Systems Plus College Foundation

Balibago, Angeles City

FACTORS THAT AFFECT STUDENT IN CHOOSING

THEIR STRAND

By:

Liwanag, Ramon Jr.

Catacutan, John Russell

INTRODUCTION

Today, in the modern world, it’s getting harder for the

children who are going to move on to their senior high school

journey, particularly the path that they’re going to take. And

it’s a new curriculum for the Filipinos that made it harder for

us. Children still don’t know what path they will pursue, so

they’re still uncertain about the strand they’re going to take in

senior high school because they’re going to be consistent and

passionate about it because they are going to engage with it for

the rest of their lives (Vitug & Sierra et al., 2017). There a

lot of consequences in choosing or deciding on something. It can

either help you or it will hinder you in the future. There are a

lot of factors to consider in choosing a strand. According to

Boyer (2011), “one of the biggest decision in life is being made

in taking a course. It will involve a lot of time, money, and

effort. The shape and the excellence of the student may depend on

the outcome.” A student should take the risk of choosing a senior

academic track (Vallente et al., 2015).

Making decisions requires consideration of choices and in

that case only as many options as possible should be found and

the best one for our purposes, our interests, our needs, our

values, etc. can be chosen. A good choice can have an immense

impact in our life (Albia et al., 2015). For students to finalize

their choice of strand, collect, and make an official effort for

the determination of the influences of selecting a strand. The

external factors include parental preference, family

considerations, financial limitations, and peer pressure are one

of the main causes. These influences create a conflict with what

one thinks about his chosen strand (Segundo & Serida et al.,

2017). A good piece of advice can be offered by that individual,

and a poor one can also be. Guidance from others is one of the

reasons students can determine whether to base their decisions on

advice of others that include the adviser, parents and some

students. This factor can either affect and alter a learner’s

perspective (Gayosa et al., 2015)

Some factors in the social environment affect the choice of

career of the students, especially parents as an immediate

family, who are actively involved in choosing the right education

for their children (Pafili & Mylonakis, 2011). Families or

elderly people are first consulted by their children as a sign of

respect for the Filipino parents and culture, because they will

provide the financial support they need to attend school

(Laguador, 2013).

Friends or peers have an impact to the student choice. The

factor affects the decision of the students to choose a strand

since it is crucial that you feel accepted in a group as a

teenager. When students take all his/her decision on his/her

friends/peer, there are different effects. Often friends will

alter your choice like, for instance, if most of your friends

want to choose a strand related to mathematics and science, you

want to feel accepted in a group will affect your decision and

you end up taking the same strand where they as friends/peers

wants (Dollaga et al., 2015).

The students who normally took the strand do not like to

affect their credentials, as has been found. For example, as a

researcher, we also find it difficult to determine which strand

to take and eventually have the strand our parents want us to

take. It was good at first but as the time passes, it becomes

boring to see that your desire is not fulfilled. The grades then

become low and gradually think about shifting from another strand

(Nobleza et al., 2015).

In this study, we asked some STEM students to answer the

following questions:

Q2. Is it your own choice taking STEM or someone told you?

If it is not your own choice, why you didn’t pursue what you

really want?

Q3. Is being in the strand you don’t really want affects

your academic performance?

 Respondent 1, 17, taking STEM strand at Systems Plus College

Foundation.

She said that, “I’ve been influenced to take this strand. I

did not get to take what I really want because of my parents’

expectations and also because of the demands of jobs these days.”

She added that at first she kind of liked some subjects but as it

progress she see her incompatibility with this strand. “If you

don’t have the motivation and passion with what you are doing

eventually you will lose interest on whatever it is.”

Respondent 2, 17, taking STEM strand at Holy Angel

University.

He took STEM because his Father is a license Civil Engineer

so he wants him also to be an engineer, but he saw that as a good

suggestion to pursue in college that’s why he take STEM. But as

he go along with his strand, he suddenly thought that he should

have taken HUMSS. “My real passion belongs there”, he said. It

doesn't affect his academic performance since he still study well

to cope up with the lessons so he can see that he don’t really

affects his academic performance.

Respondent 3, 18, taking STEM strand at Holy Angel

University.
 “I was not sure what strand to take for senior high school

so I asked my friends what strand are they going to take.” Most

of her friend said that they will take STEM. Since one of her

college course choices is engineering, so she also took STEM

strand. “I chose this for the first place but I just got a late

realization that I must have ABM stead of this.” About academic

performance, all that I can say is, “if someone wants to learn,

even if it is not his forte or his field, in the end he'll do

just fine.”

CONCLUSION

Our study aims to determine the factors that affect students

in choosing their strand in senior high school. This research

aims at helping students to understand that before determining

which strand to take, several considerations must be considered.

The purpose is to make students understand that it should be well

planned to avoid regrets in the end. Based on the data we

gathered from the respondents, they based their decision

according to their academic ability, advice of friends, peer

influence, demands of job and their parents. This factors play a

big role in choosing a strand. We came up to a conclusion that

the most important factor that the students needs to consider in

choosing a strand is their own choice and their passion, they

would be more motivated to excel in that field. The institution

needs to determine the students’ willingness to pursue the

strand, which is an important indicator of career choice where

motivation can be exploited (Hirschi & Lage, 2010).