FACTORS INFLUENCING THE TRACK PREFENCE OF GRADE 11 SENIOR HIGH

SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THEIR CHOSEN STRAND

A Research Study Presented to

The Faculty of Senior High School
Integrated Basic Education Department
Lourdes College
Cagayan de Oro City

In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for Practical Research 2
Accountancy, Business and Management

Macalguing, Princess Mae A.

Pumatong, Shayne Marie
Daug, Sheila Mae
Go, Bence Aaron
 ABSTRACT

This study aims to determine the factors that affect the senior high school track

preferences of the Grade 11 students of a private institution in Cagayan de Oro City of

school year 2019-2020. This study utilizes descriptive method of research to determine

the factors. It would see if dependent variables relating to personality, family/relatives,

interests and job opportunities were significant factors influencing the track preferences

of the respondents. The descriptive research used quantitative methods to assess the

feedback from the respondents.

Scale/questionnaire is given to the respondents to conduct the study personally

and is collected after to gather all the results. Most of the literature gathered talks about

the factors that affect career preferences/choices, namely personality, family, interests

and job opportunities, which would specialized in senior high school of the k-12

curriculum.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

With the deepest gratitude, the researcher firstly want to thank the parents for

providing all our necessities through financial, emotional, and even spiritual. The

Macalaguing Family, Pumatong Family, Daug Family and Go Family.

We would also want to thank our beloved Research teachers, Mr. Jun Mar

Martisano, LPT – the research class moderator in the first semester, Ms.Leonella Marie

T. Salvosa, LPT- class adviser/3I’s class moderator in the second semester and Mrs.

Juliet S. Villanueva- the research class moderator for the second semester, who taught

our lessons very well and who guided us to our way up to here.

To our strand leader, Ms. Farrah Cajote,LPT for sharing her knowledge to us on

the different statistical tools that we should use in our study. Without the forum she gave

us, we, researchers will not be able to determine our accurate statistical treatment.

We would also thank our fellow students and our dear educators especially Ms.

Nina Alberastine, Ms. Karen Dunque and Mr. Chrisand Sabayton who were there to help

us in times of problems and also to all the respondents of our survey who really helped

in the study.

And to our research team, this paper wouldn’t be possible without this group of

people. It such an honor witnessing our sleepless nights, tears and sweat being paid off.

Above all, to our Almighty Father, our source of everything and our greatest provider.

Thank you so much father for always blessing us with your guidance and love.

May the love of God be your Reward!

THE RESEARCHER
 Table of Contents

PAGE
ABSTRACT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

CHAPTER
1 THE PROBLEM
Introduction 1
Theoretical Framework 4
Statement of the Problem 8
Significance of the Study 8
Scope and Delimitation 9
2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Related Literature of Local Studies 13
Related Literature of Foreign Studies 15
3 RESEARCH METHOD
Research Design 19
Sampling Procedure 20
Research Participants 20
Data Gathering Procedure 21
Research Instrument 21
Statistical Treatment 22
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Socioeconomic Profile of the Students 24

Age 24

Gender 24

Parents’ Educational Attainment 25

Parents’ Occupations 25
 Socioeconomic Status 27

Fields of Study 28

Factors Affecting the Strand Preparedness 30

Personality 30

Family/Relatives 31

Interests 32

Job Opportunities 33

Resume on Factors Influencing Students’ Track Preference 35

5 SUMMARY, FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Summary 36

Findings 37

Conclusions 38

Recommendations 39

Bibliography 40

Appendices 42

Survey Questionnaire 44

Curriculum Vitae 48
 List of Figures and Table

FIGURE PAGE

1 Research Flow 12

2 Extent of the Factor’s Influence on Track Preference 35

TABLE

Table 1 Specification Grid on the Rating Scale/Questionnaire

Affecting the Student’s Senior High School Track
Preferences 22
Frequency and Percentage Distribution by Age 24

Table 2.2 Frequency and Percentage Distribution of Parents’

Educational Attainment 25

Table 2.3 Frequency and Percentage Distribution of Parents’

Occupations 26

Table 2.4 Frequency and Percentage Distribution by

Socioeconomic Status 27

Table 3 Fields of Study that the Students would Pursue 28

Table 41. Personality as a Factor on Students’ Track Choice 30

Table 4.2 Family/Relatives as a Factor on Students’ Track 31

Choice

Table 4.3 Interests as a Factor on Students’ Track Choice 33

Table 4.4 Job Opportunities as a Factor on Students’ Track Choice 34

 CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM

INTRODUCTION

The Philippines is one of the three countries remaining in the world, namely

Djibouti and Angola in Africa, and the only remaining country in Asia with a 10-
year pre-university program. This short period makes it difficult for Filipinos to be

competitive with other countries that have at least 12 years of basic education. The

majority who do not go to college are too young to enter the labor force, thus, they

would either be unemployed to set up businesses or cannot legally enter into

contracts.

