Chapter 3

PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS

These chapter present the analysis and interpretations of

the data gatherings

The study explored on the coping mechanisms of the senior high

school students of Lubuagan National High School during COVID-19

pandemic. The results showed: The common problem of students

implementing the new normal setting were: (1) experienced and

struggles laziness, stress, and difficulty in understanding the

module. (2) The issues associated the disadvantages under the new

normal were lack of support and guidance, increased workload,

unable to interact and not satisfied in learning. (3) The issues

associated encountered by students under the new normal were the

stability of internet connection, having trouble with trying to

focus/concentrate, unable to interact and studying at home is not

ideal. (4) The students coping mechanism addressing the issues

encountered were managing time through prioritize studies, always

take time, doing schoolwork immediately and submitting on time.

Finding a support, finding a place that has a stable internet

connection and adjusting to new environment.

A. Student Under New Normal

 The answer of the participants revolves around the fact that

the Senior High School students under the new normal are feeling

hard to cope up or adjust in the current set-up. Based on the

interview, the Senior High School students of Lubuagan National

High School experienced and struggles laziness, stress, and

difficulty in understanding the module.

This indicate that the distance learning takes a lot of time

to adjust and to adapt to the new normal. In addition, that

students also indicated that they experienced all those struggles

because of the following reasons;

1. Laziness. One of the major causes of laziness under new

normal education is lack of interest and decreased level of

motivation. Most of the SHS in LNHS says that they do not

perceive their house as supportive and they see little value

in their course. Some argue that because of new normal

education, students nowadays are becoming lazy and losing

interest in learning. Educators are no longer around them

for a specific amount of time in the day, thus feeling

little to no pressure to study independently. Because they

hold their own time, many are tempted to waste it on other

less important things instead of using it for studying as

part of self-improvement.
 2. Lack of explanation, they said that it’s really hard to

learn when it comes to modules especially, when explanation

is limited regarding the topic, where we provided to

understand on your own.

3. Lack of source (books, net), the student indicated that

books can help students better understand the topic provided

in the modules but due to a lack of books in their place

it’s really hard to adjust. And one of the sources that help

students these days is the internet because they can able to

search the topic that they didn’t understand. According to

the students there is no internet connection in their area.

So, they need to find a place where internet connection is

stable.

4. Lack of family support because of lack of education and busy

in their works to provide the needs of their children; and

5. Lack of interaction with the teacher and other students. The

student said that studying under new normal is lack of

motivation due to a lack of interpersonal touch between the

students and the teacher due to the fact that their teachers

are came from other places.

According to Denise Pope, a senior lecturer at Stanford GSE

and co-founder of challenge success, students are more stressed

than they were before the pandemic, they have more work, less

engaged in school and other students are strained.

B. Disadvantages studying under the New Normal

The following are disadvantages that answered by the Senior

High School of Lubuagan National High School.

Table 1 Presents the disadvantages under the New Normal

Disadvantages Frequency Percentage

Support and Guidance 38 54.29%

Not satisfied in 2 2.86%

learning

Unable to interact 2 2.86%

with classmates

Increased workload 37 52.86%

Total 79 28.21%

Table 1: disadvantages Under New Normal

Support and guidance. There are 38 out of 70 students who

expressed the disadvantages on studying under the New Normal is

lack of support and guidance.

Most of the answers of the Senior High School are having no one

to explain the content of the module or having no one to be asked

for clarification when doubts and confusions happened. They

cannot understand the introduction of every activities they have,

and the student could not understand the deep words, and due to

lack of instruction of their teacher.

These are the common responses of the participants.

It is very different if we go to school and listen to the

teachers on their discussion rather than answering the modules on

our own. With the presence of the teacher’s students can ask

questions directly and request for more examples for further

elaboration of the lesson. In this modular distance learning, who

will the students ask? Also, their parents don’t even understand

the lessons. Other says that sometimes they get to ask their

teachers through text and messenger in the group chat. But it’s

not really the same as having the physical teacher.

