Research design

This study used the descriptive-survey method of research using questionnaire as the main research tool in gathering data. The researcher utilized the combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods. The former was used to describe the characteristics of ABM teachers in terms of their socio-demographic profile and to discuss and assess their digital competence while the latter was applied to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the ABM educational software.

This research design method is the most applicable design for this study since mixing data sets can give a better understanding of the problem and yield more complete evidence. Some objectives of the study need the profiling of the respondents which demand a quantitative approach; however, the researcher also needs opinions in utilizing the educational software through open-ended questions which are deemed subjective and best dealt by qualitative methods.

In its essence, the combination of quantitative and qualitative research method was used to gain a better understanding of connections or contradictions between qualitative and quantitative data; they provided opportunities for participants to have a strong voice and share their experiences across the research process, and they facilitated different avenues of exploration that enrich the evidence and enable questions to be answered more deeply (^{Wisdom & Creswell, 2013}).

Research participants

This study was composed of purposively selected four schools in Nagcarlan, Laguna, Philippines. The schools were selected based on its population which are all categorized as ‘Large’ schools. The researcher conducted a survey on the total of 138 ABM teachers in the selected schools.

In terms of age, 27 or 20% of the teachers are 30-34 years old while 3 or 2% are 60 years old and above. It is also observed that a great number (20 or 14%) of the teachers are 25-29 years old. This implies that some of the teachers are already almost to their retirement age. The majority (94 or 68%) of the teachers are married. However, 44 or 32% are single. The majority (93 or 67%) of the teachers are female, and about 33% are male. The majority (89 or 64%) of the teachers are with master units. It is also observed that there is a great number (22 or 16%) of teachers with master’s degree. The majority (72 or 52%) of the teachers are on one to eight years in the service. While least (5 or 4%) are on 34-39 years in the service. This implies that teachers who rendered more than 21 years have more experience using traditional and innovative teaching methods in ABM. The majority (96 or 70%) of teachers attended below three training or seminars related to technology. A great number (32 or 23%) of teachers attended 4-6 training or seminars related to technology. This shows that teachers engaged themselves in attending technological-related seminars and training to upgrade their capability on new trends.

Most (59 or 43%) of the teachers have been using technology for less than five years. A great number (52 or 38%) of teachers use technology for 5-9 years. This indicates that teachers are trying to integrate technology into classroom instruction, making it an effective tech integration across the curriculum to deepen and enhance the learning process.

The majority (81 or 59%) of the teachers experience moderate internet connection, 48 or 35% of the teachers experiences low internet connection. Almost all teachers (134 or 97%) have laptops, while most (116 or 84%) have smartphones. Lastly, almost all (126 or 91%) of the teachers do not own a tablet.

Instrumentation

The google form served as a survey instrument to collect the needed data. The form was subdivided into four parts: first is the ABM teachers' socio-demographic profile, including age, sex, civil status, educational attainment, years in teaching, and number of related seminars and training attended for the last three years. Second, is the technological related profile, which included the number of years using technology, devices' availability, and internet connection availability. It also contains the teacher’s frequency in using the educational software using a ten-point scale where one indicates that the teacher had never utilized the specified software and 10 indicates that the teacher uses the software every time s/he teaches. The perceived capability of teachers on using ABM software was also included where in a ten-point Likert scale was used. The number one indicates that the teacher cannot use the educational software, and 10 indicates extremely capable. The third is the digital competence of ABM teachers adapted from the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers. It utilized the five-point Likert scale where one indicates the strong disagreement of the teacher in the statement defining his technical competencies, whereas five denotes strong agreement. Lastly, it contained an open-ended question which all about the teacher’s experiences in integrating technology as part of the instructional materials as well as their perceived strengths and weakness of the educational software.

Arbitrary norms used in the study for the digital competence level of teachers’ frequency of using the educational software and for the capability of teachers in using it are described in Figure 1.

Validation procedures

To ensure high reliability, the researcher conducted interviews with 25 respondents. A total of 163 samples were obtained, of which 25 samples for pre-testing was obtained from the different schools outside the Nagcarlan District.

