Teresa

THE PERCEPTIONS OF HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES ON THE INCLUSION OF

STATISTICS AS ELECTIVE IN THE CURRICULUM OF SSAM FOR SCHOOL

YEAR 2011 – 2012

A Research Paper

Presented to

The Faculty of the High School Department

St. Scholastica’s Academy Marikina

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements in Language IV

Submitted by

Eduvala, Mariel

Escorido, Vianca Faye

Mortera, Kristine Charlotte

Villanueva, Pauline Mae

0

Teresa

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the history of Statistics, the statement of the problem,

significance of Statistics and its scope and delimitation.

History of the Study

Many graduates of St. Scholastica’s Academy Marikina are complaining that they

have no statistics as a subject especially those who really need a background of the

subject in some units of their courses. Other incoming graduates find it hard to have no

statistics whenever they take entrance exams in different colleges and universities but

still, some find statistics to be insignificant to a high school student, that it will not

change a thing for their college life.

According to HyperStat Online:

“One important use of descriptive statistics is to summarize a collection of data in

a clear and understandable way. For example, assume a psychologist gave a

personality test measuring shyness to all 25,000 students attending a small

college. How might these measurements be summarized?”

Also, according to Online Statistics, statistics can be applied in daily life.

“Partly… bombard you everyday. If you cannot distinguish good from faulty

reasoning, then you are vulnerable to manipulation and to decisions that are not in

your best interest. Statistics provides tools that you need in order to react

intelligently to information you hear or read.”

1

Teresa

In this sense, statistics is one of the most important things that you can study.

In this regard, we can say statistics is an important and beneficial subject for some

to study that is why we have decided to conduct a study about the perceptions of the fresh

graduates of SSAM as well as the incoming fourth year next year.

Theoretical and Conceptual Framework

This study rests on the following theoretical and conceptual framework.

Arous and Dembo (2009) have stated that their journal about probability theory

helps the student to produce research papers in a modern probability fashion in the

relation of analysis, geometry and other aspects of mathematics. This will thus help the

students to have a better thesis with the use of detailed analysis. Statistics will also tackle

different courses such as Business, Economics and Finance.

To adjoin the first theory, Youngs (1987) said that proper introduction of statistics

will help both the teacher and the student. The teacher will help the students to

understand statistics that helps students to have organized data with representations.

Figure 1 shows the research paradigm of this study. The paradigm shows how the

subject Statistics as an elective is assessed by one level in high school, the juniors, as well

as the fresh graduates of the school, the college freshmen based on the ten survey

questions and five questions for the interview. Also, it shows how students think of

statistics as a beneficial subject or as another burden subject to study about.

Conceptual Model

From the information gathered via the written documents and the internet and the

information given as well by the college students, this conceptual framework is

formulated. This is shown in Figure 1.

2

Teresa

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of the Study

St. Scholastica;s Academy Marikina

High School Department

Current Third Year Students, SY 2010 - 2011

Statistics as an elective subject.

As Rated By: The Incoming Seniors of SY 2011

– 2012 or the Current Juniors

As Rated By:The New Graduates of SSAM

or the College Freshmen

Observations according to the need of the students to the subject for their other subjects and future courses

Overall Rating

Implication for Addition to School’s Curriculum

3

Teresa

Statement of the Problem

This study identified the addition of Statistics as elective subject to the high

school curriculum to solve lack of knowledge of the subject in accordance of the fourth

year subjects and their courses in college and possible options or solutions were

suggested. Specifically, it sought answers to the following questions:

1. What will be the perceptions of the following people on the study of offering

Statistics as an elective in the high school department:

a. Year Three Students

b. Fresh graduates of the school

2. Will the following factors be considered in teaching Statistics:

a. Time

b. Students interest on the subject

c. Physical appearance or mannerisms of the teachers

d. Socio- economic status of the students

e. Rooms and facilities used

f. Availability of slots

Significance of the Study

The researchers in their capacities as students of St. Scholastica’s Academy

Marikina for four to eleven years aimed to identify the effects and benefits of the students

if Statistics will be added in the school’s curriculum as an elective subject. This study is

beneficial to the following:

4

Teresa

The Incoming Fourth Year of SY 2011- 2012. This study covers mainly their

perceptions about the subject that will answer the following questions from the previous

page. This will identify the present need of the students to study Statistics.

