PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED BY ABM STUDENTS IN BUSINESS FINANCE

Chapter I
PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND
A. Introduction
The K to 12 basic education curriculum has been the biggest change in the Philippine
education system in these modern times. With the addition of two years which constitute the
Senior High School, it has extended the basic education from 10 years to 12 years which is at
par with international standards. Accountancy, Business, and Management (ABM) as one of
the strands under the Academic track assures the students to prepare them to any business-
related courses as reflected on its subject offerings and curriculum guides (Abella, 2019).
However, similar to other strands, ABM is also very challenging. Under this strand, students
commonly find Business Finance as a difficult subject to deal with.
Business finance, as one of the specialized subjects under the ABM learning strand, has
been a problem to ABM students. As a matter of fact, there are many studies concerning
about the struggles of students in this subject. Some of the common problems encountered by
the students are lack of background knowledge in the subject, difficulty in understanding the
lesson, and the teaching methods of the teacher (Alvarado et al., 2019).
The above-mentioned problems may negatively influence the students’ performance in
the classroom (Good Therapy, 2019), their behavior in taking the strand efficiently and
seriously, and their view on the career path they are heading to (Alvarado et al., 2019).
Undoubtedly, finance is one of the most important aspects of a business (Nikhil Bansal,
2019). Knowledge in finance is a fundamental foundation to become competent ABM
graduates and to become successful businessmen and entrepreneurs in the future. Hence,
school administrators, teachers, and stakeholders should not overlook the importance of
enhancing the learning situation of the students, and the need to a comprehensive
understanding of each student of the specialized subjects provided in the strand they are
enrolled in.
Considering that Senior High School is a preparatory ground for college, students must
be able to thoroughly understand and learn the lessons in Business Finance. Improvements
and enhancements in the teaching and learning process must be done in accordance with the
identified problems encountered by the ABM students in the said subject.
In view of those given points, this research aims to identify the problems commonly
encountered by Grade 12 ABM students of Diffun National High School in Business Finance,
to serve as a basis and guide of ABM teachers in improving their way of instruction in order
to provide the best learning experience for Senior High School students.
B. Research Questions
This study attempts to identify the common problems encountered by Grade 12 ABM
students of Diffun National High School in Business Finance.
Specifically, it answers the following questions:
1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of:
1.1 Sex
1.2 Age
2. What are the common problems encountered by respondents in business finance in
terms of:
2.1 Knowledge in the subject
2.2 Understanding the lesson
2.3 Teaching methods of the teacher
3. Is there a significant difference on the common problems encountered by respondents
in studying business finance when grouped according to profile?

C. Hypothesis
There is no significant difference on the common problems encountered by
respondents in studying business finance when grouped according to their profile.

D. Conceptual Framework of the Study

Input Process Output

 Respondents’  Dissemination
 Information
profile of survey
on the
- Sex questionnaires
common
- Age to the student-
problems
 Common respondents
encountered
problems  Identifying the
by the
encountered common
students in
by problems
business
respondents in encountered
finance
business by student-
 Improvement
finance respondents in
of methods
business
and way of
finance
instruction in
 Interpretation
order to
of data
provide the
Input collected
best learning
experience for
students

Feedback
 The elements are the respondents’ profile which includes sex and age.
Moreover, one of the factors under investigation is the common problems encountered
by the students in business finance.
Process
In order to gather the needed data for this study, survey questionnaires will be
disseminated to the respondents; and these will be used in identifying the common
problems encountered by the respondents in business finance. Thereafter,
interpretation of the data will be conducted.
Output
It is expected that in this study, students’ common problems encountered in
business finance will be identified. From this, the teachers of business finance will be
aware and this will serve as their basis and guide to improve their way of instruction
in order to provide the best learning experience for Senior High School students.

E. Scope and Delimitation

The main purpose of the study is to identify the common problems encountered by the
ABM students in business finance and to serve as a basis or guide of ABM teachers in
improving their way of instruction in order to provide the best learning experience for Senior
High School students. The participants of the study will be the Grade 12 ABM students of
Diffun National High School who have the subject of business finance.
This study does not include Grade 11 ABM students as respondents because they
don’t have the subject of business finance and still haven’t experienced this said subject
unlike the Grade 12 ABM students as they already experienced the business finance as one of
the specialized subject.

