EXPLORING THE CULTURAL DIMENSIONS OF LEARNING AMONG SAMA, YAKAN AND

CHAVACANO SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS:

BASIS FOR INSTRUCTIONAL PLAN

Introduction
Culture entails learning at the same time learning entails considerable value on one’s culture. It

has been a prevalent circumstance when a teacher of differing culture meets students of other culture

which usually resulted to greater number of issues. This gives us an overview that for teachers and

students to communicate meaningfully in the diverse physical world, there is a need to explore the

differences of each culture, its value, worth, and importance not just in the social world but also in the

realms of learning.

The advent of globalization has driven the growing needs for educational access which leads

students to rightly demand a multicultural context that enables culturally adaptive learning experiences

that helps student’s holistic development (Visser, 2007; Pincas, 2001). For this reason, most students

exposed in a multicultural context not aligned with their culture usually experience significant conflict

that likely leads to struggles. This does not only refers to conflicting and mutually exclusive teaching and

learning styles but the struggles usually lies on finding connections to both the local culture of the

students and the learning environment (Parish & Linder-Vanberschot, 2010).

Furthermore, Whalen, (2016) invoke Hofstede’s prediction about how national culture manifest

in the classroom for those particular countries in the study because his research findings fail to support

Hofstede. Instead, provisional support is found to create new sets of cultural dimensions specifically for

the purpose of studying classroom culture. Hence, in this study, the researcher will increase focus on

cultural dimensions of learning in the classroom and not categorizing students by national culture to avoid

potential stereotyping by teachers.

Thus, this study explores the cultural dimensions of learning among Senior High School students

with the aid of the Cultural Dimensions of Learning Framework (CDLF) to substantially demonstrate the
specific regional culture variation that is exhibited during classroom instruction. Lastly, this study aims to

examine how the cultural identity of Yakan, Sama, and Chavacano further affects one’s culture of

learning to provide innovative instructional plan to those who are in the frontline of the academic sector.

Statement of the Problem

This research study aims to explore the cultural dimensions of learning among Senior High School

students. Further, this also seeks to determine how local cultures affects student’s culture of learning in

the classroom.

This research study aims to answer the research questions below:

1. What are the Senior High School students’ cultural dimensions of learning?

2. What are the least and most extreme cultural dimensions of learning exhibited by Sama, Yakan,

and Chavacano?

3. Is there a significant difference between the cultural dimensions of learning of SHS students

when grouped according to their cultural identity?

4. How does the students’ cultural dimensions of learning affect their performances in the

classroom?

5. On the basis of the findings, what instructional innovation can be designed to bridge the gap

between student’s cultural identity and their cultural dimensions of learning?

Theoretical Framework

This study is anchored on the Cultural Dimensions of Learning Framework which is adapted

mainly from the works of Hall (1983), Levine (1997), Hofstede and Hofstede (2005), Nisbett (2003), and

Lewis (2006), Parrish and Linder-VanBerschot (2010). This framework has been very useful for

understanding the spectrum of cultural differences that impact the teaching and learning process.
 This learning situation-based framework known as the Cultural Dimensions of Learning

Framework (CDLF) is broken into three sections: social relationships, epistemological beliefs, and

temporal perceptions. Parrish and Linder-VanBerschot designed the CDLF to include eight cultural

parameters based on prior research supporting their influence on educational events. On the other hand, it

cannot be denied that it is impractical to describe a comprehensive framework in a single article due to

cultural complexity and the fundamental role of education and training in the transmission of culture

(Parrish and Linder-VanBerschot, 2010). However, the authors expanded upon previous frameworks to

broaden and account for updated research on cultural differences that have an effect on education,

teaching, and learning. Given this focus on the educational influence of culture, the CDLF is most

applicable to this study.

Thus, CDLF is an essential tool for instructional providers to consider and be accounted in their

practices in shaping the curriculum and its application during the instruction to avoid personal biases.

Recognizing that one’s beliefs and behaviors fall along a spectrum of differences can help increase

flexibility in instructional approaches and create stronger empathy for learners. Though, the framework,

even with its numerous dimensions, cannot generally capture the cultural diversity that actually exists,

and unanticipated differences are likely but the works cited in the framework provided a substantial

demonstration of the variation of national and regional culture. Thus, this study, attempts to classify the

dimensions of these 3 cultural groups to stress the spectrums of variability rather than the generalized

differences between cultures.

Conceptual Framework

This study will be guided by the conceptual paradigm below to achieve the purpose which is to

explore the different cultural dimensions of learning among Senior High School students.

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Senior High School Students

Cultural Dimensions of  Sama
Learning Framework  Yakan
 Chavacano
 Figure 1. Conceptual paradigm of the study

Figure 1 shows the relationship between the frameworks of cultural dimensions of learning which

is subdivided into three categories. First, Social Relationships which involves Equality and Authority,

Individualism and Collectivism, Nurture and Challenge, second, Epistemological Beliefs which involves

Stability seeking and Uncertainty acceptance, Logical argumentation and Being reasonable, Causality and

Complex systems, and lastly, Temporal perceptions which has to do with Clock time and Event time,

Linear time and Cyclical Time towards Senior high School students cultural identity such as Sama,

Yakan, and Chavacano.

