FACTORS THAT AFFECT THE DECISION-MAKING OF GRADE 10

STUDENTS IN CHOOSING THEIR SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

STRAND IN PARAYAO NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the

INQUIRIES, INVESTIGATIONS, AND IMMERSION

PRIME BRILLIANT MINDS ACADEMY

LUCAO DISTRICT, DAGUPAN CITY

JOHN MAVERICK BAUTISTA

KHEN JHENIE ANNE D. CANCINO

ROSE ANN B. MACUMPANG

RONAVEE S. PATUNGAN

CHRISTINE MAE P. SORIANO

CHRISTIAN JAKE C. VELASCO

INTRODUCTION

As with most decision-making situations, we face dilemmas when in the

position of finally choosing. Deciding which strand to choose to Senior High

School in included in one of those problems. There are numerous obstacles that

influence the student’s decision. These range from family preferences to peer

pressure. The school also has a significant impact on the student’s choice of

track/strand.

Background of the Study

The two tracks, Academic and Technical-Vocational, are further subdivided

into strands. There are four (4) strands in the Academic track: Science,

Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), Accountancy and Business

Management (ABM), Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS), and General

Academic Strand (GAS), and Technical-Vocational track. Home Economics (HE),

Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Agri-Fisheries Arts, and

Industrial Arts are the other four strands. Sports and Arts and Design are the

other options.
 Senior High School tracks are the first step towards the student's chosen

career. The track that the student chooses will provide them with the necessary

skills for their future job. As a result, the Grade 10 students are facing a dilemma

in deciding which track to pursue even before they arrive at SHS. This prompted

the researchers to actively conduct a study on Parayao High School's Grade 10

students' track preferences.

Eremie and Okwulehie (2018) indicated that factors such as

environmental, opportunity and personality can influence the choice of career

among secondary school students. In terms of environmental factors, it revealed

that family, socioeconomic status and peer groups have significant influence of

the students’ choice of career while in opportunity factors such as education and

mentorship also had influence on the choice of career as well as the personality

factors such as the students’ interest, values and skills in choosing their courses.

The K to 12 Basic Schooling Program is being implemented by the

Department of Education to address the issue of unemployment and catch up

with developing nations in the last 10 years of education is insufficient and is

viewed as congested. The Department of Education's initiative to increase

education quality offers a system of instruction that gives pupils plenty of time to

develop the fundamental skills and competences they will require. The ability to

work worldwide after completing the 12-year education required by firms around

the world is another way that this program prepares students for the future.
 Everyone has mentioned the addition of two years to the K-12 curriculum.

Senior High School will cover the two years from K to 12, whereas Junior High

School (JHS) will replace the first year of secondary education up to the fourth

year. They will receive a high school diploma upon completion. When a student

does not complete Grade 12, they lose out on SHS benefits like getting a job

after they graduate, etc. Parents and kids have specifically attacked the addition

of two years, calling it "hard on the wallet" and "two extra years of suffering”.

Depending on the course they take after senior high school, graduates have

guaranteed employment.

The K–12 Program is using spiral progression to teach its subjects. Basic

knowledge is first taught in a lesson, and after it is eventually mastered, links to

each lesson are established that "spiral upwards" to more sophisticated lessons

that add to the study. By doing this, students can learn more effectively since

they won't be intimidated when a complex topic is covered because they already

have a firm understanding of the knowledge required for the issue, which will

improve their skills.

It is critical that students choose the right strand, as failure to do so can

have serious consequences to their future. How do students decide on a career

path? There are numerous obstacles that influence the student's decision. These

range from family preferences to peer pressure. The school also has a significant

impact on the student's choice of a track. That is why researchers will be

conducting this research to identify the factors that affect the decision-making in
choosing their Senior High School strand needed to be considered by Parayao

National High School Grade 10 students.

