CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents the review of related literature and related studies regarding

the causes of why students exhibit poor performance in the educational setting and why

they acquire insufficient content knowledge. More studies that focus on the implementation

of SIM in different subject areas written by recognized experts, both of which have

significant relation to the problem under investigation, are also provided. This chapter is

intended as a resource material wherein different related studies and existing body of

knowledge surrounding the research topic have been reviewed and compiled to

supplement and add information to the researchers’ study.

Related Literature

Poor Performance in the Educational Setting

Present education has shifted from a teacher-centered environment to a

student/learner-centered environment. As teachers, having students understand the

nature of science as composed of interrelated concepts rather than broken pieces of

information is one of the goals in science education (Keiler, 2018). The main goal of

teachers is to make their students understand what they are studying and not just

superficially memorize facts and information. Research shows that when information is

superficially memorized it is easily forgotten. On the contrary, when something is

understood, it is not forgotten easily and it can be transferred to other situations (Freeman,

2013).

Strategy instruction is a powerful student-centered approach to teaching that is

backed by years of quality research (Luke, 2006). In addition, Luke stated that strategic
approaches to learning new concepts and skills are often what separate good learners

from poor ones. Strategies help teachers fine-tune their teaching to improve student

achievement.

Children need active, experiential learning experiences in meaningful contexts to

develop complex thinking skills and problem solving (Casil, 2009). Students tend to have

better memory retention of lessons taken when they are facilitated through relevant

experiences that would explain basic principles.

Effective method of teaching is one that influences students to get involved in the

process actively, and eliminate the feeling of boredom inside the classroom (Coraje, 2009).

Therefore, it is in the power of the teacher to design classroom activities as more

meaningful as possible by situating them in an authentic and relevant context— one that

is typically used in real life.

Curricula and instruction are changing in schools today. They are attempting to

become more student-centered than teacher-centered, to connect the school to real-life

situations, and to focus on understanding and thinking rather than on memorization, drill

and practice (Garrett, 2008). Learning environments that encourage students to be active

learners, to collaborate with other students, and to use meaningful tasks to introduce

lessons are the three principles which have been widely recognized as the basis on how

learning environments should be designed. And in order to do so, teachers must gradually

fade their assistance and instead allow the students to independently take responsibility

on their learning tasks. However, one major issue in schools and other learning

environments is that different people learn in different rates and have different needs.

(Darling-Hammond, et al., 2019).The fact that school programs have set a fixed amount
of learning content in a certain amount of time makes this matter worse. It all comes down,

then, to the students’ capacity to exert their own efforts since teachers cannot do it for all

the students. Factors like these prompted the need to use models that would hasten

students learning performance with moderate assistance from teachers.

The Why and How: Acquiring Insufficient Content Knowledge

For more than a hundred years, psychologists have developed and evaluated the

efficacy of teaching-learning techniques. However, some of these effective techniques

are not being utilized as often as they should be since most teachers simply are not aware

of them and in effect, so do the students. Moreover, there are actually learning techniques

that are popular and often used but are apparently ineffective. One underlying reason for

these gaps in the educational setting is that because of the presence of numerous

instruction techniques, it is challenging for educators to sift through and conduct relevant

research in each one of them in order to decide which ones show a promise of efficacy

and feasibility (Dunlosky, et al., 2013).

Moreover, teacher-student interaction is very important in school as it aids student

success. The interaction between teacher and student is essentially the fundamental

basis for teaching. A good teacher student relationship may be even more valuable for

students with behavior and learning challenges (Blazar, Kraft, 2016). Most students learn

best in the environment where they are able to freely express their feeling and this could

be a situation when they are free with the teacher. Knoell (2012) agreed that learning

occurs best in an environment that contains positive interpersonal relationships and

interactions and in which learner feel appreciated, acknowledged, respected and

admired. Students who enjoy a close and supportive relationship with a teacher are more
engaged and work harder in the classroom, persistence in the face of difficulties and cope

better with stress (Hughes and Kwok, 2007).

