Effect of Teachers' Action Research Difficulties on Perceived Valuation and Impact on Teaching in Gutalac I District

This study aimed to determine the effect of teachers' action research difficulties on their perceived valuation and impact on teaching in Gutalac I District – Schools Division of Zamboanga del Norte. A quantitative research design was employed in this study. Employing frequency counting and percent, weighted mean, standard deviation, Mann-Whitney U test. Kruskal-Wallis test and Spearman rank-order correlation data were obtained from 287 public school teachers of Gutalac I District – Schools Division of Zamboanga del Norte. The results revealed that teachers' difficulty in conducting action research in the Gutalac I District was high. The extent of teachers' valuation of action research was extremely high as to the five descriptors of teachers' valuation action research in Gutalac District I. The findings also revealed that the teachers' perceived level of impact of action research on teaching was extremely high as to long-lasting career impact, confidence/empowerment impact, and daily instructional impact. Moreover, data analysis revealed that the teachers' difficulty in conducting action research is not correlated with a perceived valuation of action research (r=0.077, p=0.195). Furthermore, the results revealed that the teachers' difficulty in conducting action research is correlated with the perceived impact of action research on teaching (r=0.194, p=0.001). This indicates that the teachers' difficulty in conducting action research was significantly related to their perceived impact of action research on teaching. Hence, enhanced hands-on training in all areas of action research is to be provided to secondary teachers. The ultimate goal is to further develop the teachers' knowledge, mastery, and skills to achieve the lowest level of difficulty in doing action research.