Philippine E-Journals

Localized Lessons: Its Effectiveness in Teaching Grade 11 – Understanding Culture, Society and Politics

Earl Adrian Cejas

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

The study was conducted in Pajo National High School, Pajo, Lapu-Lapu City. The study intended to assess whether contextualization and localization of lessons would be effective in teaching grade 11 Understanding Society, Culture and Politics among the senior high school students in the acquisition of the required curricular learning competencies as mandated by the Department of Education. A total of 60 respondents who were divided into two classes, 30 students for the class that will undergo contextualization and localization of lessons while, the other 30 students has no intervention at all. Both classes comprised the sample of the study. They included Grade 11 senior high school students enrolled in General Academic Subject (GAS) as their specialization coming from the two sections that offered such a track. This research was anchored in the contextbased approach of REACT Strategy and the use of locally and readily available materials to reinforce the teaching- learning process and in the performance tasks or outputs of students through localization of lessons. Purposive, stratified and random sampling techniques were used. The techniques and tools for data collection were questionnaires, interviews and observations. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. A pre-test and post-test were given to the two classes which were statistically treated using the repeated measures of ANOVA to analyze and interpret the pre-post test mean gain of the students’ academic competency and performance level. These measures revealed that the chapter lesson on Becoming a Member of Society and its sub-topics on Enculturation and Socialization, Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism, Conformity and Deviance as well as Human Rights, Dignity and Common Good were significant with an elevated value of 30.07 post test mean gain for those learners who underwent contextualization and localization of lessons as interventions over the accumulated value of 17.70 post test mean gain of those students who did not received an intervention at all. In short, there is a group that increased more than the other. The group which underwent the process showed a higher increase than the group which did not undergo the process. The results show that students learned better and obtain good academic scores and performance when lessons are being contextualized and localized. The reason for this result was derived from the relatively high or good scores of the students who underwent and took the tests covered in the contextualized lessons. These results suggest that students are motivated, interested and understand lessons when these are contextualized, meaning they are able to relate it on their immediate environment or experience. The learners’ responses identified as opportunities and obstacles served as qualitative data to support the significant result of the quantitative findings. Based from the findings and conclusion of this study, it recommends to integrate this research across other disciplines and bodies of knowledge, to improvise Social Science lesson plans embedding the details of contextualization and localization in the teaching-learning process and, educators should be more innovative and resourceful through using locally available materials to help ignite learners’ interest and understanding in the teaching-learning process.