In the second phase, the researcher conducted a scale reliability analysis with Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. Literally, a scale is considered reliable if Cronbach's Alpha coefficient is greater than 0.7 and its corrected total-item correlation of each item is greater than 0.3. With the certification of the statistician, the alpha coefficient for the fifty-two items in the survey questionnaire is 0.956, suggesting that the items have relatively very high internal consistency. Therefore, it is reliable and accepted.

Data analysis

Data gathered in relation to the level of digital competence of the ABM teachers were analysed through descriptive statistics such as mean. Descriptive ratings were also indicated for clear presentation purposes. Furthermore, qualitative data were analysed through content analysis, focusing on the words and opinions that were gathered in the open-ended questions.

Ethical considerations

In the conduct of the research, the following ethical principles were observed. The researcher maintained the privacy and confidentiality of the participants by assigning codes/ pseudonym to the respondents. All documents pertaining to the participants were placed in a secured and locked filing cabinet. After the research, the said documents were destroyed through shredding and the recorded interview was deleted. The researcher provided the participants with proper orientation on the purpose of the study. The benefits that they get from the research were explained to them. Their willingness to participate by answering the questions during the interview is tantamount to an implied consent. Voluntary participation was solicited from the respondents. They were informed that they can withdraw their participation anytime. The researcher ensured that respect of dignity, autonomy, and the involuntariness of the research participants were not compromised during the conduct of the research. The participants benefited from the study because the result was used to develop suitable support programs for them. There was no compensation given to the respondents for participating in the interview.

Level of competence of the ABM teachers in using the educational software in terms of:

- Frequency of use

Findings show that teachers ‘always’ use MS Excel as indicated by a mean rating of 7.00 (Table 1). This indicates that MS Excel is a valuable resource in the ABM classroom, since it provides numerous advantages through its functionalities, formulas, graphs or charts, and tables. Teachers find it easier to use excel worksheets in the classroom. Thus, excel spreadsheets can also be used to create graphs or tables effectively and efficiently. On the other hand, teachers ‘sometimes’ use Pabbly and Wave with a mean rating of 5.34 and 6.06. This means that, despite the significant benefits of using Wave and Pabbly in improving students' understanding of accounting, business, and management and providing a great opportunity for visualization, manipulation, and exploration of figures and concepts, a significant number of teachers are still having difficulty effectively implementing it in their classrooms. However, teachers ‘almost never’ and ‘never’ used the following applications: Intuit QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks, Sage 50cloud, Xero, AccountEdgePro, NetSuite ERP. Accounting See, and K-12 Online.

- Teachers’ capability of utilizing the educational software

In terms of the capability of utilizing the educational software, results show that teachers are Very Much Capable of using MS Excel, as indicated by a mean rating of 7.50 (Table 2). This signifies that MS Excel is a great help in the ABM classroom, thus, offers many benefits with its functions, formulas, graphs or charts, and tables. In teaching, teachers find it easier to make use of excel worksheets, such as grading sheets or the Electronic Class Record (e-class record), different forms, like Form 1, which is the student’s profile, Form 2 for the student's attendance, and many more. Creating graphs or tables can also be carried out effectively and efficiently by using excel spreadsheets.

According to ^{Chaamwe and Shumba (2016}), a spreadsheet is a helpful tool for educators. Using spreadsheets promotes higher-order thinking skills. Several assignments use formulas, which are then generalized, so it enables to see how the outcome is changed when one of the variables in the formula is altered. The spreadsheet tool promotes the development of problem-solving skills and supports ‘what if’ type questions. Some templates have formulas inserted to focus on problem-solving, while the computer makes the calculations for them. Educators make charts and graphs from spreadsheet records, organize their ideas, and present information to the learners. Charts add meaning to information, helping to analyse and interpret data to identify the maximum and minimum, mean, median, and mode of a data set. The computer can generate bar graphs, line graphs, and pie charts.

