Research Title: Integration of Code-Switching in improving the Basic Science Process Skills
(BSPS) Acquisition of Grade 8 Learners
Rationale
The Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, states that every graduate of basic education
shall be an empowered individual who has learned, through a program that is rooted on sound
educational principles and geared towards excellence, the foundation for learning throughout
life, the competence to engage in work and be productive, the ability to coexist in fruitful
harmony with local and global communities, the capability to engage in autonomous, creative,
and critical thinking, and the capacity and willingness to transform others and one’s self. For this
purpose, the State shall create a functional basic education system that will develop productive
and responsible citizens equipped with the essential competencies, skills and values for both life-
long learning and employment.
Based on the K to 12 science curriculum’s conceptual framework science education aims
to develop scientific literacy among students that will prepare them to be informed and
participative citizens who are able to make judgements and decisions regarding application of
scientific knowledge that may have social, health or environmental impacts. It integrates science
and and technology in the civic, personal, social, economic, and the values and ethical aspects of
life. It is designed around the three domains of learning science: understanding and applying
scientific knowledge, performing scientific process and skills and developing and demonstrating
scientific attitudes and values.
Science Process skills are the things that scientists do when they study and investigate.
Observing, classifying, communicating, measuring, inferring, and predicting are among the
thinking skills used by scientists, teachers, and students when doing science. The increasing
value of science process skilla poses a serious challenge of finding ways to amend teaching as a
means of elevating these educational outcomes.
In the past decade, students’ performance in science continuous to be the most difficult
field of study in basic education both in elementary and secondary level. So, schools in the entire
Philippines are taking various efforts towards the improvement of performance of the learners in
Science subjects.
The educational system in the Philippines are facing various problems on how to
empower learners in line with functional literacy. Four years ago, the PISA National Report of
the Philippines (2019), reported that the Philippines participated in the Programme for
International Student Assessment (PISA), wherein the country scored 357 in Science Literacy,
placing the country second from the bottom among 70 countries that partook the examination.
Also, in the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS), the country
ranked low. An average score of 249 points in the overall Science achievement scale in 2019
TIMMS is significantly lower than any other participating country. This proved that the
performance of vast number of Filipino students are way below both in national achievement and
international test. While these dismal results may be depressing, our participation in these large-
scale assessments should be acknowledged as a step forward towards addressing “curriculum and
learning gaps in the country’s basic education” (Department of Education, 2019).
Related to the infromation stated above, as cited by Torres (2021), as mentioned by
Heather (2020) in a study, suggest that to address the learning gaps, the first necessary step to
consider is to identify those gaps. These can be done through different assessment strategies to
determine where and what those gaps are.
In teaching science, most learners when engage in science topics look as if they
understand what is taught. As educators provide activities with them, they score good marks.
However, when concept is presented in different context from what the learners learned in class,
most of them fail to interpret the new context. This indicates that learners lack skills of
comprehending academic material. Most learners today do not fail because they do not know the
content, but they fail because of they lack the skills of interpreting what is asked in the
examination papers. This is an indication that the learning gap is on proficiency in the Language
of learning and teaching, especially on the use of language for academic purpose.
As a grade 8 science teacher, the researcher observes that the learners struggle to
comprehend questions and always intervene by code switching in order to make them
understand. This observation is also evindent in the periodical assessments that leads to low
achievement. The researcher opted to conduct this study to determine if the Basic Science
Process Skills are properly acquired by the students through integration of code-switching.
Statement of the Problem:
The researcher aims to determine the effectiveness of the integration of code-switching
instruction in improving the basic science process skill of Grade 8 learners. Specifically, it will
seek to answer the following questions:
1. What is the level of the Grade 8 learners’ mastery of Basic Science Process Skills in
terms of:
1.1 observing;
1.2 communicating;
1.3 classifying;
1.4 measuring;
1.5 inferring; and
1.6 predicting
2. Is there a significant difference in the students’ basic science process skills before and
after the integration of code-switching?
Hypothesis
1. There is no significant relationship between the integration of code-switching to the
improvement of the basic science processskills of Grade 8 learners.
Significance of the Study
This study will be conducted for the purpose of finding out the correlation of improving
the Basic Science Process Skills and the integration of code-switching. The result of this study
will benefit the following stakeholders:
Students. This study will encourage students to improve the Basic Science Process
Skills and improve their performance in Science.
Teachers. They will realize the importance of improving the Basic Science Process
Skills throught the utilization of code-switching in teaching Science.
School and Community. The school will serve
In other words, the medium of instruction used by teachers in delivering a lesson is not
the key factor but the context and content of the lesson.
As explained above, contextualization of instruction is an approach to teaching, as
defined by Suryawati & Osman (2018). However, the implementation of this teaching approach
includes several methods and strategies namely, use of local community knowledge,
instructional materials, problem-solving and laboratory activities.
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