Enderun Colleges had a Call for Papers in relation to the online conference that was held last September 17-18, 2020 entitled Future Careers & Curriculum Development. The conference focused on Higher Education in the Philippines with regards to the current pandemic that changed the instruction and learning methods of teachers and students, hence, the six winning papers in this special issue of our journal talks about pedagogy especially in higher education and its other components and issues.
We welcome the study of Marco Mandap on cyberlearning which appears to be one of the few scientific attempts to study student motivation and engagement within an online class situation in the Philippines. The current COVID crisis makes this study even more important as cyberlearning will likely expand and certainly rival face-to-face teaching in the immediate and midterm future. In his study, Mandap ‗back engineers‘ a typical learning management system as used in the host institution where he breaks down the system into its 13 component parts and tests each one for the extent of student use. It is a clever study and by back-engineering the LMS, Mandap equivalently bares the workings of online education and offers indications how both teachers and students can gain more from the online learning experience.
The study of Sheena Mae T. Comighud is a refreshing, if not provocative work which begins by focusing on the gaps in research on employee engagement as an indicator of job performance and how these contribute to organizational efficiency of an enterprise as a whole. In the studies she cites, she found that there are no critical measures of the level of teachers‘ employee engagement and therefore no ―parameters on the relationship of personnel profile components with the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of job performance. Nor have these studies shown the influence of these factors on organizational efficiency.‖ Her research thus stands as a potential blueprint for studies relating employee profile/engagement/performance and organizational efficiency.
Information Literacy for Lifelong learning is the focus of the study conducted by Dr. Lozanta. It extensively determined the information literacy skills of five hundred two (502) tertiary students and fifty-eight (58) school administrators from different universities in the National Capital Region (NCR). The Information literacy is defined as ―a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed, and the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information‖ (Association of College and Research Libraries, 2000). It concluded that the students in higher academic levels are information literate, technology-savvy, and considered millennials however; they have a less critical approach to information evaluation. Students may know where and how to access information but still, they encounter challenges in analyzing and evaluating the information. Thus, reccommendations to enhance this skill is a must read.
In any sectors, collaboration and partnership is necessary, but this is sometimes taken lightly in the academe and industry partnership which often limited to off-campus trainings and practice. The research conducted by Dr. Navarro entitled Organizational Collaboration for an Industry-Academe Symbiotic Framework just hit on the right spot. The predominant constraint is the lack of proper mechanisms to facilitate effective collaborations with academe. Other significant obstacles include an apparent lack of entrepreneurial spirit among academics, the low commercialization potential of academic research, incompatibility of academic structures with the needs of collaboration, and a lack of awareness of facilities and expertise available. The result confirmed that there is a need to enhance collaboration between the two sectors.
A few would try to attempt this kind of study unless you are a specialist, that is why Russell Irene Lagunsad’s contribution in tackling our history in the study of Baybaying Filipino is one of a kind, “Ang kasaysayan ng Baybayin ay nahahati sa tatlong yugto: Ang panahon ng liwanag, panahon ng karimlan at ang panahon ng bagong liwanag. Ang naging batayan sa pagpili ng magiging porma o istilo ng mga titik-Baybaying Filipino ay may taglay na kalinawan, karaniwan, kilala, kagandahan, kilanlan, kinatawan, kagaanan at kaangkupan sa teknolohiya”. This interesting research would help us understand our own language and how it evolves from the past and what could we do to preserve it in our present time.
Last but not the least is the research of Abanto and Tondo that experimented on the effectiveness of teaching disaster readiness and risk reduction by using case-based teaching to students. Primarily, the objectives of this study are the following: to assess the effectiveness of CBTL; and to create a well-defined instructional technique. It is a good discovery to help our teachers conduct effective instructional method that would ready the students in times of disasters which often happen a lot in any of part of the country.
Those are just amongst many of the worth reading studies and researches conducted by our researchers in the Philippines. We hope to continually be an avenue to make their findings and discoveries known to every individual who seek new knowledge and information and make good use of it for the betterment of themselves and others.
