Establishing Research Culture in Oriental Mindoro through STARTS: An Appreciative Inquiry

Abstract

The State Universities and Colleges are mandated to conduct sustainable extension programs that are relevant to the needs of the community. This study aims to evaluate the extension program, Sustainable Training for Academic Rigor among Teachers and Students (STARTS), through Appreciative Inquiry (AI). This study was grounded on experiential learning theory by Kolb (1984) and the social construction of reality theory of change by Barrett, Thomas, and Hocevar (1995). Purposive sampling was done to select teachers and senior high school students from the three beneficiary schools in Oriental Mindoro. Data were gathered through appreciative interviews, observations, FGD, and documentary analysis and were analyzed through transcription of the interviews, coding, categorizing, and thematic analysis (Merriam, 1989). The results were presented using the 4D model (Discovery, Dream, Design, and Destiny) of AI (Cooperrider & Srivastva, 1987). Results showed that among the best features of STARTS are needs-sensitive, contextualized, performance-based, collaborative, output-based, and self-sufficient.