Meanwhile, the teachers are Averagely Capable of using Wave with a mean rating of 6.06; Pabbly having a mean rating of 5.34; Xero with a mean rating of 4.48 and AccountEdgePro having a mean rating of 4.72. This implies that despite the remarkable benefits of using Wave and Pabbly in enhancing students’ learning of accounting, business and management and providing a great opportunity for visualization, manipulation, and exploration of figures and concepts. A considerable number of teachers are still struggling with the task of effectively using it for everyday teaching. Even though teachers have access to computers and appropriate software is available both in school and at home, technology is rarely integrated substantially into everyday teaching. The authors argue that although using Computer Accounting System in upper-level secondary school has a high potential for procedural concepts to be followed, it leads to black-boxing the central concepts that focus on the teaching (^{Bu, Spector, & Haciomeroglu, 2011}). Existing technology equipment should be used to the maximum by the educators. The use of technology is important because it serves as an object of education, which affects the learning content and objectives, and as a medium to improve the teaching and learning process (^{Agyei & Voogt, 2011}).

Furthermore, teachers need assistance in all other software mentioned in the study, which is indicated by a mean rating of 2.76 to 3.71. The results imply that teachers with strong work methods were better at exploiting the potential of MS Excel, Wave, Pabbly, Xero and AccountEdgePro. On the other side, they lack the integration and technical Knowledge of using Intuit QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks, Sage 50cloud, NetSuite ERP, Accounting Seed, and K-12 Online in the teaching-learning process.

- Level of digital competence of the ABM Teachers in terms of:

a. Technology literacy in the everyday work of a teacher

Findings show that teachers have high digital competency and technology literacy in everyday work as indicated by a mean rating of 4.10 (Table 3). The results imply that teachers have high technology literacy and adopting how learners construct ABM knowledge and develop skills integrating technology. Moreover, teachers were able to build a learning community in the classroom in which students are continuously engaged in developing their own and each other's learning skills.

When students learn to communicate, a deep understanding occurs, and this ability helps create a literate individual. Thus, the demonstration of literacy has been a requirement to understand concepts and use ideas and communicate thoughts clearly (^{Ruthven, Hennessy, & Brindley, 2004}). ^{Olumide (2018}) insisted that communication opportunities should regularly exist in the classroom because it was common for students to think they understood a new concept until required to explain their understanding to another. Without the opportunity to engage in this exchange, students may realize they lack sufficient understanding and the language skills to articulate their thought clearly.

b. Knowledge deepening in the everyday work of a teacher

Results reveal that teachers have high digital competency and knowledge deepening in everyday work, having a mean rating of 4.00 (Table 4). This implies that teachers understand policy goals and social priorities, identify, design, and use specific classroom activities to address these goals and priorities. Thus, it enables the use of ICT to create and monitor individual and group student project plans, accesses information and experts, and collaborate with other teachers to support their professional learning.

^{Amineh and Asl (2015}) suggested that young educators view all new ideas and knowledge through the lens of their own experiences and apply those experiences to make sense of new information. Experience and active participation, relevancy, and purpose create new understanding by linking information to prior knowledge and are integral characteristics of an effective learning environment. Thus, indicating that young educators had higher levels of technological literacy and implementation than their older counterparts. Added by ^{Greenhow, Robelia, and Hughes (2009}), young educators recognize the digital differences and accept that learning for many students takes place in a more personal, meaningful, and distinctive way, their interests and needs. When contemplating 21^st century needs such as communication and collaboration, ^{Letwinsky (2017}) agreed that the opportunities made possible by technology provided a more effective way to reach students and foster a more collaborative, diverse, and communication-rich atmosphere.

c. Knowledge creation in the everyday work of a teacher

Findings show that ABM teachers have ‘Very High’ capability on Knowledge Creation in the Everyday Work of a Teacher with a mean rating of 4.35 (Table 5). This implies that teachers are competent in the knowledge creation approach and enable to design of ICT-based learning resources and environments, thus, using ICT to support the development of knowledge creation and critical thinking skills.

d. Technology literacy

The findings show that ABM teachers have ‘very high’ capability on Technology Literacy with a mean rating of 4.38 (Table 6). The results imply that teacher practice involves knowing where and when to use technology for classroom activities, presentations, management tasks, and acquisition of subject matter and pedagogical Knowledge to support the teachers' professional learning. Teachers use an alternative delivery mode of learning.

