Chapter 3

Research Design and Methodology

This chapter presents the following: (1) Purpose of the

Study and Research Design, (2) Method, and (3) Statistical

Data Analysis Procedure.

Part One, Purpose of the Study and Research Design,

restates the purpose of the study and describes the research

design of the study.

Part two, Method, describes the participants, the data

to be gathered and the research procedures to be employed in

the study.

Part three, Statistical Data Analysis Procedure,

enumerates the statistical tools used in the analysis and

inferential data.

Purpose of the Study and Research Design

The purpose of the study was to find out the effect of

in the implementation of blended and constructive learning

in Tuguegarao West Central School.

This study employed the quasi-experimental method

involving the Solomon four equivalent control group

designed. This design was appropriate because there was non-

random selection of learners to the groups. Secondary school

 43

exist as intact groups of teachers and parents do not

normally allow the classes to be dismantled and

reconstituted for research purposes.

This design has advantage over others since it controls

the major threats to internal validity except those

associated with interaction and instrumentation (Fraenkel &

Wallen, cited in Lozada, 2012). In this study, no major

event was observed in the secondary learners to introduce

the threat of interaction. The conditions under which the

instruments were administered were kept as similar as

possible across the groupings in order to control

instrumentation and selection.

The pupils were randomly assigned to the control and

treatment groups to control for selection and interaction.

Where O1 and O3 were pre-tests; O2, O4, 05, 06 were the post-

tests; X was the treatment where secondary learners were

taught using blended learning and constructive learning

approaches. The dotted line implies the involvement of

intact groups.

Group I was the experimental group which received the

pre-test, the treatment X, and the post-test. Group II was

the control group, which received a pre-test followed by the

control condition and then the post-test. Group III received

the treatment X and post-test with non-pretest. Group IV

 44

received the post-test only since it was a control group.

Group I and III were taught using blended learning approach

while Group II and IV were taught using constructive

learning approach. The research design is illustrated in

Figure 2.

Group I O1 X O2
Experimental Group
Group II O3 - O4
Control Group

Group III X O5
Experimental Group
Group IV - O6
Control Group

The diagram shows that O1 and O3 are the observation

results in the administration of pretest of both

experimental and control groups in the third grading period.

This was done before the conduct of the experiment. It

further shows that O2, O4, O5, and O6 were the observation

results in the posttest of the four groups using the same

validated 50-item researcher-made test but arranged in

different order. The results were recorded, tabulated and

analyzed using appropriate statistical tools.

 45

Methods

Participants

The participants in the study were randomly selected

from the four sections of grade 7 and parents. The number of

grade 7 learners and parents in each group is shown below.

Table 1

Distribution of Groupings, Treatment Assignments, and

Sample Size

Groupings Treatment Assignments Sample Size

Group 1 Experimental Group 5

Group 2 Control Group 5
Group 3 Experimental Group with Non-Pretest 5
Group 4 Control Group with Non-Pretest 5

Therefore, the sample size in this research is 20 grade

7 pupils. Fraenkel and Wallen (cited in Lozada, 2012)

recommended at least 20 students per group. Thus, this

number is adequate for the study.

Data Gathering Instruments

The researcher prepared the Social Studies performance

test prior to the application of the treatments. The test

 46

constructed was fifty (50) items which was submitted to the

panel for validation. Their suggestions as well as

recommendations for the improvement of the instrument were

incorporated and the revision of the same instrument.

After the validity and reliability of the instrument

are established, the pretest was set prior to the

implementation of the treatment. Then after the treatment

was applied, the same researcher-made test was given during

the posttest; however the items or topics in the test were

modified but the same competency was measured.

To interpret the result, the scale of means was

arbitrarily used.

Scale Description
40.01 – 50.00 Very High
30.01 – 40.00 High
20.01 – 30.00 Fair
10.01 – 20.00 Low
0.00 – 10.00 Very Low

Data Gathering Procedures

There were three phases conducted by the researcher in

this study: the pre-investigation phase, the investigation

proper period, and the post investigation phase.

