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Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

Introduction
Flexible education systems enable learners to move within and across education,

training and employment. In academic platform, it plays an important affair in providing

quality education in this time of pandemic. This platform serves as learning transitions

from one learning pathway to another. Consequently, in teaching English using online

platform helps the students to hone their knowledge and continue increase its utility

within the information using cellular phones, mass media and other digital applications.

The adaption of flexible learning helps increase the delivery and timing of learning

opportunities means that young people who have other demands on their time can

continue to work towards their chosen qualification or can return to learning if they have

already dropped out.

The provision of quality learning experiences in a traditional face-to-face

classroom is different as in an online setting (Sweet, 2015). Relevant resources are made

available to teachers because of the technological advancements, but few online teachers

have moved to carry out these resources because they can be noted as time consuming

(Crook et al. 2012). New online students take time to adapt to the online learning and this

can pose as a particular challenge to them which can result in frustration and

dissatisfaction. This can lead to more pressing concern on disinterest and perceptions of

irrelevance that are main causes of students’ disengagement in high school classrooms

(National Research Council, 2003).

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As the Department of Education (DepEd) dismisses calls for ‘academic freeze'

during the pandemic (Hernando-Malipot, 2020), different learning delivery modalities are

introduced. This is a crucial moment because Klein, Noe &Wang (2006) stated that the

delivery modes impact motivation to learn. To substitute the traditional approach in

learning, online learning is widely used among private schools by using a variety of

digital learning platforms. To facilitate online learning, teachers explore new strategies

and tools to be utilized for the new mode of instruction. One of them is the use of flexible

teaching, which over the years, gained importance in the educational contexts

(Kiliçkaya, 2016). By using a screen recorder, accompanied by an audio or a video

narration, teachers are able to deliver instruction that can be played, paused or rewound

by students as much as they like.

Motivating learners is an essential task for teachers to consider when developing

and actualizing online lesson exemplars (Lin, Lin, & Laffey, 2008); and is the most

important factor that teachers can set sights on in order to cultivate learning (Olson,

1997). It invigorates and drives the behavior of the learners towards specific goals (Daft,

1997), as it involves a learner’s educational experience in an online setting, which

impacts learning for future application (Allen & Seaman, 2006)

Palmer (2007) suggested few indicators to know that students are motivated: (1)

they begin working on tasks immediately, (2) they ask questions and volunteer answers,

(3) and they appear to be happy and eager. Highly motivated learners are usually

enthusiastic and spontaneous when they involve themselves in activities and usually, they

find the procedures in learning pleasant without expecting any external rewards (Skinner

& Belmont, 1993). On the other hand, learners who display low levels of motivation to
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learn will often be encouraged to participate in activities based on the rewards. These

indicators are made present in a traditional classroom and much is expected on how these

indicators can also be present in the online setting.

It is largely recognized that motivation is to be initiated, nurtured, and sustained;

yet living in a world with pandemic has put learners’ motivation into dim. A Cambridge

survey found out that learners felt that keeping up their motivation under the new

conditions was among their top 3 challenges (Krüsemann, 2020). There are suggested

reasons by Sternberg (1994) and Stipek (1988) why students may have decreased

motivation which can hinder productivity, and well-being in the long run. Some learners

may seem very motivated but others need an instrument to stimulate them. The focus of

motivation is to influence the choices of individuals to engage in, attend to, and persist in

learning activities (Klein, Noe & Wang, 2006); that is why, Ash (2007) concluded in her

paper that encouraging motivation is a crucial teaching strategy which should transcend

communication of contents from teacher to learner. So, teachers do not just deliver

contents to learners to motivate them, but they also make sure that contents positively

contribute to their learning experiences.

Through the lens of flexible teaching, short instructional materials with narration

promote learning better, especially for students with little to no prior knowledge on the

course content (Mohamad Ali et al., 2011). Students viewing the screencasts are more

engaged in the activities while teachers can dedicate more time to student-centered and

inquiry-based learning activities (Snyder et al., 2014). Screencast lessons can also save

course time for student-centered and problem-solving activities, leading to optimistic

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student attitudes (Guerrero et al., 2013). These clearly manifest that instructions delivered

through screencasting have the ability to effectively facilitate learning.

