FEd Theses and Dissertations
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Theses and dissertations by graduate students from the Faculty of Education.
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ItemMetacognitive Problem Solving: Effects on Students’ Metacognition and Mathematical Academic Performance, Self-Efficacy, and Lifelong Learning Skills( 2026)Problem solving ability is an important skill for 21st century learners. This study examined the effects of the intervention, Metacognitive Mathematical Problem Solving, on students’ metacognition, mathematical academic performance, self- efficacy, and lifelong learning skills. An interrelationship among these variables was further studied and explored. A total of 277 students were involved in the study. Mathematics academic performance was measured using a researcher-made instrument named, Mathematical Achievement Test Questionnaire. Students’ metacognition, self-efficacy, and lifelong learning skills were assessed using adopted and modified instruments namely the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory, General Self-Efficacy Scale, and Lifelong Learning Inventory – all using a 5-point Likert scale. Using t-test, metacognitive components under knowledge of cognition such as declarative, procedural, and conditional all have significant results at p < 0.05. In addition, planning and evaluation under regulation of cognition had similar statistically significant outcomes. However, no significant improvement was shown among the sub-components, comprehension monitoring, information management strategies, and debugging strategies. In addition, the intervention resulted to an increase in students’ mean gain in terms of academic performance and self-efficacy. The analysis of variance was used to confirm mean differences between groups. Analysis of covariance was employed to adjust for baseline differences between groups using the pretest scores as covariates. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was utilized to determine the interrelationships of metacognition, mathematical academic performance, self-efficacy, and lifelong learning. Results showed significant negative direct effect of planning to students’ academic performance. On the other hand, both declarative knowledge and evaluation did not have direct significant effect to academic performance. However, both had a negative indirect effect to academic performance through lifelong learning skills. This means that while declarative knowledge and evaluation contributed to the development of lifelong learning, the mediating pathway resulted in lower academic performance. Furthermore, metacognition and general self-efficacy suggest a strong positive covariance. Students who demonstrated higher levels of metacognition exhibit stronger self-efficacy, suggesting a meaningful and positive relationship between the two latent constructs. Metacognitive learning approach in problem solving needs to be incorporated in the everyday teaching-learning activities of the students. Allowing students to create own reflection in their own thinking processes can help them become good problem solvers. This is one objective of the K to 12 2012 Mathematics Curriculum Guide in the Philippines. This interplay between metacognition and problem solving can lead to an innovative or an enhanced educational framework or model that will help redesign a curriculum that focuses not only in the improvement of students’ academic performance, but as well as the enhancement of self-efficacy and lifelong learning skills.
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ItemToward a Future-Oriented Physics Instructional Design (FOP-ID) for Senior High School: Integrating Best Practices, ICT, Opportunities, and Challenges( 2026)This study employed a convergent mixed-methods approach to develop a Future-Oriented Physics Instructional Design (FOP-ID) for Senior High School (SHS) by integrating best practices, ICT, and opportunities and challenges in physics education. Quantitative data were gathered through a survey with 50 SHS physics teachers, while qualitative data were collected through key informant and in-depth interviews with selected SHS teachers, higher education professors, and industry employers. Quantitative findings revealed that lecture-based, collaborative, and inquiry- based strategies remain the most commonly used instructional approaches, with ICT tools such as videos, simulations, and learning management systems frequently employed to enhance engagement and conceptual understanding. Thematic analysis of qualitative data further demonstrated that effective practices are characterized by experiential learning, conceptual scaffolding, and real-world relevance, although the adoption of progressive approaches such as project-based and flipped learning remains limited due to time, resource, and training constraints. Qualitative findings also showed both systemic and pedagogical opportunities, including interdisciplinary learning, technology-enhanced instruction, and personalized learning pathways. These are paired with persistent challenges such as rigid curricula, insufficient professional development, inconsistent digital access, and gaps in learners’ foundational skills. Stakeholders across all groups emphasized core future-oriented skills such as critical thinking, inquiry, adaptability, resilience, digital fluency, and problem-solving. They also identified emerging skills, including research competence, futures literacy, interdisciplinary thinking, systems thinking, and regulatory awareness, which are not yet explicitly reflected in current national or international skills frameworks. In response to these findings, the FOP-ID was developed as a learner-centered, inquiry-driven, technology-enabled, and industry-informed instructional framework anchored on TPACK, constructivism, inclusive education, and future- oriented instruction. Expert validation affirmed the design’s pedagogical coherence, contextual flexibility, and relevance for preparing future-ready SHS learners.