With this apparent problem on education, the Department of Education has

started to implement the new K-12 Curriculum, which is a major reform in the

curriculum for all schools nationwide. This reform includes decongesting and

enhancing the basic education curriculum for learners to master basic

competencies, lengthening the cycle of basic education to cover kindergarten

through year 12. By prolonging the basic education, that is, adding kindergarten

and two years in high school, the program ensures that graduates earn the

necessary skills and reach the legal age for employment to qualify entrance into

the world of work, if they desire or need to do so. On the other hand, graduates

who opt to go to tertiary education are deemed better prepared for college study

(SEAMEO INNOTECH, 2012).

A major change brought about by K-12 curriculum is the addition of two

years in secondary education, known as Senior High School (SHS). The old 4-year

secondary curriculum will be now renamed as Junior High School (JHS) which

starts from Grades 7 to Grade 10, and Senior High School will follow through from

Grades 11 to 12. The additional two years of SHS would mean that the high school

graduates are better prepared for whatever path they will choose, and be of legal

age (18 years old) to be lawfully employed upon graduation.

 The secondary education curriculum, in itself, would be reformed too. All

core subjects, namely: Science, Mathematics, Araling Panlipunan, MAPEH and

Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao; will be taught using the spiral approach wherein

learning is a process of building upon previously learned knowledge. The newest

addition and one of the main highlights of K-12 curriculum is the Career Pathways,

more known as Tracks. It offers opportunities for specialization in Academic,

Technical-Vocational-Livelihood, Sports and Arts fields. The students may choose

based on aptitude, interests and school capacity. The choice of the career track

will determine the content of the subjects the student will take in Senior High

School as preparation for his/her career.

The tracks aforementioned are as follows:

1. Academic, which is further subdivided into three strands:

Accountancy, Business and Management (ABM)

Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS)

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)

2. Technical-vocational, which is further subdivided into four strands:

Agriculture-Fisheries

Home Economics

Industrial Arts

Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

3. Sports

4. Arts and Design

At Grades 7 and 8, students will study exploratory subjects by taking four

Technology and Livelihood Education (TLE) courses for each Grade. At Grades 9

and 10, TLE specializations are offered, then at Grades 11 and 12 career pathway

specializations are offered. Career pathways lead to eligibility for Certificate of

Competency (COC), which TESDA issues to individuals who satisfactorily

demonstrate competence on a particular or cluster of units of competency. The

COC leads to certification beginning with NC 1 which indicates the performance of

a routine and predictable task, requiring little judgment and supervision, and NC 2,

the performance of a prescribed range of functions.

Aside from certification of TESDA, other recognition may be issued by other

government or non-government agencies. For instance, art-related career

pathways may be assessed by the National Commission for Culture and Arts

(NCCA); sports-related career pathways may be assessed by the Philippine Sports

Commission (PSC); and foreign languages may be assessed by TESDA or foreign

language institutes.

The career specializations offered by the K-12 curriculum serves as a

stepping stone for the students to plan up and act upon on their chosen career. As

the future batch of Grade 12 graduates, the Grade 11 students of SY 2019-2020,

are at the phase wherein they would choose their specialization that they really

like so that they can be prepared to anything that they will encounter during the
school year. Thus, it is important to determine the specialization that they are about

to continue and the factors as to why they chose the said track.

Theoretical Framework

The study is anchored on the theory of Donald Super which focuses on the

development of life roles over the life span with emphasis on inter-role congruence.

His vocational concept as a part of self-concept is formed; it is the driving force

that establishes a career pattern one will follow through life (Super, 1990).

Vocational developmental tasks are derived from vocational stages which provides

framework for vocational behavior and attitudes. The vocational developmental

stages are as follows:

1. Growth (birth-age 14 or 15), characterized by development of capacity,

attitudes, interests, and needs associated with self-concepts;

2. Explanatory (ages 15-24), characterized by a tentative phase in which

choices are.

