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Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
National Capital Region
DIVISION OF CITY SCHOOLS- MANILA
Manila Education Center Administration Bldg.
People’s Park A.J. Villegas St., Ermita, Manila
Telefax: 5272315/ 52751854/ 5275180
manila.deped@yahoo.com

Task-Based Approach towards High Achievement of Students in Chemistry:

An Action Research Paper

Jonas Feliciano C. Domingo

Master Teacher II
Manila Science High School

Maria Eva S. Nacion

Principal

December 2017
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A. TITLE:
Task-Based Approach towards High Achievement of Students in Chemistry
B. ABSTRACT:
This study was conducted to test the veracity of Experiential Learning Theory by Kolb
(1984) which elucidates the integration of action and reflection. Such testing of the
aforementioned theory was through the constructivist teaching approach called Task Based
Approach. Quasi-Experimental method was employed using the Randomized Posttest-Only
Control Group Design. The research design involved two groups of grade 10 junior high school
students of Manila Science High School which were subjected to different approaches. The
control group was provided the Non-Task Based Approach (NTBA). On the other hand,
experimental group was subjected to Task-Based Approach (TBA) which included Real-world
Tasks and Pedagogical Tasks. A validated post-test was administered to students after a two-
week experimental period. The mean and standard deviation and the t-test were utilized as
statistical tools in the research. The SPSS program was also utilized to compute the data needed
for the study. From the results of the statistical treatment employed from the results of the post
test, it was revealed that the mean of the controlled group is 2.96 % higher compared to the mean
of the experimental group. Results also showed that the significance level of the Levene’s Test is
.320 which would be gleamed as not statistically significant. Thus, Task-Based Approach in
teaching does not promote high achievement of students in Chemistry. TBA was not effective in
this setting but it does not mean that TBA is indeed in general not effective .In light with the
findings of the research, the following recommendations were made; (1) Although confirmed by
various literature and studies that TBA is effective, perhaps the translation of TBA to practice is
somehow weak, therefore, school administrators should provide teachers ample seminars,
training and workshops in order for teachers to acquire novel and relatively new strategies,
techniques, methods and approaches in teaching; (2) Aside from weak translation of the facets of
TBA, other threats to validity may have compromised the results of the research, therefore, look
into the possibility of having larger groups, re-orientation of teachers to TBA and use pre-
testing; and (3) Further studies with regards to Task-Based Approach be done in order to
decipher the efficacy of this approach in teaching towards high achievement of students of the
subject matter being taught.
Keywords: Task-Based Approach, High achievement, Real world Tasks, Pedagogical Tasks
C. INTRODUCTION
Schools have the role of being the training ground for students to hone and develop their
talents. Schools exist to prepare their students to become better thinkers and be of great help in
the country’s development. Skills, attitudes and habits are either learned and even modified in
schools, and this affirm that schools have a huge role in the development of one’s nation.
(Tolimson 2003: 26)
In the Philippines, Science education in schools was taught conventionally. By simply
utilizing chalk and board, science can be taught inside the classroom or in simpler sense, it could
be attributed to “ Chalk and Talk” method of teaching. Students are also ought to store what the
teacher says on their minds and afterwards withdraws it when needed, this “ Banking model”
approach in teaching is still vastly used by teachers. You can clearly see that students tend to
know the concepts of science, however, the scientific processes that should be learned by the
students such as inferring, generalizing and predicting are not intensively developed. (Consing
2006:9)
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Science education can develop the problem-solving skills of students. If the skills in
problem-solving will be developed, it will solely help the flexibilities of the situations that they
might face throughout their lives.( Ferreras 1998:2)
In the study conducted by Ampolitod (1998:49) the performance of students in Science
and Technology I is poor and below average, having only 47 % of the respondents answered
correctly the tests conducted for the Introduction of Science and Technology. Furthermore, she
cited that the low performance in both cognitive and intellectual skills in Science and
Technology and this was an indication that they haven’t learned the skill of problem-solving. She
also stressed that the students are not “science” literates because they only learn to memorize and
recite, NOT to think critically.
As Ogena, et al. ( 2010:1) pointed out, science and mathematics education has long been
sought to be recognized as one of the major contributory factors for development, prompting
different nations to give emphasis on their specific and respective national agenda. Thus, priority
is given to the development of students’ performance in these areas. Consequently, this marks
legislators and policy makers provide certain arguments concerning this aspect of a nation’s
educational system.
Science teaching is considered to be a challenging task to do. Science teachers should be
in depth in the subject matter to ensure conceptual understanding of students. Nonetheless, a
science teacher should provide an avenue for the achievement students’ active participation.
Thus, science teachers have this dilemma of providing an environment for the students to be
participative and engaged in learning science lessons in order to achieve meaningful learning and
attain high performance. In an article of Redondo (2002), Nunan (1988) argued on the
effectiveness of Task-Based Approach to English Language Teaching(ELT). This gave the
researcher inkling whether Task-Based Approach is also a viable approach in teaching Chemistry
for secondary students. In teaching English language, he defined tasks as allowing learners to
comprehend, produce and interact in English meaningfully, furthermore, he provided specific
benefits of utilizing Task-Based Approach in teaching English, which include: (1) freedom to
commit grammatical mistakes as they try to negotiate meaning, (2) stretch their linguistic