These responses of the participants showed that they

experienced problems in understanding the lessons in the module

and that they need someone to explain to them the lessons that

they have difficulty understanding.

Sensory learning styles is one factor that has so much

influence on the life of a student. Sensory learning style

divided into three sub-types: visual, tactile/kinesthetic and

auditory (Dornyei, 2005; Oxford, 2001). In the following

section, only those learning styles are explained which will be

covered in the research part.

Visual versus verbal. Visual learners prefer to think in

pictures and obtain information through visual means such as

diagrams and videos. In contrast verbal learners gain more

information through verbal explanations (either spoken or

written)(Ldpride,n.d; Felder, 1993).

Auditory learners. Auditory learners gain information

through aural channels such as verbal discussions and listening

to others speech. These learners understand meaning by

concentrating on the pitch, tone and speed of voice. They benefit

from reading text out loud and they may not make use of written

information (Ldpride,n.d.). Kinesthetic or tactile learners: they

like movement and work with touchable objects. They enjoy regular

breaks and move around the room (Oxford, 2001).

Intuitive (random) versus Sensing (sequential) Intuitive

learners prefer information that originates from their

imagination, reflection and internal memory. They think in

futuristic, no-sequential and large-scale ways and enjoy creating

new theories and possibilities. Conversely, sensing learners

prefer information that arises from senses. They think about here

and now and prefer facts to theories. They would like to be

guided and instructed by teachers (Felder, 1993; Oxford, 2001).

 Global versus analytic. Global learners concentrate on the

big picture and follow their instincts or guess the main idea of

a text. They like short answers rather than long explanations. On

the other hand, analytic learners focus on logical analysis and

thinking to tackle problems. They break ideas apart and tend to

place more emphasis on grammar rules (Dornyei, 2005).

Active versus Reflective. Active learners enjoy doing tasks

directly by applying and discussing them with others, while

reflective learners understand and remember information best by

reflecting on it in advance. Active learners prefer to work in

groups, while reflective learners enjoy working alone or in pairs

(Felder, 1993).

Individual versus group preferences. Individual learners

prefer to work and learn independently on their own. On the other

hand, learners with a group preference like to study and learn in

groups (Dornyei, 2005).

It is also evident in the responses of the students that

their difficulty to understand usually roots from their inability

to comprehend the meaning of some difficult words or

terminologies.

Language is one factor that has so much influence on the life of

a student. Language is the only means to communicate freely, so

if students are having issues understanding the language been

used in the academic process it becomes a big challenge to them

and they will eventually start thinking about it. Once this

happens, they become frustrated and stressed up when even they

have communicated and at the long run affects their performance.

A lot of students get frustrated when they don’t understand what

is being taught by the teachers in class. Some also misinterpret

what the teacher said in a different way or meaning. This

frustration leads to students being stressed up because they

wonder how they will pass the course because they hardly get what

the teachers say in class (Essel & Owusu, 2017).

This was evident too in the study of Alvarez (2021) where

students were confused regarding the instructions indicated in

their modules. This may be due to the poor reading comprehension

ability of the students. Regardless of what instruction the

teacher may use, reading comprehension difficulty will be a

hindrance to student’s development (Abbas, 2021).

Increased Workload. There were 37 out of 70 students

expressed that under new normal have more demanding works than

face-to-face classes. More difficulty assignment and quizzes.

Demands of completing all their modules in one week. For the

second quarter of the school year, students are given ten modules
to answer per week. And it is considered a very hard and

stressful.

The following are common responses of the students;

Modular distance learning is hard for them because it takes many

days to answer all the modules. Imagine that they need to answer

all modules in just one week. And it’s too much for them. Some

modules passed have no answers. They just leave other questions

unanswered. Hopes that their teacher will understand.

