HOTNESS

OVERLOAD:

Conducive
Classrooms for
Grade 11 Science,
Technology,
Engineering and
Mathematics
(STEM) Students

Soratos, Jully Mae

Tumala, Apple Grace
Valenzuela, Kalisha Pia
 ABSTRACT

There are three main components that create a classroom. There are the

students who are learning, the content that is being taught, and the environment in

which all of this is happening. Many people focus on studying how students learn and

how to make the curriculum exciting, but many teachers overlook how they can adapt

their classroom environment to achieve greater focus and learning from their students.

The study was carried out to know the negative outcomes of having a congestive

classroom on the academic performance of the students in Philippine Women's College

of Davao. A number of 8 Grade 11 STEM students were constituted the population of

the study. The In-Depth Interview were the main modes of data gathering. In most

cases they are not comfortable and cannot focus to the discussion for having a

congestive classroom. Furthermore, studies have indicated that lower classroom

temperatures and improved air ventilation will improve the learning ability and academic

performance of the students. The researchers therefore strongly recommend for the

classrooms in Philippine Women's College of Davao to be provided enough space,

electric fans, aircon and strong building foundation

 HOTNESS OVERLOAD:
CONDUCIVE CLASSROOMS FOR GRADE 11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY,
ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICS (STEM) STUDENTS

INTRODUCTION

According to Oxford dictionary, conducive means that making a certain situation or

outcome likely or possible. Conducive classroom is a crucial key in promoting a favorable

ambiance in a classroom to ensure an effective teaching and learning process to take

place. A Conducive Classroom talks about the climate and atmosphere of the room. A

good learning environment is important to student’s success as it promotes academic

achievements.

The classroom is where the student gains an understanding of their place in the

world and the gifts that they have to offer. It is where the student develops what they

want their future to look like, as well as knowledge and skills needed to reach that goal.

With the classroom being such an important place in the growth of a child it is important

to understand the ways in which it can affect the environment in order to receive

maximum effectiveness in instruction. If schools really do play a large role in teaching

the next generation how to be successful members of society then do every precaution

to ensure that the learning environment is one that helps students to succeed

(Hannah,2013). Everybody knows that the factors that can a threaten a positive

classroom environment; problems that kids bring from home, lack of motivation among

students whose love of learning has been drilled right out of them, pressures from

testing, and more (Young,2014).

Falsario, Muyong and Neuvaespana (2014) states that there are identified two

aspects of classroom namely physical and social environment. According to them

physical classroom environment refers to the arrangement of chairs, tables, fixtures and

pieces of furniture, painting, lighting and ventilation while the social environment refers

to the leadership exhibited by the teacher and the mode of students’ participation and

interaction. Suleman, Aslam and Hussain (2014) states that, “Physical environment can
affect students’ comfort and also their ability to learn. Students who are comfortable are

likely to get much information compared to those who are uncomfortable. Unfavorable

classroom can discourage the learners and they become less willing to learn invariably

affecting their interest in the whole academic process and space.” It is very important

for the students to feel happy and contented with their school. If a student is happy to go

to school then it might be possible that school provides a stimulating environment to

them.

Elliot Ziwira (2015) states that, “The key proponents of the learning process are

teachers and learner, as such their freedom of interaction, safety and respect should be

equally guaranteed within the physical and emotive environment they find themselves

in. The first port of learning is the physical environment, the classroom should be neat,

well ventilated and spacious to allow for free movement.” The classroom greatly

contributes to the interaction between teachers and students. It is very important to

have a spacious and comfortable classroom for the students and even teachers to

express freely their skills.

The study is important especially to the current grade 11 STEM students to give

confidence to voice out their opinions and insights on how to have an effective

classroom environment. This can also be beneficial to the teachers because it will help

them to have a healthy and cozy environment. The administration and the future

researchers can also benefit from the study because it will help them to figure out on

how to solve this certain issue and gain knowledge about the negative outcomes of

having a congestive classroom.

The primary purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to describe

the struggles and to know what are the negative outcomes of having a congestive

classroom environment in the academic performance of Grade 11 STEM Students.

Research Questions:
 1. What are the daily struggles of Grade 11 Science, Technology, Engineering and

Mathematics (STEM) students in having a congestive classroom?

2. How do students overcome their daily struggles in having a congestive

classroom?

METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the research design, research locale, research

respondents, research instrument, procedure of the research, sampling technique, and

statistical treatment of the data.

Research Design

In this study, the researchers utilized a qualitative research using

phenomenological inquiry approach to understand the ideas, feelings, perspectives as

well as the experiences and the outbursts of having a Congestive Classrooms of Grade

11 STEM Students. Crossman (2019) states that, “Qualitative research is a type of

social science research that collects and works with non-numerical data and that seeks

to interpret meaning from these data that help understand social life through the study

of targeted populations or places.” Qualitative research methods were developed in the

social sciences to enable researchers to study social and cultural phenomena.