Effective teachers do not ignore complex concepts or topics in the curriculum,

rather he or she will do everything possible as an effective teacher to ensure that such

concepts are meaningful to the students.

To sum it all up, learning is generally defined as the ability to use resources in

finding, evaluating, and applying information, and not committing to a set of facts alone.

However, due to the fact that the curriculum is packed with so much content, teachers

resort to the passive transfer of information, which in turn causes the students to assign

facts to memory. In addition, a packed curriculum could also leave little time for students

to acquire a deep understanding of the subject or develop life-long skills, such as critical

thinking and problem solving. Hence, there is a need to decongest the curriculum and

reduce the amount of factual information, which students are expected to memorize.

(Lujan, DiCarlo, 2006). This could be achieved through educational reforms and the

implementation of new and effected learning tools or strategies that arouses the students’

interest to become active, independent, and problem solvers.

Strategic Intervention Material (SIM)

Teachers should make strategic instructional materials designed to transform weak

or passive learners into students who know how to learn and apply their knowledge and

skills actively across various learning environments. Strategic Intervention Material or

more commonly known as SIM in Philippine Education is an instructional material

intended to re-teach lessons and concepts which are considered as least mastered by

students. Its main goal is parallel to that of remedial classes. SIMs are given to learners
to aid them in mastering a competency-based skill which they were not able to

successfully develop during the conventional classroom teaching with little teacher

supervision and assistance (Dacumos, 2016).

Basically, a Strategic Intervention Material (SIM) has five basic parts; namely,

Guide card, Activity card, Assessment card, Enrichment card, Reference card, and

Answer Key Card. The Guide card presents the big picture or the generalized overview

of the lesson, presents the skills that are needed to be focused on, engages the learner’s

interest, and leads the learner towards the performance of the task/s. The Activity card,

which is the heart of the SIM, defines the task that the learner should undertake in order

to develop a skill. The task is competency-oriented and can be an individual or a group

work. The purpose of the activity card is to provide enough practices for the learner so he

can automatically accomplish and perform the skill. Activities must be adopted to the

learner’s style. And in order to test whether the activities were effective in teaching the

concept or not, the Assessment card is made. It helps the learners to measure and keep

track of his/her level of mastery of the skill upon completing the activities. The result from

the assessment will identify the skill/s that the learner may need to further enhance. To

give the learner deeper and additional learning, more exercises for further application of

knowledge or skill are in the Enrichment card. Resources that the learner may refer to

for further reading are provided in the Reference card. And lastly, the Answer Key card

allows the learner to check his/her answers to the various activities that have been

undertaken.

Few guidelines must be followed to come up with the most effective SIM such as,

(1) it must be easy to produce, (2) time allotment for the implementation of the SIM must
be considered (is it good for one or more periods?), (3) design for the SIM must be

original, and (4) SIM must be intended for individualized and contextualized instruction.

Strategic Instruction Model (SIM)

The Strategic Instruction Model (SIM), introduced by Deshler and Schumaker and

further developed by several researchers at the University of Kansas, is an instructional

system designed to help students with learning disabilities succeed in their general

education courses (Bremmer, et al, 2002). One component of this model, Learning

Strategies Curriculum or Student-focused Interventions is, in some ways, similar with

the Philippine Education’s Strategic Intervention Material which happen to have the same

acronym (SIM). This component is designed to provide the skills and strategies that

students need to learn the content. SIM includes curricular materials revised to

accommodate different learning styles, routines for teachers to help them meet the needs

of diverse learners, and strategies for students. However, unlike the Philippine’s SIM with

5 basic components, the USA’s SIM contain learning strategies related to six areas:

reading, storing and remembering information, expressing information, demonstrating

competence, social interaction, and mathematics.