Essel and Owusu (2017) also claimed that an increase in

class workload stresses up students in the sense that when

students have to do more than they can handle, they turn to get

frustrated and are unable to focus and think straight. Too much

workload can also make student to be stressed in the sense that,

when a student is undergoing so many courses in school and each

of these courses are also demanding, it make the student not have

enough time to handle all these courses to his or her perfection.

And once that happened, the student turns to think so much, and

as a result will be stressed up. And if will have a great effect

on the academic performance of the student.

Not satisfied in learning. There were 2 out of 70 students

answered a difficulties/challenges encountered under the new

normal that they are not satisfied in learning.

 Broadly speaking, there were learning styles of students

that satisfied them and can be categorized into three main types:

cognitive, personality (psychology), and sensory. Cognitive

encompasses analytical/ global, field dependent/field

independent, impulsive/ reflective learning styles, Kolb’s model

of learning styles and Ehrman and Leavers’ construct. Personality

learning styles include extroverted/introverted, random-

intuitive/concrete sequential, and closure-oriented/ open

oriented. Sensory learning styles are divided into three sub-

types: visual, tactile/kinesthetic and auditory (Dornyei, 2005;

Oxford, 2001).

Unable to interact with classmates. There were 2 out of 70

students answered a difficulties/challenges encountered under the

new normal is unable to interact with classmates. In the

interview, the second least answers of the senior high school

student at Lubuagan National High School is they unable to

interact with classmates. The reasons are having no one to

explain the content of the module or having no one to be asked

for clarification when doubts and confusions happened.

Base from the research of kajal Sharna (2020). All students

have their style of learning that explain how they process

information at their best and retain in memory for long. The

other one is the intrapersonal learners. Intrapersonal learners

are those who love to learn alone. These people used to set

challenging individual goals, which aren’t possible. Apart from

external sources, these people are encouraged by internal forces

and can be seen in various fields like small business owners,

entrepreneurs, or sometimes in creative fields. They usually like

to enter fields or industries that allow them to work alone

without any supervision as they don’t like working in teams or

groups.

C. Difficulties/Challenges Encountered under the New Normal

Table 2 presents the difficulties/challenges encountered

under the new normal.

Table 2: Difficulties/Challenges Encountered under the New Normal

Difficulties Frequency Percentage

Internet Connection 59 84.29%

Having trouble tying 41 58.57%

to focus/concentrate

Unable to interact 6 8.57%

with their

classmates

Studying at home is 5 7.14%

not ideal

Total 111 39.64%

 Unstable Internet Connection. There were 59 out of 70

students answered a difficulties/challenges encountered unstable

internet connection under the new normal. Base on the interview

to the Senior High School at Lubuagan National High School the

most of their answers are difficulties in the internet connection

because the cell sites is far away from the village.

Even they are in modular learning they still need internet

connection for instructions/ideas. Since there are activities

that internet connection is needed, most especially when they

conducted their research the reasons are; they need other sources

from the internet. Books that given to them is not enough to

understand the lesson and the activity, because there is the link

at the back of the book or the activity that link help them to

understand more, most especially the science and English subject.

This result supports the claim of Recaña (2020) that online

learning-related difficulties such as phone signal challenges,

internet connection problems, and cost of buying load for data

were the most feasible reasons behind students’ stress and

eventually their suicide in this time of the pandemic.

This is congruent to the poll conducted by an independent

research firm called Options venture corporation by Catalina

Ricci S. Madarang (2021), The unstable internet connection

remains the main problem of teachers, students and parents in

distance learning, according to a recent survey. This case where

the most senior high school students at Lubuagan National High

School experiencing.

Calo et al. (2021) also found out to their research, that

this struggle of the students refers to their inability to

connect to the internet which is caused by having no signal in

their location, no load, no WiFi connection, or no smart phones

at all.

Having trouble with trying to focus/concentrate. There were

41 out of 70 students answered a difficulties/challenges

encountered under the new normal is having trouble with trying to

focus/concentrate in learning because a lot of disturbance at

home.