Qualitative data sources include observation and participant observation (fieldwork),

interviews and questionnaires, documents and texts, and the researcher’s impressions

and reactions (Myers,2020).

Qualitative research is research that is intended to help the researchers better

understand the meanings and the perspective of the people that they study. Seeing the

world from their point of view rather than simply from their own. The obvious aspects of
qualitative research—its inductive, open-minded approach, its reliance on textual or

visual rather than numerical data (Maxwell,2011).

Creswell (2013) states that, “Phenomenology is an approach to qualitative

research that focuses on the commonality of a lived experience within a particular

group. Typically, interviews are conducted with a group of individuals who have first-

hand knowledge of an event, situation or experience.”   The goal is to describe

experiences as they are lived, and to examine the uniqueness of individual’s lived

situations as each person owns a reality that can become subjective.

Participants

A total of 8 grade-11 STEM students who had experienced struggles and

discomforts for having a congestive classroom were purposively selected for

participants in this study since they would be “knowledgeable informants.”

Research Locale

This study was conducted at Philippine Women’s College of Davao located at

University Ave. Juna Subdivision, Matina, Davao City.

Research Instruments

The researchers scheme a self-conducted interview guide for the data gathering

process to get qualitative data. The aim of this questionnaire is to gather data to

establish the nature of having congestive classrooms and what are the negative

outcomes to the academic performance of the students. This research will use

researchable questions and is more open for opinions and perceptions of the

respondents. Through this question, the researchers are able to show meaningful
responses that are within the scope of the study. For this study, the interview guide

questions instruments were used to determine and achieve the primary objective of the

study. A self-conducted interview guide was asked to the selected participants.

Data Collection

In-Depth Interview

This study involves direct interaction between the researcher and a respondent.

In-depth interview is a qualitative research technique that involves conducting a

deeper interview with an individual or a small number of respondents to explore their

perspectives on a particular ideas, programs, or situations (Boyce & Neale,2006). It

involves direct, one-on-one engagement with individual participants. The advantages of

In-Depth Interview are it can establish rapport with participants to make them feel more

comfortable, which can generate more insightful responses especially regarding

sensitive topics. Another advantage of In-Depth Interview is it gives greater opportunity

to ask follow-up questions for additional information, and circle back to key questions

later on in the interview to generate a rich understanding of attitudes, perceptions, and

motivations and etc. (Steber,2017).

Ethical Consideration

This study is engaged with collecting data from people about other fellow. Ethical

considerations are a constant companion for any researcher. It explores what is

possible, just, and fair in a given context (Markham & Buchanan,2015). This requires

values like accountability, trust, mutual respect and fairness among all the

participants involved in a study. It is about protection of intellectual property rights of

all the contributors, and established through implementation of ethical considerations

(Chetty,2019).

According to Bryman and Bell (2007) the following ten points represent the most

important principles related to ethical considerations in dissertations:

1. Research participants should not be subjected to harm in any ways.

2. Respect for the dignity of research participants should be prioritized.

3. Full consent should be obtained from the participants prior to the study.

4. The protection of the privacy of research participants has to be ensured.

5. Adequate level of confidentiality of the research data should be ensured.

6. Any type of communication in relation to the research should be done with

honesty and transparency.

7. Any type of misleading information, as well as representation of primary data

findings in a biased way must be avoided

Data Management and Analysis

Data Recording

All the conversations in the interview were recorded digitally as the participants

agreed to do so. On the day after the interview audio records were reproduced to the

personal computer and all the phones to ensure that the records had various copies

then, the audio records were transcribed and translated into English for the data

analysis.

Transcription and Translation

Two steps of transcript were use in this study. The first one was the direct

transcription where the investigators recorded the audio giving the particular and real

conversation regardless of what language or dialect was used. Second is the English

where the prospect of the discussions was maintained.

Qualitative Data Analysis and Interpretation

Thematic analysis is used in this study where it emphasizes pinpointing,

examining, and recording patterns or themes within idea. Themes are patterns across
data sets that are important to the description of a phenomenon and are associated to a

specific research question.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

1 What are the daily struggles of Grade 11 Science, Technology, Engineering and

Mathematics (STEM) students in having a congestive classroom?

Sense of Discomfort

Seven students shared their opinions and struggles in having a congestive

classroom. They said that they feel uncomfortable in having a learning environment that

do not supports and does not pushes them to excel in their academic performance.

According to Puteh, Ahmad, Noh, Adnan and Ibrahim (2015) states that a flaw in the

classroom environment may contribute to students and teachers’ discomfort, which can

give minimal effectiveness of learning and teaching that is happening in the classroom.

Therefore, that there is a need to improve the physical aspects of the classroom

because classroom with lack of facilities and equipment are not suitable to achieve

world-class education. There is also a relationship between the classroom environment

to the learning and teaching comfort level. These three physical aspects which are

furniture, space and air quality can greatly affect the comfort level in the classroom.
Distraction

Seven students also shared their challenging experience and burst out their

perspective on what could be the negative outcomes of having a congestive classroom

to their learning process. They said that they loss their focus and they can be easily

distracted in a room with high temperature. They cannot listen well to the discussions

and cannot understand properly the lessons.