The Pre-Investigation or Pre-Experiment Phase. The

steps undertaken during this period of the study included:

 47

First, the preparation of the ten (10) sets of learning

plans in Reading and Writing Skills used in the conduct of

this study. The researcher identified and listed down the

competencies included within the study period of the

experiment which was within the second semester (third

grading) period of the school year 2022-2023. After the

listing of competencies, the researcher apportioned these

within the experiment period and corresponding learning

plans were prepared both for the experimental groups and

control groups. The competencies were taken from the Reading

and Writing Skills Curriculum. For the experimental groups,

the blended learning approach was used in the lessons while

the constructive learning approach was used for the control

group. After the learning plans were made, they were

submitted to the department head to make sure that they are

appropriate for the conduct of the investigation.

The second step in this phase of the study was the

construction of the research instruments (pre-tests and

posttests) to establish a baseline data for the

participants’ English performance. A table of specification

was prepared by the researcher prior to the writing of test

items for Social Studies Performance Test so that all the

competencies were represented in the entire test. The

 48

instruments were reviewed and validated by the members of

the panel to ascertain the validity of the test.

The investigation/experimentation stage. At this phase

of the study, the researcher sought permission from the

Secondary School Principal of Tuguegarao West Central School

to allow her to conduct the study and use the grade 7

secondary learners enrolled in the school year 2022-2023 as

participants of the study. Once permission was approved, the

researcher then did the following: (1) The researcher

prepared the four (4) rolled papers for random selection.

The four sections were selected and assigned to the

experimental groups (Gr1 & (Gr3) and to the control groups

(Gr2 & Gr4). This was done by picking up the rolled paper

with names of the four sections. The first section (ARIES)

picked was assigned as the experimental group which received

the pretest, the treatment X and the posttest. The second

section (TAURUS) picked was the control group which received

the pretest followed by the control condition and then the

posttest. The third section (VIRGO) picked receives the

treatment X and posttest with non-pretest. The fourth

section (GEMINI) picked received the posttest only since it

was the control group.

 49

The four groups were exposed to the same classroom

condition and taught by the same teacher except that the

experimental group (Group I and III) was taught using

blended learning approach while the control group (Group II

and IV) was taught using the constructive learning approach.

During the conduct of the treatment, the researcher

observed the following procedures: (1) The researcher

administered the pretest to the assigned groups every week.

(2) The researcher gave a short lecture how the high school

students (experimental group) will learn the lesson using

the Blended Learning Approach. (3) Conducted also a lecture

in the other group (control group) how they will learn the

lesson using the Constructive Learning Approach. (4) The

giving of the posttests to the selected grade 7 learners was

done after the treatment was completed every week. This was

the same test administered during the pretest but the items

in the test were modified but the same competency was

measured.

The Post-Experiment Period. At the end of the

experiment, the following were done by the researcher: The

instruments were retrieved, checked and were recorded. These

were submitted to her statistician to be computed and

analyzed. Both the pretest and posttest results were used

 50

for processing using the Statistical Package for the Social

Science (SPSS) software. The differences in the pretest and

posttest results were determined by submitting the data to

statistical analyses using inferential statistical tools to

answer the statement of the problem and the hypotheses

advanced in this study. The analyses of the data were places

in tabular form and textual presentation of the analysis and

interpretation.

Statistical Data Analysis Procedure

The data gathered from the study were analyzed using

the appropriate statistical procedures.

Mean. This was used to describe the level of Social

Studies performance both in the pretest and posttest of the

experimental and control group.

Standard Deviation. This test was used to determine the

homogeneity as well as heterogeneity of the scores obtained

by the high school students in the Social Studies

performance test.

t-test for dependent samples. This test was used to

determine the effect of the pretest on the posttest of the

experimental group and control group.

t-test for independent samples. This test set at .05

 51

alpha level was used to determine the significant difference

between two compared groups, the pretest results of the

control and experimental groups and the posttest of two

groups.

Analysis of Variance. Set at .05 alpha level, this test

was used to determine the significant difference among the

posttest of experimental group (Gr1) and control group

(Gr2); and experimental group (Gr3) and control group (Gr4)

with non-pretest.

Cohen’s d calculator. This was used to determine the

effect size of the blended learning and constructivist

approaches in the Social Studies performance.