Related Studies

Poor Performance in the Educational Setting

Education is a vital aspect among humans that not only inculcates essential skills,

abilities, and knowledge, but also serves as an avenue that leads to growth and progress

of each individual and the society as a whole. This is made possible through learning and

achieving an effective academic performance (Kapur, 2017). Hence, academic

performance have caused a research drive in the hearts of educators, administrators,

psychologists, policy makers, parents, and social workers in their attempts to investigate

what factors determine the academic outcomes of learners (Aremu & Sokan, 2003).

As of the recent, studies have shown that learning outcomes, which include the

academic performance and achievement of the leaners, are determined by many factors.

A study conducted by Kapur in 2018 entitled “Factors Influencing the Students’ Academic

Performance in India” provided a list of factors that affect student performance. Results

were categorized into two; within-school and outside-school factors. Within the school

environment, factors mainly include teacher traits (professionalism, knowledge of the

subject matter, skills, and abilities), provision of the library facilities, laboratory,

appropriate teaching-learning processes and instructional strategies, effective

communication among school individuals, formation of good terms and conditions, usage

of technology, and evaluation methods. Furthermore, the class activities, homework

assignments, and tests are regarded as aspects that determine or evaluate the

understanding of the students in a particular lesson. Meanwhile, the factors outside the

school include the home environment of the learners, financial position of their respective

families, provisions of tuitions and assistance at home, counseling and guidance,

occurrence of conflicts or disputes, employment opportunities, household chores, needs

and requirements of other family members, and violent or criminal acts, among many

others. The study concluded that it is vital for the students to be motivated and sincere

towards their studies, the home environmental conditions must be peaceful and favorable

for their sake, and teachers must remain to be approachable so that they could provide

guidance or counsel to the students and they must also implement effective and

appropriate instructional strategies.

 In addition, another study conducted by Engin-Demir in 2009 also added some

factors that influence student performance in school. According to them, individual

characteristics such as attitude and perceptions towards school environment,

involvement in class activity and the level of motivation have also been found to have a

paramount impact on academic achievement. This shows amalgamation of different

factors on a child’s academic performance that need to be taken care of by all the

stakeholders for good academic achievement.

The Why and How: Acquiring Insufficient Content Knowledge

The reason why students acquire insufficient content knowledge can be traced back

to the teacher, the prime mover of the education wheel. According Reyes (2008), a tree

bears good fruit if its roots are embedded in fertile ground with lots of sunshine and water.

This statement greatly reflects teachers who are not competent enough in their field of

specialization and those who lack knowledge and mastery in teaching the subject matter

to their students. This is the main reason why we are also constantly producing mediocre

and incompetent graduates. On the other hand, having good quality educators is essential

for the successful implementation of the K-12 Curriculum. While the K-12 program is

necessary to improve quality education, it is imperative that we build more classrooms

and get good teachers. Curriculum implementation failure is a common problem

experienced by teachers when they lack the knowledge and skills to teach the subject

matter (Singh, 2013). Teachers will feel threatened by the prospect of change in the

curriculum if they are inadequately prepared for it. Several studies have confirmed that

when teacher training is overlooked or is ineffective, this would result in the

implementation failure of the curriculum.

Strategic Intervention Material (SIM)

A study conducted by Ma. Cristina G. Ballesteros, Teacher-III of Magallanes

National High School, Magallanes, Agusan del Norte, entitled, “A Study on the

Effectiveness of Strategic Intervention Material (Accel The Great: The Law of Acceleration

Traveler)” showed that there is a development in the academic performance in Physics

of high school pupils after using strategic intervention material. It was noted that pupils

are able to remember the lessons over a longer period of time after using the SIMs.

A joint study published in the International Journal of Learning, Teaching and

Educational Research, Vol 2, No. 1, pp. 91-123, February, 2014 by Edwin I. Salviejo,

Science Department, Makati High School, 1214 Makati City, Philippines; Fidela Q.

