EDITORIAL- Vol. 3, Issue 2

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.

Category: Announcement

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