Specifically, teacher-participant 20, said: “It is with great help to the learners having the E- tulay in tv broadcasting as one of the sources of their learning”.

E- tulay is a free online tutorial platform for learners given by excellent and inspiring educators, who assume the role of a facilitator and guide the students to another level of a learning experience.

Teacher- participant 90 also shared the same thoughts, “To supplement the printed modules given to the students, I see to it that I can meet my class through Google meet”.

No matter the type of channel used (radio, TV, mobile, online platforms, etc), a great percentage of the participants said that they needed to adapt their practices and be creative to keep students engaged as every household has become a classroom - more than not - without an environment that supports learning.

In the study of ^{Apostolou, Dorminey, Hassell, and Rebele (2015}), the tasks required in a context include, for example, reading instructions from graphical displays in user interfaces; utilizing digital reproduction to create new, meaningful materials from existing ones; constructing knowledge from nonlinear, hypertextual navigation; evaluating the quality and validity of information, and have a mature and realistic understanding of the rules that prevail in the cyberspace. The newly emerging concept of technological literacy may be utilized to measure the quality of learners' work in technological environments and provide scholars and developers with a more effective means of communication in designing better user-oriented environments.

e. Knowledge deepening

The findings show that ABM teachers have ‘very high’ capability on Knowledge Deepening in the Everyday Work of a Teacher with a mean rating of 4.33 (Table 7). This implies that teachers employed open-ended ICT tools specific to their subject areas, such as visualizations and data visualizations.

To better understand the results, Table 8 presents the summary of the Level of Digital Competence of the ABM teachers.

Results reveal that the ABM teachers are highly competent in technological literacy and in the knowledge deepening in their everyday work. Whereas in terms of their knowledge creation, technology literacy and knowledge deepening in general, they possess a very high digital competence. This only implicates that the teachers in the ABM discipline are very highly competent in integrating technology in their day-to-day work including their teaching practice and other ancillary works and in terms of their professional development.

According to UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers, (^{United Nations Educational, Scientifi c and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2011}), ‘technology literacy’ enables the learners, citizens, and the workforce to use ICT to support social development and improve economic activity. It involves the use of various ICT tools and digital content as part of whole class, group, and individual student activities. ‘Knowledge deepening’ increases the ability of students, citizens, and the workforce to add value to society and to the economy by applying the knowledge gained in school subjects to solve complex, high priority problems encountered in real world situations of work, society and in life generally. Teaching is student-centred and the teacher’s role is to structure tasks, guide student understanding and to support students as they tackle collaborative projects. Teachers help students create, implement, and monitor project plans and solutions. Lessons and classroom structure are more dynamic, with students working in groups for extended periods of time. In guiding students’ understanding of key concepts, teachers will employ open-ended ICT tools that are specific to their subject area, such as visualizations in science, data analysis tools in mathematics and role play simulations in social studies. Teacher competencies related to this include the ability to manage information, structure problem tasks, and integrate open-ended software tools and subject-specific applications with student-centred teaching methods and collaborative projects in support of students’ in-depth understanding of key concepts and their application to complex, real-world problems (^{Norton & Hathaway, 2012}). ‘Knowledge creation’ increases productivity by creating students, citizens, and a workforce that is continually engaged in, and benefits from, knowledge creation, innovation, and life-long learning. This includes teacher’s skills such as problem solving, communication, collaboration, experimentation, critical thinking, and creative expression. Teachers who are competent in the knowledge creation approach will be able to design ICT-based learning resources and environments; use ICT to support the development of knowledge creation and the critical thinking skills of students; support students’ continuous, reflective learning; and create knowledge communities for students and colleagues.

The participants narrated that they must engage technology in this pandemic to cope with the present situation of the new normal education. Teacher-participant 10 said, “Being a teacher in this era, I also need to adjust to the changes. One of the best practices is to learn and study about the technology”.

Teacher-participant 20 also revealed that, “Making own videos, sending links, and downloading videos related to the lesson are the practices I employed for the learner to understand better the topics given to them”.

