Reece CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Related Literature

This chapter discusses the literature review and the findings of prior studies that are comparable to,
linked to, or have some bearing on the current study

The majority of today's populaon is most likely to have social anxiety disorder, notably the majority of
adolescents or students. For instance, it is claimed that this disorder affects how well the person
performs. According to the claim, the student's academic performance, a vital component of an
educational aspect, is likely to reflect this. Since the introduction of face-to-face instruction,
socialanxiety has increased, and this has also been claimed to be related to or seen as a barrier to
students'academic performance.

A prevalent human condition known as social anxiety (SA) is defned by a strong dread of being judged by
others in social circumstances. We refer to it as social anxiety disorder (SAD) or socialphobia when its
severity reaches a tipping point where functoning is hampered (Morrison & Heimberg 2014).According
to the research of Jeteries and Ungar (2020), social anxiety happens when people are afraid to interact
with others because they worry about geting a bad reacton from them or making other people
uncomfortable. From an evolutonary standpoint, social anxiety isadaptive at the right levels,
encouraging us to pay more atention to how we come across andto think more deeply about our
actions.In order to maintain or increase our social desirability and prevent rejection, this
sensitivitymakes sure that we adapt to those around us. It may, however, be categorized as a
disease(SAD; formerly known as "social phobia") when it is signifcantly affecting functioning and is out of
proportion to the hazards given by a typical social context (such as contacts with peers atschool or at
work).A severe and enduring fear of humiliation and embarrassment is thedistinguishing feature of
social anxiety in western societes. The embarrassment of others can also be a symptom of social anxiety
in other cultures, particularly Asian ones. Examples of this include Taijin kyofusho or an intense fear in
Japan and Korea. Social anxiety frequently involvesworries about trembling, blushing, sweating, and
coming of as tense, uninterested, orincompetent.Social encounters are difficult for those who have
social anxiety. Comparatively to people whodon't have social anxiety, they make less facial expressions,
avert their gaze more frequently,and exhibit higher difficulty starting and maintaining conversations.
Recognizing problemsmight cause dread of routine tasks like making phone calls or meeting new people.
In turn, thismay cause people to have fewer encounters or to avoid social interacon completely.The
effects of social anxiety are profound, reducing overall happiness and wellness and impacting
functioning in many areas of life. For instance, those who struggle with social anxietyare more likely to
become the targets of bullying and are more likely to drop out of the school early.
Academic performance is the measurement of student achievement across various academic subjects.
Teachers and education officials typically measure achievement using classroom performance,
graduation rates, and results from standardized tests.

With growing technological advancements, demands for the industry with skilled and equipped
workforce are proportionately rising. While this match between curricular offerings in academia and
needs in the industry has been addressed in many countries across the globe through initiatives such as
the K-12 educational system, some countries like the Philippines have only started its adoption. In the
Philippines’ early adoption of the K-12 educational system, several concerns have been raised regarding
its implementation, mainly, the mismatch between coursework offered in Philippine K-12 educational
institutions with industry demands. With such outcomes, it is necessary to determine the status of the
K-12 educational system in the Philippines. This paper attempts to shed light on such concerns by
evaluating the performance of the K-12 students using a standardized approach. The Scholastic Abilities
Test for Adults, a standardized test for measuring the academic competence of adults, is used in this
study to measure scholastic abilities. The descriptive analyses made in this paper may aid in the
development of more robust strategy frameworks for positioning the current K-12 educational system
to global and industry demands. Moreover, the results obtained in this study would aid stakeholders in
overseeing strategies that would address current gaps in the K-12 educational system of the country.

