EFFECTS OF MULTIPLE-CHOICE TYPE OF TEST AND IN-HOUSE REVIEW ON

THE LET PERFORMANCE OF THE

LDCU GRADUATES

JOLLY D. PUERTOS
ORCID No. 0000-0002-8276-659X
jdpuertos@liceo.edu.ph
College of Teacher Education
Liceo de Cagayan University
Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines

March 2020
Introduction

The licensure examination for professional teachers administered by the Professional

Regulation Commission is given to those graduates of teacher education and those degree

holders who have earned a minimum of 18 units of professional education courses from the TEIs

duly recognized by CHED. This exam is a requirement for the successful examinees to secure

the professional teacher’s license that would allow them to practice teaching in the Philippines.

To pass the exam, an examinee needs to obtain an equivalent score of not lower than 75% for

both elementary and secondary takers. Ricote (2008) opined that LET is important because it

speaks of the good qualities of teachers, and it creates a significant impact on the achievement of

the graduates.

Ideally, each examinee should take the exam with all the necessary academic preparation

during the pre-service education years or college years. Unfortunately, the national passing

percentage for both secondary and elementary levels is way below 50%. 2013 LET results have

an average national passing percentage of 39.68 % for Secondary and 29.48% for the elementary

level. On the other hand, 2014 LET results have an average national passing percentage of 31.41

% for secondary and 32.36 % for the elementary level.

These results indicate higher difficulty for examinees to pass the exam. On the part of the

teacher education institutions, these LET results can be utilized as a basis for improvement. In

terms of the university LET performance, the study conducted by Puertos (2015) found out that

the college of education of Liceo de Cagayan University obtained an institutional passing

percentage of 46.16 % for secondary and 52.42 % for the elementary level in 2013. For 2014, the
university obtained an institutional passing percentage of 57.36% for secondary and 53.31% for

the elementary.

Though the university passing percentages from 2013 to 2014 is higher than the national

passing percentages in both secondary and elementary levels, these LET results are lower than

75, which is the standard institutional passing percentage set by the college of education to its

graduates (College of Education Manual, 2017).

Moreover, the study conducted by Puertos(2015) on the LET performance of LDCU

graduates from 2012 to 2014 recommended that the college of education have to provide

multiple choice type of test similar to board exam during major examinations to make the

students familiar with answering this type of test. According to Casinto (2009) this test is

effective in determining the knowledge of the examinees for simple and complex concepts and it

is practical, reliable and effective assessment tool to use since it can be quickly checked and

scored. Likewise, the said study also recommended increasing the number of hours allotted for

In-house LET Review for the reviewees to have more time reviewing the pre-boards exams.

As a way of utilizing the recommendations, the college of education implemented a

multiple-choice type of test during major exams for all the subjects included in the LET and

increased the number of hours for the In-house LET review effective first semester of the school

year 2015-2016. With the changes Implemented in the college of teacher education, this action

research was conducted to assess the effects of the said interventions on the LET performance of

the graduates.
Methods
This action research employed a comparative quantitative research design. This design was

used in this study considering that this study compared the LET performance of the examinees before and

after the interventions were implemented. Esser and Hanitzsch (2012) concluded that comparative

research involves comparisons between a minimum of two cases. It explains the differences and

similarities between objects of analysis. On the other hand, Clasen (2004) described comparative

research, simply the act of comparing two or more things to discover something about one or all

of the things being compared. The LET results of the College of Education, Liceo de Cagayan

University examinees for 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 that were subjected to comparative

analysis and statistical treatment were sourced from the office of the college of education.

Likewise, the LET results used in this study were limited to the first takers.

Results and Analysis

Table 1
Mean Scores of LET Institutional Passing Percentages for BSE and BEED Examinees

Program Group Mean Std. Deviation

BSED Before 51.76 7.919

After 59.92 2.778

BEED Before 52.86 .6293

After 61.49 1.880

Table 1 presents the mean scores of LET Institutional Passing Percentages for BSE

BEED examinees. As shown in the table, the institutional passing percentages for BSE and

BEED examinees have increased from 51.76 to 59.92 for BSE and 52.86 to 61.49 for BEED.

The data implied that the interventions implemented by the college of education namely using a
multiple-choice type of test during the major exams and the increased in the number of hours for

the in-house LET review were effective since they contributed to the increase of the institutional

passing performance of the university.

Table 2
Results of T-test for independent sample computation for the significant difference between the
institutional passing percentages.

Program t Sig. Interpretation

BSED 1.37 0.303 Not Significant

BEED 6.15 0.025 Significant

Table 2 presents the results of the T-test for independent sample computation for the

significant difference between the institutional passing percentages. As depicted in the table,

there is no significant difference (P-value (0.303) < 0.05) under the BSE examinees which

implied that the LET performance between the groups is statistically the same. While there was a

statistically significant difference under BEED between the groups. This means that there is

strong evidence to believe that those examinees exposed to the interventions have performed

significantly higher in LET.

Discussion
This action research was conducted to compare the LET performance of the LDCU

examinees for the years 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 for the BSED and BEED programs. The sets

of data that were analyzed revealed that the interventions implemented have a lighter effect on

the BSED examinees. This means that the increase in their LET performance could be attributed

to other factors which could be explored further by another action research. Meanwhile, the

interventions implemented have higher significant effects on the BEED examinees. This means
that the interventions were effective to the BEED examinees probably because of their nature

and type of examinations. With the findings of this study, it is humbly recommended that the

college of education will continue to conduct another round of action research using the LET

results of the years 2017, 2018, and 2019. Furthermore, it is also recommended for the college to

conduct a separate action research for the BSED graduates on other interventions that would help

them improve their LET performance.

References

Casinto, C. (2009). Handbook on Principles of Teaching 1.Manila. Rex Book Store.

Clasen, J. (2004). "Defining comparative social policy". A Handbook of Comparative Social
Policy. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84064-886-7.
College of Education Student Manual (2017). Liceo de Cagayan University. Cagayan de Oro
City. Liceo U Press
Esser, F., & Hanitzsch, T. (2012a). On the why and how of comparative inquiry in
communication studies. In F. Esser & T. Hanitzsch (Eds.), Handbook of comparative
communication research (pp. 3–22). London: Routledge.
Puertos, J. (2015). Performance on the Licensure Exam for Teachers among Liceo de Cagayan
University Education Graduates. Liceo Journal Of Higher Education Research, 11(1).
doi:10.7828/her.v11i1.896
Ricote, E. (2008). A Comprehensive Licensure Examination for Teachers Reviewer. Quezon
City. Katha Publishing.