Statement of the Problem

This study also aims to determine the factors which affect the grade 10

students in choosing their strand in senior high. Specifically, it answers these

specific problems:

1. What is the profile of the respondents of grade 10 students? In terms of:

a. gender;

b. age;

c. socioeconomic status; and

d. general average

2. What are the factors affecting the Grade 10 students in choosing their

Senior High School strand regarding:

a. Family;

b. Peers; and

c. Interest;

3. What are the suggestions / recommendations in guiding the students to

choose their preferred strand?

Significance of the Study

individuals and people as a society. This study will be undertaken to find out the

factors affecting the grade 10 students from Parayao High School face when

choosing their strand or track in Senior High School in accordance with DepEd’s

K-12 Program.

Benefiting the study are the following:

Students. This study will help the future of grade 10 students of Parayao

High School. It will give information on how to deal with choosing a senior high

school strand when once in face with the factors regarding their: Parental

influence, Interests, Future Endeavors, and Environment.

Parents. This study will help parents in a way wherein they can also help

in giving advice to their child/children due to the fact that the influence from

them is also one of the factors that affect their children in choosing a track in

senior high school.

Schools. This study can help us to lead the way or also advice just like

the parents with their guidance counselors or school counselors for guidance as

they’re intended for. And this study can help them wherein they would have

more knowledge in order to know the corresponding fix for it.

Scope and Delimitations

and how those challenges affect their decision over which senior high school

track they will pursue. The goal of this study is to pinpoint the most prevalent

and typical issues and challenges that they are encountering when selecting a

strand as well as the reasons that make it tough for them to decide.

Therefore, this study will identify the factors affecting students when

selecting their Senior High School strand, how these challenges affect them

when making that decision, and their recommendations/suggestions on how to

overcome those challenges. The participants of the study are the Grade 10

students from Parayao National High School.

Definition of Terms

Parental Influence – This includes the parent’s behavior towards the child’s

interests, child’s future endeavors, and the family’s socioeconomic status.

Environment – This refers to where the respondent grew up and currently

resides.

K to 12 – This refers to the sufficient time to expand the knowledge,

experience, and mastery of concept or skills of respondent.

Peers – The type of people that the respondent is surrounded with.

Perplexed Respondents - Confused or puzzled about the strand that the

respondent given to choose upon.

Spiral Progression - Exposing the students into a variety of concepts and

topics until they master the lesson by studying it over and over again.

Sophisticated Lesson – It refers to the respondent being exposed on a great

deal of knowledge or topic.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES AND STUDIES

This chapter will include the ideas, finished thesis, generalization or

conclusion, methodologies and others. Those that were included in this chapter

helps in familiarizing information that are relevant and like the present study.

Local

In research conducted by Quino (2022) entitled Factors Influencing the Career

Preference of Senior High School Students during Pandemic. The results revealed that the

factors influencing a student's decision to enroll in college are financial aid, educational quality,

tuition affordability, and environment and culture. The findings imply that the various factors

that influence students' choices are adaptable regardless of their age, gender, or family wealth.

The study was participated by 231 Senior High School students enrolled in 2nd Semester SY

2020-2021 using a stratified random sampling technique. Researcher used an online survey

questionnaire to collect and sum up data on the five factors, using a five-point Likert scale for

each one and analyzing the responses who took the survey.

Quiño, J. B. (2022). Factors influencing the career preference of senior high school students

during pandemic.  International Journal of Arts and Social Science, 5(3), 72-77.

Ouano et. al (2019) revealed that making a career choice is a defining phase in every

students’ life. Students have to consider several factors before arriving at a decision. The results
show that the considerations about the institutions as most significant, followed by decision-

making and interest, peer influence and future job opportunities. . The study was participated

by 90 students in Jagobiao National High School. Data was collected through a survey

questionnaire – researchers used a chi-square as a research tool to formulate the collected data.

Ouano, J. J. G., Torre, J. F. D. L., Japitan, W. I., & Moneva, J. C. (2019). Factors

influencing on grade 12 students’ chosen courses in Jagobiao National High School–senior high

school department.  International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications,  9(1), 421-431.