The Teachers. This will help them in looking forward to producing

comprehensive papers that would require proper analyses and probabilities and will not

make them teach the subject again.

Scope and Delimitation

This study was limited to the upcoming fourth year high school graduates of St.

Scholastica’s Academy Marikina for the academic year 2011- 2012. the study was

primarily concerned with the identification of effects, advantages and benefits of having

Statistics as an elective subject for the upcoming fourth year high school graduates.

Definition of Terms

The following terms are defined operationally.

Statistics- This is concerned with the collection, classification, analysis and

interpretation of numerical data or facts.

Descriptive Statistics- This kind of Statistics measure and describe the

characteristics of groups without drawing inferences about the population.

Vulnerable- This refers to the difficulty to defend something.

Probability- This refers to the relative possibility that an event will occur, as

expressed by the ratio of the number of actual occurrences to the total number of possible

occurrences.

5

Teresa

CHAPTER II

Review of Related Literature and Studies

Chapter II deals with the review of the local and foreign literature and studies

relevant to this proposed study. This identifies that the research is guided by the

following studies and literature.

Related Literature

This section of the research presents a review of related literature and studies in

line with the inclusion of Statistics in the high school curriculum. Significant to the

present study are books, thesis of previous students and teachers, articles, newspaper

clippings, bound periodicals, journals, internet and unpublished studies related to the

inclusion of Statistics as an elective subject.

Foreign

According to Teele(1999), director of Education Extension at University of

California, the way teachers teach is incompatible with the learning style of the students

but Scerba(1979) said in his article Compatibility of Teaching Strategies and Learning

Styles as a Determinant of Academic Success that the effectiveness of matching learning

styles of community college students to similar teaching strategies in English and

Mathematics courses was investigated in relation to academic success in courses,

attitudes toward the instructor and the course and attrition rate in courses.

Drs. Dunn and Dunn (1987) made the Dunn and Dunn Learning Styles Model

where the two doctors came up with 22 preferences of the students in studying like

6

Teresa

sound, light, posture, environmental, physiological, emotional, social and psychological

where learning style is a sum of a person’s individual preferences in all categories and

each has a unique learning styles.

Local

Related Studies

Following is the review made by the researchers on foreign and local studies that

are related to the study.

Foreign

Preston(1956) indicated, in his book “How to Study”, that Mathematics and other

math- related courses such as Statistics have problems that are quite unlike those found in

other fields and that it requires ample time to study it. Successful reading in Math

involves two special skills: the ability to find answers to “word problems” and the

mastery of the precise vocabulary o Mathematics.

Walsh (1977) of New York City stated in his book “Study Skills Guide” that

teachers should introduce students at once to a key element in insuring the most efficient

allocation of time, namely the schedule. Schedule is a goal and a habit that guarantees

students not to neglect subjects that they do not enjoy. One of this might be Statistics.

This schedule will forbid the idea of not studying Statistics because of hectic schedules

and no ample time.

7

Teresa

Marshall (1998) wrote that note-taking in lectures should contain keywords or

phrases to summarize the important ideas you read. This will thus help students to have

effective learning in subjects that they don’t like but is mandatory to take like Statistics.

Local

National Statistics Office (NSO) of the Republic of the Philippines in the early

1990s says that most countries require citizens to provide copies of official documents

such as birth, marriage and death certificates to make important transactions. They also

said that the larger the population, the more documents that need to be managed. Thus,

Statistics can help improve the number of the Philippine growth if Statistics is studied

well.

Chapter 3

Research Design and Methodology

This chapter explains the method of research used, source of data, data gathering

instruments, data gathering procedure and the statistical treatment of data.

