M-3 CHUA, Arvin F-2 BAE, Hannah

M-6 BACAOAT, Elijah F-8 DACANAY, Nicole

M-15 ORDONEZ, Arthur F-12 FRIANEZA, Julia

M-16 PATANO, Guenne F-20 PANGDA, Cheyenne

F-23 SALIPAN, Phylene

Title: Coping Up To Culture Shock As Perceived By

New Students of Grade Eleven In The STEM Strand Of
SLU-SHS Of The School Year 2018-2019
INTRODUCTION
Living in a world that contains 195 countries is a vast place for 7.53 billion (2017)
people to live. If there are 195 countries, they are all different from each other because
every country has their own cultures. Culture is derived from the Latin term ‘cult or
cultus’ meaning tilling, or cultivating or refining and worship (National Institute for Open
Schooling [IN]: Module - I Understanding Culture). Culture is the social
behaviour and norms found in human societies, encompassing the range of phenomena
that are transmitted through social learning and interaction in human societies. When
used as a count noun, a "culture" is the set of customs, traditions, and values of a society
or community, such as an ethnic group or nation. Culture is the set of knowledge
acquired over time. In this sense, multiculturalism values the peaceful coexistence and
mutual respect between different cultures inhabiting the same planet. Sometimes
"culture" is also used to describe specific practices or systems within a subgroup of a
society, a subculture, or a counterculture (Ken, 2007).
In the transmission of culture, education plays an important role of conservation
and of modification or renewal of the culture. Education is conceived as a systematic
effort to maintain a culture or knowledge (Culture and Education: University of Delhi).
Zooming in to education; education the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition
of basic and advanced knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, habits . Educational methods
include storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, and directed research. Education
frequently takes place under the guidance of educators, but learners may also educate
themselves. Education can take place in formal or informal settings and includes
any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be
considered educational. In formal education, a structured environment is present and has
an explicit purpose. It follows a system following: (1.) Preschools provide education from
ages approximately three to seven, depending on the country when children enter primary
education. These are also known as nursery schools and as kindergarten, except in the
US, where kindergarten is a term often used to describe the earliest levels of primary
education. Kindergarten provides a child-centred, preschool curriculum for three- to
seven-year-old children that aims at unfolding the child's physical, intellectual, and moral
nature with balanced emphasis on each of them. (2.) Primary (or elementary) education
consists of the first five to seven years of formal, structured education. In general,
primary education consists of six to eight years of schooling starting at the age of five or
six, although this varies between, and sometimes within, countries. Some education
systems have separate middle schools, with the transition to the final stage of secondary
education taking place at around the age of fourteen. Schools that provide primary
education are mostly referred to as primary schools or elementary schools. Primary
schools are often subdivided into infant schools and junior school. (3.) Secondary, in
most contemporary educational systems of the world, secondary education comprises the
formal education that occurs during adolescence. It is characterized by transition from the
typically compulsory, comprehensive primary education for minors, to the optional,
selective tertiary, "postsecondary", or "higher" education for adults. Depending on the
system, schools for this period, or a part of it, may be called secondary or high
schools, gymnasiums, lyceums, middle schools, colleges, or vocational schools. The
exact meaning of any of these terms varies from one system to another. The exact
boundary between primary and secondary education also varies from country to country
and even within them but is generally around the seventh to the tenth year of schooling.
(4.) Higher education, also called tertiary, third stage, or postsecondary education, is the
non-compulsory educational level that follows the completion of a school such as a high
school or secondary school. Tertiary education is normally taken to
include undergraduate and postgraduate education, as well as vocational education and
training. Colleges and universities mainly provide tertiary education. Collectively, these
are sometimes known as tertiary institutions. Individuals who complete tertiary education
generally receive certificates, diplomas, or academic degrees ("Briefer on the Enhanced
K to 12 Basic Education Program". Official Gazette of the Philippines). In total, most of
the countries have twenty- two to twenty- five years of education from Preschool to
Tertiary.

In the Philippines by the year 2010, then-Senator Benigno Aquino III expressed
his desire to implement the K–12 basic education cycle to increase the number of years of
compulsory education to thirteen years. According to him, this will "give everyone an
equal chance to succeed" and "have quality education and profitable jobs". When
the Congress of the Philippines proclaimed Senator Aquino III the winner of the 2010
Philippine presidential elections held on May 10, 2010, after further consultations and
studies, the government under now- President Benigno Aquino III formally adopted the
K–6–4–2 basic education system—one year of kindergarten, six years of elementary
education, four years of junior high school education and two years of senior high school
education. Kindergarten was formally made compulsory by virtue of the Kindergarten
Education Act of 2012, while the further twelve years were officially put into law by
virtue of the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013. Although DepEd has already
implemented the K–12 Program since SY 2011–2012, it was still enacted into law to
guarantee its continuity in the succeeding years.
There are large-scale shortages of facilities across Philippine public schools -
these include classrooms, teachers, desks and chairs, textbooks, and audio-video
materials. According to 2003 Department of Education Undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz,
reportedly over 17 million students are enrolled in Philippine public schools, and at an
annual population growth rate of 2.3 per cent, about 1.7 million babies are born every
year which means that in a few years’ time, more individuals will assert ownership over
their share of the (limited) educational provisions (Aika, 2017). To sum it up, there are
too many students and too little resources.