Most of student stated that, having trouble to focus in

lesson because of lot of distraction at home such as family

members talking too loudly, they play music’s, televisions etc.

that had to make noise that can distract them. According to

Marinel Yoking, she always reminds her family that she has an

activity to do, but in just few minutes they will make noise

again.”

This result supports the health news Written by Stephanie

Booth entitled “Loud Noises Aren’t Just Annoying, They’re Bad for
Your Health”. It’s no coincidence that you crave peace and quiet

when you’re trying to study. If you’re in a loud environment,

“your brain has to filter out loud noise for you to concentrate,”

says Kim. That extra work steals precious energy away from more

important tasks, such as focus and problem-solving.

It also congruent to the article written by Lidiya

Kesarovska (2016) entitled: “ The Science Behind Sound and How It

Impacts Your Focus” Any stress the brain takes on caused from

background noises can result in impaired memory and learning, and

a decrease in higher brain functions will also be seen.

“Having trouble to focus in doing their activity because of

household chores. They told that their parents expecting them to

help household chores such as washing dishes, washing the

laundry, cleaning the house and the back yard and cooking”.

These findings backed the study of Phinney and Haas (2003)

as cited by Essel and Owusu (2017) which found that having

domestic responsibilities and responsibilities related to holding

a job while in school are among the sources of stress for most

students. Domestic responsibilities are the responsibilities the

students have at home such as household chores.

This finding is backed to the research of Rey M. Calo et al.

(2021). The student-participants revealed that because of their

household chores they could not concentrate on answering their

modules. This hindered them from focusing on their modules and

spending more time on their studies.

Studying at home is not ideal. There were 5 out of 70

students answered a difficulties/challenges encountered under the

new normal that studying at home is not ideal. In the interview

studying at home is not ideal is the first least answers of the

senior high school of Lubuagan National High School. The reasons

are they don’t need to wake up early in the morning, prepare

their ba-on. Taking a bath early, they look for part time job and

they do not need to walk how many kilometers to reach the school

in order to learn.

Unable to interact with classmates. There were 6 out of 70

students answered a difficulties/challenges encountered under the

new normal is Unable to interact with classmates. In the

interview, the second least answers of the senior high school

student at Lubuagan National High School is they unable to

interact with classmates. The reasons are interacting with

classmates does not affect their learning.

These are the common responses of the participants. They do

not necessary do the activity with their classmates. Doing their

module with her classmates lead just to be noisy and not

concentrate in their activity. They want to do their module alone

in a silent place in order for her to concentrate and understand

the lesson properly.

Base from the research of kajal Sharna (2020). All students

have their style of learning that explain how they process

information at their best and retain in memory for long. The

other one is the intrapersonal learners. intrapersonal learners

are those who love to learn alone. These people used to set

challenging individual goals, which aren’t possible. Apart from

external sources, these people are encouraged by internal forces

and can be seen in various fields like small business owners,

entrepreneurs, or sometimes in creative fields. They usually like

to enter fields or industries that allow them to work alone

without any supervision as they don’t like working in teams or

groups.

D. Coping mechanism despite difficulties/challenges encountered.

The present study examined the coping mechanism experienced

by the participants of different ages and gender.

Despite the difficulties/challenges encountered in school,

home, community students still have positivity in them and coping

mechanism to overcome these difficulties/challenges that they

have.

Table 4 presents the respondents coping mechanism as to age.

Table 4: Coping Mechanism as to gender

Coping Mechanism Female Male Frequency Percentage

Managing time 26 28 54 77.14%

Finding a support to the 10 10 14.29

parents, teachers,

classmates and peers

Finding a place that has a 10 10 20 28.57%

stable internet connection

Adjusting to new 5 5 7.14%

environment to help them to

focus/concentrate in study

Taking a break 2 2 2.86%

Positive thinking 4 4 5.71%

More effort and patience 7 6 13 18.57%

Pray 2 2 2.86%

Total 110 19.64%

As shown on the table, most of the female of the Lubuagan

National High School learners answered the coping mechanism of

finding a place that has a stable internet connection, and

managing time refers to the way doing schoolwork immediately,

prioritizing studies, always take time to do the schoolwork and

doing household chores. While for the male, they answered the
coping mechanism of managing their time also, refers to the way

prioritizing their studies instead of having fun with friends and

doing schoolwork immediately.

