ROLE OF SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH IN PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS AND READINESS FOR ONLINE LEARNING AMONG COLLEGE FILIPINO STUDENTS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A PILOT STUDY

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions in the Philippines rapidly introduced widespread online learning to ensure safety of learners. The purpose of this study was to explore the possible relationship of social determinants of health with COVID-19 specific psychological distress and the readiness of Filipino students to learn online. Researchers conducted an online survey of 30 college students from the Psychology program of Ateneo de Davao University in Davao City, Philippines. Results showed that students experienced mild (53.3%) to severe (36.7%) levels of COVID-19 specific psychological distress. COVID-19 specific psychological distress and readiness for online learning was not significantly correlated, r (30) = -.18, p = .35. Among social determinants of health, only living with family members was significantly associated with readiness for online learning, r (30) = -.37, p = .046. These findings showed promising findings on how social determinants of health may be associated with distress and online learner readiness during a global pandemic. Future studies may elaborate on the subjective experiences of students. Finally, this pilot study serves as a basis for the development of school programs that address students’ mental health and promote online learning readiness of students who are experiencing unique learning circumstances.

EXPLORING STUDENTS’ STEM IMAGINATION PROCESS THROUGH AN ENGINEERING DESIGN PROCESS

This research was conducted to explore the STEM imagination of Grade 10 students from one Malaysian rural secondary school that adopted the integration of the imagination process in an Engineering Design Process (EDP) through an outreach program in STEM. Four stages of the STEM imagination process were examined: initiation, dynamic adjustment, virtual implementation and implementation. A total of 50 students aged 16 participated in a 10-hour program which engaged them in designing and building two different prototypes. Data on students’ STEM imagination were captured through teachers’ field notes based on focus group interviews and observations. The findings reveal that students needed to draw from their lived experiences to brainstorm problems and solutions around a given scenario, and to arrive at a workable solution in order to move from the initiation to the implementation stage. The findings also suggested that the EDP approach is able to create a supportive environment for nurturing STEM imagination among rural secondary school students.

COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTION ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND ENGAGEMENT IN SCIENCE

This study determined the students’ academic achievement and engagement in science. A quasi-experimental research design was utilized. The study results showed that students exposed to CAI obtained “fairly satisfactory” results in the post-test, while those exposed to non-CAI showed “needs improvements” both in the pretest and post-test. Moreover, for students’ engagement in science, the CAI group had a high engagement level for affective, cognitive, and behavioral domains. In contrast, the non-CAI group had moderate engagement before and after the intervention. The students’ academic performance in science exposed to CAI is significantly higher than those exposed to non-CAI. Also, there is a significant difference in students’ engagement level for a cognitive domain in favor of CAI. It is concluded that CAI as a science learning tool enhances the students’ cognitive engagement.

THE INTERCULTURAL ASPECT OF DISTANCE EDUCATION IN GREECE: A CASE STUDY OF EXPLORING EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP’S REPRESENTATIONS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Intercultural education in Greece has recently been brought to the foreground, due to the worldwide migrant/refugee crisis. However, the COVID-19 pandemic outburst in 2020 forced distance education and, hence, technology utilization upon all stakeholders. In this regard, by adopting a qualitative approach and by exploring educational leaders’ representations, this paper aims to investigate whether intercultural and distance education principles can be combined in order for students with a different cultural background to continue attending their lessons, as most native students do. The findings of this study demonstrate that intercultural principles are hard or in some cases impossible to be applied in distance learning and consequently, refugee/migrant students end up falling behind or being entirely excluded from the educational process.

STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING LEVEL OF ONLINE TEACHING IN THE TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING (TVET) SECTOR

Although online education is not a recently emerged concept, the popularity of the concept has been boosted with the pandemic COVID-19, where the students have to depend totally on online education and they have been framed in it forcefully irrespective of the fact whether online education suits all type of education, especially for the sectors where the practicality is given the priority such as in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector. Therefore, there arises a need to investigate the understanding level of the students. The objectives of this research are to identify the students’ understanding level of online teaching and to evaluate the relationship between the understanding level of students and online teaching methods. The population of the study was all the students in the TVET sector in Sri Lanka and the sample was 294 students from 6 university colleges. Structured questionnaires were distributed among the sample for data collection. Descriptive analysis and correlation analysis were employed in the data analysis. The results discovered that a majority of students understand the online theoretical lecture delivery but they lack infrastructure facilities to engage in the academic activities. There is a low level of understanding of practical lessons. Moreover, the results visualize a moderate positive relationship between the students’ understanding level and online teaching methods. The researchers suggested that online teaching can be used for theory lectures in critical situations such as disasters but for the practical sessions, the student should physically be present to the field. Efficient strategies relevant to each type of professional qualification provided by the institutes should be implemented.

ENHANCING READING COMPETENCE THROUGH THE BRAILLE SYSTEM FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

This paper addresses the issue of the development of the English language reading skills and subskills using the Braille System as the fundamental tool for visually impaired people. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the use of the Braille System and the reading skill competence. This research was applied to 21 pupils with different blindness conditions and from 10 to 32 years old who belong to the Special Education School “Julius Dophner” in the city of Ambato, Ecuador. This preliminary study was carried out using a quasi-experimental design, where pre-tests and post-tests were applied during a three-week period. Pupils took active part in the reading of the different primers at the beginning and after the treatment process. A t-test was used to examine the hypothesis. The results revealed that the improvement in the English language reading for specific information subskill through the Braille system was meaningful. Additional testing should be done to validate the scores obtained by visually impaired students with the use of this tool. Pupils showed a positive and very enthusiastic attitude about the learning process of the English language through this tool with which they are familiar.