ABSTRACT
This study aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4 on Quality Education and addressed the challenge of ensuring equitable learning opportunities for students with diverse engagement styles. Traditional classroom assessment often favored active learners through recitation and participation, disadvantaging passive learners who preferred listening and internalizing content. This imbalance raised concerns about fairness in evaluating student performance.
Using a quantitative quasi-experimental one-group pretest–posttest design, forty (40) Grade 9 passive English learners at Calamba City Science Integrated School participated in the intervention. Pretest scores revealed an overall mean of 38.3, verbally interpreted as Beginning, with 65% of students in the lowest proficiency category. After the implementation of merit cards, posttest scores increased to 60.4, verbally interpreted as Approaching Proficient, with 45% of students reaching Proficient. Statistical analysis yielded a p-value of .001, below the .05 significance level, leading to rejection of the null hypothesis and confirming the effectiveness of the intervention.
The findings highlighted the merit card system as a structured tool that promoted participation, confidence, and oral communication skills among passive learners. With an overall mean score of 60.4 and a standard deviation of 2.52, nearly half of the learners attained proficiency, while only a small proportion remained at lower levels. Based on these outcomes, the proposed action plan, Project STARS, was recommended for institutional adoption to advance equitable participation and strengthen effective English instruction.
Keywords: merit cards, strategic tracking, recitation assessment, passive learners, and English proficiency
INTRODUCTION
Education had long been recognized as a powerful force for change. It broke the cycle of poverty, drove economic growth, and fostered innovation. This was one of the end goals of the United Nations General Assembly and Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education) in the 2015 UN General Assembly, where the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted, including 17 SDGs. More recently, global gatherings such as the 2025 UNESCO Global Education Coalition Annual Meeting in Paris and the Global Sustainable Development Congress in Istanbul reaffirmed the urgency of innovative approaches to strengthen student engagement and achievement worldwide by expanding educational opportunities for all. These opportunities included strategies that teachers employed in classrooms.
As it is, recitation and participation remain traditional bases for assessing performance. Learners who frequently recited often gained teachers’ approval, as their active engagement demonstrated mastery of lessons. However, this approach posed challenges: teachers struggled to track performance fairly, and parents questioned low grades attributed to limited participation. The issue was particularly complex for passive learners, who preferred listening and internalizing content rather than actively engaging. As explained by Melio Education (n.d.), passive learning was teacher-centered, with students absorbing information quietly, while active learning emphasized student-centered engagement and frequent participation. This distinction highlighted the risk of undervaluing passive learners despite their ability to process knowledge effectively.
Meanwhile, motivation played a critical role in bridging the gap between passive and active learning. Research showed that highly motivated students were more likely to engage in learning activities, persist in challenging tasks, and achieve higher academic outcomes (Ryan & Deci, 2000, as cited in Springer, 2012). Motivation also influenced students’ willingness to participate in discussions and collaborative tasks. Class participation, including asking questions, sharing ideas, and engaging in dialogue, was considered an important indicator of student engagement and active learning (Rocca, 2010, as cited in Alghamdi, 2021). Therefore, the challenge for teachers was to identify motivational strategies that encouraged participation while recognizing that some learners preferred reflective or less overt forms of engagement.
In response, the use of Merit Cards for Strategic Tracking and Assessing Recitation for Passive English 9 Learners at Calamba City Science Integrated School was proposed. The intervention aimed to strengthen learners’ recitation and participation and sought to transform them from passive to active learners by completing tasks indicated on the merit cards. Merit cards were considered a form of recognition used to acknowledge students’ positive behavior and academic performance. Studies suggest that reward and recognition systems serve as effective motivational tools that encourage engagement and participation. For instance, recent research found that implementing reward-based strategies increased motivation and participation, leading to improved academic performance and more active involvement in learning tasks (Viray-Castillejos, 2023). Thus, merit cards also functioned as a strategy for teachers to track and assess students’ performance and participation.
Hence, the limited local research on the use of merit cards for strategic tracking and assessment of recitation underpinned the need for a study to confirm their value in increasing students’ performance, particularly in Philippine educational contexts. The researcher endeavored to design a merit card for the English class and examine its effectiveness and impact as a tool for Strategic Tracking and Assessing Recitation for Passive English 9 Learners.
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