Before the transition to the K-12 educational curriculum, the basic education in the Philippines consists
of ten (10) years of study: six (6) years in elementary education and four (4) years in secondary
education [1]. However, with the collective movement of other countries towards globalization, the
Philippines has undertaken major educational reforms that transition and shift its 10-year basic
education into the K-12 curriculum [1]. K-12 is an educational program in the United States (US) from
kindergarten to grade 12 that indicates the range of years of supported primary and secondary
education [2]. It has been adopted by many educational institutions across the globe such as
Afghanistan [3], Australia [4], Canada [5], China [6], South Korea [7], and Turkey [8]. Several goals have
been set by the government associated with the implementation of the K-12 curriculum as follows: (i)
increase students’ preparation for higher education, (ii) equip students’ with eligibility for entering
domestic and overseas higher educational institutions, and (iii) facilitate students’ immediate
employability upon graduation [9].

Despite the promising goals set by the Philippine government, several issues have spurred with the
reform’s implementation. For instance, Rivera [10] and Barrot [11] found misalignments between
established learning pedagogies with the expected outcomes of the K-12 curriculum guidelines of the
Philippines. Likewise, Trance and Trance [12] revealed a mismatch between the perceptions of teachers
and students with the set expectations of the K-12 curriculum in the country. Moreover, Relucio and
Palaoag [13] found an overall negative response between multiple K-12 curriculum stakeholders (e.g.,
teachers, students, and parents) regarding the implementation of the K-12 curriculum in the Philippines.
These drawbacks suggest the streamlining of the K-12 curriculum in the Philippines by reviewing its
current guidelines.
 Despite the need to streamline the K-12 curriculum guidelines in the Philippines, the task has been
difficult due to the limited number of studies in the literature regarding its status. While few in numbers,
most of the works in the literature focused on identifying misalignments of learning outcomes and
perception of stakeholders. However, none of the works provided insights about the performance of the
K-12 students. Relevant works in the literature (e.g., [14–16]) maintain that students’ performance
provides a direct method of measuring the successful implementation of an educational program. With
a limited number of studies focusing on measuring student performance of K-12 students in the country,
a significant gap in the current literature remains unaddressed. Moreover, with the limited attention
provided by scholars in the literature regarding the K-12 transition in the country, formulating more
robust strategies and initiatives may become a significant impediment for stakeholders in the country.
To address this gap, this paper provides an assessment of the K-12 curriculum’s status in the country by
evaluating the academic performance of recent K-12 graduates in the Philippines.

A case study in Cebu (Philippines), one of the major metropolitan areas in the country, is performed.
Three major cities in Cebu are considered, namely, Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu City, and Mandaue City due to
their relatively high number of K-12 students. The Scholastic Abilities Test for Adults (SATA) is used as
the standardized instrument for the assessment. SATA is a standardized test that measures the
scholastic competence of persons from the ages of 16 through 70 [17]. The SATA’s aptitude and
achievement components can provide an aptitude-achievement discrepancy analysis [17]. In this paper,
the SATA is used to measure the scholastic abilities of K-12 students in Science, Technology, Engineering,
and Mathematics (STEM), Accountancy Business and Management (ABM), Humanities and Social
Sciences (HUMSS), General Academic Strand (GAS), and Technical, Vocational, Livelihood (TVL), using six
subtests: (i) nonverbal reasoning (NV), (ii) quantitative reasoning (QR), (iii) reading vocabulary (RV), (iv)
reading comprehension (RC), (v) mathematical capacity (MC), and (vi) mathematical applications (MA).

The results will enable the determination of a potential gap of the students’ performance in each
subtest. Such findings would serve as performance indicators for stakeholders regarding the status of
the K-12 curriculum through the competencies of recent K-12 graduates. Moreover, the results would
help shed light on the formulation of strategies needed in the alignment of the students’ competencies
towards the expected outcomes of the K-12 program. With minimal information regarding the
performance of Filipino K-12 graduates in the literature, the study would be significant as it is the first to
conduct a performance evaluation of K-12 students using SATA in the Philippines. As such, the paper
may be used as a benchmark for the formulation of policies and initiatives regarding the K-12 curriculum
in the country. This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents comprehensive literature that
comprises relevant works of the K-12 educational system. Section 3 presents the methodology. Section 4
discusses the results obtained in the study as well as their managerial implications. Finally, Section 5
presents the conclusions arrived in the paper as well as the potential future directions.