"A STUDY ON PANDEMIC’S DEMAND ON ACADEMIC FREEZE AMONG GRADE 11

ABM OF HIGHER SCHOOL NG UMAK”

A Research
Presented to
The Faculty of Research
Higher School ng UMak

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Course
Practical Research 1
Gr 11-01 ABM

By

Alcantara, Erizza June

Ebao, Hannah Lyka

Hallig, Jancyn
Mahusay, Maria Angela
Miranda, Hannah Elaine

Peñamante, Hanz Hennessy

Registrado, Mikaella Angela

2021

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 Chapter 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter includes the methodologies to be used in the study. In addition, this

section represents the research design, researchers’ background, beliefs and biases.

This also includes the population, participants and sampling technique. Moreover, it

includes the number of participant for a qualitative study, procedure, qualitative data

collection, data processing and quality assurance.

3.1 Research Design

This study aims to focus on the grounds of the pandemic that requires academic

freeze for the students of grade 11 of ABM strand. The qualitative research

approach used in this study is grounded theory approach. Grounded theory

approach is used to discover and construct theory from the data collected.

Moreover, theory is a set of data intended to explain data and facts. This is the most

applicable approach for the study since the researchers need to collect data from

the selected participants to come up with a set of ideas that will be used to create a

theory about the factors of the pandemic that leads to the idea of academic freeze.

Qualitative data is the expected outcome of this study where the data is not

counted. In addition, it is more focused on getting feedback from the participants

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 whereas the researchers use survey research design as a data source also.

This is a qualitative research since it requires the idea and perspective of the

other person or the target audience itself. Furthermore, the researchers opt to

choose survey research design to easily gather opinions, information and data from

the respondents in order to fully reply to the questions of this research. Online

survey is a set of questions provided by the interviewers to be sent to the selected

respondents. The most used form of an online survey is through Google Form, it is

a web-based app used for creating forms intended for data collection. Through

Google Forms, the researchers will maximize the use of it to connect with the

interviewees. Hence, the results will be analysed and summarized by the

researchers in order to create the theory needed for the study without changing the

provided information by the participants.

3.2 Researchers’ Background, Beliefs and Biases

The researchers are in 11th grade under the strand of Accountancy, Business,

and Management of the University of Makati’s HSU department. This study includes

7 researchers that have one common objective – to maximize the use of the

availability of data source that will be used in generating the information needed to

answer the study’s questions.

Most of the researchers are new to this kind of matter due to the pandemic that

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 took place last year which delayed the learning of the student about how to properly

conduct and compose a research and research paper back in 10th grade.

The researchers do believe or stand with academic freeze not being

implemented and brought to existence. The Higher School ng UMak provide

students sufficient supplies that can help them go through online learning amidst the

pandemic; modules, pens, pad papers, notebooks, and a to-go flash drive that

contains all lessons to be tackled online and enables students to access these

offline. Gadgets are excluded in the supplies given since there are over thousands

of students in the university. Moreover, the flaw of online learning amidst the

pandemic is the necessity of compliance against the provision of funds for each

student’s family. The researches do understand that this is a difficult time for all

which forms the inspiration for the study.

In addition, some students do not own decent gadgets to go through daily online

classes, if you do, you are lucky. The researchers aim to discover and learn all the

point of views of the selected participants about their thoughts of the academic

freeze concept. The participants may tell personal insights about the given topic to

bring out honesty, not just compliance and participation for this study.

In terms of philosophical paradigms, the researchers agree to use interpretivism

as the basis of the study. Interpretivism paradigm believes that reality is multi-layer

and complex and a single phenomenon can have multiple interpretations; with this,

the research will help readers to understand how the participants interact with the

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 current social environment. The researchers will determine the common trends on

whether the participants submit early or later. Such pattern might be telling

something; it’s going to be either that the participants thought of their responses

truthfully or quickly just for compliance to the study. Furthermore, their responses

will be used to come up with the conclusion that directly connects to the question of

the study

3.3 Research Setting

Figure 1. Map of the University of Makati (Source: Google Map)

The researchers conduct the study in the University of Makati; researchers

choose this location because it is easier to perform the study in the same university

as the researchers’. Another reason is, doing the study in the chosen place is more

efficient for the researchers’ study in connection with the participants – ABM

students in 11th Grade.

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 In 2012, UMAK was one of the first universities in the Philippines to pilot the

Department of Education's Senior High School Modelling Program. This school

obtains a Senior High School known as the Higher School ng UMAK (HSU), which

offers four tracks: Academic, Arts and Design, Sports, and Technological -

Vocational Livelihood. Accountancy, Business, and Management Strand, Science,

Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Strand, and Humanities and Social

Science Strand are all included in the Academic Track, with the G11-ABM strand

being the study's subject. The location is in J.P. Rizal Ext, Makati,1215 Metro

Manila.

3.4 Population, Participants and Sampling Technique

This study engages the use of Homogeneous sampling, it is a sample whose

units (e.g., people, cases, etc.) share the same (or very similar) characteristics or

traits (e.g., a group of people that are similar in terms of age, gender, background,

occupation, etc.). In addition, homogeneous sampling is the opposite of maximum

variation sampling. A homogeneous sample is often chosen when the research

question that is being addressed is specific to the characteristics of the particular

group of interest, which is subsequently examined in detail (Kathmandu, 2015). The

intended participants are Grade 11 ABM students of UMAK. Individual's under or

above Grade 11 and any strand other than ABM will not be able to participate. The

researchers choose homogenous sampling because the goal of this study is to

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 understand and determine the current situation of the Grade 11 ABM of HSU

students during online learning. Moreover, these students are the most appropriate

source of data because they are the ones experiencing the New Normal Online

Learning, they know what are the challenges and opportunities of online and

continuing education during the COVID-19. Furthermore, the aim of the study is to

determine what and how does the COVID-19's effects to our country made many

students struggle with the 'New Normal Online Learning'.

