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Methodology
Methodology
The community projects made use of interview with the students, staff, and parents of Puso-sa-Puso Payatas center to collate information regarding their experience with the alternative learning system. To facilitate the implementation of the interviews Ma’am Maria Mercedes Arzadon, an associate professor at the University of the Philippines College of Education, was consulted regarding proper decorum and questioning during the course of the interview. Based on the answers from those interviews, further research was conducted to compare the methods and impressions of Payatas against those of other ALS institutions around the country. The final output of the project was the creation of a paper compiling the findings from Payatas to identify the procedures that they do correctly or could improve upon using data from other papers as a basis.
Preliminary Preparation
To ensure that the project was successful in its implementation, it was necessary to inspect the center, prepare the questionnaires, and consult with experts. The first inspection was conducted in October consisting of a visit to the center, where the social worker was consulted regarding the objectives and needs of the project. Through this inspection an overview of the center was providing a basis for the subsequent steps which consisted of creating the questionnaire. The questions were made with a priority on gaining insight towards the lives of the students and their involvement with the center. Lastly, to complete the preparations in November Ma’am Arzadon was consulted to look over the questionnaire and provide advice for the interview process.
Interview & Observation
The interviews were conducted onsite at the Puso-sa-Puso Payatas center with three groups of participants: the students, staff, and parents. The first to be interviewed, on January 30, were the staff members; they provided information regarding the hierarchy and management of the center as well as an overview of the general circumstances of the students. Next, were the students and parents, who were interviewed on February 8, which consisted of asking questions that expanded on their experiences in formal education and ALS while also trying to gain insight on their personal ambitions. An additional session was done in March to observe how the center runs their classes and formations in class; the observation was crucial to identify the interactions between the students and staff providing credence to the narratives stated by the students and staff.
Analysis
The collected data was then grouped into six high level questions, shown in Table _, focusing on the students’ experiences in formal education and ALS. Compiling the data under these questions provided a framework for identifying the commonalities experienced by the students. The resulting data was then thematically analyzed to further subdivide the information given by the students regarding their participation in the education systems. The interviews from the staff and parents were inspected separately; although, the same framework was used in both instances. The staff and parents’ testimonials were used as a supplement to the statements given by the students. The staff were used as a higher level analysis of the students while the parents confirmed their behavior outside of the classroom. The detailed interpretation of these themes and their interrelationships is shown in Section IV.
Suggestions/Recommendations
In implementing the project, the problems faced primarily revolved around scheduling conflicts and the reassessment of the objectives of the study based on newly acquired information. As it was necessary to visit the center in person over the course of a day to conduct the interviews, finding time was difficult which resulted in the project beginning later than it could have. This also meant that the number of interviewees were limited to those in attendance on the day of the interview restricting the quantity of data collected. Although this was not the biggest problem faced, over the course of the interviews it was identified that the previous objectives would no longer be feasible based on the obtained data. Through a reanalysis of the current literature, new objectives were established but this caused a delay within the project of two weeks. The change in objectives, while unfortunate, should not have been completely unexpected; so, rather than avoiding it future studies should establish a more lenient timeline to allow for these changes.
Results
Results
Originally, a survey was planned to be administered to the students. This was offset due the small sample size of students, as a survey alone would not be enough to gather enough information given a small sample. Instead, the survey questions were turned into guide questions for interviews. These interviews were conducted with a total of 19 students: 4 elementary students, 14 high school students, and 1 scholar. In addition, four parents as well as all four staff members of the center were interviewed for additional insight. Thematic analysis was performed on all of these interviews to narrow down the scope of each interview to common themes that could be further analyzed in relation to existing literature.
As a localized study on Puso-sa-Puso has not been conducted before, the results as well as the upcoming discussion should provide novel insight into possible steps the center can take to improve the attendance rate. Overall, the primary objective of the study was accomplished as sufficient information was obtained to form these recommendations as discussed below.
The graph on the left shows the issues experienced by the students in the formal education system that contributed to them dropping out.
