Causes of Students’ Reluctance to Participate in Classroom Discussions

T main purpose of this study is to find out the causes of the respondents’ reluctance to participate in classroom discussions among college students at Notre Dame of Tacurong College (NDTC), enrolled during the academic year 2016-2017. The descriptive method of research is employed to determine the causes of the respondents’ reluctance to participate in classroom discussions. The study is conducted at Notre Dame of Tacurong College (NDTC) with 273 respondents of whom 114 are males and 159 females coming from all courses and year levels. Convenient sampling is utilized to identify the individual respondents from each course included in the study. A researcher-made survey questionnaire that is formulated by the researcher after a review of literature and studies was used to gather data for this study. Statistical tools such as frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were used to treat the data. Findings disclose that out of 273 respondents, the majority (58.24%) are female against 41.76% male. As to course, most (18.32%) of the respondents are BSCrim students. As to year level, most (34.43%) of them are second-year students. As to the ethnicity of the respondents, most (47.99%) of them are Ilongos. Further findings show that generally, the investigated causes of students’ reluctance to participate in classroom discussions are moderately prevalent. The top three causes are being tensed when forced by teachers to answer a question; getting tensed and nervous to speak in front of the whole class, and having faulty pronunciation in English. Also, the most popular strategy used by students to participate in classroom discussions is to think carefully about what to communicate before they participate. Based on the major findings of the study, it can be concluded that there are moderately prevalent causes that hinder the participation of some students in the classroom. As a result, several recommendations are offered to academic leaders, teachers, counsellors and students to address the issues so students feel more capable, confident and comfortable to actively participate in their classroom discussions.