According to McGuire (2015) states that warmer temperatures tend to make

children feel tired and lethargic, and therefore they tend to become easily distracted and

lose concentration. Students working in classrooms with lower temperatures were

shown to be more alert and able to work more quickly while making fewer mistakes.

Congestive classroom can become a distraction to the academic performance and to

the development of skills and talents of the students. The higher the temperature in the

learning environment the lower the concentration.

Comfortable

One out of Eight students did not agree that having a congestive classroom is

very disturbing and can wildly contribute to the learning process that is taking place. The

student said that “Congestive classroom is note big deal for me. It has no bad effects in

my academic performances”. Furthermore, the student said that whatever set up in a

classroom she is trying to focus on the discussions. Environment and classroom

thermal comfort plays an important role in the teaching and learning process as it will

affect the activities and performance of the students. “Appropriate and comfortable

physical facilities will stimulate intellectual activities, higher social communication,

encourage the pupils’ learning development and limiting any negative behavior among

the pupils.” The learning environment especially for thermal comfort classroom is

considered important because the information obtained can be used as a basis for

improving educational quality (Puteh, Ahmad, Noh, Adnan & Ibrahim,2015). Therefore, if

the student feels comfortable in their classroom environment, they are more likely to

excel in their studies.

2 How do students overcome their daily struggles in having a congestive classroom?

Strategies in Dealing with the Problem

Seven of the students their strategies in coping up with the problem of having a

congestive classroom was they bring fans, portable fans, wet wipes or even drinking

plenty of water just to minimize the hotness and the uncomfortable feeling inside their

learning environment. Some classes can be difficult to concentrate in to begin with. Add

in heat and humidity, and you can find yourself daydreaming of diving in a pool or laying

on a glacier, instead of focusing on essential things that are going on in the classroom.

Some students are making a fan with a piece of their notebooks in order to add air and

try their best to listen about what the teacher is saying (Krystley,2016). Despite of

having this problem, students still wants to go home with the knowledge that they

learned from their teachers. Therefore, they are finding some strategies in coping up

with this situation. Students use fan or even bring their own portable fan to use when

they are inside the classroom, some drink water so that they will be refreshed all

throughout the day.

Suggestions

Eight of the students suggested that for them to feel happy and comfortable in

their learning environment which is the classroom, the administrators and heads should

atleast add some electric fans or ceiling fans to create a well-ventilated classroom.

Furthermore, students also suggested that this kind of problem should be address as

soon as possible because they believe that the learning environment of one’s individual

can contribute to the effectiveness of teaching and learning process.

According to McGuire (2016) states that temperature does have an effect on

student attention span. Students have indicated that lower classroom temperatures and

improved air ventilation improve learning ability and their performance. To prevent and

lessen the hotness in the learning environment, students suggest to improve the

ventilation, add some electric fans or aircon to provide comfortable and conducive

classroom. Conducive classroom is a crucial key because it promotes academic

achievements.

Ignorance

Hence, not all of the students truly care and give his/her attention to this issue.

One student said that it is best to just ignore the situation and focus more on what really

matter and that is the learning you get in the schools. The ability to ignore things is a

key part of our ability to pay attention to what’s really important. We are given adequate

time to learn what we should ignored. It ultimately helps us search and listen faster and

more efficiently (Dockrill, 2016). There are students who experience this kind of

struggles yet they just ignore it because it is not big deal for them and they find it that it’s
the only answer on the problem. They know what really is important and that is to

continue their studies amidst the situation because they already know what is there

number one priority.

Conclusion

Based on the results from the interview conducted, the researchers have arrived

to the conclusion that the Grade 11 STEM students is having discomfort for having a

congestive classroom. The most common struggles that the students experienced were

being uncomfortable and having difficulties to concentrate during the discussion.

Furthermore, Studies have indicated that lower classroom temperatures and improved

air ventilation will improve the learning ability and academic performance of the

students. We researchers highly recommend, to add electric fans, air conditioner and

improve the spaces and foundation of every classrooms. This study will also help in

building relationship between the students and administration. Generally, the classroom

environment plays a crucial role in keeping students engaged and allowing them to be

successful within the classroom.

Implication for Further Research

There are a lot of parts in the research that can help the future researchers. The

study about congestive classroom can help them to understand and can open their eyes

on how these struggles can affect onto one’s life and on the academic performance of

the students. The study can be their guide and might be useful for further researches

that they will be doing. This study will be benefited not just the students but also the

teachers. This conducted study will allow the readers to know on what are the daily

struggles of Grade 11 STEM students in having a congestive classroom and on what

are the negative outcomes of congestive classroom to the academic performance and

development of skills.

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