The response of the female and male students showed that

they cope with their difficulties/challenges by finding stable

internet connection and managing time.

Besides the library, the internet is an important source for

information for learning and research. The internet allows

students to broaden their academic experience, access important

information and communicate with others within the academic

community (Tella, 2007).

According to Jones (2002), 86% of university students in

America are Internet users compared to only 59% of the general

American population. The internet provides an array of powerful

tools that may help in transforming the present isolated teacher-

centered and text-book bound classrooms into rich, students

focused, interactive knowledge environment. The Internet was

described as a ‘sea of information’, containing texts which are

not housed between library and bookshop walls and subject areas

span across all fields of knowledge.

Managing one’s time is effective in coping with the

difficulties/challenges under new normal.

 This result is in line with the results of Misra and McKean

(2000, in Young, 2017) recommended that students should develop

time management skills to help reduce the stress of work. When

students have perceived control of their time, they have less

stress. Students can use planners, calendars, reminders and to-do

lists to help manage their time. Students should plan their time

commitments each week and prioritize what needs to be

accomplished. These techniques and skills can help students

manage their time more effectively and help them more control

over their time.

Managing one’s time ineffectively can often be a source of

stress. Individuals can be taught to look at what has to be

accomplished in a day, or a week, and find efficient ways of

working so that they are not constantly backpedaling and thereby

wasting time. Establishing priorities and working to these is an

effective way of managing one’s time. Moreover, almost college

students had the same pattern of encountering related problems

(Gittens, 2007, in Guevarra, 2017)

Least of the female of the Lubuagan National High School

learners answered the coping mechanism of adjusting to new

environment to help them to focus/concentrate in study and

finding a support to the parents, teachers, classmates and peers

while and male, they answered the coping mechanism taking a break
refers to watch funny videos and go out to relax and pray to the

Lord.

The response of the female students showed that they cope

with their difficulties/challenges by adjusting to new

environment to help them to focus/concentrate.

The environment affects students in learning. Several

factors can affect learning ability, including seating, light,

noise, and even color. Students who study in a positive learning

environment have been shown to be more motivated, engaged, and

have a higher overall learning ability.

The process of adjusting to the environment is adaptation

(vedantu.com). This is reinforced by the results ofresearch by

Jingyu Zhang, et al. who found that personality has a significant

effect of adjustment results of Chinese international students in

Germany. In addition, the aspects of self-acceptance and self-

welfare on individual personality have a positive impact on the

ability of individuals to adapt themselves to new environment.

This indicates that a person’s personality profile also tends to

influence his adjustment, especially in dealing with academic

demand at higher education.

Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman scientifically defined

coping as the sum of cognitive and behavioral effort, which are

constantly changing, that aim to handle particular demands,

whether internal or external, that are viewed as demanding

(Guevarra & Cimanes, 2017).

The second least answers of the senior high school female

student at Lubuagan National High School is finding support.

According to the study of Guevarra and Cimanes (2017) where

students major coping strategy is social support. Social support

refers to getting advice from others, talking to someone with

similar experience, discussing feelings, getting sympathy, or

talking someone how you feel. Students feel that their feelings

towards the uncomfortable situation or the problem are valid when

they feel that they are heard.

Kwaah and Essilfie (2017) also claimed that getting

emotional support from friends and family is an effective way of

coping with student’s stress. Since student’s life is stressful

in its nature, students need the understanding and sympathy of

their friends and family especially when they are experiencing

great pressure from their academic workload.

