Mary Criselda M. Ligsanan

Balanga City National Science High School

Completed 2026

ABSTRACT

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a Structured Research Proposal Template in improving Grade 8 students’ competency in writing Science Investigatory Project (SIP) proposals at Balanga City National Science High School. A quasi-experimental one-group pretest–posttest design involved 13 Grade 8 students who completed a validated competency assessment before and after template implementation; a researcher-developed perception survey gathered student feedback. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) summarized competency levels and perceptions, while the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test assessed pretest–posttest differences. Findings indicated that students demonstrated a relatively high baseline competency in SIP proposal writing. After implementing the template, modest improvements were observed across most competency domains, with the Find and Manage domain showing the largest mean gain. Despite these increases, differences between pretest and posttest scores were not statistically significant. Perception results showed students regarded the template as useful, organized, and practical for guiding proposal development. Students also identified needs for additional exemplars, clearer teacher scaffolding, and extended practice time to maximize benefits. Study limitations included a small sample size and the absence of a comparison group, which constrain generalizability and causal inference. Nevertheless, the structured template functioned as an instructional scaffold supporting the proposal-writing process and highlighted areas where teacher guidance and exemplars could strengthen outcomes. The study recommends integrating the template with increased teacher-led modeling, more example proposals, and additional practice opportunities, and suggests testing the template with larger, controlled samples to more robustly determine its impact on enhancing Grade 8 students’ competency in SIP proposal writing.