In the change of education system, schools in the Philippines who have not and
cannot accommodate two additional grade levels in the secondary level of education
would have to have their students looking for a new school. Upcoming grade 11 students
will need to move to another place for continuing Senior High to a school that has already
adjusted and ready. One of these schools is Saint Louis University- Laboratory Senior
High School. Since students have to move to another place either near or far, they have to
adapt to what is different to them. The differences they will encounter as something that
is very different to them will generate what we call as ‘Culture Shock’. Culture shock is
an experience a person may have when one moves to a cultural environment which is
different from one’s own; it is also the personal disorientation a person may feel when
experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration or a visit to a new country, a
move between social environments, or simply transition to another type of life (Oberg,
1961). The students will have to apply their coping mechanisms, meaning, the strategies
people often use in the face of stress and/or trauma to help manage painful or difficult
emotions. Coping mechanisms can help people adjust to stressful events while helping
them maintain their emotional well-being. In SLU- LSHS more than half of the students’
population are composed of new students coming from different provinces as of the
school year 2018-2019. Focusing under the grade 11 STEM strand, a study will be
conducted to the new students as the participants. This study will focus on the coping
mechanisms new students integrate with their life in SLU- LSHS because of the
differences in culture they have from their places versus here in their new school. This
study aims to know their expectations, impressions and reactions (coping mechanisms) as
a student in SLU- LSHS.
The findings of this study will help the future and current teachers (the faculty) of
SLU-LSHS and the administration considering that coping with culture shock plays an
important role in the academic performance and emotional status of students. As culture
shock can be a factor on the grades of the students based on this research the faculty and
administration can create necessary adjustments to create school life better and provide
help for students undergoing culture shock. To the future students, this study will help
them uncover critical areas in the psychological and physical process of culture shock
that many researchers were not able to explore.

It is important to conduct the research in knowing the different factors that may
affect in the coping mechanism of students, because people have different attitudes when
facing culture shock. The study of knowing the different factors and different ways to
cope up with culture shock can be a positive help in the benefit of the students as it can
enhance the student’s knowledge and coping mechanisms when facing culture shock.

For the researchers to be able to empathize with the new students, Zhou et al
(2008) discussed that ‘cultural learning’, stress coping models and social identification
theories (Furnham & Bochner, 1986) as more contemporary and comprehensive in
understanding ‘culture shock’ when people are exposed to a new culture. It emphasized
that it is simpler to interpret a person who recently moved to a different cultural
environment due to the personal disorientation the person feels when familiarizing
oneself with the unfamiliar setting of environment. Zhou et al (2008) added that an
individual keen to adjust and acculturate in a new culture needs strategies and more
active that passive effort in acquiring new social skills. Dedication towards coping with
the new cultural environment (Hwang et al., 2016; Kim, 2001; Ward et al., 2005) adapts
opportunities for personal growth, development and ‘cultural learning’.

In cultural learning since the SLU-LSHS has recently been established and is in
the process of improving their services. They have routines unique from other institutions
like the daily prayers during 12:00 PM and 3:00 PM, cultural and academic events, and
religious activities like the weekly and monthly masses. The said institutions also have
stricter rules regarding uniforms, haircuts, accessories, and gadgets during leisure time.
Regarding these facts about the school, a transferee student, particularly from another
province or region, will have difficulty trying to cope with these practices, especially if
they came from a non-religious school, like public schools and various private
institutions. Through this, we have established three questions that will be used for our
research problem: 1) What are the practices in SLU-LSHS that are different/not practiced
in other schools? 2) What are the effects of culture shock for the transferee students of
this institution? 3) What are the adaptive skills used by the students to cope up in this
institution?
 The sample used for this study are students of Grade 11- Group B of SLU-LSHS
who are all STEM students who are new to this institution, meaning that students who
studied at SLU-JHS will not be included in the study. The data collection instruments used
were Part A section of Culture Shock Questionnaire of (Mumford, 1998) to determine
whether they are experiencing culture shock. Original questions that were written by the
group relating to culture shock in this institution were also added to widen the criteria for
culture shock experienced by the new students regarding on their first academic year in this
institution and in their lifestyle here in Baguio City, while retaining the scoring system used
by (Mumford, 1998) on the questions added.

The target population of this study are the new students in SLU-LHS in the grade 11 of the
school year 2018-2019. From the target population, students of Grade 11- Group B who are all
STEM strand students will be used as the key informants. Students who studied from SLU-LHS
will not be included since they either grew up with the culture of the institution or transferred
earlier in the institution and have already long adjusted. The data collection instruments that will
be used are based on Part A section of Culture Shock Questionnaire of (Mumford, 1998) to
determine whether they are experiencing culture shock, to what level and their coping
mechanisms. Original questions that will be written by the group relating to culture shock in this
institution are also going to be added to widen the criteria for culture shock experienced by the
new students regarding on their first academic year in this institution and in their lifestyle here in
Baguio City, while retaining the scoring system used by (Mumford, 1998) on the questions
added.