Comparative Study on The Academic Performance of STEM And Non-STEM Major Civil Engineering Freshmen In DHVSU, Main Campus

Abstract

Quality Education has been in question in these past few years, the passing rate of the Civil Engineering board exam in the Philippines and DHVSU had a declining trendline which began from the year the K-12 curriculum was implemented. The proponents of this study suspected that it could be from the mismatching of senior high school students and their chosen strand, specifically those who chose a strand that had no relation to Civil Engineering and its disciplines. The purpose of this study was to have a comparative analysis between STEM and Non-STEM students and show the importance of choosing a Senior High School strand that aligns with the chosen future college program of the students, especially those who chose Civil Engineering. The study utilized a quantitative design wherein the proponents’ collected data from the students through the use of demographic profiling. Other data were gathered from the civil engineering faculty and investigated the differences in the academic performance of STEM and Non-STEM graduates that are currently in their first year in Civil Engineering program with their major subjects purely in terms of their Midterms and Finals Exam scores and overall grades. The respondents of this study were freshmen from the Don Honorio Ventura State University Civil Engineering Department. After the data collection and analysis, the results showed statistically significant differences between STEM and non-STEM in Midterm and Final Exam scores and Grades in Mathematics in the Modern World, Midterm and Final Grades in Solid Mensuration and Midterm Exam scores in Differential Calculus. In the data analysis, each strand was compared separately first and then finally compared by group, having STEM and non-STEM performances combined. In conclusion, choosing a Senior high school strand that can correlate with one’s chosen college program is extremely important.