With the onset of pandemic, other institutions continue to deliver instruction

through online distance learning, thus the adaptation of new face of teaching, a learning

management system that benefits teachers, students, and parents towards academic

pursuits. In flexible teaching, teachers can publish multimedia such as video lectures to

supplement and facilitate learning (Canvas, 2020). To encourage interactivity and clear

understanding of the lessons, screencast lessons are crafted by few teachers through

screencasting free applications such as Microsoft Powerpoint, Screen-O-Matic,

Screencastify, and Bandicam. During the orientation of the new platform, parents and

guardians gave their initial positive remarks on the use of screencasting to discuss

difficult concepts to their children. In the first quarter, online students also gave their

positive feedback about the screencast lessons as useful, crafty and interactive.

Although a number of studies deal with the benefits of using screencasts which

are eminent in supplementing in-class activities, the researcher discovered that there has

been a gap in studying the use of flexible teaching as an alternative learning tool in

today’s time, and not anymore a supplement as evident in a study conducted by Sterling-

Orth, Hemmerich & Hoepner (2016). Further, scholars dwell more on the impact of

flexible teaching towards students’ academic achievement and less on how students’

motivation impacts online learning with the use of technology.

Therefore, the researcher would like to fill in the gap by determining the impact

of flexible learning system as online teaching platform in teaching English in Jose Rizal
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Memorial State University, Main Campus, Dapitan City during the first semester of

School Year 2020-2021. This could be done with the help of theories and recent studies

which will consequently support and affirm the existing situations in online learning with

regard to students’ performance. This will then help teachers play their roles effectively

in the online setting with the use of technology in the new era of educational system.

Theoretical Framework and Conceptual Framework of the Study

This study was anchored on the “Constructive theory” of Bruner and Piaget as

cited by Lotter (2011) which explain that teaching and learning is a complex interactive

social phenomena between teachers and students. Creating a classroom environment in

online teaching where students are encouraged to engage in "meaning making” for a

certain lesson in English class is central to the idea of a constructivist-learning

environment. By using English teaching within the online platform, the English learner

relies on second-language skills to interpret, analyze, reflect, clarify, and develop

meaning and understanding of the complexities related to the current situation and the

real world. The constructivist view is that, language learners should develop their

understanding of the conventions of language use by engaging in the kinds of language

activity found in real life" (Abdullah, 1998, p. 1).

Constructivism fosters an active learning process on the part of the students,

rather than transferring learning units from the teacher to the students. The fundamental

elements of constructivism stem from John Dewey, who proposed a "curriculum based on

student interests and designed to teach the social origins of knowledge and cooperation"

(Spring, 2000, p. 254).

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Whether an educator uses traditional lecture where the teacher is the authority

figure or more modern, student-centered methods of teaching, they should have a desire

to make their students lifelong learners with good critical thinking skills such as

analysing problems and using previously learned material to problem solve. A teacher

might have great success with reaching students using traditional means of education.

Theorists were continually studying how the mind understands and interprets

information. Some focused on the cognitive components of learning while others focused

on behavioral influences. Theories were constantly changing with the advancements of

technology. One theory that draws on both cognitive and behavior influences and benefits

from technology is that of social learning or the social cognitive theory. The social

cognitive theory thrived on the advancement of new technologies. “Social and

technological changes alter, often considerably, the kinds of life events that become

customary in the society. Indeed, many of the major changes in social and economic

life are ushered in by innovations of technology (Elder, 2005)” (Bandura, 1977, p. 5-6).

Technology provides new and innovative methods to create social learning

environments. Students were constantly surrounded by social influences whether it’s a

community influence or a media influence. Regardless of the model, the influence was

still there, “Humans have evolved an advanced capacity for observational learning that

enables them to expand their knowledge and skills rapidly through information conveyed

by the rich variety of models” (Bandura, 1977, p. 96).

Moreover, social learning is the key to creating higher-order thinking and with

continual enhancement of technology learning is inevitable. Technology provides

multiple windows for social interactions. “One increasingly common technology-based

strategy is to create online communities of students and adults who collaborate on

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specific problems” (Sherman &Kurshan, 2005, p. 12).Social Learning theory continually

occurs through social interactions and influences from the community, media and the

Internet. People determined how these influences will affect them based on their inner

thoughts. Through social interactions learning will occur and meaning will be

constructed. There were numerous opportunities for people to enhance their learning

through social interactions online. Global networking and creating/interacting with

educational games as a group are a few resources to enhance social learning. Social

learning was ever increasing with the continual advancements of technology and online

communications.

Tyler Stubenhofer (2010) conducted an experiment to prove how social influences

including the media specifically the technology have adverse effects on people, especially

children. People are continually learning and constructing meaning throughout their

whole life from communications within their community and now through the Internet.

Because of the advancement of the technology today there were lots of advantages in

utilizing technology in their academic performance that is why the researcher is pursuing

this study to know all the possible effects of the high technologies that is present now.

