Chapter 3 - METHODOLOGY

Research Design

The quantitative research design or the specific survey method is used to determine the
level of satisfaction among Foreign Service students of the College of Arts and Sciences in the
University of San Agustin. Quantitative studies characteristically collect numerical data to
explain, predict, or control phenomena of interest. In this approach, data analysis is primarily
statistical (Gay, 1996)

Respondents of the study

The respondents of the study are the Foreign Service students of the College of Arts and
Sciences in the University of San Agustin, who are enrolled in the Academic Year 2014-2015.

Sampling Technique

The simple random sampling method will be applied in the selection of the final
respondents of this study. The respondents will be classified according to age, gender, year level
and socio economic status.

Study Area

The study area or site of this paper will be at the University of San Agustin that was
before renowned as Colegio de San Agustin de Iloilo. Specifically, in the College of Arts and
Sciences which was formerly called as the Liberal Arts Department. It earned the singular
distinction as the first university in Western Visayas.
Data Gathering Instrument

The research instrument to be used in the study will be a questionnaire composed of two
parts.

Part 1 contained questions regarding the personal data of the respondents as of:

a.) name (optional)

b.) age

c.) gender

d.) year-level

d.) socio economic status

Part 2 shall consist of questions, each supported by a rating scale ranging from one (1) to four
(4) which will be answered by the respondents by checking the level of satisfaction among
foreign service students of the College of Arts and Sciences in the University of San Agustin
using the following scales as bases for measurement.

The Level of Satisfaction will be rated as follows:

Rating Scale Description

3.26 – 4.00 Very Satisfied

2.51 – 3.25 Moderately Satisfied

1.76 – 2.50 Satisfied

1.00 – 1.75 Not Satisfied

Data Gathering Procedure

To gather data for the study, the researchers will send a letter to the College of Arts and
Sciences department asking permission to conduct a study on the level of satisfaction among the
Foreign Service Students of the College of Arts and Sciences in the University of San Agustin.
After the approval, the researchers will administer the test to the respondents. Respondents will
be oriented as to the purpose of the study.

Data Processing Procedure

Upon retrieval of the questionnaire, the data will be tallied and tabulated as called for by
the research objectives.

For the gender factor, the respondents will be classified as to whether they are male or female.

The year level of the Foreign Service students will be classified as New and Old students. The
first year students will be considered as the new students. Whilst, the second, third and fourth
year students will be considered as the old students.

The age of the Foreign Service students will be grouped by:

a.) 16 – 18 years old

b.) 19 – 21 years old

c.) 22 and above.

The Socioeconomic Status (SES) of the Foreign Service students will be analyzed and examined
via their family’s income. It will be typically break into three categories (high SES, middle SES,
and low SES) to describe the three areas of a Foreign Service Student’s family may fall into.

Data Analysis Procedure

The following Statistical tools were utilized to treat the data:

The mean is used in order to determine the level of satisfaction of Foreign Service Students. The
mean, also known as arithmethic average, is found by adding the values of the data and dividing
by the total number of values (Bluman, 2013)

The Standard Deviation is used in order to determine the level of satisfaction of Foreign Service
Students. According to Shaughnessy, J. et al (2012), standard deviation tells approximately how
far on the average a score is from the mean.
The t-test is applied in order to test the hypothesis existed on the level of satisfaction among
Foreign Service students of the College of Arts and Sciences when grouped according:

a.) Age

b.) Gender

c.) Year-level

d.) Socioeconomic Status

The t-test is used to test the difference between means when two samples are independent and
when the samples are taken from two normally or approximately normally distributed
populations (Bluman, 2013).