Teaching leadership: an examination of best practices for leadership educators

This study explored the leadership perspectives of four school principals on creating a positive school culture and improving student outcomes. Four key themes emerged from the interviews: the importance of relationship building, focus on student learning, emphasis on professional development, and collaboration. The principals highlighted the significance of building strong relationships with staff and students as the foundation for creating a positive school culture. They emphasized the need for regular assessments to monitor student progress and creating a safe and engaging learning environment. The principals recognized the importance of ongoing professional development for themselves and their staff and believed that keeping up to date with new teaching methods and technologies was critical in providing students with the best possible education. Collaboration was also seen as essential, with the principals emphasizing the need to work collaboratively with staff, parents, and the wider community to achieve shared goals. Overall, the study suggests that effective school leadership requires a focus on building strong relationships, a commitment to student learning, ongoing professional development, and collaboration. These findings are consistent with previous research on effective school leadership, emphasizing the need for a collaborative and supportive school culture that prioritizes student learning and teacher development. The study has important implications for school leaders, highlighting the importance of relationship building, ongoing professional development, and collaboration in creating a positive school culture and improving student outcomes

Perspectives and experiences in online teaching and learning

This qualitative study aimed to explore the perspectives and experiences of students and teachers at PAU Excellencia Global Academy Foundation, Inc. in online teaching and learning. The study gathered data through in-depth interviews with 10 students and 10 teachers. The findings of the study revealed four main themes: (1) advantages of online teaching and learning, (2) challenges of online teaching and learning, (3) pedagogical strategies for online teaching and learning, and (4) recommendations for improving online teaching and learning. The participants identified several advantages of online teaching and learning, including flexibility, convenience, and accessibility. Participants also noted that online learning can be more cost-effective than traditional classroom-based learning. However, participants also identified several challenges, such as technical difficulties and poor internet connectivity, as well as the potential for isolation and the lack of face-to-face interaction. To address these challenges, participants recommended the use of effective communication and feedback, as well as the use of multimedia tools to enhance student engagement. Teachers also emphasized the importance of creating engaging online content that encourages student participation and active learning. Participants suggested the implementation of regular check-ins with students and the provision of academic support and resources. These findings provide valuable insights into the perspectives and experiences of students and teachers in online teaching and learning and can inform the development of effective online teaching and learning systems at PAU and other educational institutions in the Philippines

Assessing the impact of principal’s instructional leadership, school level, and effectiveness in educational institutions

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between instructional leadership and school effectiveness in educational institutions in Toledo City Division, Philippines. A mixed-methods approach was utilized, including a survey questionnaire and focus group discussions. The survey was administered to 13 school principals, while the focus group discussions involved 14 teachers and school administrators. The quantitative results showed that instructional leadership had a significant positive effect on school effectiveness, while school level did not have a significant effect. The qualitative findings highlighted the challenges faced by school principals in implementing effective instructional leadership practices, including resistance to change and limited resources. The importance of collaboration and communication between school principals, teachers, and the community in promoting effective instructional leadership practices was also emphasized. The comparative analysis of the quantitative and qualitative results revealed that while the survey results showed a significant positive relationship between instructional leadership and school effectiveness, the focus group discussions provided valuable insights into the challenges and strategies for effective implementation of instructional leadership practices. Overall, this study suggests that instructional leadership plays a critical role in enhancing school effectiveness in educational institutions in Toledo City Division, Philippines. The findings highlight the need for collaboration and communication between school leaders, teachers, and the community to ensure the success of instructional leadership practices. These findings have implications for educational policy and practice, emphasizing the importance of investing in instructional leadership development and support to improve school effectiveness

ICT application in teaching and learning

The purpose of this study was to investigate and assess the use of ICT in the teaching-learning process. This study assessed the senior high school students of PAU Excellencia Global Academy Foundation, Inc.’s students’ attitudes toward ICT integration and the effectiveness of ICT use in the teaching-learning process. The effectiveness of using ICT in the teaching-learning process, as well as the level of attitude toward ICT among the secondary school students participating in the research, were evaluated by the researcher using a descriptive-correlational engaging quantitative approach. As to the findings , one of the most important contributing aspects affecting a student’s success in various subjects and fields is their performance. Generous investments were justified by the firmly held belief that technology may improve student academic achievement by enabling more effective and efficient ICT integration into teaching-learning process for students

Holistic approach to dissolution kinetics : linking direction-specific microscopic fluxes, local mass transport effects and global macroscopic rates from gypsum etch pit analysis