Method of Research Used

The design employed by the researchers in order to carry out the purpose of the

study was the descriptive method. This section presents an understanding of the

philosophical framework from the review of literature. In this research, the researchers

went to different libraries to find sources of data like books, journals, newspaper

clippings and the like.

Sources of Data

The respondents of this study were the incoming fourth year students for the

school year 2011 – 2012, the college freshmen of the school year 2010 – 2011, the high

8

Teresa

school teachers coming from Math area, Science area and the Social Studies area, and the

High school administration. The sources of data that the researchers used were books,

articles, journals, newspaper clippings, and more in gathering information not only about

the subject statistics, nor its definition and proper implementation of an elective subject,

but also the different study habits of the students and their perceptions about studying

statistics, and also the kinds of environment most of the students need to understand a

subject and different recommendations prefer students and teacher alike to use as a guide.

Those topics can concern the students and the teachers alike if statistics will be held as an

elective subject in this school year or the next years.

The respondents are the students who are affected if statistics will be an elective

subject. The researchers also chose the fourth year students last year or the college

freshmen since they know the significance and importance of statistics in college life.

The researchers’ main objective in choosing these respondents is to find out if they may

or may not affect them, financially and academically, and how they rate the subject

statistics in its own efficiency to help the students. This can help the researchers to know

if the inclusion of statistics will be feasible and possible.

The tools used in this paper are questions in the survey questionnaire that are

essential to gain statements that will answer the statement of the problem. These

questions include the idea of what statistics is, the factors that must be taken into

consideration in the introduction of statistics, subject that statistics can be injected or

essential, courses that might need a great help of statistics, lessons that must be

comprehensively included in the subject, etc.

Data Gathering Instruments

9

Teresa

The researchers used the following research instruments in gathering and

collecting data that are needed for the accomplishment of this paper.

Questionnaire.

A two page survey questionnaire that contains ten questions is designed for the

year three students to answer and should be finished by 20 minutes only is distributed to

30 year three students in random picking. The questionnaire was distributed to the

incoming fourth year students of school year 2011- 2012 and the college freshmen of

school year 2010 – 2011.

Unstructured Interview

The interview refers to a face – to – face encounter between two persons, the

interviewer who ask the questions and the interviewee who gives the answers as a

feedback to the following questions. A five-item interview was designed for the current

college freshmen or the fourth year students last year to find out the importance of

statistics in college or if it is a prerequisite in preparation for college. The interview was

conducted in order to find out their opinions about adding statistics in the high school

curriculum. It was conducted in order to find out their own perceptions about statistics

and to find out the difference of it with the perceptions of the third year students.

Documentary Analysis

Documentary analysis refers to the study and to the content of written materials.

Other paraphernalia used in this paper are books, magazines or newspaper clippings,

articles, journals, etc.

Statistical Treatment of Data

The statistical techniques used in treating the data were the following:

10

Teresa

Weighted mean.

The weighted means of the responses to the questionnaire were taken. The

weighted mean is used whenever the composite attitude of a group of responsible toward

an issue is sought. The weighted mean is attained by multiplying the scale value of the

responses indicating it and then dividing the total weighted points by the number of

responses.

Percentage.

The percentage was used to interpret data from the frequency distribution.

Arithmetic mean.

The arithmetic mean was used in some items of the questionnaire. The formula is:

M = Ex/N.

Chapter IV

PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

This chapter presents, analyzes, and interprets the data gathered through given

surveys to respond to the statement problems of the study.

After collecting the distributed survey questionnaires given to the random third

year high school students of St. Scholastica’s Academy Marikina, the researchers

scrutinize, interpret and plotted the gathered data on a constructed table format. The table

format consists of the input data, the frequency and the percentage equivalent of every

input data collected.

The data were all reflected below.

Table 1 shows the perception of the third year students of SY 2010-2011 of having

Statistics as an elective in the high school curriculum.

11

Teresa

Table 1: The most third year students believe that it is okay to have Statistics as an

elective subject in the high school curriculum. The researchers got the percentage out of

27 students in the third year said yes in offering Statistics, according to the table above

there are 17 students, approximately 62% of them, said yes, while 10 students,

approximately 37 % of them, said no.

