Exploring Work Immersion at Home: Humanities and Social Sciences Students’ Compliance, Difficulties and Evaluation

Abstract

Work immersion is a required subject to grade 12 senior high school in the Philippines leading to graduation. It aims to expose the students to the workplace to apply the acquired competencies from specialization and applied subjects. However, due to the health crisis experienced around the world, school attendance or industry-based immersion was prohibited, but education will never stop even in a health crisis. The students must experience the work immersion despite the present scenario. This was done by bringing work immersion into the comfort of their home. This study was practical action research that aimed to explore compliance, difficulties, and evaluation of the Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS) students in work immersion at home. The participants were grade 12 HUMSS students who participated voluntarily. The data were collected through teachers' records, results of summative tests, survey questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews to elicit multiple data. The survey questionnaire and interview guide questions were validated by three headteachers and pilot tested to another school that offered the HUMSS strand. Based on the findings, the students complied with the portfolio and work immersion guide as required outputs by the end of the implementation. Also, students performed well in two summative tests. However, they experienced difficulties in terms of work habits like unstable internet connection, noise distraction at home, time management, and difficulty in answering the learning task. Also, they receive less parental assistance in accomplishing tasks because their parents were busy with their work, but they were expected to perform household duties. Furthermore, they evaluated work immersion at home as an excellent experience wherein their competencies as HUMSS graduates were developed.