In research conducted by Dangoy and Marigal (2020) entitled Career Preferences and Factors

Influencing the Career Choice of Senior High Students of a Catholic School. The result show that

the career Preferences and Factors Influencing the Career Choice of Senior High Students of a

Catholic School. , The paper assessed the degree of career preferences and the extent of factors

influencing the career choices of senior high school students in a Catholic School in Antique

during the school year 2019-2020.

Dangoy, J. E., & Madrigal, D. V. (2020). Career Preferences and Factors Influencing the Career

Choice of Senior High Students of a Catholic School. Philippine Social Science Journal, 3(2), 95-

96.

Getange and Sagwe (2017) revealed that the rapid increase in educated unemployment over

the recent past years coupled with daily advertisements of diverse job opportunities in the labor

market indicated that there was amiss between what the educational institutions were training

and the labor market needs. The study targeted population involves 16 principals, 284 TSC

teachers, 101 form four students leaders and 16 PTA chair persons. Saturated sampling was

employed to come up with a sample of 16 principals, 284 TSC teachers, 101 student leaders and

16 PTA chairpersons. Many students in Kenya and the world as a whole go through school with
wrong career notions. The `celebrity jobs‘of Engineering, Law, Architecture, Medicine and

Bachelor of Commerce were every student‘s dream

Getange, K. N., & Sagwe, G. (2016). Factors influencing students’ career choices in public

secondary school in Manga sub county, Nyamira County-Kenya. International Journal of Novel

Research in Humanity and Social Sciences, 3(1), 1-10.

Foreign(AYUSIN HA)

Career choice is a significant issue in the developmental live of youths because it is

reported to be associated with positive as well as harmful psychological, physical and

socio-economic inequalities that persist well beyond the youthful age into an individual's

adult life (Robertson, 2014; Bubić and Ivanišević, 2016).

A Systematic Review of Factors That Influence Youths Career Choices. Retrieved from :

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2018.00058/full#:~:text=Youth

%20career%20decision%2Dmaking%20is,Porfeli%20and%20Lee%2C%202012).

Youth career decision-making is required to go through a process of understanding by

defining what they want to do and exploring a variety of career options with the aid of

guidance and planning (Porfeli and Lee, 2012).

A Systematic Review of Factors That Influence Youths Career Choices. Retrieved from :

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2018.00058/full#:~:text=Youth

%20career%20decision%2Dmaking%20is,Porfeli%20and%20Lee%2C%202012).
The education system has a significant and direct impact on the quality of our workforce,

our economic productivity and ultimately, our ability to prosper as businesses, as people,

and as nation rely on our public schools to provide highly skilled and educated talent. K

to 12 is a solution to create opportunities that will help all children from the time they

enter the classroom to when they join the workforce. (McCleary, 2012).

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1. Retrieved from :

https://www.academia.edu/31002642/

CHAPTER_II_REVIEW_OF_RELATED_LITERATURE_2_1_Introduction

Foreign

An article posted by Adecco UK (Adecco UK, 2015), a part of a Swiss multinational

human resource consulting company of the same name, states that it is worth finding out

what type of worker an individual is with the increasing of employers utilizing

personality and psychometric testing procedures to analyze the employee’s attributes

beyond qualifications. It is also stated in the article that “choosing a job to which an

individual is inherently suited rather than just able to convince the interviewer that he/she

is interested in the position will make him/her a happier, or more productive employee.

Factors Affecting Senior High School Track Preferences of Grade 9 Students of Don

Bosco Technology Center Inc. Retrieved from :

https://www.academia.edu/24519450/

Factors_Affecting_Senior_High_School_Track_Preferences_of_Grade_9_Students_of_D

on_Bosco_Technology_Center_Inc_Academic_Year_2014_2015_A_Basis_for_Career_

Guidance_Program
Another study that establishes the influence of personality on career choice is Dr. Claudia

Harzer and companions of University of Zurich (Harzer, et.al, 2012), which focuses on

the character strengths of an individua land how it affects their career. From interviews of

over 1,000 working people, their study shows that the degree of positive experiences

increases with the number of personal character strengths, or so-called “signature

strengths”, applied at work. This would imply that understanding what roles a person are

best suited to based on his/her personality is what will make him/her the most happy at

work.

