Spirituality and school performance of elementary pupils

Abstract

This study is a descriptive-correlation type of research which tried to determine the elementary pupils’ spirituality and its relationship to their school performance in Character Education, and in academic subjects. The respondents of the study consisted of 264 grade five and grade six pupils randomly selected from a private and a public elementary schools in the Province of Iloilo.

The results of the study showed that pupils’ belief in God and their perceived relationship with God was high. However, their spiritual practice and their overall spirituality were low.

In terms of pupils’ school performance, they had attained “proficient” level in character education and only “approaching proficiency” level in academic subjects. Grade Six pupils in both private and public schools had higher achievement in Character Education than the Grade Five pupils. The private school pupils had higher academic achievement than the public school pupils in both Grade Five and Six levels.

The personal characteristics of pupils such as sex, religion, grade level and the type of school they studied in were not related to their belief in God, their perceived relationship with God, and their spiritual practice. This means that the pupils personal characteristics did not in any way influence their belief in God, their perceived relationship with God and their spiritual practice.

The pupils’ sex and religion had nothing to do with their achievement in Character Education but there was a moderate relationship between pupils’ grade level and their achievement in character education. The type of school they go to study was also significantly related to their achievement in Character Education. The grade six pupils had higher achievement in Character Education than their grade five pupils and pupils from the public school had better achievement in Character Education than the pupils from the private school.

Pupils’ sex, grade level, and type of school they go to study were related to their academic achievement. Girls had higher academic achievement than boys and the pupils from the private school had higher academic achievement than the pupils from the public school and the Grade Six pupils had higher academic achievement than the Grade Five pupils. However pupils’ religion was not significantly related to their academic achievement.

In terms of pupils’ spirituality, their belief in God and perceived relationship with God did not influence their achievement in Character Education. However spiritual practice was negatively related to their achievement in Character Education. The higher the spiritual practice, the lower was their achievement in character education. However, pupils overall spirituality was not related to their achievement in Character Education.

Pupils’ spirituality in terms of belief in God, perceived relationship with God, spiritual practice, and their overall spirituality were not related to their Academic Achievement, which means that spirituality has nothing to do with pupils’ academic achievement. However, pupils’ achievement in Character Education was found to be significantly related to their academic achievement. This means that the higher the pupils’ achievement in Character Education, the higher also was their academic achievement.