REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Learning Difficulties

According to the Department of Education, learning difficulties

affect around 40,000 Filipino schoolchildren. The majority of these

affected kids are boys. Unfortunately, a study by Saludes and Dante

(2009) showed that parents have only slight knowledge, and teachers

have partial knowledge of learning difficulties. This means that

children with learning difficulties may be struggling through school life

with the additional burden of being treated and labelled as "bobo".

When not diagnosed correctly, person with learning difficulties can go

through life thinking of themselves as stupid. They may carry this

perception into adulthood.

Furthermore, according to Pandy (2012), children with a

learning difficulty are very intelligent but repeated academic failure

weakens their self-confidence and esteem. They may acquire a

disliking for school and later become delinquent.

Organizational Difficulties

Learning difficulties are neurologically-based processing

problems. These processing problems can interfere with learning basic

skills such as reading, writing and/or math.  They can also interfere

with higher level skills such as organization, time planning, abstract

reasoning, long or short term memory and attention (Pandy, 2012).

Test taking Difficulties

According to the study of Salend, (2012), test difficulty can have

broader consequences, negatively affecting a student's social,

emotional and behavioural development, as well as their feelings about

themselves and school. Test anxiety is a combination of physiological

over-arousal, tension and somatic symptoms, along with worry, dread,

fear of failure, and catastrophizing, that occur before or during test

situations. It is a physiological condition in which people experience

extreme stress, anxiety, and discomfort during and/or before taking a

test. This anxiety creates significant barriers to learning and

performance. Research suggests that high levels of emotional distress

have a direct correlation to reduce academic performance and higher

overall student drop-out rates.

Note Taking Difficulties

In the study of Crawford (2015), he stated that there have been a

number of different studies on various aspects of note taking, such as

the effectiveness of specific methods and techniques, as well as the

connections between note taking and test performance. In addition,

teachers can improve the note-taking skills of students with mild

difficulties by either modifying their presentation during lectures or

teaching students how to use note-taking techniques. This article

begins with a vignette and then describes how teachers can modify

their lectures and how they can teach note-taking techniques to

students. The two note-taking techniques described are strategic note

taking and guided notes (Boyle, 2007).

Difficulties in Reading

Drummund (2016) explained that reading disabilities can be

associated with the term dyslexia. Dyslexia refers to persistent

difficulties in learning to read. The severity of this specific learning

disability can differ in each individual but can affect reading fluency,

decoding, reading comprehension, recall, writing, spelling, and

sometimes speech and can exist along with other related disorders.

Dyslexia is sometimes referred to as a Language-Based Learning

Disability. A common misconception is that a person with dyslexia

sees or writes letters and numbers in a reversed or backwards way.

This is not the case, however. Dyslexia refers to a broader array of

reading difficulties. Dyslexia often results from difficulties with the

auditory processing part of language and hinders accurate, fluent

word reading. This, in turn, can result in problems with

understanding what is read. Many kids struggle with reading. One

estimate is that about 10 million children have difficulties learning to

read. The good news is that 90 to 95 percent of reading impaired

children can overcome their difficulties if they receive appropriate

treatment at early ages. A large percent of learning disabilities (up to

80 percent) show themselves as problems learning to read.

Difficulties in Writing

According to LDAA (2012), a person with this learning difficulty

may have problems including illegible handwriting, inconsistent

spacing, poor spatial planning on paper, poor spelling, and difficulty

composing writing as well as thinking and writing at the same time.

Furthermore according to Westwood (2008), writing difficulties might

affect these factors: “Lack of proficiency in text production skills, that

is, frequent errors in spelling, the use of upper and lower case, and

punctuation; Lack of knowledge relating to the subject content of the

script to be written, and/or of the conventions and characteristics of

different writing genres; Lack of effective strategies in planning or

revising text”.

Student with Learning Difficulties in Math

Butterworth (2010) pointed out that individuals with this type of

learning difficulty may also have poor comprehension of math

symbols, may struggle with memorizing and organizing numbers, have

difficulty telling time, or have trouble with counting.Dyscalculia can

occur in people from across the whole IQ range – often higher than

average – along with difficulties with time, measurement, and spatial

reasoning.

Self-esteem

Self-esteem can be defined as valuing one's own self-worth. A

child's self-esteem can be altered when a major life event takes place,

such as being diagnosed with a learning disability. Low self-esteem is

associated with disruptive emotional, behavioral and academic

problems with school aged children. Given a period of time, positive

self-esteem will emerge with gains in numerous academic

achievements. Being labeled as learning disabled can be potentially

stigmatizing (Pandy, 2012).

 Performance Self-esteem

According to the study of Lynch and Klassen (2007), Academic

failure is a constant thread throughout a child's life that has a

learning difficulty. Adolescents with learning difficulties struggle in an

academic environment, which affects their self-esteem. Furthermore,

Brown, (2008), also stated that children with learning difficulties are

associated with poor academic achievements. Having a learning

difficulty does not prevent one from learning but requires a different

method of teaching. This may include modifications in the classroom

to accommodate developmental delays, which help to make school

work challenging but less difficult.