Technology-enhanced government-teacher support, adapting existing coaching programs to be delivered remotely, creating spaces for peer support programs, such as the Virtual EdCamps initiative, created to facilitate peer-to-peer learning among teachers or establish EdTech hotlines for teachers. Hence, technology interventions enhanced teacher engagement with students through improved access to content, data, and networks, helping teachers better support student learning.

^{Malik (2018}) mentioned a growing demand for educational institutions to use ICT to teach students skills and knowledge for the 21^st century. Realizing the effect of ICT on the workplace and everyday life, today’s educational institutions try to restructure their educational curricula and classroom facilities to bridge the existing technology gap in teaching and learning. This restructuring process requires effective adoption of technologies into an existing environment to provide learners with knowledge of specific subject areas, promote meaningful learning, and enhance professional productivity.

Perceived strengths and weaknesses of ABM educational software

The computerized accounting and business software that is available today has come a long way in its development over the years to be supported and used among Senior High School campuses. When it comes to keeping track of spending, preparing taxes, and analysing income development, many systems promote themselves as making the lives of company owners simpler. Despite the proliferation of accounting and business software applications and the fact that doing all of one's bookkeeping on a computer has both positive and negative aspects, it remains the most prevalent method.

As per teacher respondents, the strengths of ABM educational software include accounting software systems provide advantages to train ABM students in their future work where they find difficult to handle most accounting responsibilities. There is a diverse selection of user-friendly accounting software solutions available.

Most today's most popular software packages are intuitive and easy to use. Teacher-participant 3 said, “It’s easy to use, so students can have vivid representation in their minds on using the system and can be a tilt of use in terms of advancement”. Because the calculations are correct and trustworthy, the students may reliably and properly calculate the amount of cash and other accounting items that are accessible at any given time which is very usable for students to use.

A variety of software applications in schools might provide business students the unlimited access to an accounting system's data. This enables the learners to swiftly balance their finances and import the right information that must be evaluated by their key advisers. As Teacher-participant 2 mentioned, “This will be a training ground for students in the real business and accounting field to hover exploration and convenient use of software’s in tallying and entering data”.

On the other hand, the respondents perceived weaknesses include - there are occasions when the utilization of ABM software leads to lower level of teacher’s readiness in the learning process. One teacher-participant said, “Sometimes, I find it difficult to integrate the software in the crafting of lesson plan”. Teachers felt unprepared which at times may hinder the learning process’.

The curriculum guide used by the teachers in the present times includes a limited integration of accounting software. ‘Curriculum developers must also update the existing curriculum specifically in ABM discipline. Theories are substantial, but in this era, an advance curriculum that gives highlight to the 21^st century skills must be given an utmost importance’, as Teacher-participant 5 exclaimed. While this situation needs a strong call to the curriculum planners, a work immersion must be a great way to alleviate this predicament. A teacher-participant mentioned,

[…] before the pandemic, one way for our students to better learn the software is through exposing them to the actual work setting, but because of some restrictions, there must be a work immersion action plan tailored in the current situation we are in.

Work Immersion is indeed needed by the SHS ABM students so that they can master the skills required in their major in preparation for a job (^{Alcobendas, 2022}).

Another is the teacher’s familiarity in the use of software. “For me, training is one of the lacking expertise that our school must offer. It is a must to mobilize the teaching strategies of teachers since it could affect the academic performance of the students […]”, Teacher-participant 7 said. Through participating in various seminars and trainings, teachers will become an advocate of quality education. They will gain knowledge from an experiential learning process and will have an expertise in the use of ABM software.

Proper planning and software integration can help students avoid computerized accounting's shortcomings. “I think student development is one that we should also focus on especially in the usage of digital tools […]”, Teacher-participant 5 shared. Immersing the students with the various activities that will sharpen their skills in ABM academic discipline is a steaming factor to mould them holistically that will contribute to building the action.

It has been noted by the researcher that all the accounting software can be purchased online for free subscription under the Philippine Department of Education (DepEd) Account Gsuite. Thus, this further implies that the teachers specifically in public schools have a free unlimited access to an instructional tool which may help them to an effective teaching.