Dissolution processes at single crystal surfaces often involve the initial formation and expansion of localized, characteristic (faceted) etch-pits at defects, in an otherwise comparatively unreactive surface. Using natural gypsum single crystal as an example, a simple but powerful morphological analysis of these characteristic etch pit features is proposed that allows important questions concerning dissolution kinetics to be addressed. Significantly, quantitative mass transport associated with reactive microscale interfaces in quiescent solution (well known in the field of electrochemistry at ultramicroelectrodes) allows the relative importance of diffusion compared to surface kinetics to be assessed. Furthermore, because such mass transport rates are high, much faster surface kinetics can be determined than with existing dissolution methods. For the case of gypsum, surface processes are found to dominate the kinetics at early stages of the dissolution process (small etch pits) on the cleaved (010) surface. However, the contribution from mass transport becomes more important with time due to the increased area of the reactive zones and associated decrease in mass transport rate. Significantly, spatial heterogeneities in both surface kinetics and mass transport effects are identified, and the morphology of the characteristic etch features reveal direction-dependent dissolution kinetics that can be quantified. Effective dissolution velocities normal to the main basal (010) face are determined, along with velocities for the movement of [001] and [100] oriented steps. Inert electrolyte enhances dissolution velocities in all directions (salting in), but a striking new observation is that the effect is direction-dependent. Studies of common ion effects reveal that Ca2+ has a much greater impact in reducing dissolution rates compared to SO42−. With this approach, the new microscopic observations can be further analysed to obtain macroscopic dissolution rates, which are found to be wholly consistent with previous bulk measurements. The studies are thus important in bridging the gap between microscopic phenomena and macroscopic measurements

Unravelling the origins of ice nucleation on organic crystals

Organic molecules such as steroids or amino acids form crystals that can facilitate the formation of ice – arguably the most important phase transition on earth. However, the origin of the ice nucleating ability of organic crystals is still largely unknown. Here, we combine experiments and simulations to unravel the microscopic details of ice formation on cholesterol, a prototypical organic crystal widely used in cryopreservation. We find that cholesterol – which is also a substantial component of cell membranes – is an ice nucleating agent more potent than many inorganic substrates, including the mineral feldspar (one of the most active ice nucleating materials in the atmosphere). Scanning electron microscopy measurements reveal a variety of morphological features on the surfaces of cholesterol crystals: this suggests that the topography of the surface is key to the broad range of ice nucleating activity observed (from −4 to −20 °C). In addition, we show via molecular simulations that cholesterol crystals aid the formation of ice nuclei in a unconventional fashion. Rather than providing a template for a flat ice-like contact layer (as found in the case of many inorganic substrates), the flexibility of the cholesterol surface and its low density of hydrophilic functional groups leads to the formation of molecular cages involving both water molecules and terminal hydroxyl groups of the cholesterol surface. These cages are made of 6- and, surprisingly, 5-membered hydrogen bonded rings of water and hydroxyl groups that favour the nucleation of hexagonal as well as cubic ice (a rare occurrence). We argue that the phenomenal ice nucleating activity of steroids such as cholesterol (and potentially of many other organic crystals) is due to (i) the ability of flexible hydrophilic surfaces to form unconventional ice-templating structures and (ii) the different nucleation sites offered by the diverse topography of the crystalline surfaces. These findings clarify how exactly organic crystals promote the formation of ice, thus paving the way toward deeper understanding of ice formation in soft and biological matter – with obvious reverberations on atmospheric science and cryobiology

INTERNET ADDICTION BEHAVIORS AS PREDICTORS OF FUNCTIONAL IMPAIRMENT AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS: A BASIS FOR INTERVENTION PROGRAM

The internet was originally used for military purposes to facilitatecommunication. However, commercialization leads to worldwide internet use.The demand for the internet is increasing and numerous studies have beenpublished regarding the pathological use of the internet or internet addiction.This study aimed to investigate internet addiction as a predictor of functionalimpairment in young adults. A total of 257 young adults participated and filledout a self-report questionnaire including Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and WeissFunctional Impairment Rating Scales Self-Report (WFIRS-S). There were 161(62.6%) females and 96 (37.4%) males. The participants' ages range were from18 years old to 24 years old (M=20.25, SD= 2.08). Pearson correlation wasconducted to examine the relationship between Internet Addiction (Salience,Excessive Use, Neglect Work, Anticipation, Lack of Control, and Neglect SocialLife) and Functional Impairment (Family, Work, School, Life Skills, Self-Concept,Social, and Risky Activities). The result shows that there were significant positivecorrelations among variables at N=257, p < .05 except between self-conceptand neglect social life. Multiple regression analyses were also utilized to findpredictors of Functional Impairment (FI) in terms of Internet Addiction (IA).Regression results suggest that IA variables namely: Salience, Neglect Work,Lack of Control, and Neglect Social Life are possible predictors of FI in theFamily, Work, School, Self-Concept, Social and Risk. However, no evidence wasfound in excessive use and anticipation of using the internet to functionalimpairment. In addition, the result has shown that life skills are not associatedwith any of the predictors

Automatic voice messaging and paging system

In today\u27s world it is evident that people have become preoccupied with many things to do. Due to this, opportunities have come and go without them being realized. The idea of staying in touch means being able to be reached by anyone and to respond to opportunities whenever such arrives.With this in mind, being in touch wherever you are is of the utmost importance. This research is focused on a system that will enable people to be notified and respond to them at the least amount of time. This will be realized through the use of a recording system that will store voice messages for the user, a notification system that will notify the user and a remote retrieval system that will enable the user to be able to listen to the voice message from wherever he may be. All of which will be connected to a telephone line