REVIEW ON THE DELIVERY OF GENERAL STUDY SKILLS MODULE: A TUTORS’ EXPERIENCE

Teaching delivery is an approach based on professional identity that creates a distinct classroom culture. Delivering General Study Skills (GSS) as a core modules in the Faculty of Foundation Studies (FFS) of Gulf College (GC) combines the difficulties of teaching with institutional expectations and students’ demand for quality instruction. This study aimed to assess the delivery of GSS module and its impact on the module outcomes for General Foundation (GFP) students. It also identified gaps in the delivery of the module that contributed to the performance of the students and came up with suggestions for improvement that would help programme leaders and module leaders modify the module descriptors and device teaching and learning activities (TLAs) suited to the level of the students. Looking at the module outcomes, of 325 students who took GSS for the Second Semester of AY 2017-2018, there were 237 or 69.8 percent passed the module and 66 or 20.4 percent failed. Of the total number of students, 32 or 9.8 percent did not submit the requirements for the module or no attendance at all. Using a Focused Group Discussion (FGD) among the participants, the researchers found six (6) important themes such as student’s motivation, students’ capability, challenging role, patience, heavy assessment methods and level of difficulty. In student’s motivation, the students are not serious in their studies and they are not attending their classes regularly as most of them are working students; in students’ capability, the students faced difficulty in understanding the lessons and can’t cope with the requirements of the module due to inability to understand English language; in challenging role, the teachers need to focus on teaching the basic of research as the modules requires a research-based outputs. A big challenge is that the tutors are expected to deliver the module in such a way that students should be able to come up with a portfolio containing 800 to 1,000 words research based written report subject for turnitin. Patience of the tutors is challenged in handling this module. Despite of this challenge, GSS tutors were able to transfer learnings as far as the required learning outcomes are concerned. They believed that patience played a vital role in teaching this module that helped a lot to deliver the module with maximum efficiency; in assessment method, three heavy assessments are expected for students which they find it difficult as it requires a lot of time, preparation and research skills. Thus, the tutors are challenged to meet a 100 percent module. The module’s level of difficulty is too high to the students’ level of intellect. Considering that, the students are still in the foundation level, yet they were bombarded with research-based activities which is already done by the undergraduate students in their terminal courses. GSS as one of the core modules of GFP is difficult on the part of the students. It implies that the module needs to be reviewed in terms of its expected learning outcomes, module assessment, teaching and learning activities. In addition, students’ level of communication skills and attitudes towards their studies need to take into consideration. To address the gaps, FFS with its Programme and Module Leaders should review the current curriculum of GSS to meet the desired outcomes. The module descriptors should need to be redesigned in such a way that it should meet not only the OAAA and the partner university requirements but also the needs of the GFP students. The teaching and learning activities (TLAs) particularly the activities included in the portfolio need to be reviewed and lowered its level of difficulty.  Article visualizations

READING ABILITY OF EFL LEARNERS: THE CASE OF LEVEL 3 STUDENTS OF GULF COLLEGE, OMAN

This study was conducted to analyze the reading ability of EFL learners which focused on the comprehension skill of level 3 students of Gulf College enrolled in academic English: ELP and EAPSS during the first semester of academic year 2016-2017. The aims of this study was to find out the level of reading comprehension of the students and identified what factors contributed to the poor comprehension and come up  with an  intervention to help students of level 3 students. In an effort to determine the reading comprehension of the level 3 students, the researcher used descriptive method of research and purposive sampling technique to identify their reading comprehension. A diagnostic reading test was administered to the two batches of level 3 students under him and all these students were the respondents of the study. These groups of students were given a teacher-made reading test to identify their comprehension ability in terms of noting details, inferring, predicting outcomes, getting the main idea, and vocabulary building. Result showed that 78 percent of the students are poor in predicting outcomes and getting the main idea. Inferring (75.6 %) was also another skill that students are low garnering 75.6 percent. Followed by vocabulary building and noting details with 56.2 percent and 53.6 percent respectively. This implies that the students have not developed their higher order thinking skill in reading and that most of the L3 students are struggling readers. Their high comprehension ability needs to be reinforced.     Article visualizations

The New Normal in Education: A Challenge to the Private Basic Education Institutions in the Philippines?

This article aims to examine and discuss the challenges faced by the private basic education institutions in the Philippines as an effect of the Covid-19 pandemic. This pandemic has brought a dilemma to educational institutions especially when the government announced and ordered not to open face to face classes for Academic Year 2020 – 2021 until the Covid-19 vaccine. In response to this order, the Department of Education (DepEd) released department order nos. 007, 12, 13, and 14 series of 2020 instructing all basic education institutions to come up with their learning continuity plan (LCP) and health and safety protocols in the new normal in education during the pandemic. The bigger challenge is now passed on to the private basic education schools. Literature cited herein develop a framework as to the necessary measures every private basic education institutions must do in the re-opening of the schools. As there are limited studies written on the same nature, the author suggests a thorough study on the various facets of the online learning involving the children of the private basic education institutions

EFFECT OF CLASS ATTENDANCE ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Student attendance is one of the issues that most teachers in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is facing today. Many colleges and universities have compulsory attendance policies while others have refrain from making it as such. Despite the different policies, higher education teachers believe that attendance has positive effect in academic performance. Non-attendance in class lecture is seen as one of the reasons for academic failure. This study aimed to find out the relationship between class attendance and academic performance of the L3 Omani undergraduate students in their English courses during the first semester of 2020-2021. The two English Language courses comprise 20 credit each to gauge students’ English proficiency, at least IELTS 6.0, as a general entry requirement to Level 4 of the undergraduate programme. The two courses are taught separately through lectures, seminar type and practical sessions based on the module descriptors prescribed by the affiliate university. Each module is delivered in two hours and fifteen minutes per week. Thus, it is expected that each student has to attend the teaching sessions for 11 weeks with a total of 24 hours complete attendance in one semester. Result revealed that almost 71% of the L3 Omani undergraduate students had accumulated poor attendance which is below the 70% required attendance as per the attendance policy of the college. The average absence of students in the two English modules is identical with a minimum of five absences in a semester. Further, the result revealed that there is a significant relationship in the class attendance on the student performance in the two English modules at 0.01 level of significance. Therefore, the null hypothesis “There is no significant relationship between students’ class attendance and academic performance”, is rejected. The mark and absence of the students have negative inverse correlation. It means that as the absence of the student increases, the mark also decreases of at least 1 mark. It is concluded that students’ class attendance is very critical in terms of learning as it affects students’ achievement. To address the issue, a holistic approach to engage students both within and outside the classroom is recommended.  Article visualizations

Remote Teaching and Learning in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic

This article aims to provide a clear lens of the new trend in the academe in terms of teaching and learning in the context of COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. It also highlights the pedagogical approaches used in the conduct of online classes, challenges, and opportunities in teaching and learning. Through literature-based methodology, the authors as academicians, described, summarized and analysed data using the four-step approach by UNESCO (2020). Findings showed that the most common strategy that had been designed and utilized to mirror the classroom environment was the synchronous and the asynchronous online teaching and learning approach. The implementation of online teaching and learning modality was embraced by both teachers and students despite being unprepared to the abrupt change. Educational institutions had sustained the delivery of education for the past school year despite noticeable risks, problems and challenges. The continuous improvement is still underway and educational administrators are looking at possible means to fill the identified gaps. The abrupt change in the teaching and learning has given an opportunity for teachers to teach innovatively and students learn independently. Providing a full report on the status of teaching and learning during the pandemic gives a full overview of the actual academe scenario as an effect of the pandemic. Challenges and opportunities identified provide the real scenario of online teaching