CHAPTER II

RELATEDLITERATURE

This chapter is composed of literature and studies reviewed and gathered from
various sources that provide the researcher valuable information and insights to the
current study regarding the Senior High School Strand to pursue.
Related Literature

The socio-economic status of parents plays an influential

role in student academic achievement and in course
preferences. Several forces of social structure
are considered major determinants of vocational choice.
The family and the social class in which the individual
is nurtured and reared will help him determine his future
vocation. It includes the parents’ educational attainment,
family income, the occupational prestige and the cultural
orientation of the family. Parents’ aspirations include
the father’s and mother’s vocational choice for their children
and other aspirations in life.

Senior high school strand preferences refer to the students’ expressed choice

or selection of a life-time career or employment. The high school years are the
best years for them to decide on what course to pursue in College.
It is important that students’ choices should be within their line of interest and
capabilities, to m a k e t h e i r   l i v e s h a p p y , p r o d u c t i v e   a n d f u l f i l l i n g a n d   b y
w h i c h t h e y c o u l d h e l p i n   t h e c o u n t r y ’ s economic growth and stability.

learners are more motivated to go to school when their parents give them also moral
support by attending or participating in school activities and assisting them in their s
tudies. The learners also perform better in their classes when they are given more enc
ouragement, inspiring advice and great affection daily. These can enhance
their school achievement and performance in the different subjects.
RELATEDSTUDIES

Senior high school strand preference is an integral part of education so

students have to aid to make intelligent decisi ons and adjustments in life.
According to Gary Kelly, as cited by Cinco (2008), making
a course preference as a phase of the educative process consists of the appraisal o
f the abilities, interests and needs of individual pupils and students in order to
formulate plans for realizing their capacities and the adjustments which will promote
their well-being in school, and in life.
 Babad (2001) examined different considerations for
selecting a first course and a last course. She found that
first courses were selected for their prospective intellectual
level, expected quality of teaching and students potential
learning and occupational gains. She also found that last
courses were selected on the basis of comfort and ease and
that quality of teaching was the only dimension
separating satisfied and dissatisfied students in both first
and last courses

In a follow-up study, Babad & Tayeb (2003)

studied three dimensions of course selection
-   learning value, lecturer’s style, and course difficulty in
the sequential decision-making process of
course preference in a hypothetical choice situation. They con
cluded that students chose to avoid hard work, giving strong
preference to easy and moderately difficult courses.
They also found that students gave high importance to
the learning value and lecturer style dimensions.
Feather (1988) found support for the hypothesis that
course preference decisions for students in mathematics
and English courses are related to their self-concepts of
ability in the subjects.

Flores (2010) proved this is her research finding that

parents’ involvement in activities designed to support the
school’s curriculum and standards resulted in the most
substantial gains in academic achievement of students. Thus,
the many forms of parents and teacher’s engagement positively
influenced student achievement at all ages. It has become
imperative for schools to develop partnership
programs of parents support and teacher communication to educa
te students better from all backgrounds (Stone and Dahir,
2000).
Teacher’s and parents’ engagement in education refers to
the beliefs, attitudes, and activities they do support
student’s learning. Although such involvement most often
focuses on parents, it also includes guardians or extended
family members who have significant responsibility in a
student’s upbringing are equally valuable partners in
student’s education (Henderson and Mapp, 2002).
 Students with high academic grades have been observed to
exhibit the drive and commitment to learn. T h e s k i l l t o
acquire information and ideas lead them to
pursue courses which need high intellectual
a b i l i t y like medicine, law, engineering and accounting.
Students with lower intellectual abili ty should take
easier courses like technical-vocational
courses, midwifery, skills in hotel and restaurant
management, secretarial courses, office management and
entrepreneurship (Calderon, 2000).Psychological tests can be
used to measure intelligence in the different levels of
professions as
follows: professional occupational level (superior intelligenc
e): technical occupational level (high average intelligence):
skilled occupational level <average intelligence=&
semi9skilled and low-skilled level (low9average): unskilled
occupational level (inferior intelligence) (Cinco, 2008).

Personality is the sum total of an individual’s

characteristics and ways of behaving which affects his unique
adjustment to his environment. It is the product of many
factors and conditions which have  been inherited and
which exists in the environment. No two persons have the same
heredity and no two persons react in the same way to their
environment (Annabel, 1998.) The goal in personality
development is a well9rounded personality that can help or
meets situation in life successfully. To be successful
in one2s career today, a person must have a pleasing
personality.