Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM

Background of the Study

Globalization has brought tremendous changes in all phases of man’s life which

led to curiosity and immeasurable effects that revolutionized human undertakings that

resulted to higher expectations and challenges. Evidence, is the country’s effort to

redirect and align curriculum, design of innovative strategies and approaches, conduct of

comprehensive assessments and use of multimedia resources in order to meet the

demands of globalization.

The K to 12 Basic Education Program is a new curricular direction of the

Department of Education (DepEd) to offer a curriculum attuned to the 21st century. It

envisions to “holistically develop learners with 21st century skills” (DepEd Primer,

2011). At the core of this basic education program is “the complete human development

of every student would have an understanding of the world around him and a passion for

life-long “learning to learn, the acquisition of numeracy, literacy, and scientific and

technological knowledge as applied to daily life”. Further, its purpose is to create basic

education system that will “produce productive, responsible citizens equipped with the

essential competencies and skills for both life-long learning and employment (DepEd

Discussion Paper, 2010).

Along this premise, it is believed that teachers should possess technological

knowledge and multimedia instruction skill in teaching Araling Panlipunan subject.

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Multimedia refers to the marriage of video, sound, graphics, text and images within a

single information delivery system. It will help teachers and students assemble multiple

types of information about topics in the form of photographs, video and animation

sequences, charts and graphs, texts, sounds, and graphics. The sources of this information

include print materials as well as videodiscs, CD-ROMs, Web sites on the Internet, audio

recordings, scanned images, and digital camera slides. Multimedia presentations created

by a commercial publisher or by the teacher or student can provide powerful perspectives

on another time and place in history that reach beyond written text

(https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org).

Multimedia materials and environments offer a variety of flexible supports

including text-to-speech, voice recognition, animation, music and sound effects,

embedded dictionaries, linked videos to boost background knowledge and vocabulary,

study tools such as highlighters and annotation capabilities, and animated agent tutors.

They have the capacity to support choice of content and tools, adjustable challenge level

and adjustable practice and feedback.

Multimedia access to knowledge is one of the possibilities of information and

communication technology that has tremendous impact on learning. The instructional

media have emerged in a variety of resources, and equipment, which can be used to

supplement or complement the teacher’s effort in ensuring effective learning by students.

It is also recognized that conventional media technologies can no longer meet the needs

in the teaching and learning processes: as a result they are being replaced by multimedia

technology. This technology provides a learning environment that is self-paced, learner-

controlled and individualized.

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Multimedia devices have unique powers to make learning fun among the students

for it plays a very important role in education for it defines the interactions of the medium

and the messages. It is also another trend today that is being adapted by many

institutions. The use of multimedia devices in education has led to the development of all

sort of instructional materials in which verbal and non-verbal presentation modes are

combined. It helps students to be active learners and educators to be facilitated.

Consequently, the focus of instructional research and design has change from learning

with media to so called multimedia learning.

The implementation of K to 12 Program made teachers faced problems and

difficulties in teaching varied subjects like Araling Panlipunan which can be considered

as boring if the teacher does not have the skill in the use of multimedia instruction. Daily

Inquirer, 2012 featured that the k to 12 curriculum reform involves changes in textbooks,

classroom, retooling of teachers, lack of teachers and incomplete materials. This

statement was supported by Fernandez, et.al. (2012).

The importance of using multimedia devices for better teaching and learning

technique should not be ignored and ensure that education would be more relevant,

meaningful and efficient. Thus schools should expose learners as well as teachers to the

substantial role of multimedia.

Non-skill of multimedia devices in teaching Araling Panlipunan may appeal to

students as not interesting, irrelevant and non-challenging thus will mean least learning

occurrence. Least learning will commensurate to unsatisfactory performance that may

lead to student’s incompetency and poor achievement rate.

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It is firmly believed, that the role of a teachers teaching Araling Panlipunan is to

develop active students, let them think critically and analytically through a meaningful

and interesting way with the help of employing multimedia devices in instruction.

Hence, such study is proposed.

Statement of the Problem

This study aimed to determine the Effect of Multimedia devices along the Asian

Studies subject in selected Secondary Public Schools in Congressional District I of Nueva

Ecija.

Specifically, the study sought to answer the following questions:

1. What is the profile of teachers teaching Asian Studies in terms of:

a. Personal

a. age;

b. sex;

c. civil status;

b. Professional

a. highest educational attainment;

b. position;

c. seminars, trainings/workshops attended related to multimedia;

d. length of service in teaching;

e. number of years utilizing multimedia devices;

2. What is the level of teachers’ knowledge on the use of computer to be applied for

instruction?
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3. What are the multimedia devices used in teaching different topics in Asian

Studies?

4. What is the extent of students’ participation in the classroom as a result of the use

of multimedia devices as perceived by students and teachers along:

a) self-motivation;

b) collaboration;

c) hands-on learning;

d) confidence, and;

e) multimedia usage?

5. Is there a significant difference in the teachers’ level of knowledge in using

computer across their profile variables?

Null Hypothesis

The following hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance:

1. There is no significant difference between the teachers’ level of knowledge in

using computer across their profile variables.

Significance of the Study

The study will provide improvement and development in teaching and learning

process in teaching Asian Studies. Further, the study would be of great help to the

following entities:

Curriculum Planners. It will guide them in determining appropriate multimedia

instruction to be employed in the teaching different topics in Asian Studies.

Administrators. It will ensure them that their teachers’ possess the necessary

competence in using multimedia instruction and students will receive.

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Asian Studies Teachers. It will make them become more aware on varied

available multimedia instruction in their school and enhance their competence in using

multimedia which will increase students’ engagement towards learning.

Asian Studies Students. It will increase students’ awareness and engagement in

studying the Asian Studies lessons.

Stakeholders. It will help them understand the importance of multimedia

instruction in developing the students’ engagement.

Future Researchers. The result will provide more information which would be

relevant to the future researchers who would pursue a similar.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

This study determined the Effect of Multimedia Devices used for Instruction in

teaching Asian Studies by the teachers in selected public secondary schools of

Congressional District I of Nueva Ecija during the school year 2016 - 2017.

The respondents of the study were the teachers handled the subject Asian Studies

and Grade 7 students of selected Public Secondary Schools of District I, Nueva Ecija.

The study used the descriptive method of research.

Definition of Terms

The following terms in this study were defined operationally to provide the

readers with the better insight.

Asian Studies. Specific subject in Aralin Panlipunan for Grade 7 students that

focuses in the history, geography, culture, society, government and economy of Asia.
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Participation. Refers to the students’ interaction with other students by sharing

ideas, opinions and point of views that helps them to understand and engage in learning

process.

Extent of utilization. This is the frequency or rate of using multimedia devices in

teaching.

Multimedia devices. These refer to the use of several different ways of giving

information or providing instructional materials such as video, television, camera or

digital cameras and slides for student learning. It also means using sounds, picture and

film, in addition to text on a screen. Multimedia according to (Harris, 1993), is the

combination of several media sources such as video, graphics, animation, audio and text

accessed by a computer and attached peripherals driven by special programs.