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ItemSTEM Students' Direct and Deferred Conceptual Understanding and Self-efficacy Using the Inverted Learning Approach in Biology: An Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Study( 2023)This study employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. It explored how an inverted learning approach affected the direct and deferred conceptual understanding, as well as self-efficacy of STEM students enrolled in a biology course. It also sought to understand the experiences of students who were taught using the Inverted Learning Approach (ILA). A total of 225 STEM students were involved in the study. Findings revealed that students who were exposed to ILA had higher normalized gains in both posttest and retention test scores than those who were taught using the expository online teaching (EOT). Likewise, there was also a significant difference on the self-efficacy level between ILA and EOT groups. It therefore showed that ILA improved students' direct and deferred conceptual understanding, and self efficacy levels than their counterparts. Reflexive thematic analysis was applied to elucidate the qualitative information gathered. Four (4) themes emerged from the researcher's engagement with the participants exposed to ILA, which include: 1) Developing into active and reflective learners; 2) Enabling students to engage and collaborate more freely; 3) Establishing a flexible, seamless, and nonpressuring space for learning; and, 4) Becoming disciplined and responsible for one’s own learning. Even though there was a significant increment in the levels of direct and deferred conceptual understanding and self-efficacy among students taught using ILA, it was indicated that conceptual understanding is not highly related or associated with self-efficacy. Given the paucity of research in this area, further study is still needed to elucidate the complex relationships between self-efficacy, and direct and deferred conceptual understanding.
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ItemThe Process of Redemption: Becoming Students and Constructing Support Infrastructure in Prison Distance Education( 2025)This study explored how Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs) in the Philippines reconstruct themselves as students through participation in education, and how Distance Education (DE) institutions can scaffold that process. Grounded in Symbolic Interactionism and conducted through grounded theory methodology, the inquiry illuminated the redemptive arc by which incarcerated individuals initiate change, internalize learning under constraint, and perform studenthood as a sustained act of redemption. Findings revealed that becoming a student in prison is not a linear transition but a layered negotiation of identity, motivation, and constraint. The emergent theory, Redemption as Self-Reconstruction through Education, showed that redemption unfolds in three phases: Initiation of Redemption, Internalizing Education Amidst Prison Constraints, and Becoming and Being a Student as Redemption in Action. These phases were enacted within contextual layers of pre-incarceration history, the realities of incarceration, and the prison environment. Central to this process was the support infrastructure for prison education, comprised of seven supports: facilitating entry through administrative assistance, structuring time to reinforce motivation, tailoring study practices within a restricted system, drawing strength from redemption-oriented goals, sustaining learning engagement, having educational and skill-building activities, and experiencing the prison as a livable and enabling environment. The study contributes to the field of Distance Education by theorizing how learning becomes both a site of identity reconstruction and a medium of redemption within custodial settings. It highlights the need for ODeL institutions and correctional systems to design supports not as external add-ons but as integral to the very architecture of learning inside. The research affirms that education in prison is more than skill acquisition; it is a performance of selfhood. In the staged conditions of incarceration, PDLs do not simply rehearse compliance; they enact new scripts of possibility. In this light, Distance Education emerges as both a classroom and a stage, where the redemptive performance of becoming a student is sustained, even behind prison walls.
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ItemThe Relationship Between the Perceived Digital Competency and Critical Thinking Instructional Skills of Social Studies Teachers in the Philippine Public Senior High Schools( 2026)This study investigated whether senior high school Social Studies teachers’ perceived digital competencies predict their perceived critical thinking instructional skills. Conducted in the Schools Division of Region 3, Philippines, the study employed a predictive-correlational research design. A total of 160 senior high school Social Studies teachers from across the four congressional districts of the Schools Division of Region 3 participated, selected through district quota sampling with eligibility-based screening. Data were collected using a validated survey instrument measuring five domains of digital competencies (based on DigComp 2.2) and five dimensions of critical thinking instructional skills. Findings revealed that senior high school Social Studies teachers demonstrated high levels of perceived digital competencies across all domains and very high competence in implementing critical thinking instructional skills. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that perceived digital competencies, when combined, significantly predict critical thinking instructional skills, explaining 42% of the variance (R2 = 0.42). These findings are particularly relevant to Social Studies education, wherein teachers are uniquely positioned to integrate digital tools in facilitating evidence-based discussions, critical inquiry, and the analysis of complex social, political, and economic issues. Among the domains, problem-solving retained the largest unique predictive contribution in the simultaneous regression model (B = 0.329, p = 0.006). The non-significance of the remaining four domains in the simultaneous model should be interpreted cautiously, as it likely reflects the substantial shared variance among the five domains — a consequence of multicollinearity — rather than true pedagogical irrelevance. These findings suggest that digital competency, considered collectively, is a meaningful predictor of critical thinking instructional skills, and that problem-solving most distinctively contributes to this relationship among the five domains. The study concludes that digital competence, particularly problem-solving, is integral to enhancing critical thinking pedagogy in Social Studies. These findings provide empirical support for targeted professional development initiatives that strengthen senior high school Social Studies teachers’ problem-solving skills and promote the pedagogical integration of digital technologies to improve higher-order thinking instruction.