from that, they
also stated that many problems faced during collaborative learning correlates with
different levels of education, diverse subject areas, and across varied national contexts.
Based on the results of their study, the most mentioned antecedents leading to the
actual problems were on the cognitive aspects (analyzing problems, making group
reports, and information gathering) and low attention to collaborative aspects. Barron
(2003), investigating the collaborative interactions of primary school children, found low-
interruptions brought about the ineffectiveness of the activity. Based on Janssen and
Wubbels' experiment, the imbalance in the students' attention was reflected in the ways
collaborative skills and assessed collaboration. When both teachers and students do
not pay a lot of attention to the collaborative aspects of collaborative learning, they may
There are data that support the assumption that preparing learners to work
together may be a way to improve collaborative learning results (Bischof et al. 2012;
Buchs et al. 2015). Buchs et al. (2015) prepared learners by providing them with
instruction on why and how to collaborate. They found out that learning in dyads after a
Hänze (2015) used a 100-min session for training students about transactional
process of collaborative learning. Their results showed that trained groups outperformed
With all the barriers and hindrances that come with collaborative learning, one
might wonder why it is integrated in the curriculum. Educational activities that requires
social, active, contextual, and engaging interactions lead to deeper learning. Brown
critical thinking, improves social interactions, promotes diversity, aids the development
of self-management skills, develops oral communication skills, and fosters interpersonal
Because of collaborative tasks, students get to socialize and practice engaging and
working with other students in the class, altogether fostering relationships. Brown
more actively in the learning process, rather than just being passive. It also gives
students the chance to learn their strengths and weaknesses, having other students to
In addition to this, a study by Slavin (2014) states that there are four major
task inspiration is the most significant piece of the process, accepting that different
motivator structures make a circumstance wherein the only way the learners can
achieve their very own objectives is if the gathering is effective. In this manner, to meet
their own objectives, the learners must both assist their group mates to do whatever
empowers the gathering to succeed, and, maybe significantly more critically, to urge
their group mates to apply most extreme endeavors. In social cohesion, a hypothetical
point of view fairly identified with the motivational perspective holds that the impacts of
be determined by the social cohesion of the group. Generally, learners will participate in
the errand and help one another learn because they identify with the group and want
one another to succeed. This point of view is like the motivational viewpoint in that it
stresses primarily motivational rather than cognitive explanations for the instructional
among children around appropriate tasks increases their mastery of critical concepts. In
cognitive elaboration, the cognitive perspective holds that interactions among students
within themselves increase student achievement for reasons which have to do with
learning. However, Slavin (2014) states that there are several quite different cognitive
perspectives, as well as some which are similar in theoretical perspective, but have
Academic Performance
various academic subjects. This is how well a student meets standards set out by the
local government and the institution itself (Bell, 2018). Teachers and education officials
Academic performance is one of the most affected aspects when we talk about
teaching style that would be more helpful and comfortable for the learners. They should
also consider the perspective of the learners when it comes to activities involving
groups.
meant for making a difference locally, regionally, nationally, and globally. Educators,
trainers, and researchers have long been interested in exploring variables contributing
effectively for quality performance of learners (Crosnoe, Johnson, & Elder, 2004). A lot
relationship can be one of those factors. It was stated there that peer influence has a
powerful and positive effect on the exam scores and grades of learners. An
improvement in the learning process could also be noticed when learners are being
the learner’s ability in answering problem solving questions and peer instruction will
promote learner’s participation and develop their performance. Another factor could be
the challenging classroom environment. Research shows that students are more
motivated to learn when teachers ask them to wrestle with new concepts, explain their
(Ukessays, 2016). It was also suggested that the teacher incorporating experiences or
real-life situations in a lesson is a teaching style that helps the learners be more
attentive and focused on the subject being taught, thus resulting in better grades and
academic scores.
The student’s performance when it comes to academics (achievements)
contributes significantly in bringing forth high-quality graduates who will soon become
pillars of the country thus be held accountable for the country’s economic and social
and science student performance are affected due to social, psychological, economic,
environmental and personal factors affect the challenging aspects of student hence
these factors don’t apply generally for these vary from the person and country. ·
inclusive, where government and other stakeholders are given more concern to the
compete via outstanding performance for both students and funding through fees and a
research grant (Dill & Soo, 2004). Galiher (2006) and Darling (2005) used GPA, or the
Grade Point Average, to measure the student’s performance by the end of the
semester. Some researchers used analytical results (test) or result of the previous year
given that they are studying the performance for the specified subject or year (Hijazi and
Naqvi, 2006 and Hake, 1998). By measuring the academic performance of the students
with these methods, assessing the learner’s learning capacity and its extent would be
approach to make adapting increasingly associated and applicable for the younger
generation. In any case, there is likewise an obvious declining pace of learners who are
keen on STEM subjects. As indicated by the presented studies, this calls for further
lived encounters, impacts, and foundation that educators and learners need to execute
together to achieve an academic goal. It comes with barriers hindering the learning
process like social loafing, social pressure, group conformity, the free-rider effect, and
the sucker effect. This led to the suggestion of preparing groups for learning
collaboratively which resulted in better learning results and better engagement. This
concerns the study regarding academic performance of learners in tasks that require
of their peers, and the overall classroom climate, is an integral component which plays a
key role in learning. Fostering engagement between the learners ultimately leads to
achievement over time. Cultivating the emotional experience of learners can help in
understanding and for improvement of strategies that will make collaborative learning
approach collaborative learning within their peers inside the school. Learners’ academic
performance fosters factors that affects the student's capabilities and capacities. With
these, identifying the factors and measures of academic performance contributes to the
welfare of the students. Studies show that the student's academic performance depends
Conclusion
Studies presented in this review interlinks the matters in connection with the main
purpose of this paper. The goal of this literature review is to present systematic studies
STEM Education is a major factor that affects how learners perform in their
studies and as studies showed a decline in interest, the authorities are doing their best
to encourage interaction between the subjects, students, and teachers. The studies
presented disclosed that “the study design provides a unique collaborative environment
for high school students in which they work with a group of experts from K-12,
connecting with collaborations lead to more profound learning. In accordance with this,
studies have found negative factors at individual and group level that hinder
collaborative learning such as social loafing, social pressure, group conformity, the free-
rider effect, and the sucker effect. There is information that help the presumption that
learning results.
various academic subjects. Moreover, the study presented that peer interaction could
heighten the learner’s ability in responding to critical thinking questions and peer
instruction will advance student's interest and build up their presentation. Another factor