Aranes, Chemistry Department, College of Science, Technological University of the

Philippines, 1000 Manila, Philippines; and Allen A. Espinosa, Faculty of Science,

Technology and Mathematics, College of Teacher Development, Philippine Normal

University, 1000 Manila, Philippines, also showed the effectiveness of SIM in enhancing

the teaching-learning process. The study entitled, “Strategic Intervention Material-Based

Instruction, Learning Approach and Students’ Performance in Chemistry,” gave the

following conclusions: (1) Most of the students adopted the deep learners’ approach after

the exposure to the SIM – BI. Some of the surface learners adopted the deep learners’

approach while a few deep learners adopted the surface learners’ approach. The SIM –

BI has capability of influencing the learning approach of the students in Chemistry; (2)

The use of the Strategic Intervention Material–Based Instruction (SIM–BI) enhanced the

performance of students in Chemistry regardless of learning approach adopted; (3) The

deep and surface learners performed equally well after exposure to Strategic Intervention
Material–Based Instruction (SIM–BI); and (4) Deep and surface learners have a positive

perception on the use of Strategic Intervention Material (SIM. Students find it enjoyable,

interesting and contributing positive attitude towards Chemistry.

Furthermore, a study conducted by Escoreal (2012) on the SIM tool to reduce least

mastered skills in Grade 4, revealed that SIM provides baseline information and should

be implemented to avoid marginalization of pupils. Her study also indicated that there is

a significant reduction in the pupil’s mean number of least mastered skills after SIM

implementation. Soberano (2009) also mentioned that SIMs were effective in mastering

the competency based skills in math based on the mean gain scores in the post tests of

the experimental and control groups. As per result, higher mean was observed from the

experimental group after the presentation of the intervention materials. This suggested

that there was significance difference between their mean scores in the post test in favor

of the experimental group. Barredo (2013) stressed, in her study entitled “Evaluating the

Effectiveness of Using Strategic Intervention Material in Improving the Academic

Performance in Science”, that Strategic Intervention Materials were effective in mastering

the competency based-skills in science based on the mean gain scores in the posttest of

the experimental and control groups. Recent studies revealed that developing SIMs can

be very adequate in content accuracy, clarity, and appropriateness in presenting the

Mathematics concepts (Dedace, 2014). SIM can also be very acceptable, applicable, and

useful to the potential users. Regarding the use of SIM in Mathematics IV for the fourth

year students, Soriano (2012) revealed that the students easily mastered the least

learned topics. Furthermore, Blalock (2010) described SIM as a competency-based

academic support approach that can help students in upper elementary, middle high

school, and higher education become independent and successful learner.

SIM has been an effective remedial-teaching tool in some elementary and

secondary schools in the Philippines where it has been used. There is a great possibility

that this may also be as effective in the researcher’s locality.

Synthesis

Based on the abovementioned literature and related studies, there is clearly a need

to focus on the least mastered topics of learners and the possible causes. Consequently,

instructional tools such as Strategic Intervention Materials are developed in order to

remedy the said problem in the education scene. From the results of the studies that

developed and implemented SIM, it was revealed that it indeed improved the learners’

conceptual understanding, thereby also positively affecting their performance in the least

mastered topic. SIM is a flexible tool in that the teacher is free to design and come up with

relevant, meaningful, and fun activities to be incorporated inside it that could help learners

remember better and adequately learn concepts which are difficult for them to understand.

This study has its own strengths, weaknesses, similarities, and differences from the

studies mentioned above. One of its strengths and at the same time a unique trait is that

is aims to develop a Strategic Intervention Material (SIM) focused on the least mastered

topic in Grade 8 Biology. Previous studies on SIM mostly focused on Physics, Chemistry,

Mathematics, and Social Science, but so far, few to none have been published about

developing and implementing SIM for Biology. The researcher also plans to develop the

SIM in a way that it is contextualized so that learners who will use it could better relate and

connect to the lesson.

 SIM has been included in contests during Science Fair as imposed by the

Department of Education, however it is not widely known and used in the Philippines. This

tool is also alien to outside countries, and so through this study, the researcher endeavors

to spread the word about SIM and its potential role in diminishing the disappointing

performance of learners in basic education.