The novel coronavirus has forced the closure of schools and universities among countries with COVID-19 cases. Such move has reshaped the contour of education by shifting from face-to-face instruction to full online learning or flexible learning. Among the latter modalities of instruction, flexible learning (FL) appears to be the most practical because it lacks restriction of time, place, and pace of study. This study then aimed to explore the effectiveness of FL as an instructional modality in environmental science course following the action research method. In particular, perception on FL and environmental attitudes were evaluated at the end of the course. Results revealed that FL promotes authentic learning, active learning, and student autonomy. In terms of environmental attitudes, there maybe contrasting views in environmental issues presented to them but their views were anchored on their readings suggesting that the students read the course materials even without the presence of the teachers.

Background and Purpose: This study examined the self-perceived competence in action research components of basic education teachers in Cebu City as one form of identifying their challenges in doing AR. The results aimed to provide baseline information for the planned professional development program.   Methodology: It employed a sequential explanatory design (QUAN→qual). It is characterized by collecting and analyzing quantitative data in the primary phase and then by collecting and analyzing qualitative data. There were 166 teachers who participated in the online survey. These teachers previously underwent professional development programs in designing AR projects, and two-thirds did an AR. Using their responses, they were grouped through a hierarchical clustering technique to create distinct groups of teachers sharing the similarity of competence or needs in the AR components. The cluster analysis yields four groups. Eventually, eight teachers were interviewed regarding their responses, which means two teachers represented each cluster.   Findings: For very few teachers in cluster one (n=4), they regard selecting AR topic, planning the project, analyzing and presenting data, and integrating ethics as areas of non-difficulty while integrating technology, reflecting on AR, and communicating results as areas of difficulty. For the majority of the teachers belonging in cluster 2 (n=76), cluster 3 (n=37), and cluster 4 (n=49), all AR components are regarded as difficult, indicating all are critical areas for professional development. Contributions: A conventional way of conducting needs assessment of teachers’ competence in AR as a basis for professional development program is done through calculating the mean and standard deviation per AR competence or skills of all teachers participating in a survey. However, this method disregards the individual professional needs of teachers as it presents the general level of competence in each skill set. The professional needs may vary from one teacher to another. Thus, this study presents a novel way of examining teachers’ needs in AR by using cluster analysis to homogenously group participants according to the similarity of their responses or professional needs. This gives key reference points on which AR skills need to be improved for teachers belonging to the same group when planning a teacher development program in AR.   Keywords: Action research, competence, in-service teacher, professional development, teacher research.   Cite as: Cortes, S. T., Pineda, H. A., & Geverola, I. J. R. (2021). Examining competence in action research of basic education teachers in Cebu city, Philippines.  Journal of Nusantara Studies, 6(2), 202-230. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol6iss2pp202-230

The Philippine Qualifications Framework (PQF) directs the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to lay out policies, standards, and guidelines for higher education academic programs, and help basic education teachers by providing them with appropriate professional development (PD) programs. One of the programs referred is training them to reflect on their professional practices by means of action research (AR). However, issues concerning impact evaluation of these PD programs have been raised. This study thus aims to develop a valid and reliable self-report scale to measure competence of teachers in conducting an AR project as one of the tools for impact evaluation. To do so, a scale called TCAR was developed according to constructs of Johnson's (2008) Model of AR. The validity and reliability of the scale were established by examining responses of 166 AR practitioners who are teachers from basic education program. Factor Analysis was performed and confirmed the hypothesized model of AR of which the percentage of variance explained by the scale is 78.161. It retained 54 items which are distributed in seven subscales generated, namely: analyzing and presenting AR data, reflecting on and communicating results, planning an AR project, integrating ethics, selecting topic for professional growth, integrating technology in writing literature, and integrating technology in analyzing data. The Cronbach's alpha was also computed as a measure of internal consistency for the whole scale which results to .988. Thus, findings of this study provide significant evidence for the validity and reliability of TCAR.

