CHALLENGES OF GRADE ONE TEACHERS IN DEVELOPING PUPIL’S COMPETENCE AND SOCIAL SKILLS IN SELECTED SCHOOLS IN CALOOCAN NORTH DISTRICT IV

Title :                 CHALLENGES OF GRADE ONE TEACHERS IN

DEVELOPING PUPIL’S COMPETENCE AND SOCIAL

SKILLS IN SELECTED SCHOOLS IN CALOOCAN NORTH

DISTRICT IV

Researcher :     RACHEL ANN A. GOMEZ  

Degree :            Master of Arts in Teaching Early Grades                        

Adviser :            ROSARIO C. DE OCERA, Ed.D

School :             University of Caloocan City

Year :                 March, 2018

ABSTRACT

"Education for All" (EFA) encapsulates the vision, mission, and goals of the Department of Education, which basically means catering to all students fairly, whatever their status in life is and whatever difficulties and challenges they may pose to teachers may be. But EFA, in itself, is not an assurance that one hundred percent of children who went to school will actually finish armed with quality education. Not even the new curriculum, otherwise known as the K+12 curriculum, could assure that the students would really be knowledgeable, since it is really just implemented so that the country's education system will be at par with that of other countries. The issue is with the educators themselves lacking in the foundation, discipline, and training needed to really encourage children to learn, a problem prevalent among teachers teaching Grade One pupils in Caloocan North District IV.

To assess the challenges encountered by Grade One teachers in developing their pupils' competence and social skills, the researcher employed the evaluation and descriptive-normative survey methods of research in seeking the responses of 65 teachers teaching Grade One pupils in selected schools in Caloocan North District IV, namely Bagumbong Elementary School, Bagbaguin Elementary School, Caybiga Elementary School, Llano Elementary School, Deparo Elementary School, and Sampaguita Elementary School. Afterwards, the researcher measured and gauged the gathered data using the following statistical tools: frequency, percentage, and weighted mean.

Based on the data generated by the surveys and interviews of the respondents, the researcher found out that majority of teachers teaching Grade One pupils in Caloocan North District IV are in the middle ages, but are new in the service. Notably, however, there is a small number that are almost retirable already. Most Grade One teachers are married. While all are College Graduates and some even progressed to having Masters’ Degrees, only a few actually specialize in Early Childhood education. Generally, developing the learning competencies of Grade One pupils in Caloocan North District IV sometimes pose challenges to teachers, commonly in the areas of listening, speaking, reading, and social skills. Writing is usually seldom a problem area, although there are some who say it always challenges them. There are also some teachers who say reading, listening, and social skills of Grade One pupils are hard to develop, but it is also worthy of note that there are a small number who said that developing the writing and reading competencies of the pupils has never been a problem to them. Grade One teachers adequately employ measures to improve, but more knowledge and skills advancement is needed to be able to really master the needed "work-arounds" in every situation.

From the results of the study, the researcher thus recommends the hiring of more teachers who have a background in Early Childhood Development to teach Grade  One pupils in North Caloocan District IV.  For those who are already in the roster of Grade One teachers but do not have Early Childhood specializations yet, it is recommended that the authorities come up with seminars and trainings for them so they will better understand what the pupils need and come up with better measures to enhance their learning. Continual training, studies, and evaluations of teachers teaching Grade One pupils in Caloocan North District IV is recommended to minimize the occurrences of all the challenges they encounter in developing the learning competencies of their pupils, since it is always best that they address all of the problems. These are the bases of the matrix of the training program the researcher has developed for teachers teaching Grade One pupils in Caloocan North District IV