Significance of the Study

The outcome of the study may be beneficial to the DepEd academic administrators; Principals,

Teachers, Students, and Future researchers.

For the Principals

The result of the study will provide an overview of Senior High School student’s cultural

dimensions of learning. This will enable the administrative sectors to keep track of student’s ethnicity as a

considerable factor in the students learning process to further provide an awareness program that will

address the cultural gap that learners have in learning and further instructional innovations that can be

made.

For the Teachers

The study will aid the teachers in examining their student’s cultural dimension of learning aside

from the cognitive aspect which is mainly considered in the students leaning habits. Hence, this will
further give them the notion of how the cultural dimensions of learning enhance student’s capability and

ability in doing various task/activities during classroom instructions. Also, this will give them a glimpse

of the other side of the coin of learning that needs to be considered.

For the Students

This study will support learner’s cultural dimensions of learning that needs to be addressed by

teachers and DepEd academic sectors. Through this, they will be enlightened on the different cultural

dimensions that they possess as 21st century learner.

For the Future Researchers

This study will assist them to conduct further studies on cultural dimensions of learning to other

local cultural groups. The current research will give them an overview on how one’s culture addresses

learning variability, thus next researcher/s might also consider other variables such as age, sex, grade

level, and strand as moderating variables to be explored.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

This study is only limited to the eight cultural dimensions of learning adapted in the CDLF

designed by Parrish and Linder-VanBerschot’s (2010) which consist of 36 survey questions regarding

Equality/Authority; Individualism/Collectivism; Nurture/Challenge; Stability seeking/Uncertainty

acceptance; Logic argumentation/Being reasonable; Causality/Complex systems (Analysis/Holism);

Clock time/Event time; and Linear time/Cyclical time respectively. The respondents of the study are all

Yakan, Sama, and Chavacano students of Baliwasan Stand-Alone Senior High School, Zamboanga City

from Grade 11 to 12, S.Y. 2021-2022.

 Chapter 2

METHODOLOGY

Research Design

This research study will employ a mix-method, specifically the explanatory design which entails

a sequential stage of collecting data from quantitative to qualitative. The quantitative phase of the study

will be done using a culturally based learning preferences survey questionnaire derived from Parrish and

Linder-VanBerschots’s (2010) CDLF which will be administered and completed by the respondents.

Then, this will be followed by a key informant interview (KII) for the students to determine how their

own cultural dimensions of learning affects their classroom performances for the qualitative phase of the

study.

Sampling Technique

This study will use the total enumeration sampling Baliwasan Stand-Alone Senior High School.

Research Instrument

This study will adapt Parrish and Linder-VanBerschot’s (2010) survey on Culturally Based

Learning Preferences. The instrument has two parts, first is the demographic profile of the respondents

which consist of the name, sex, age, grade level, and strand. The second part is the survey which

questions respondents’ culturally based learning preferences dealing with: Equality/Authority;

Individualism/Collectivism; Nurture/Challenge; Stability seeking/Uncertainty acceptance; Logic

argumentation/Being reasonable; Causality/Complex systems (Analysis/Holism); Clock time/Event time;

and Linear time/Cyclical time. The respondents will answer the 36 questions according to a ten semantic
differential scale from one to ten, with 1 being the “strongly agree with the left-hand statement,” ten being

“strongly agree with the right-hand statement,” and the selection of other number indicating “lesser

degrees of agreement with one side or the other.

Data Gathering Procedure

To gather the data needed to address the research questions, the following steps will be

taken by the researcher:

Step 1. Securing Permission. The researcher will seek permission from the school administrators

to conduct the study at Baliwasan Stand-Alone Senior High School. An informed consent will be

presented to the students to seek their permission to actively participate as respondents of the study.

Step 2. Administration of the Survey Questionnaire. The researcher will administer the

culturally based learning preferences survey questionnaire. The test will be held at the school's computer

laboratory. Both groups will be given a maximum of 30 minutes to answer the test.

Step 3. Key Informant Interview. The KII will be administered to selected participants who met

the criteria. There are 5 questions to be answered by the participants during the interview to take a closer

look of how their different cultural dimensions of learning affects their performances in the classroom.

Data Analysis

The following statistical tools for analysis were considered to answer specifically the

different research questions.

To answer research question number one, frequency counts, mean, median, and the mode will be

employed to get the level of receptive vocabulary skills of Capisan Senior High School students before

and after the treatment.

To answer research question number three, a t-test will be utilized to test the significant

difference between the participants' level of receptive vocabulary before and after the treatment.
 To answer research question number four, thematic analysis through inductive codes will be done

by the researcher to synthesize the different views of the participants regarding the usage of the

vocabulary builder mobile application.