F. Significance of the Study

Business finance as one of the specialized subjects had been a problem to ABM
students. Therefore, this study is conducted to identify the common problems encountered by
the students, wherein the following may benefit:
ABM Students. By identifying their problems in business finance, they will be able
to know their weaknesses and will perform better from these weak points.
Business Finance Teachers. The result of the study will serve as their basis and
guide to help them in improving instruction through developing new teaching strategies and
methods as they play a very significant role as business finance teachers.
Incoming Senior High School ABM Students. With this study, they will be given a
brief yet substantial background on the common problems encountered in business finance.
They will be given as well a sufficient basis on what to expect about business finance in
accordance with the result of the study which are derived from respondents’ own perceptions
and experiences.
Future Researchers. This will give adequate information to those who will undergo
into similar study. The result of the study will serve as a guide to other researchers who
attempt to pursue further inquiry on the same subject matter
 CHAPTER II
REVIEW RELATED LITERATURE

The following articles and resources serve as a foundation to support the claim of the
present study. The researches accumulated the resource from the articles online.
Difficulties can be a hardship, an obstacle, a hindrance for a problem. In the study, it
was used as a thing that is hard to accomplish, deal with, or understand. In line with studying
the Grade 12 students who are currently taking the Accountancy, Business and Management
strand experiences problems regarding in business finance subject.
To begin this chapter, the researchers will define the variables involved in the study of
difficulties encountered of ABM student in Business finance subject. The researches will also
examine other research articles and studies that show how these variables are related. This
chapter will end with the summary of literature review. The summarized articles and studies
below that are subjected to the enhancement of the present research are as follows:
Introduction of K-12 program in the Philippines: Accountancy Business Management
for the enrichment of future businessmen and businesswomen
Acosta and Acosta (2016) stated that the k-12 was the enhancement of the basic
education program that is also known as the republic act no. 10533 or “An act of enhancing
the basic education in the Philippines” that was signed by the former Philippine president
Benigno Aquino on May 15, 2013 because the Philippine is the last country in Asia with a
10-year pre-university cycle.
The law proposed a new program that covers 12 years of basic education which
includes the additional two years in the secondary level and the deletion of the preparatory
level in the primary level.
Furthermore, the additional two years in Senior High School was targeted to prepare
the students for tertiary education, middle level skills development, entrepreneurship, and
global employment (Acosta & Acosta 2016).
The department of Education proposed four tracks which are (1) The academic strand
which includes the Accountancy, business and management (ABM), the Science, technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), Humanities and social science (HUMMS), and also
the General Academic Strand (GAS); (2) Technical Vocational Strand that includes the
agriculture and fisheries strand and the information and communication strand’ (3) Sports
track and the (4) Arts and Design Track.
Moreover, the curriculum of the different specializations of the different strands are
carefully selected and distributed to give equally education to the senior high school students.
The subjects offered are subdivided into three categories namely the core subjects, the
applied subjects and the specialized subjects. Each subjects play a role in the students, the
core subjects include the general academics wherein it was taken by all the strands. The
applied subjects wherein simulations and practical subjects were included that is also taken
by all the strands. The specialized subjects are enrichment courses that includes the
fundamental basics of selected college subjects.
Accountancy, Business and Management a strand under the academic track that is
designed for students who are planning to take up a degree related to commerce and business
on the tertiary level. With this program, the students in this are will be garnering advance
knowledge as well as to foster bthe characteristics and attitudes of becoming a business
oriented person.
Supported by Abun, Foronda, Belandres, and Magallanes (2018) claimed that the
benefit of becoming an abm student is that it enhances the students entrepreneurial attitude.
Therefore, it states that ABM is a good preparatory course for business related
programs in the tertiary level of education.
Difficulties of Academic Achievement in Principles of Finance
If you think the only people who need to understand finance are those who work in
banking. It’s time you reconsidered your worldview. Whether you realize it or not, there’s a
good chance that you use finance, it turns out, can have a huge impact on your life-and it’s
probably not as difficult as you think.
However, it has been observed that education in most schools these days is very
theoretical rather than experiential where students are not personally involved in business
experiences (McHann & Frost, 2010). Chia and Holt (2008) stressed that most students do
not have opportunities such as trainings or skills development in which they can apply their
knowledge into real world practice. Not surprisingly, a serious knowing-doing gap is very
evident among business graduates which eventually affects their productivity and competitive
success (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2000). Section 5 of Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013
specifically states that the Department of Education shall adhere to the following standards
and principles in which the curriculum shall use pedagogical approaches that are
constructivist, inquiry-based, reflective, collaborative and integrative. With this provision, it
is mandated that the teaching and learning approaches employed in the classrooms should
uphold the features of a constructivist classroom which are democratic, student-centered and
the learning process encourage the students to be independent and responsible. Situated
cognition theory emphasizes that people’s knowledge is constructed within and linked to the
activity, context, and culture in which it was learned (Robbins & Aydede, 2009). Making
connections to everyday contexts guides students to enrich and integrate schooling and life
experiences and further develop meaningful, long-lasting interests and understandings
(Jonassen & Land, 2012). Since the senior high school program in the Philippines is still in its
infancy stage , the schools offering the ABM strand would face a lot of challenges as they are
still inexperienced on how to satisfy and cope with the demands of this program.
Several studies have been conducted to address various aspects of the introductory
accounting course. Among other things, these studies have examined the determinants of
students’ performance in the principles of accounting courses (Ogibly, 2000, p. 4). Abraham
(1987) was unable to identify any significant correlation between the use of the computer and
student performance.
In the past, scholars have studied the challenges related to listening. Anderson and
Lynch (1988) posits that the listening performance of students is affected by their lack of
attention and concentration towards aural input. Other factors such as lack of prior knowledge
on the topic discussed, as well as socio-cultural, factual or contextual knowledge of the target
language can also contribute to the difficulties associated with listening comprehension. They
suggest that the challenges may also be caused by the kinds of messages they receive such as
the content of the input, the speaker’s accent or volume of voice, and physical disturbances
such as noise.
Language needs analysis studies on English, especially Business English, have mostly
focused on speaking and writing skills. Listening is not often given attention, or it seems to
be not given sole importance. Furthermore, South American and European countries are the
usual sites of studies regarding Business English. The scarce amount of research situated in
the Asian context was mostly case studies of particular companies, such as the studies
conducted by Cowling (2007) and Prachanant (2012).
In addition, there are still less researches about how the ABM specialized and applied
subjects will be carried out in order for the students to experience that their classes are
relevant and connected to real life applications. Little is known yet about how students feel
throughout the academic journey under this strand and what are the challenges that need to be
addressed in order to maximize learning. Thus, it is of significance to understand how ABM
students make sense of their experiences in the hopes of learning real life business problems
while in school. Taking a close look at their needs and challenges would help the different
stakeholders in senior high school develop new learning strategies or educational policies that
will bridge the gap between the academe and industry.