In connection with coping strategies, differences have also

been found to exist between males and females. It was revealed

that females utilize social support and assistance seeking

behaviour as a coping approach. However, it was discovered that

males react to unpleasant circumstances by picking either dynamic

adapting methodologies or avoidant procedures, for example,

liquor or medication use (Aldwin, 2007; Dyson & Renk, 2006).

The response of the male students showed that they cope with

their difficulties/challenges by watching funny videos to relax.

Watching funny videos to relax and going out considered

taking breaks. This type of coping mechanism refers to student’s

way of doing other enjoyable activities to refresh their mind and

avoid boredom.

One student said that he usually diverts his attention from

modules to watch funny videos and it makes him laugh most of the

time which he believes is a good thing to stay away from the

negativity of modules. Regularly he goes out with his friends to

forget about problems.

This result corroborates Sideridis’ (2008) study as cited by

Kwaah and Essilfie (2017) that revealed five important stress

coping strategies: browsing the internet, sleeping and resting,

watching TV or movies and instant messaging as frequently used

coping strategies by students. Türel and Toraman (2015) found

that men tend to spend more time online than women.

According to Essel (2017) stated that the human body is in

such a way that it needs some rest and break from time to time.
In a situation where students have to be in the learning and

teaching environment for long period of time, the cognitive

thinking of the students is affected. They became tired and lazy

to continue the studies. These feelings, in the long run, makes

the students stressed up since the body does not enough energy

and zeal to continue with the teaching and learning process.

The second least answers of the senior high school female

student at Lubuagan National High School is praying.

This result indicated William Jeynes (2020) that the

exercise of prayer is associated with better levels of student

outcomes. Moreover, the effects of prayer were greater for high-

quality studies.

According to Schnittker (2001)prayer and spiritual help

seeking may help individuals better cope with life stress and

depression.

The definition of prayer and the act of prayer itself is

used differently among each individual, however research suggests

that the same positive physical and mental health outcomes are

found across multiple types of prayer (Elkins, et al., 1979)

Table 2 presents the respondents coping mechanism as to age.

Table 2: Coping Mechanism as to age

Coping Mechanism Age Age Age Age Age Age Frequency Percentage
 17 18 19 20 21 23

Managing time 16 11 17 4 5 1 54 77.14&

Finding a support 2 2 4 2 10 14.29%

to the parents,

teachers,

classmates and

peers

Finding a place 7 7 4 2 20 28.57%

that has a stable

internet

connection

Adjusting to new 2 2 1 5 7.14%

environment to

help them to

focus/concentrate

in study

Taking a break 1 1 2 2.86%

Positive thinking 3 1 4 5.71%

More effort and 5 5 2 1 13 18.57%

patience

Praying 1 1 2 2.86%

Total 110 19.64%

 As shown on the table, most of the learners aging 17,

answered the coping mechanism of managing time through doing and

submitting school work on time and finding a place has stable

internet connection. While their least is praying and go out to

relax.

Most of the learners aging 18, prioritize the coping

mechanism of coping the difficulties/challenges encountered

through managing time and finding a place where the internet

connection is stable. While their least are taking a break and

pray to God.

Most of the learners aging 19, answered the coping mechanism

through managing time refers to prioritizing study and doing

school works immediately and finding a place has stable internet

connection. While their least are adjusting to new environment to

help them to focus/concentrate in study and more effort and

patience.

Most of the learners aging 20, answered the coping mechanism

of finding a place has stable internet connection and finding a

support to the parents, teachers, classmates and peers. While

their least are finding a place where they concentrate/focus to

study and more effort and patience in study.

 Most of the learners aging 21, prioritize the coping

mechanism of coping the difficulties/challenges encountered in

managing time through doing school works immediately and

prioritizing study while their least are more efforts and

patience in study.

From the age 23, he copes the difficulties/challenges

encountered through managing time refers to doing and submitting

their module on time and thinking positive.