The Role of Reflective Reminder Notes with Commitment form in Addressing Malpractice in Module Completion of Pupils: An Action Research

The Role of Reflective Reminder Notes with Commitment form in Addressing Malpractice in Module Completion of Pupils: An Action Research

Mariezel Villar Cortez¹ & Rey Avila Mangarin^2
1Public School Teacher, Alejal Elementary School
²Associate Professor, The University of Mindanao

Received: 26 February 2023; Revised: 16 March 2023; Accepted: 22 March 2023; Published: 19 April 2023

ABSTRACT

This study is a participatory action research that aims to address the problem of malpractice among parents in completing the modules of their Grade 5 children. In collection of data, the researcher employed observation, frequency counting, and simple interview from purposively selected parents who were the participants of this study. These were parents who were found to be the ones answering the modules of their children. After a week of returning the modules, these 11 parents were closely monitored and when modules were checked, it was found out that seven parents (63.5%) have refrained themselves from answering the modules and four parents still part of modules were done. On the next week, there were no longer parents who answered the modules of their children. Out from interview conducted from these parents, reasons why they were doing the learning tasks for their children were: they feel pity for their children because there are many modules to be answered and their children were lazy and uninterested. These two main reasons led these parents to deciding that they don’t want their children fail in the school,

Keywords: Reflective Reminder, Intervention, Action Research, Malpractices

RATIONALE

One of the most important goals of education has become to help students acquire self-regulation skills that to improve learning during school years. By continuing their education, students increase their opportunities for a better-paid and more satisfying career. It is also the key component for mediating success in most learning environments. Students who are defined as “self-regulated” participate proactively in the learning process – emotionally, motivationally, and cognitively. These students self-activate and self-direct efforts to acquire knowledge and skills by implementing specific strategies rather than just passively reacting to their teachers’ instructions (Sahranavard, Miri, & Salehiniya, 2018).

Especially in this very period, self-regulated learning is a very important concept that students must master when Covid-19 pandemic strikes. Students who are defined as “self-regulated” participate proactively in the learning process – emotionally, motivationally, and cognitively. These students self-activate and self-direct efforts to acquire knowledge and skills by implementing specific strategies rather than just passively reacting to their teachers’ instructions and reliant to their parents in helping them to complete the learning tasks in the modules.

            When parents are engaged in their children’s school lives, students have the home support and knowledge they need to not only finish their assignments, but also develop a lifelong love of learning. Teachers who focus on the involvement often see a profound change in their teaching-learning process implementation. The more parents involved in their children’s education, the better their entire class’s motivation, behavior, and grades become. Encouraging parent engagement is more than common courtesy. It’s one of the best ways to create a positive learning environment for every student. To create a community built on parent-teacher relationships in your school, find out what parent engagement is and how to nurture it.

            But what if the involvement of parents is not in accordance to how the teaching-learning process is going well? This is now the problem especially in this very moment when the parents intervene the learning process by performing the tasks that pupils are supposed to do because they are afraid that their children fail if cannot submit the modules. This happens in almost all schools and has been experienced by almost all advisers. Parents answered the learning tasks and submit by themselves forgetting that pupils or students need to be independent and self-regulate their learning abilities with only an aid is given. Thus, this action research is formulated to address this problem that parents are in malpractice the completion of learning tasks in the modules of their children.

THEORIES AND POLICIES

The following are cited springboards that will help to explain this study:

            This can be primarily anchored to Vygotsky theory of cognitive development which states that students will learn more when they receive guidance from someone with more skills in the subject they’re learning than they would if they were tackling the subject on their own. In this theory, scaffolding which is a process in which teachers or anybody demonstrate how to solve a problem, and then step back, offering support as needed. The theory is that when students are given the support they need while learning something new, they stand a better chance of using that knowledge independently (Kurth, 2020). Thus, the role of parents to scaffold the task is more important than performing the task for learning.

