The Mediating Effect of School Culture on the Relationship Between Student Engagement and Public Speaking Class Anxiety

This study determined the mediating effect of school culture on the relationship between student engagement and public speaking class anxiety among first-year college students of selected tertiary schools in Panabo City, Davao del Norte, with 346 respondents. The researcher used a stratified random sampling technique using Slovin’s formula to get the ideal sample size. Moreover, this study utilized a non-experimental quantitative research design employing a descriptive correlational approach. Furthermore, the findings revealed that the level of student engagement is high, the level of public speaking class anxiety is moderate, and the level of school culture is also high. The correlation analysis between student engagement and public speaking anxiety (r-value: 0.479), student engagement and school culture (r-value: 0.642), and school culture and public speaking class anxiety (r-value: 0.354) tested at 0.05 level of significance, the hypothesis was rejected which indicates that the results mean that there is a significant relationship among the three correlational variables. The findings proved a partial mediation. Thus, this proves that the higher the students are engaged, the more they can reduce their level of public speaking anxiety, and this positive relationship could be affected significantly by the mediating interventions of school culture.