3.5 Number of Participants for a Qualitative Study

The research approach that the study uses is the ground theory approach,

whereby Morse (1994) recommended 30 - 50 interviews, while Creswell (1998)

recommended only 20 – 30. In 263 Grade 11 ABM students of HSU, the

researchers choose 16 students to participate in the survey, with an estimated

response rate of 80%. As a result, the researchers must invite 20 Grade 11 ABM

students of HSU (16/80*100 = 20).

Researchers are unable to provide paper surveys but will instead distribute

questionnaires with open-ended questions using Google forms and availability of

time depends on the given due date of the researchers, which are accessible to all

students and can allow them to express their thoughts and experiences on the

questions. With 20 students that are invited to take part, the survey has a great

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 chance of achieving data satisfaction. The data being acquired are sufficient to

answer the research questions.

3.6 Qualitative Data Collection and Procedure

In this section of the research, it states the sequence on how the researchers will

gather the data.

First and foremost, the researchers construct a title and were approved and

validated by the professor, it also states the problem and the specific problems to

be addressed and answered through the results of the study. Second, the

researchers build a survey instrument which includes two parts, the participants’

profiles (email, age, location & other relevant data needed for validation) and the 10

open-ended questions that were formulated and based from the statement of the

problem. Moreover, the qualitative data collection strategy we choose to use in the

study is Qualitative Online survey, in compliance with the current situation’s health

protocols.

Third, the survey will be distributed by the use of Messenger; the researchers will

approach the chosen participants through private messages. Fourth, the survey will

take place online and with the use Google Forms as the chosen platform to

efficiently and rapidly generate surveys for it enables you to input the chosen survey

questions just like the traditional form and ask the participants of the study queries

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 and gather various types of information in a convenient and effective manner.

Moreover, the researchers will provide a limited yet sufficient time for the

participants to answer the survey.

Fifth, the researchers are responsible to wait for an update from the participants

if they have finished the survey. In addition, the said platform also has a feature that

gives the user an update regarding the survey. Hence, it will be better if the

researchers receive two confirmations and/or notifications to avoid further

misunderstandings. Sixth, the collection of survey results will be handled only by

the researchers and will make sure to be properly organized with the data.

Seventh, filtering of answers is done for spotting differences and similarities; survey

trends give the research a better understanding of the participants’ perceptions

which will make it easier to produce a part of the conclusion. Eighth, after the

division of responses from the participants, the researchers will then start to

formulate and build a step by step guide or a full explanation of the said survey and

the research itself; this part provides clarifications from the researchers.

The ninth and last step for the data gathering procedure is the provision of a

suiting and appropriate summary for all the data gathered throughout the research.

This is also where the theories that the researchers provided are developed and all

data are analyzed with the use of the grounded theory approach. Moreover, the

primary characteristic of the analyzed data is text since they give facts and data a

real, meaningful dimension the researcher needs for a thorough data analysis. The

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 said feature of the collected data comes with advantages including small storage

size, easy access – since it is accessible using any gadget and it makes the data

collected easier to analyze and organize.

3.7 Data Analysis

Researchers ought to summarize and pull connections across the data

collected with the objective of using the data to answer the research questions. The

researchers will analyse the data in three steps: read, compare, and interpret.

Reading and familiarization is the first stage, which allows the researchers to

engage with the collected data and thoroughly comprehend the most common

topics stated by the participants. Moreover, the first stage includes the qualitative

data analysis method chosen by the researchers - the Grounded Theory Analysis,

and the type of grounded theory design chosen by the researchers is Constructivist

Design. In addition, it employs an inductive technique to develop a new theory

based on the information acquired through the surveyed participants or focus

groups. Researchers ought to focus on how students feel during the online learning

process and aims to extract and impart their experiences using the constructivist

design. The next stage is comparison, in which researchers look for the differences

between people, time periods, categories, experiences, and so on. What is the

same and what is different, and why? The final stage is interpretation, which is

responsible in forming the conclusion from a group of data. Researchers will

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 examine if the data collected corresponds to the expected outcome.

3.8 Quality Assurance

The researchers provide a top-quality study to fulfil professional and

educational standards, and discuss how participants receive a safety guarantee for

their appreciated participation.

In this section of the research, the researchers give credibility to all participating

students, since the study is being conducted in a specific group which is the Grade

11 ABM students of the Higher School ng UMak. Hence, the research findings and

results will only reflect and be based solely from the students’ experiences. This

method of quality assurance is applicable for this research due to the fact that the

participants are all attendees of online classes this school year. Answers will vary,

yet the conclusion will surely be ground-breaking.

The participation of the students will go under confidentiality for privacy matters.

In addition, the students do not need to provide their full names. The researchers

assure that the participants’ information will only be shared between the

researchers and the students themselves. Moreover, every information will be kept

privately to avoid issues regarding the research. The researchers consider

participants’ profiles and provided information as sensitive matter, and will be

handled carefully.

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 Furthermore, dependability is also a good element for quality assurance since

the study will flow through the participants’ attention to details. Choosing to provide

truth and nothing but the truth about how they see academic freeze as a solution

for online learning in the middle of the pandemic is ethical for the research. The

researchers will have a solid conclusion and provide deep analysis from what

procedures were followed that led to the cessation of the study.

Moreover, the researchers will properly assign roles to avoid misconceptions

and all ideas were agreed upon. Finally, with the provision of insights and drafts,

the researchers are set to design a sensible study; expectations will be met and

every part of the research was made sure to be precise in every possible way.

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