Based on these issues, two primary themes were pinpointed that led to students dropping out of the formal education system: systematic and personal. Systemic issues included troublemaking, pregnancy, and the issues inherent to the formal education system; whereas personal issues included financial situation, family issues, and personal health.
For the systematic issue, the formal education system is structured around churning out as many students with good grades as possible, and does not exactly focus on the individual, holistic growth of the student. The second issue– personal problems– pinpoints the formal education system’s lack of safety nets and support barriers that assist students in balancing their academic and personal lives. It is these issues that the idea behind ALS was conceived and implemented in the first place. ALS must serve as a second chance for those that faced systematic issues and must have safety nets in place to assist those that have personal problems. Moreover, it is vital for the DepEd to understand this fact to give quality education to all.
Many students expressed their motivations in pursuing their dreams aligned with their motivations for going into ALS in the first place. It is important to note that many of these students possessed the same life goals they had prior to dropping out of formal education. To this end, ALS must serve as an effective second-chance for those that were failed by the formal system.
To an extent, the learning center manages this as the students that do attend show a strong drive to continue attending and finish the ALS programme. At the same time, this is not managed to the fullest degree as there are many students that drop out of the program mid year. Due to our respondents being the attending students, alumni, parents, or staff, we were unable to directly acquire these students’ reasons for leaving ALS. Based on related literature and staff interviews, we could infer that a mix of disinterest, work, and only attending to qualify for social welfare demotivates students to attend. This led to us changing perspectives on the topic, asking why do people keep attending ALS over the original objective of finding out why people don't attend ALS.
It was found that the students really enjoy their stay in Puso-sa-Puso, to the point that some cited it as their main reason for attending. Due to the lack of perspective from those that stopped attending meetings at the learning center, the recommendations made were instead focused on better propagating this enjoyment of learning in order to motivate more students to attend on its own merit. This would also benefit students in developing the correct study orientation to prepare them for higher education, particularly at the tertiary level, as that was what the interviewed students showed most interest back in table 2.
The root of this interest in continuing to attend may have been influenced by the holistic style of development they undergo at the center, as well as the attentive and hands-on teaching approach of the teachers and staff of Puso-sa-Puso. More of this is expounded upon in the following two sections.
The close relationship of the students with the teachers is one of the most emphasized characteristics of holistic development encouraged by the teaching staff. Both the students and the teachers made it a point to emphasize that the teachers interact with them outside of class hours, and to check up on them about both their academic and personal life. This is due in part to their “no student left behind” policy, where they pace their lessons to ensure that everyone keeps up, and that no one is too far ahead to the point that others feel left behind.
Many students also enjoyed the flexibility that the learning center provides in terms of attendance. It allows them more time to manage their personal life and work schedule on top of the responsibilities placed by the learning center. However, it was noted that a minority of students said they would prefer more school days, or even a stricter attendance schedule. This is important to consider, as it may better influence the development of good study orientation and self-motivation to learn, but majority students are already content with the current schedule due to the reasons stated above.
One of the appeals of ALS is to ensure that all its students keep up with the subject matter. Given the multitude of backgrounds that ALS students come from, achieving this goal is a unique challenge that every ALS center faces. The center notably waits for the students to grasp and truly understand the content before they move on, making sure no student is left behind academically. However they also do this for them holistically, providing a safe environment to socialize in as well as formations to educate them about the non-academic aspects of life.
The students feel the effects of this holistic development and it led to positive effects for all of them. Most notably, a drive for self-improvement was built due to this holistic approach, where they were motivated to study on their own time and pursue excellence regardless of external factors. In addition, some students able to grow out of their shell, despite what negative experiences they may have had in formal education. A smaller number of students particularly appreciated the teachers going out of their way to truly make sure they keep up with the class. Finally, one student in particular said that they enjoyed the formations in general, and as observed in the formation the study oversaw, many students genuinely enjoyed the time they spent in the formations.
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