CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Science is a significant subject in STEM programs. Rey, one of the

students we talked to, had a hard time with it. His narrative
demonstrates how difficult these topics may be. Rey's struggles
demonstrated how difficult subjects may be for pupils to perform well in.
This indicates that we must devise strategies for assisting pupils in
comprehending and improving these courses. We aim to learn more
about Rey's experience and how students like him handle these issues
by hearing his side of the story. As STEM students face various of
challenges while coping up with their specialized science subjects, it can
have a lot of effects on their studies, it also affects the whole
performance they have in classes, so it's crucial to overcome these
challenges.

We would like to conduct this study specifically with the

participation of some Grade-12 STEM students from Tampakan National
High School, S.Y 2023-2024. Coping strategies are helpful when students
are having a hard time to cope up with their studies. This coping
strategies plays a crucial role both our mental and physical capabilities.

STEM students struggle with their subjects mostly because of the

many obstacles they experience in STEM education, which are made
worse by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
These difficulties have an impact on how senior high school STEM
students study. According to the research of Danilo Rogayan Jr. (2021)
Findings indicated that the pupils faced difficulties in the STEM
curriculum. The effects of these challenges are making the students
more conscious yet unmotivated on their studies, so it is crucial for the
students to overcome and create a coping mechanism for their own
mental and emotional support.

Science-specific courses that the STEM students take are quite

important. Their understanding of these topics will be beneficial to
them in their college classes because it largely corresponds with
the courses they will be taking. This study will look into the difficulties
STEM students have managing their specialized science course work.
We chose 4 out of 42 students in grade-12 STEM students in
Tampakan National High School. These 4 students are some of those
STEM students who is having a hard time coping up with their
specialized science subjects. The difficulties of these STEM students
encounter in managing their specialized science coursework will
contribute to their struggles in the collegiate courses they ultimately
select.

The three main types of obstacles that the students faced were
those that were related to the course, those that were personal, and
those that were sociocultural. One of the reasons STEM students are
delayed in those subjects is because of the difficulties they have all
endured. This study discusses the difficulties that students encounter in
managing their specialized science studies. When it comes to science,
STEM students do incredibly well in other areas, but everything gets
hazy and less obvious. The purpose of this study was to understand
how STEM students deal with their anxieties and obstacles in science.
Ideally, the research will be able to interview the students about these
issues.

The primary objective of the research on these topics, which mostly

focuses on the science-related specializations of these students, is to
comprehend the challenges faced by STEM students and how they
overcome them . These studies aim to identify the themes and factors
influencing STEM learning outcomes, student academic performance,
motivation, and career choices.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Understanding the challenges faced by the grade 12 STEM (Science,

Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) students about their coping
mechanisms in dealing with specialized subject related to science is
crucial as it affects their studies, grades, and also their mental
capabilities. Specifically, this research aims to answer this following
questions:

1. What are the challenges encountered by the grade 12 STEM

students when studying science specialized subjects within their field of
study?

2. What coping strategies do grade 12 STEM students employ to

overcome challenges related to their specialized science subjects?

3. How do specialized science subjects affect the overall study of the

grade 12 STEM students?

SCOPE AND DELIMITATION

This study will look into the difficulties grade 12 STEM students
have managing their specialized science course work. This study will be
conducted at Tampakan National High School in School Year 2023-2024.
We chose four(4) out of forty-two(42) students in grade-12 STEM
students in Tampakan National High School. These 4 students are some
of those STEM students who are having a hard time coping up with
their specialized science subjects.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study will be beneficial to individuals in particular:

The researchers. As a researcher of this study, we will learn a lot and

have a further understanding about the chosen topic. This study may
help future researchers on their own research. They may widen the
scope of their own study or improve this research study. This will also
serve as the related literature to the future researchers who plans to
explore the same topic.

Students. This study will help forthcoming and recent STEM students to
cope up and determine what’s the impact of their specialized subject
related to science, This will help them and will let them know the
challenges they might face. This study will also help the students
understand the situations of the previous STEM students having a hard
time with their studies.

Teachers. This will give awareness to the teachers about the impact
and how the students can cope up their specialized subject related to
science as STEM students. This will also let them understand the
perceptions of the STEM students when it comes to coping up with
their specialized science subjects.
School Administrators. This study may observe them and gain
knowledge about how STEM students can cope up with their specialized
subject related to science. School administration can also improve and
help the students to cope up with the specialized science subjects and
makes it easier for them.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

STEM. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is an

umbrella term used to group together the distinct but related technical
disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The
term is typically used in the context of education policy or curriculum
choices in schools. The participants of this study are the grade 12
STEM students and this study focuses on their science specialized
subjects.

