FOLLOW MY LEAD INSTRUCTION Vis-à-Vis SILHIG DANCE PERFORMANCE

Abstract

The Silhig Festival is a cultural dance performed during celebrations in Paknaan, Mandaue City, Cebu, and has been showcased to promote the locally made silhig (brooms) for which the barangay is known, both in the local market and internationally (Lao, 2016). Broom production has been slowly declining as livelihoods shift from small enterprises to corporate industries, and the support of local livelihood and the promotion of the Silhig dance are therefore needed, since many residents have relied on broom making as their source of living. The shift to modular distance learning during the pandemic further limited opportunities for learners to experience and learn the dance. This study assessed Grade 7 learners’ MAPEH Silhig Festival dance performance before and after exposure to Follow My Lead instruction at Paknaan National High School, Mandaue City, School Year 2021–2022, as a basis for creating an Illustrative Guide of the Silhig Festival. A quantitative descriptive-correlational design with a one-group pre-test–post-test component was used. Sixty-seven (67) Grade 7 learners from four sections completed a 15-item knowledge test on the nature and background of the dance, a rubric-based performance task on the ten basic steps (maximum 16 points), a five-item costume test, and a 15-item, four-point perception questionnaire. Data were analyzed using means, standard deviations, paired-samples t-tests, and Pearson’s correlation. After exposure to Follow My Lead, mean scores rose significantly in all three competencies: describing the nature and background of the dance, from 4.00 (Low) to 9.81 (Moderate), t(66) = 25.322; executing the ten basic steps, from 4.96 (Developing) to 14.60 (Advanced), t(66) = 51.105; and determining the appropriate costume, from 1.42 (Low) to 4.51 (Excellent), t(66) = 31.906 (all p < .001). Learners’ perceptions of the utilization of Follow My Lead, the dance features, and the festival significance were all interpreted as Strongly Agree (overall M = 3.58, SD = 0.47). Performance and perception were not significantly related (r = −.062, p = .621), so the second null hypothesis was not rejected. Learners’ post-test performance was higher than their pre-test performance in all three competencies, and their perceptions of the approach were highly favorable. Because the study had no comparison group, these gains cannot be attributed causally to the instruction. An Illustrative Guide for the Silhig Festival dance for Grade 7 learners of Paknaan National High School was developed as a supplementary instructional material.