The instrument that assesses teachers’ competence on AR methodology is limited. Thus, it is one of the issues concerning evaluating the effectiveness of a professional development program on designing AR projects. It is difficult to determine how much and what teachers have learned in a course or training. Thus, this cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate further the validity and reliability of the Teacher’s Competence in Action Research Questionnaire, a seven-factor instrument previously proposed by Cortes, Pineda, and Geverola (2020). This self-report scale was not subjected to confirmatory factor analysis, had less sample size, and had homogenous participants. In the present study, 450 participants, both pre- and in-service teachers and from different teaching specializations, answered the survey. The data were analyzed using the confirmatory factor analysis method through the Maximum Likelihood approach. Four model fit indices recorded satisfactory results (CFI = 0.890; TLI = 0.884; RMSEA = 0.072; SRMR = 0.039), thus, supporting the seven-factor scale. The standardized factor loading, composite reliability, average variance extracted, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient/s of the entire scale and within subscales also provide evidence of the convergent validity and reliability of the scale. There may be an issue in the discriminant validity of the scale, but the conceptual distinctions of each factor as supported by theoretical foundation and arguments provide a principal reason for retaining all the items and factors.

Challenges in Conducting Action Research: Experiences from Biology Teachers of a Province in Mindanao, Philippines. Objectives: This study aimed to explore biology teachers' experiences from a province in Mindanao regarding their challenges while engaging in action research. Methods: It employed a multiple case studies method that involved detailed examination and in-depth analysis of primary and secondary data collected from questionnaires, in-depth individual interviews, and other relevant artifacts from the participants. Findings: Teacher's major challenges in action research (AR) are reported as themes, namely: negative perceptions and attitudes, lack of conceptual knowledge and unresponsive nature to critiques, lack of time and resources, and mistrust of colleagues' research capacity. Conclusion: The professional development programs these teachers previously attended did not upgrade their skills in AR because of the following reasons: rolled out in a short period, episodic, had minimal scaffolding and monitoring, and lack evaluation of teachers' AR projects after the training programs.

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This study aimed to develop, implement, and evaluate a teacher training program on designing participatory educational action research projects. The program consisted of training teachers to conceptualize an action research problem and design a methodology specific to their proposed topic. Starting with a professional needs assessment on Action Research (AR) as the basis for the planned teacher training opportunity, the teachers underwent training and mentoring sessions to develop a group AR proposal as the outcome of the program and as evidence of their professional growth. At the end of the program, five action research proposals were developed and presented, which include: (1) the design and evaluation of an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) mentoring program for basic education teachers; (2) improving students’ conceptual understanding on selected Social Psychology topics through Case-Based Approach; (3) integrating Canvas during an online departmental examination of board course programs; (4) facilitating career choice of Senior High School students through a career guidance program; and, (5) enhancing pre-service elementary teachers’ pedagogical knowledge for online teaching through instructor modeling. Four of these five proposals were rated acceptable and approved for implementation by a panel of reviewers. The details concerning the strengths and areas for improvement of each proposal are individually reported in the results section. In conclusion, training as a professional development model has the potential to effectively gauge teachers to develop and design educational action research proposals.

This study aims to validate a scale that evaluates the flying competence of aircraft pilots. The scale was developed by pilots in an aerospace university and was approved by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines. To do so, the scale was administered to 288 pilots holding different levels of licenses. The data obtained were subjected to Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and created a three-factor model. The factors are set of flying skills named as instrument flight (Factor 1), basic attitude flying (Factor 2), and instrument landing system (Factor 3). The model was confirmed utilizing the resulting values of five goodness of fit indices (GFIs) generated by the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Only comparative fit index, Tucker-Lewis index, and Standardized Root Mean Squared Residual resulted to values falling within the thresholds. These three GFIs are already adequate to confirm that the model is relatively good fit. The standardized factor loadings (SFLs) and composite reliability (CR) were also excellent, thus, establishing convergent validity. Also, the estimated average variance extracted and Cronbach's alpha of all factors provided evidence of discriminant validity and reliability, respectively. In conclusion, this scale is valid and reliable to evaluate the pilot's performance in flying an aircraft.