Senior High School. Senior High School (SHS) covers the last two years
of the K to 12 program and includes Grades 11 and 12. In SHS,
students will go through a core curriculum and subjects under a track
of their choice. Students in the Senior High School have four general
programs or tracks to choose from: Accountancy, Business and
Management Strand; Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
(STEM) Strand; Humanities and Social Science (HUMSS) Strand; General
Academic Strand (GAS); Arts and Design Track; Sports Track; and
Technical-Vocational-Livelihood (TVL) Track. Each track offers various
specializations or strands for students to specialize in. This research will
only focus on the STEM strand only of Senior High School.
Specialized science subjects. In the Science, Technology, Engineering,
and Mathematics (STEM) strand of Senior High School in the Philippines,
students have the opportunity to explore various science specialized
disciplines. Here are some of the science specialized that students can
study: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth Science, Environmental Science,
& Anatomy and Physiology. This research talks about the challenges
they face and how they cope up with this subjects.

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Challenges faced by grade 12 STEM students.

STEM students face different challenges while coping up with their

specialized science subjects. As Senior High School strands makes a
better way for their chosen career on the near future, they are still
having a hard time as they are trying to surpass the expectations of
their family and peers. This expectations can affect their class
performance and mental capacity as a STEM student, it might also
results to anxiety (Cabales 2022; Senajonon 2020; Andrews and Brown
2020). Students do not relate their topics on real life experiences,
making them to have a hard time coping with their subjects. As the
aim of the strand is introduced, it is not stated that it really relates on
the students needs (Portz 2019). Though it is stated that science
teachers do positively teach students when it comes to their subject, it
can still affect their overall performance in their studies (Sustainability
14, 2022).

Coping strategies of grade 12 STEM students.

In 2020, the pandemic which led to a lockdown became the reason of
the STEM students to have a hard time coping up with their specialized
subjects. The isolation and lack of proper teaching led the students to a
hard time, though it was survived, STEM students nowadays are still
having a hard time with their studies. With these challenges, students
tried to cope up with advance learning, watching and learning through
YouTube, self studying, and they also learned to survive their own
studies with only the help of learning materials (International Journal Of
STEM Education 2022; Lautenbach and Randell 2020; and, ). With the
anxieties and stress, the students coping capacity is barely holding. It
leads them to a lack of focus, hard time managing their studies, and
making a bad performance in school (CBE— Life Sciences Education
2021). A great and multiple strategies can help a lot of students
depending on their own way of coping. The different ways of learning
mechanics can be implemented and can make STEM students more
active and motivated (Journal of Innovative Science Education 2021).

Effects of the challenges faced by STEM students.

As Science educators try to teach STEM students focusing on the

specialized science subjects, those challenges makes the students have a
hard time coping up. These challenges makes the students have a hard
time solving a real science problems, it can also affect their perceptions
in problem-solving skills and critical thinking tendencies (Journal of
Education in science and health 2021; Science Education International
2022). STEM educators are having a hard time teaching their STEM
students as students tend to have a hard time coping with their
specialized science subjects, students tend to lack focus on class, they
are having a bad performance, and they also lack on thinking capacity
with the new lessons thought (Journal of Baltic Science Education
2020). The perceived risks of STEM students challenges can be crucial to
STEM students and their emotional value, those coping mechanisms
they do and those challenges may come up together and make them
more progressive in classes, making them more emotionally valuable and
takes them to a more educational progress (Journal of Gifted Education
and Creativity 2022).

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents research design, locale of the study,

participants of the study, instrument of the study, data gathering
procedure, and data analysis.

Research design.

In this study, the researchers used a qualitative method. The

qualitative approach is a systematic inquiry into social phenomena in
natural setting. Our research will talk about the challenges that Grade
12 STEM students face in coping with their specialized science subjects.
In this research, we are going to use the phenomenological type of
research. This phenomenological research design that we have chosen
will help us know the perceptions of some Grade 12 STEM students
regarding their challenges and experiences. We are going to interview
our chosen participants using this research approach to learn about their
experiences without preconceived theories or interpretations. This is
useful as it addresses the “how” and “why” research questions and
enables a deeper understanding of experiences, phenomena, and context.
Locale of the study.

The study will be conducted at Tampakan National High School, Dao

street, Brgy. Poblacion, Tampakan, South Cotabato.
Participants of the study.

We chose four(4) participants out of forty-two(42) students from the

grade 12 STEM. We used inclusion criteria such as Tampakan National
High School students enrolled for grade 12 STEM, academic school year
2023-2024, based on their grade and the observations of their science
subject teachers. Those students that we chose were the one’s who are
having a hard time to cope up with their specialized subjects related to
science which is General Biology, General Chemistry, and General
Physics.

Instruments of the study.

This research aims to investigate the potential challenges of those

grade 12 STEM students’ face to have a hard time coping up with their
specialized science disciplines. The study will employ the purposive
sampling method to gather comprehensive information on students’
challenges towards their subjects related to science, their coping
strategies to cope up with their subject, and the effects of the
challenges they face in terms of their studies.

Data gathering procedure.

Data analysis.