            Also, the Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan in Time of COVID-19 which is a response to the national emergency in order to ensure that learning opportunities are provided to our learners in a safe manner, through different learning delivery. In collaborative efforts with the Regional and Schools Division Offices who were responsible to undertake the urgent and necessary development, production and provision of learning resources, in accordance with its mandate, this plan is carried on, which is a strong basis of this study.

            With the health crisis, DepEd has promulgated issuances on flexible learning and materials, specifically, the DepEd Order No. (DO)  21, s. 2019 known as the  Policy Guidelines on the K to 12 Basic Education Program which is used as basis of this study. It sets forth Flexible Learning Options (FLOs), which includes alternative delivery modes and its corresponding learning resources that are responsive to the need, context, circumstances, and diversity of learners.

            Also, the study of Luaña (2021) is also used as basis that the malpractice of parents answering their children’s modules is an offshoot of the challenges faced by the parents which are poor reading and writing skills of their children, time constraints due to work and household chores, too many children to attend to, too difficult lessons and subjects, and too many learning activities in the modules. He further emphasized that if these challenges are left unaddressed, modular learning will fail and no learning whatsoever will take place. Hence, parents, being the facilitators of learning, should be capacitated and empowered to effectively facilitate learning at home.

            Lastly, this is anchored to Sahranavard, Miri, and Salehiniya (2018) that one of the most important goals of education has become to help students acquire self-regulation skills that to improve learning during school years. By continuing their education, students increase their opportunities for a better-paid and more satisfying career. It is also the key component for mediating success in most learning environments.

PROBLEM OF THE STUDY

            The problem of the study identified here is the malpractice of parents in the learning process of the pupils during weekly completion of learning tasks in the modules. It has been observed that parents were the ones who wrote the answers in the modules instead of their children and this was observed in the module submitted. Specifically, thisaction research sought to answer the following questions:

1. How many parents were answering the modules by themselves instead of their children?
2. What intervention can be designed to address the malpractice in completing the learning tasks of the modules?
3. How effective is the Reflective Reminder Notes for Parents in addressing the malpractice of parents in completing the learning tasks in the module?

Data Collection

            In collection of data, the researcher employed observation, frequency counting, and simple interview from purposively selected parents who were the participants of this study. In observation, modules of the pupils were checked one by one and investigated the hand written. Those modules whose hand written were not from students were considered to be baseline of the data and it was found out that there are 11 modules whose answers were not written by the pupils and this where frequency counting occurs. The collection of the data took three weeks of observation beginning in the second week of May 2021 to the last week of the same month but this was already observed in the previous submission of modules. To confirmed whose hand written was in the module, a simple question and answer portion was made from these 11 parents and they actually affirmed that they were the ones who wrote although they defended that their children were the ones who told the answers. To proceed to stage 2 of this action research, these identified parents were provided with a hand-out written by researcher in vernacular form with reflective contents on the importance of facilitating the learning rather than answering the modules by the parents themselves. This hand-out was given in the last week of May 2021 during the releasing of modules. In the first and second week of June 2021, these 11 parents were observed an interviewed to how it went after.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

            In the analysis of the data, this action research utilized descriptive statistics and simple content analysis. For numerical data, frequency count and percentage were used to identify parents who are involved in answering the modules of their children. Content Analysis was also used to analyze the response of the parents when asked why they answered the modules instead of their children do it. After the intervention, same analysis method, content analysis, was used to analyze how the hand-outs have helped them in understanding their roles in the teaching-learning process at home.

Parents Who Answered the Modules of their Children

            There were 11 parents or guardians who were subjected to action research. These were parents who were found to be the ones answering the modules of their children. After a week of returning the modules, these 11 parents were closely monitored and when modules were checked, it was found out that seven parents (63.5%) have refrained themselves from answering the modules and four parents still part of modules were done. On the next week, there were no longer parents who answered the modules of their children.