Social Self-esteem

Individuals who have learning difficulties may be less observant

in their social environment, may misinterpret the social behavior of

others at times, and may not learn as easily from experiences or social

“cues” as their friends. Some children may exhibit an immaturity and

social ineptness due to their learning disability. While seeking

acceptance, their eagerness may cause them to try too hard in

inappropriate ways. Individuals with learning difficulties may

experience social, emotional and motivational hardships more severely

than someone who does not have a learning difficulty. Failure and

poor performance leads one to self-doubt their intelligence, which

discourages and causes one to fear further failure and poor academic

outcomes in the future (Brown, 2008).

Appearance Self-esteem

Appearance self-esteem is the perception that individuals have

of their own worth. This includes a composite of their feelings, a

generalized view of their social acceptance, and their personal feelings

about themselves. Self-concept develops as a result of one’s

experiences with the environment and ones evaluations of these

experiences. Additionally, opinions of significant others, casual

attributions, and concrete feedback play a crucial role in the process

of self-concept development (Pandy,2012).

 METHODOLOGY

Research Design

Descriptive research methodology was utilized in this study to

understand the percentage of units in the specified population of

Bachelor of Elementary Education students with learning difficulties.

It is an effective design to understand the socio demographic details,

learning difficulties and self-esteem of a specific population. Hence it

helps to get the accurate statistical result without really affecting the

respondent’s daily activities.

Research Respondents

The researchers utilized random sampling to get the

respondents from different year levels. Out of three hundred eighty

four (384) BEED students, using Sloven’s formula, two hundred (200)

was generated to represent the samples.

The respondents of the study were the forty three (43) 2 nd year

and one hundred fifty seven (157) 3rd year Bachelor of Elementary

Education (BEED) students who were enrolled during the first

semester of S.Y. 2017-2018 in Agusan del Sur State College of

Agriculture and Technology (ASSCAT).

 Research Instrument

The questionnaires consist of three parts. The first part was the

profile of the respondents. The second part was the learning difficulties

that were adapted from the study of Toolbox (2003). A 62-item scale

questionnaire was used to measure a participant’s self-esteem at a

given point in time. This was subdivided into 8 components of learning

difficulties: (1)organization, (2)test taking, (3)study skills, (4)note

taking, (5)reading, (6)writing, (7)mathematics, (8)advanced thinking.

All items are answered using a 5-point scale (1=never, 2=seldom,

3=sometimes, 4=often, 5=always).

The third part contains the state of self-esteem scale. It was

adapted from the study of Heatherton, T.F. and Polivy (2013). A 20-

item scale was used to measure a participant’s self-esteem at a given

point in time. This was subdivided into 3 components: (1) performance

self-esteem, (2) social self-esteem, and (3) appearance self-esteem. All

items are answered using a 5-point scale. (1=never, 2=seldom,

3=sometimes, 4=often, 5=always).

These adapted instruments went through a little modification to

suit to the interest of the study.

 Interpretation Scale on Learning Difficulties

Rating Range of Descriptive Interpretation

Mean Equivalent

5 4.20-5.00 Very High This means that the learning

difficulty is Always manifested.

4 3.40-4.19 High This means that the learning

difficulty is Often manifested.

3 2.60-3.39 Moderate This means that the learning

difficulty is Sometimes
manifested.
2 1.80-2.59 Low This means that the learning
difficulty is Seldom manifested.
1 1.00-1.79 Very low This means that the learning
difficulty is Never manifested.

Interpretation Scale on the Self-esteem

Rating Range of Descriptive Interpretation

Mean Equivalent

5 4.20-5.00 Very High This means that low Self-

esteem is Always manifested.

4 3.40-4.19 High This means that low Self-

esteem is Often manifested.

3 2.60-3.39 Moderate This means that low Self-

esteem is Sometimes
manifested.
2 1.80-2.59 Low This means that low Self-
esteem is Seldom manifested.
1 1.00-1.79 Very low This means that low Self-
esteem is Never manifested.
 Data Gathering Procedure

The researchers asked permission from the Dean of the College

of Teacher Education and Program Adviser to conduct a survey

regarding the learning difficulties and self-esteem among the Bachelor

of Elementary Education students in Agusan del Sur State College of

Agriculture and Technology. To maximize the time for data gathering

and to not disrupt the respondent’s classes, leisure time of the

students was used as the answering time for completion of the

questionnaire. After the questionnaires were answered, the data

gathered was tabulated and analysed using the computer application

IBM SPSS Statistics 19.

Statistical Treatment of Data

In order to address the objectives of the study, appropriate

statistical tools were used. For problem 1 and problem 2, which is to

determine the level of learning difficulties and self-esteem among the

2nd year and 3rd year Bachelor of Elementary Education Students,

arithmetic mean was used. To answer problem 3, which is to

determine the relationship between learning difficulties and self-

esteem, Pearson r correlation was used and for problem 4, which is to

determine which domain of learning difficulty significantly influence

the self-esteem, Linear Regression Analysis was used.