Chart 1.

The chart below interprets the data presented above. This shows the percent ratings of the

data gathered by the researcher.

SSAM 3rd Year Students SY 2010 -2011

Yes Percentage(%)

No Percentage(%)

Gertrude 0 0 % 2 20 %Hilda 2 11 % 2 20 %

Hildegard 3 17 % 1 10 %Lioba 3 17 % 1 10 %

Milburga 2 11 % 2 20 %Ottilia 4 23 % 1 10 %

Walburga 3 17 % 1 10 %Total 17 62 % 10 37 %

12

Teresa

Chart 1.a

This chart interprets the total student who believes that they are ready to have Statistics as

an elective subject in the high school curriculum.

Table 2 interprets the third year opinion whether they are ready to learn and take

Statistics as their subject in high school.

Third Year Students Percentage(%)

Yes 12 44 %

No 15 56 %

Total 27 100 %

13

Teresa

Chart 2: This interprets the table above. It shows if the third year students are ready to

have Statistics as their subject.

Table 3 shows the factors needed in having Statistics as a subject. Each third year

students are given choices that could be a possible factor/s in having Statistics as a

subject for the third year students. This will help us be aware of what is needed both to

the teachers and the students of SSAM in accepting Statistics as a subject.

Gertrude Hilda Hilde-garde

Lioba Milbur-ga

Ottilia Walbur-ga

Student’s interest

2 4 3 3 3 2 4

Teacher’s appearance

0 0 2 0 2 0 2

Socio-economic

0 1 1 0 0 0 0

Availability of slots

0 1 1 0 2 2 2

Schedule 0 1 1 2 0 1 2Rooms and

facilities0 2 1 0 0 1 2

Learning 2 1 4 2 2 1 4

14

Teresa

paraphernalia

Table 3: Most of the third years students believe that the student’s interest on a subject

and the learning paraphernalia used are the factors that should be considered in order to

have Statistics as a subject.

Chart 3: This chart interprets the data presented above. It shows the factors that the third

year students considered in order having statistics as a subject.

Chapter 5

Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

This chapter explains the summary, the findings the conclusions and the

recommendations for the researcher's study.

Summary

The major purpose of this study was to know the perception of the third year

students of school year 2010 – 2011 in the inclusion of statistics. The researchers also

sought to answer the following:

15

Teresa

1. The perception of the following people on the study of offering statistics as an

elective in the high school department.

a) Year three students

b) Fresh graduates of the school

2. The factors to be considered in teaching statistics

a) Time

b) students interest on the subject

c) physical appearance or mannerism of the teachers

d) socio-economic status of the students

e) rooms and facilities used

f) availability of slots

Scope and Methodology of study

The researchers used the descriptive method in order to carry out the purpose of

the study. The researchers randomly picked third year students to answer the survey

questionnaire. The researchers distributed 30 survey questionnaire but 27 surveys were

returned.

Conclusion

The purpose of this study was to determine the perception of the third year students in

having the subject Statistics as an elective in the high school curriculum. Through this

analysis, the researchers gathered these data to provide you ideas that would clearly help

the improvement of the students’ skill not only in math but also in other subjects.

Therefore, it will help the students, especially those of the third year students of St.

Scholastica’s Academy Marikina, to be prepared for their College. Most of the

16

Teresa

respondents from the conducted survey agreed that statistics should be made as an

elective and they had noted that learning the subject will broaden their knowledge,

particularly with math figures and studying and analyzing graphs .Studying Statistics will

be a big help to students especially in research papers as it will be used in gathering data

and conducting surveys.

Recommendation

We, the researchers, recommend statistics to be taught to the third year students as

a 1-hour elective after a dismissal on a particular day.

Also, the teacher who will be teaching the subject should have the broad

knowledge about the subject matter and would present ideas in a creative way to

make the students more interested about the subject.

And lastly, The school should promote and encourage students since this subject

will be helpful in a student’s ability figures and graphs.

17