This research shows how the education students are influenced by it and how they

implemented technology to enhance academic performance.

The figure that follows on the next page shows the schema of the study. The

process that was involved in the experiment is presented in Figure 1. The figure explains

that before the treatment was started, both the experimental and control groups were

given the pretest (X1 and Y1) on the topics lined up for this experiment. The pretest

instrument was a researcher-made test with a reliability coefficient of 0.901. The same
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pretest was administered to both the control and experimental groups in at the same time.

The researcher conducted the pretest in the experimental group and also with the control

group. Session guides which were made by the researcher and validated by the adviser

were used in the experiment. The curriculum guide in Statistics and Probability was used

in constructing the session guides in the study. In the session guides for the experimental

group, flexible teaching online platform was used in all parts of the lesson. Lesson

guides in the control group were constructed without applying any technology in

conducting the class. Immediately after the interventions, both groups were given the

posttest (X2 and Y2) on the subject matters covered during the treatment. The researcher-

made test that was administered during the pretest was also used in the posttest.
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Treatment Posttest
Group Pretest

Experimental Flexible Learning System

Group X1 As Online Teaching X2
Platform

Control
Traditional Method
Group Y1 of Teaching Y2
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Figure 1 Schema of the Study

Statement of the Problem

This study will be conducted to determine the impact of flexible learning system

as online teaching platform in teaching English in Jose Rizal Memorial State University,

Main Campus, Dapitan City during the first semester of School Year 2020-2021.

Specifically, this research seeks to answer the following questions:

1. What is the pretest performance of the purposive communication students in the:

1.1 Control group; and

1.2 Experimental group?

2. Is there a significant difference between the pretest performance of the purposive

communication students in the control and experimental groups?

3. What is the post-test performance of purposive communication students in the:

3.1 Control group; and

3.2 Experimental group?

4. Is there a significant difference between the posttest performance of the purposive

communication students in the control and experimental groups?

5. Is there a significant difference between the pre-post mean gain of the control and

experimental groups?
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Hypotheses

The following hypotheses is tested according to the level of significance.

HO1. There is no significant difference between the pretest performance of the

purposive communication students in the control and experimental groups.

HO2. There is no significant difference between the posttest performance of the

purposive communication students in the control and experimental groups.

HO3. There is no Is there a significant difference between the pre-post mean gain

of the control and experimental groups.

Scope and Delimitations

This study will be conducted to determine the impact of flexible learning system

as online teaching platform in teaching to 1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year and 4th year students

of the College of Arts and Sciences of JRMSU Main Campus, Dapitan City, who were

enrolled during the first semester of Academic Year 2020-2021.

Flexible learning in online teaching in education serves very substantial in todays’

situation. Variables of the study were limited only to the utilization of flexible learning

system as online platform in teaching teaching English. Participants of the study were

purposively selected based on the availability of gadgets and devices to be used in the

integration of the academic learning.

Significance of the Study

The result of the study would merit the following:

Students. The result of the study will help the students to increase their academic

performance using the intervention that will uplift their motivation to participate on the

lesson amidst covid -19.

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English Instructor. The result of the study will help the teachers to give aid to

the learners in the process of teaching and learning. This will also allow the teachers to

become more innovative and resilient by developing interventions that is useful during

COVID -19 era.

Parents. The result of study will help the parents to motivate their children to

continue their education amidst the situation. Parents will give importance on the use of

technological devices during the process of the intervention.

JRMSU. The result of this study could serve as a base line data to offer the best

pathway in delivering the program of the University. This will allow the learners as the

stakeholders to become more participative and eloquent despite on the pandemic. The

University instructors and professors also will give importance on the integration of

technology to be used in the teaching and learning process. On the other hand, teachers

will promote the best approach in the delivery during COVID-19 era.

Future Researchers. Through this study, the future researchers may be able to

gather more information and elaborate furthermore the effects of technology to education

students’ academic performance.

Definition of Terms

The following terms were operationally defined for better understanding of this

study.

Academic performance. In this study, this term refers to the GPA (Grade point

average) that the CED students have on the second semester in the school year 2020-

2021.
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Gadgets. In this study, this term refers to the equipment/ gadgets owned by the

respondents that are helpful in school or outside school like desktop computer, laptop

computer, cellphone, PC tablet, Ipod or mp3 player, printer, digital camera and projector.

Online Teaching Classroom. The term refers to a classroom a model of teaching

in which a student’s homework is the traditional lecture viewed outside of class on a

vodcast. Then class time is spent on inquiry-based learning which would include what

would traditionally be viewed as a student’s homework assignment.