3. Establishment (ages 25-44), characterized by trial and stabilization

through work experiences;

4. Maintenance (ages 45-64), characterized by a continual adjustment

process to improve working position and situation; and

5. Decline (ages 65+), characterized by preretirement considerations,

reduced work output, and eventual retirement.

 The crystallization task (ages 14-18) is forming a preferred career plan and

considering how it might be implemented. Pertinent information is studied with the

goal of becoming more aware of the preferred choice and the wisdom of

preference. The specification task (ages 18-21) follows in which the individual feels

the need to specify the career plan through more specific resources and explicit

awareness of cogent variables of the preferred choice. The implementation task

(ages 21-24) is accomplished by the completion of training and entry into the

career and develops a feeling of security in career position.

The stabilization (ages 24-35) is reached when the individual is firmly

established in a career and develops a feeling of security in career position. Finally,

the consolidation task (35+) follows with advancement and seniority in a career.

Super also identified six dimensions that were thought to be relevant and

appropriate for adolescents:

1. Orientation to Vocational Choice (an attitudinal dimension determining

whether the individual is concerned with the eventual vocational choice to

be made);

2. Information and planning;

3. Consistency of Vocational Preferences (individuals’ consistency of

preferences);

4. Crystallization of Traits (individual progress toward forming a self-

concept);

5. Vocational Independence (independence of work experience); and

 6. Wisdom of Vocational Preferences (dimension concerned with

individuals ability to make realistic preferences consistent with personal

tasks.)

This theory is found to be appropriate because of its stressfulness in terms

of developing a career plan that will guide the individual in choosing his/her career

pathway. Also, Super’s six-dimension is appropriate for adolescent is truly

applicable because high school students fall under this category.

Another theory adopted for the research is David Tiedeman’s “Self-

Development Approaches to Career”. Tiedeman believes that evolving ego-

identity is of central importance in the career development process. Tiedeman

referred to the evolving self-in-situation from the earliest awareness of self to point

at which individual becomes capable of evaluating experiences, anticipating, and

imagining future goals, and storing experiences in memory for future reference

with Tiedeman’s context of Erik Erikson’s eight psychosocial crises. Self-in-

situation, self-in-world and the orientation of work evolve as one resolves the

psychosocial crises of life. Tiedeman therefore conceptualized a paradigm for

problem-solving as the mechanism of career decision making. The paradigm

covers four aspects of anticipation or preoccupation (exploration, crystallization,

choice, and clarification) and three aspects of implementation of adjustment

(induction, reformation, and integration).

Tiedeman stressed out why individual change their courses of action

because of external factors because of external forces (such as the call of the

armed forces, an economic crisis, the work setting itself) or by broad psychological
drives (such as unmet needs, changing aspirations, role diffusion). According to

the prescribed sequence, a new decision unfolds and must be made, beginning

with exploration and eventually reaching integration. If integration is not reached

once again, the individual may adapt to a career environment or may simply

withdraw and begin a new search for eventual integration.

The rationale between these two theories is one follows a vocational self-

concept which is a driving force that establishes a career pattern one will follow

through life but there are some factors could might altered this pattern. These

factors, such as external forces (called of armed services, economic crisis, and

work setting itself) and psychological drives (unmet needs, changing aspirations,

role diffusion) altered the career patterns of individual.

Super said that indecisiveness is a period in developmental process when

interests have not been fully crystallized. Individuals lead to discriminate two or

more choices of two or more occupational objectives when uncertainty about future

occurs. Tiedemann noted that as individuals become more aware of the

developing character of the career process itself, they are more willing to make

changes and to alter or redefine a decision.

Statement of the Problem

This study aims to determine the factors that affect the senior high school

track preferences of the Grade 11 students of a private institution in Cagayan de

Oro City of the School Year 2019-2020.

Specifically, it seeks to answer the following:

1. What are the socio-economic profile of the Grade 9 students in terms of:

a. Age;

b. Gender;

c. Parents’ Educational Attainment;

d. Parents’ Occupation;

e. Socio-Economic Status?

2. What career/field do the respondents want to specialize and pursue further

once they graduated from Grade 12?

3. What are the leading factors that affect the respondents’ preference among

these areas:

a. Personality

b. Family/Relatives

c. Interests; and

d. Job Opportunities?
4. To what extent do the four factors mentioned in Question 3 influence the

students’ track preference?