Many individuals find research to be frightening, yet its value should never be underestimated. Society makes rapid development as a result of a study.
Personal concerns, careful instruction, and sound decision-making are all founded on research. For satisfying society’s needs, the study provides solid and factual grounds. To put it another way, all development initiatives are based on research. Since their programs and efforts in agriculture, communications, transportation, trade, industry, and commerce rely significantly on research and feasibility studies, countries all over the globe have recognized the usefulness of research and feasibility studies.
Despite its best efforts, the Philippines confronts substantial challenges in building a research culture in various sectors, particularly in educational institutions with the potential to expand research output.
Despite incentives like publishing research outputs, participation at local/national/international conferences, honoraria, and research load credits, Abon (2021) found that just 22.81 percent of professors nationally participated in the research. It raises a slew of issues, prompting a slew of research projects. Some studies have been done on research culture, although most of these studies have been focused on higher education, and the conclusions have varied in terms of the reasons.
While higher education institutions are promoting research culture in their fields of specialization in response to the CHED mandate, the Department of Education’s (DepEd) fundamental education institution is not making research a primary field of endeavor because its primary concern is to provide basic literacy skills to its elementary and secondary students. Nonetheless, the Department of Education recognizes the value of research and encourages teachers to perform action research as one of the requirements for teacher promotion. Conducting action research is also one of the master instructors’ responsibilities.
To encourage teachers to do research, the Department of Education (DepEd) issued DepEd Order no. 24, s. 2010 establishes the Basic Education Research Fund (BERF), which stipulates the financial help given to individuals who wish to perform research. Despite this financial assistance of two million pesos per year for each area, only a handful continue to do research, as evidenced by the DepEd record, which shows that just 12 research projects have been authorized and finished since the national government began allocating funds in 2010. It indicates that, while being promoted, research culture at primary education institutions has not yet been ultimately adopted.
DepEd Order No. 43, s. 2015, which establishes amended instructions for the Basic Education Research Fund, was recently released to demonstrate the department’s ongoing efforts to promote evidence-based policy creation and decision-making in delivering excellent education. Despite the issuances mentioned above supporting research activities, the Department of Education faces a significant issue in persuading teachers to pursue research. The unresolved question of why a few teachers, particularly master instructors, are involved in research remains unanswered. Even though there may be credible solutions to this topic, it is critical to investigate the component that drives certain people to do tasks and accomplish goals that refer to their capability. Perhaps they haven’t thoroughly investigated and expanded their research capabilities. Individuals, organizations, and systems’ research competence refers to their ability to conduct and communicate high-quality research effectively and efficiently. It also refers to a process of personal and institutional growth that leads to improved skills and the ability to conduct productive research. Teachers are believed to be unable to complete, use, and distribute research if they lack this skill. Various variables impacting research productivity have been suggested in the literature. These studies, on the other hand, are primarily carried out in higher education institutions.
By: Mrs. Rowena C. Calpo|Master Teacher I| Old Cabalan Integrated School|Olongapo City