            Out from interview conducted from these parents, reasons why they were doing the learning tasks for their children were: they feel pity for their children because there are many modules to be answered and their children were lazy and uninterested. These two main reasons led these parents to deciding that they don’t want their children fail in the school,

Table 1. Parents Who Answered the Modules of their Children

Reflective Reminder Notes with Commitment Form

            With the problem arising on the malpractice of parents and guardians in answering the learning tasks in the module, the intervention hand-out for parents described as Reflective Reminder Notes for Parents was designed by the researcher written in vernacular form. Along with this hand-out was a Commitment Form wherein the parents signed and pledged a commitment that they would never answer the module but instead help their children and facilitate in answering the modules. This reminder notes hand-out was given along with the modules released. While the commitment form was kept by the researcher after they have signed and understood the commitment form.

The Effectiveness of Reflective Reminder Notes with Commitment Form

            It can be observed that through intervention, number of parents who answered the modules has reduced after two weeks of monitoring and giving them the reflective reminder hand-out and after signing the commitment form. The reduction of number of parents or percentage of parents showed that the intervention has made significant decrease of the number of parents who perform malpractice in answering the modules. Meanwhile, these parents were asked in a non-formal interview after two weeks which they didn’t already personally answered the modules and it was found out that the reflective reminder notes have made them realized their roles as parents and how they should help their children in answering the modules. Also, the commitment form, though it scared them and felt them a little bit ashamed of what happened, these feelings of being ashamed and scared helped a lot to redo their actions from malpractice to what they should do as parents.

IMPLICATIONS

            It is very important to let the pupils answer the learning tasks in the module to develop independence and scaffold their self-regulated learning skills. The role of parents and guardians especially in this very moment in combat with Covid-19 pandemic is significant in helping the department to continue the teaching-learning process through home-based learning.

            It is now the role of parents to understand how teaching-learning process occurs and that wrong intervention that fosters dependence and fails the ability of children to learn by themselves with guidance can make children learn nothing. Thus, it is very important for parents to be reminded on their roles as partner of teachers in the educational process in this modular approach of learning and that learning the lessons is very important aspect in the assessment of children in this pandemic period. Parents should not think of only passing but of most importantly must consider that something must be retained in the minds of children from the tasks given. It is with this reason that giving them constant reminders will play a significant role in setting how teaching-learning process at home, therefore, the intervention Reflective Reminder Notes would be of great help plus the commitment that has been explained and signed helped a lot as reinforcement of the goal to fight against malpractice in completing learning tasks in the modules.

            Other schools may replicate and innovate this approach to respond to the pressing needs of problem like this especially in the modular approach.

Interventions and Plans of Action

            The interventions designed by the researcher is the reflective commitment form which discusses the roles of parents in vernacular and how they will be able to perform their roles as facilitators of learning rather than as the ones to answer the modules. This will also help them explain the assessment process and the importance of self-regulated learning and independence of children especially in this modular approach of teaching-learning process. Likewise, the commitment form is a help to provide parents with springboard of how they are determined to help their children by cooperating with the school’s target and goals for the learners.

            The reflective reminder notes comprise of three parts: Pahimangno sa Ginikanan, Unsa Akong Mabuhat ug Ngano Kini Importante. The commitment form is a half-page agreement between the teacher and parent as negotiation that these parents agreed to cooperate. (See appendices attached)

The following are the steps employed:

Plan of Actions in Responding to the Problem

RECOMMENDATION

With the abovementioned, the intervention program is worth replicating by other teachers and institutions and may be revised contextually according to the needs of the settings.

REFERENCES

1. Kurt, S. (2020). Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding. Retrieved from https://educationaltechnology.net/vygotskys-zone-of-proximal-development-and-scaffolding/.
2. Luaña, J. (2021). Why do Parents Answer their Children’s Modules? A Closer Look on Parental Practices and Challenges in Modular Distance Learning. Retrieved from https://journal.riksawan.com/index.php/IJGC-RI/article/view/83.
3. Sahranavard, S., Miri, M., & Salehiniya, H. (2018). The relationship between self-regulation and educational performance in students. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6332646/.