Asia Pacific Journal of Multidisciplinary Research

7

Authors: Renante A. Egcas (PhD)1 , Mariane P. Lacuesta (PhD)2

This study endeavored to determine the extent of practices and challenges and the opportunities in the implementation of the Civil Service Commission’s PRIME-HRM (Program to Institutionalize Meritocracy and Excellence in Human Resource Management) of select school divisions of the Department of Education in Negros Occidental, Philippines. Specifically, this study sought to determine the extent of practices when taken as a whole and when taken per HR system, the extent of challenges when taken as a whole and when taken per HR system and the foreseen opportunities in the implementation of the PRIME-HRM along with the implementation of the Rationalization Plan. This is a Mixed-Method Research which involved the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. A survey questionnaire adapted from the PRIME-HRM assessment form by the Civil Service Commission was revised and used to collect necessary data. The results showed that the extent of practices was very high and the extent of implementation challenges was moderate. There was no significant difference on the extent of practices in the implementation of the PRIME-HRM when assessed collectively by divisions in terms of the four HR systems such as Recruitment, Selection and Placement, Learning and Development, Performance Management System and Rewards and Recognition. Moreover, results showed that there was significant difference on the extent of challenges in the implementation of the said program when assessed by divisions in three HR systems. Recruitment, Selection and Placement was highly significant (p-value=.005), Learning and Development (p-value=.030) and Performance Management System (p-value=.037) were significant, while, Rewards and Recognitions (p-value=.147) was not significant. On the other hand, there was no significant difference on the extent of challenges in Recruitment, Selection and Placement which result was attributed to uniform guidelines imposed by the government and the implementing agencies are mandated to follow. The research qualitatively elicited several opportunities in the implementation of PRIME-HRM.

8

Authors: Olive Joy G. Abing

– This study analyzes the short story Footnote to Youth by Jose Garcia Villa using five literary theories. This aims at finding out what Footnote to Youth means as interpreted in terms of Biographical Criticism, Reader Response Criticism, Formalism, Archetypal Criticism, and Feminist Criticism theories. This study makes use of the descriptive-qualitative design specifically the content analysis using literary criticism in interpreting the literature. This research utilized text evaluation through triangulation using the short story itself as the primary source of data and secondary data in the form of interview of Villa’s close acquaintances, related documents (i.e. published letters), other literary texts and online conversations with the ultimate goal of yielding valid and trustworthy inferences. In interpreting the short story, five literary theories classified by Abrams’ Major Literary Classification of Literary Theories were used. As analyzed, the story could be: an expression of Villa’s yearning for a father figure in his life, a message extending caution to the readers on the pitfalls of teenage marriage, an exhibit of the ‘literariness’ of Villa’s workmanship, a symbolic representation of archetypes and a reflection of the undermined the roles of women in the society.

10

Authors: Darrel M. Ocampo

This study determined the effectiveness of Differentiated Instruction in the reading comprehension level of the Grade-11 senior high school students, school year 2016-2017. Specifically, it aims to determine the reading comprehension level of the control and the experimental groups in the pretest and post-test; identify if there is a significant difference in the reading comprehension level of the control and experimental groups in the pre-test and post-test results; and identify the strengths and weaknesses in using Differentiated Instruction. Quasi-experimental method was employed in conducting the study. The respondents were the 150 Grade-11 students of a public high school grouped as control and experimental using Parallel technique. Data sources include pre-test and post-test scores, gain scores, classroom observation form, survey questionnaire, and researcher’s reflective notes. The qualitative data were analysed using template analysis style and the basic approach of comprehending, synthesizing, theorizing and re-contextualizing to identify common themes and integrating thematic pieces. Based on the classroom observations, survey and researcher’s reflective notes, strengths and weaknesses of Differentiated Instruction were observed. Despite the observed and encountered challenges, the statistical analysis has revealed a significant difference between pre-test and post-test results.

12

Authors: Jim Christzer I. Pablo, Ronald Candy S. Lasaten (Ph.D)

This descriptive-qualitative research determined and analyzed the difficulties of Senior High School students in writing academic essays and the overall quality of the academic essays of the students. Further, it compared the quality of the academic essays of the students from public and private schools. Using the random sampling technique, the academic essays of the 227 Grade 11 Senior High School students in the Schools Division of Laoag City were selected and analyzed for the purpose of the study. To gather the needed data, the study used a researcher-made checklist patterned after the criteria set by Jacobs (1981) in evaluating academic essays and the Standardized Rubric in Evaluating Academic Essay of Jacobs (1981) enriched by Valdez (2016). Findings show that the students have difficulties in writing academic essays such as lack of variety of ideas in terms of content and ideas, lack of connectives in terms organization, incorrect word or idiom and word usage in terms vocabulary and word choice, poor sentence structures in terms of language use, use of first person pronoun in terms of formality and objectivity, and lack of citations in terms of referencing. Notably, the overall quality of the students’ academic essays ranges from poor to fair. Further, the quality of the academic essays of the students from private schools is of better quality than students’ academic essays from public schools.