Teachers’ Perceived Challenges and Coping Strategies in Pandemic-Influenced Teaching:Basis for a School-Based Teacher Support Mechanism (Published)
The current COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected many global activities, including teaching and learning. This research investigated teachers’ perceived challenges and coping strategies to craft localized school-based support mechanisms. This study followed a mixed methods convergent parallel design where quantitative and qualitative data were collected during the same phase of the data-gathering process. This design was followed to enrich quantitative data with qualitative data. This study utilized two research instruments to gather quantitative data for the following variable – perceived challenges and coping strategies. To collect qualitative data, interviews were conducted using the sub-questions aligned with the study’s central question. The data were derived from randomly selected public school teachers of an educational institution in Makati City. Three of those teachers who answered were chosen at random to be interviewed. During analysis, Shapiro-Wilk’s normality test was done for the quantitative data to determine the statistical analysis to be employed. Both quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed through Pearson r coefficient and thematic analysis, respectively. Results showed that perceived challenges have no significant relationship with overall coping strategies. However, by analyzing the subcomponents of coping strategies, perceived challenges positively correlate with problem-focused coping. This result revealed that when teachers experience a high intensity of challenges in their teaching practices during the pandemic, they tend to do active coping strategies indicative of grit and a more practical approach to solving the problem. Moreover, qualitative data supported that teachers must also be given mental and emotional support besides physical, technological, and financial support. Furthermore, parallel studies must be conducted with a more diverse and large sample to serve as a guide in crafting a nationwide support mechanism for teachers during a challenging situation
Keywords: Coping Strategies, perceived challenges, support mechanisms
Examination Anxiety Unmasked: Predictors and Coping Strategies as Experienced By Junior High School Students in the Effutu Municipality of Ghana (Published)
This study investigated the factors that trigger examination anxiety while exploring coping strategies needed to reduce anxiety among Junior High School students in the Effutu Municipality. The study employed the cross-sectional descriptive survey design with quantitative approach where through proportionate stratified random sampling, a sample of 746 students was obtained from both public and private Junior High Schools in the three (3) circuits of the Effutu Municipality. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study revealed that even though different kinds of factors trigger examination anxiety amongst the students, lack of self-esteem was the most dominant factor while subject load of the students recorded the least influence on examination anxiety. The study further established that good study habits and skills, effective teacher support, motivation, reduction of students’ workload, improvement in co-curricular activities, and having enough sleep and rest time were the coping strategies advanced to reduce examination anxiety. Additionally, it was found that factors such as having low self-confidence, past experience and beliefs about examination, history of consistent poor performance, subject load, and psychological factors jointly contributed significantly to examination anxiety among students. Besides, motivation of students, reduction of subject load and good teachers support for students were the coping strategies needed to manage examination anxiety. Based on these results, it was recommended that regular education programmes such as symposia and school festivals should be conducted to heighten students’ self-esteem, and remove negative past experiences and beliefs about examinations while exploring other coping strategies to reduce examination anxiety for improved academic performance.
Keywords: Academic Achievement, Coping Strategies, Factors, Junior High School, examination anxiety