Management practices of teachers in handling bullying in the classroom: Basis for enhancing homeroom guidance instruction

This study assessed the management practices of teachers in implementing strategies for preventing and addressing bullying. The main problem of the study was to assess the management practices of teachers in handling bullying in the classroom at Bombon Central School for the academic year 2022-2023, and serve as basis for enhancing the Homeroom Guidance Instruction. The study focused on: (1) the status of bullying in the school; (2) the common factors that cause bullying in the classroom; (3) the classroom management strategies used by teachers to handle bullying behaviors; (4) the significant relationship between the status of bullying and the factors that cause bullying in the classroom; (5) the significant difference among aspects of classroom management strategies; and (6) the development of an intervention program to enhance homeroom guidance instruction. This research adopted a descriptive-comparative-correlational research design. A total of thirty-three (33) teachers from Bombon Central School were selected for the study. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to gather the data. The results were analyzed using various statistical tools, namely Weighted Mean, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, and Analysis of Variance. The following findings were revealed: (1) the status of bullying showed an overall weighted mean score across all types of bullying of 1.84; (2) the factors causing bullying in the classroom, with an overall mean of 1.82; (3) the classroom management strategies employed by teachers for managing bullying behaviors, as measured with an average weighted mean across all strategies of 3.00; (4) the values for the significant relationship between the status of bullying and factors that cause bullying in the classroom were: Pearson's correlation analysis with correlation coefficients (r) range from +/-0.007 to +/-0.414, personal factors with physical bullying, got a correlation coefficient of 0.364 and a p-value of .037, and socio-economic factors with cyberbullying, with a correlation coefficient of -0.414 and a p-value of .016 to .971; (5) the MD and p-values for significant differences among aspects of classroom management strategies ranged from MD = 071 to 624 and p = .005 to .991 ; (6) a Homeroom Guidance Instruction was developed to handle bullying in the classroom. The conclusions drawn were: (1) the status of bullying in the school along verbal, physical were slightly observed, cyberbullying was rarely observed; (2) the common factors that cause bullying in the classroom, personal was slightly observed, intellectual and socio-economic factors were rarely observed; (3) the classroom management strategies used by the teachers to handle bullying behaviors in the classroom were moderately implemented, creating a positive climate was highly implemented; (4) there was a significant positive correlation between personal factor and physical bullying; conversely, there was a significant negative correlation between socio-economic factors and cyberbullying; (5) the results demonstrate significant differences in respondents' perceptions of various classroom management strategies; (6) A training program was developed to enhance teachers' homeroom guidance instruction to prevent classroom bullying effectively. The program was designed to equip educators with enhanced skills and strategies that would contribute to fostering a safer and more supportive classroom environment, thereby addressing and reducing instances of bullying among students.