capabilities; and (3) use different learning strategies to perform the activities successfully.
According to Nunan (1988), tasks can be classified into two, which are both self-
contained. Real-world Tasks is the first one, this allows students to do classroom behaviors that
can be observed in the real world. Examples of which is role-playing a certain scenario. The
other type of task is Pedagogical Task, which allows the students to finish a task based on text
and they are tasks unlikely to be performed outside the classroom.
Redondo (2002) concluded in her article that the Task-Based Approach in ELT is an
avenue of teaching and learning English by means of doing. In this note, the researcher
investigates the effectiveness of Task-Based Approach in Chemistry.
a. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY/ RATIONALE
The results of this study are essential to science teachers; this research endeavour will
provide information to science teachers of an approach in teaching students science in order to
excel in science classes. School administrators will also be benefited on this study; they will be
given insights on providing teachers ample seminars, training and workshops in order for
teachers to acquire novel and relatively new strategies, techniques, methods and approaches in
teaching regardless of subject area concern. Future researchers will also be benefited on this
action research; this research will be a spring board for a new research work that will be
beneficial to the academe.
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This study utilized the following terms: Task-Based Approach posits an active leaning and
meaning making of students by means of doing. Tasks deals with the activities provided to
students during classroom instruction. Real-world Tasks are tasks given to students to perform
certain real-life scenario like skits, simulation and role plays. The other type of task is
Pedagogical Tasks are tasks based on text and ought be done and performed by the students
inside the classroom such as problem sets and work sheets. Performance deals with the students
outputs during the classroom instruction.
b. RESEARCH PROBLEM/QUESTIONS:
This study was conducted to test the veracity of Experiential Learning Theory by Kolb
(1984) which elucidates the integration of action and reflection. Such testing of the
aforementioned theory was through the constructivist teaching approach called Task Based
Approach. With this in mind, the research sought to unravel the answers to the following specific
set of questions:
1. What is the posttest performance of the students in control and experimental group?
2. How many percent of students reached the criterion reference of 75%?
3. How significant is the difference between the posttest of control and experimental group?
4. What teaching strategies be suggested using Task-Based Approach towards High
Achievement of Students in Chemistry?
D. METHODOLOGY
The researcher gathered data which were essential for the research through the utilization of
the Randomized Posttest-Only Control Group Design which involved two groups which were
formed by two sections of the Grade 10 students of Manila Science High School.
a. PARTICIPANTS/DATA SOURCE
The study made use of the Grade 10 students of Manila Science High School as his subjects,
as the researcher is one of the faculty members of the said department. Ten students-five males
and five females- from the two sections of Grade 10 took part of the study as properly equated in
terms of age and sex.
b. DATA GATHERING PROCEDURES AND INSTRUMENTS
The two sections were labelled as the Control group and the Experimental group. The control
group was provided with the Non-Task Based Approach (NTBA) which was also tantamount to
the conventional way of teaching, thus no approach was not injected in the group, and strategies
included “chalk-talk” method of teaching was involved and paper and pen tests as assessment
tools were employed. On the other hand, experimental group was subjected to Task-Based
Approach (TBA) which included Real-world Tasks and Pedagogical Tasks. Real-world Tasks
are tasks given to students to perform certain real-life scenario like skits, simulation and role
plays. The other type of task is Pedagogical Tasks are tasks based on text and ought be done and
performed by the students inside the classroom such as problem sets and work sheets. Fifteen
students served as respondents of the study from each of the two groups, this included eight
female and seven male, this is because in terms of population, female students are comparably
higher than male students in the fourth year level.
A thirty-item post test was constructed by the researcher to verify whether TBA is an
effective approach to develop students’ performance in Chemistry was subjected to content and
linguistic validation by college professors from where the researcher is affiliated. Scientific
concepts involved in the two-week experimental phase were selected topics on hydrocarbons
which were (1) Alkenes, (2) Naming Alkenes, (3) Alkynes and (4) Naming Alkynes. All of the
topics were embedded in the First Quarter Grading Period of the subject Chemistry for academic
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year 2017-2018 wherein the study had taken place. The posttest was then administered to the two
groups involved in the study after two weeks of treatment using Task-Based Approach in
classroom instruction.
c. DATA ANALYSIS
The gathered were subjected to statistical treatment in order to decipher the relationship
of the teacher’s approach in teaching to the performance of students taking up Chemistry as one
of their add-on subjects in science.
The mean and standard deviation were utilized as statistical tools for the students and the
t-test was utilized afterwards in order to test the hypotheses of the study. The SPSS version 16.0
program was also utilized to compute the data needed for the study.
E. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
As gleaned in Table 1, the results of the statistical treatment employed from the results of the
posttest, it reveals that the mean and standard deviation of the experimental group are 18.00 and
3.96, while the results for the controlled group’s mean and standard deviation are 18.533 and
3.68 respectively. The mean of the controlled group exposes that it is 2.96 % higher compared to
the mean of the experimental group.
Table 1: Mean and Standard Deviation of Control and Experimental Groups
GROUP Mean Standard
Deviation
TBA 18.00 3.96
Group
NTBA 18.533 3.68
Group
In terms of the posttest results, in the experimental group 14.29 % of the students who took
the posttest reached the criterion of 75 %, on the other hand, 23.08 % of the students who took
the posttest achieved the criterion of 75%.