Factors Affecting Senior High School Track Preferences of Grade 9 Students of Don

Bosco Technology Center Inc. Retrieved from :

https://www.academia.edu/24519450/

Factors_Affecting_Senior_High_School_Track_Preferences_of_Grade_9_Students_of_D

on_Bosco_Technology_Center_Inc_Academic_Year_2014_2015_A_Basis_for_Career_

Guidance_Program

According to (Okiror and Otabong, 2015), 30% of the 116 BS Agriculture students in

an African university choose to pursue Agriculture because of their personal interests.

About 20% considered the opportunities or benefits of having a degree in Agriculture,

15% said that they have farming background, 15% were due to their parents' advice, and

10% followed the advice from the career guidance program conducted during the

secondary school level.

Development of a Senior High School Career Decision Tool Based on Social Cognitive

Theory. Retrieved from :

development-of-a-senior-high-school-career-decision-tool-based-on-social-cognitive-

career-theory

(Okiror, et. al. 2015) indicated that students' choices were based on their perceived

career opportunities. This result, however, contradicts the findings of (Ahmed, et. al.

2017) that future job opportunities had minor impact on students' career choice. From

these findings, it can be deduced that incoming senior high school students would likely

choose a track in relation to the likelihood of landing a job after graduation.

Track Preference and Influences in the Choice of Track of Incoming Senior High School

Students. Retrieved From :

https://easychair.org/publications/preprint/jJzJ

Furthermore, (Guistinelli, 2016) contents that parents and children have insufficient

knowledge of each other's choice preferences, which parents know their children's desires

considerably better than vice versa, and then that relatives who revealed making

decisions more collectively did seem to have a clearer idea of each other's decision-

making choices. Student's interest factor, on the other hand, is regarded as the most

critical element in the selection of a career major or education course is what you desire

or your interests.

Group Decision Making with Uncertain Outcomes: Unpacking Child-Parent Choices of

High School Tracks. Retrieved from :

254420606_Group_Decision_Making_with_Uncertain_Outcomes_Unpacking_Child-

Parent_Choices_of_High_School_Tracks

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

This chapter will present the research design, location of the study, population and

sample, data gathering instrument, data gathering procedure, and statistical treatment of

data.

Research Design
This research will employ the descriptive survey method. It will attempt to describe the

various factors affecting by Grade 10 students of Parayao National High School in

choosing their senior high school strand.

Based on Wikipedia, descriptive method is used to describe characteristics of a

population or phenomenon being studied. It does not answer questions about

how/when/why the characteristics occurred. Rather it addresses the “what” question. The

aim of this type of research is to describe data and characteristics about what is being

studied.

Location of the Study

This study will take place in Parayao National High School which is located at Barangay

Papagueyan, Binmaley, Pangasinan. This study will be conducted during the school year

2022-2023.

Population and Sample

There are six (6) sections of Grade 10 in Parayao National High School at present with a

total strength of 228 students from the six sections. However, the researchers will reduce
the number of respondents using the sampling method, the Slovin's Formula. The

computation below will show how the researchers will get the sample size of the

respondents :

n=N

[1+N(e) ²]

Where,

n = sample size

N = total population

e = level of significance

Thus, 24 students will be selected randomly using sample random sampling as sample

size of each selection and the respondents of the study will answer the survey-

questionnaire checklist that will be developed by the researchers.

Table 1 will present the population and sampling of the respondents :

Sections Population Sample Size

Grade 10 - Diamond 4

Grade 10 - Ruby 4

Grade 10 - Sapphire 4

Grade 10 - Topaz 4

Grade 10 - Opal 4

Grade 10 - Emerald 4
Data Gathering Instrument
The researchers will develop a 3 parted survey questionnaire checklist as the main

instrument of the study:

Part 1 is to collect the details regarding the profile of the respondents; Part 2 is to collect

the details regarding the main study; and the Part 3 will be composed of essay question

that will focus on the suggestion/recommendation of the students.

Data Gathering Procedure

Statistical Treatment of Data