Chapter III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Design
The type of research method adopted in this study was a cross-sectional survey
design. According to Maninder Singh Setia (2016) Cross-sectional study design is a type of
observational study design. In a cross-sectional study, the investigator measures the outcome
and the exposures in the study participants at the same time.
B. Study Site and Participants
The participants will be the Grade 12 ABM students of Diffun National High School
enrolled for the school year 2020- 2021 consisted of 48 participants with 20 honor students.
They have good attendance record with no more than 5 absences for the last school year and
undergone applied and specialize subjects under the ABM strand and this study utilized
purposive sampling design.
C. Research Techniques or Instrument
The primary instrument to be used in the study is a researcher-constructed
questionnaire which was based on the reviewed literature and studies.  The instrument was
subjected to content validation to check its internal validity and consistency. The structured
questionnaire has two parts.
The first part of the questionnaire is a checklist about the degree of knowledgeable
encountered by the students. In demonstrating the degree of knowledgeable of the
impediments, the scale below is apparently used.

Point Scale Qualitative Description

4 3.26 - 4.00 Highly Knowledgeable
3 2.51 - 3.25 Knowledgeable
2 1.76 - 2.50 Moderately Knowledgeable
1 1.00 - 1.75 Not Knowledgeable

The second part is the different sets of questions assessing the respondent’s busines
finance subject understandable with the help of their instructors.

Point Scale Qualitative Description

4 3.26 - 4.00 Highly Understandable
3 2.51 - 3.25 Understandable
2 1.76 - 2.50 Moderately Understandable
1 1.00 - 1.75 Not Understandable

D. Data Gathering Procedures

In order to collect data, the researchers will follow the procedure mentioned
below.
a. Permission and approval for the conduct of the study was asked from the Subject
Adviser and School Principals.
b. The researcher personally distributed and conducted the questionnaire based on a
list of respondents who had decided to participate in the analysis.
c. The researcher was on hand to explain any  statements, or instructions on how to
complete the questionnaire that the respondents didn't fully understand.
d. The researcher gathered the answered questionnaires so that ocular analysis of
answers could be performed to see how all items and statements were responded.
e. Sorting and tallying the data gathered.
 f. Going to follow the retrieval of the questionnaire, the researcher calculated the
outcome by using the most suitable statistics to respond to the problem statement.
g. The study's outcome was decided by evaluating the information.
E. Data Analysis
The following statistical tools were used to analyze and interpret the data collected.
Frequency and percentage. This is used to determine the respondents’ profile.
Weighted Mean. This statistical tool was used in order to assess the level of
business finance knowledge.
F. Ethical Consideration
Prior to conducting the analysis, the participants' consent was secured. In order to
guarantee anonymity of the researchers, all data obtained in the analysis is handled with great
protection.