Table 2: Students’ percentage who achieved the criterion of 75%

GROUP Percentage
TBA Group 14.29 %
NTBA Group 23.08 %
Results showed that the significance level of the Levene’s Test is .320 which is
considerably greater than the significance level of 0.05 which was utilized in the study., which
would be gleamed as not statistically significant. At a confidence level of 95% the t-value is
0.382 which is greater than the required value at 0.05, hence, the null hypothesis is accepted,
thus, Task-Based Approach in teaching does not promote high achievement of students in
Chemistry.
F. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
a. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
From the data which had undergone statistical treatment, it has been showed that the null
hypothesis was accepted, thus, Task-Based Approach in teaching did not promote high
achievement of students in Chemistry.
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b. IMPLICATIONS/REFLECTION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

In light with the findings of the research, the following recommendations were made; (1)
Although confirmed by various literature and studies that TBA is effective, perhaps the
translation of TBA to practice is somehow weak, therefore, school administrators should provide
teachers ample seminars, training and workshops in order for teachers to acquire novel and
relatively new strategies, techniques, methods and approaches in teaching; (2) Aside from weak
translation of the facets of TBA, other threats to validity may have compromised the results of
the research, therefore, look into the possibility of having larger groups, re-orientation of
teachers to TBA and use pre-testing; and (3) Further studies with regards to Task-Based
Approach be done in order to decipher the efficacy of this approach in teaching towards high
achievement of students of the subject matter being taught.
G. REFERENCES
Ampolitod, Gloria R.(1998) Academic Performance of Science and Technology Freshmen
Students in the Municipality of Trento, Agusan, del Sur. Unpublished Master’s Thesis,
Andres Soriano College, Bislig, Surigao del Sur.
Consing, Jennifer P. (2006)The Utilization of Instructional Media as a Technique in Improving
the Science Performance of Sophomore of The National Teachers College. Unpublished
Master’s Thesis, The National Teachers College, Manila.
Ferreras, Rosabelle A.(1998) An Appraisal of the First Year Science Teaching in the National
Secondary Schools of Second Congressional District , Leyte: Basis for Improvement.
Unpublished Master’s Thesis, University of Visayas, Cebu.
Ogena, Ester B., Laña, Ruby D. and Sasota, Randy S. (2010) Performance Of Philippine High
Schools With Special Curriculum In The 2008 Trends In Interntional Mathematics And
Science Study (Timss-Advanced). 11th National Convention on Statistics (NCS) EDSA
Shangri-La Hotel October 4-5, 2010
Redondo, J. (2002) The Task-Based Approach to English Language Teaching. Educators
Manual, Vol. 21, N0.11. Special Edition.Quezon City, Philippines: SIBS Publishing
House.