The study looked into the characteristics of the moral reasoning of college students, particularly the kind of ethical orientation they use when dealing with moral issues and dilemmas. It has been theorized that males and females differ in their moral thinking in that generally males are justice-oriented and females are care-oriented. Such view questioned and challenged the validity and adequacy of mainstream theories in philosophy and psychology regarding moral reasoning and development which are basically justice-oriented and, thus, are claimed to be gender-biased. In this regard, the study specifically sought to find out if there is a significant difference in the moral orientation of male and female college students. It also sought to
know if their moral orientation is consistent when they deal with different moral dilemmas and if there is a relation between their moral orientation and their socio-cultural, spiritual and educational background.

The study used a quantitative methodology, supplemented by qualitative data. Three hundred twelve college students from four different schools participated in the study. One hundred forty-five are male and one hundred sixty-seven are female. Their ages ranged from seventeen to twenty-three. To gather the data for the study a researcher-made questionnaire was used which has an open-ended part and an objective part. The instrument basically aims to understand the mora! orientation of the respondents by asking them to resolve certain moral dilemmas. Data analysis mainly involves, in the open-ended part, evaluating their responses and analyzing the values and concepts they used to resolve the dilemmas, and in the objective part, examining how they rated certain reasons in support of particular moral actions. Paired-sample t-test, one-way ANOVA and Pearson R were the statistical techniques used to analyze the data. Results of the study showed that there is no significant difference between the moral orientation of male and female college students. Moreover, a large portion (42%) of the respondents have a balanced orientation toward justice and care, while 32% are justice- oriented and 26% are care-oriented. The difference between the mean of their justice and care orientation scores is not statistically significant which indicates that in general neither justice nor care orientation is more prevalent in the moral reasoning of college students. In addition, findings revealed that most college students use both justice and care perspectives in dealing with various dilemmas (that is, they can be justice-oriented in some dilemmas and care-oriented in other dilemmas). The kind of moral orientation they use depends largely on the type of dilemma they are resolving. Only few hold a single moral orientation across the different dilemmas. The college students’ moral orientation has no correlation with their socio-cultural background and spirituality. However, there is a significant relationship between the school where they are taking their college studies and their moral orientation. Finally, justice orientation and care orientation were not found to be mutually exclusive. This means that it is possible to make both justice and care considerations in resolving a particular dilemma. The two moral orientations are not
necessarily opposed to each other.

Implications of the study to educational practices and theories and to future researcher are discussed in the last part.

This dissertation studies the social studies curriculum in Philippine basic education from1946 — 2010. Using primary documents such as reports, memos, curriculum documents, teacher’s guide, and interview with curriculum writers and consultants, the study identifies three revisions based on substantive changes in content. For each period of revision, the educational goals, curriculum content and design, and the process of curriculum development are discussed. Certain factors
such as educational goals, changes in socio-political context, studies about the Social Studies subject, and curriculum workers, impact the social studies curriculum as it evolved in the course of time. It is argued that the curriculum is a response to realize an educational intent, a reaction to some social or political environment or a product of deliberations by a group of people with certain beliefs and commitments as to what students should learn in school.

The research paper “A Meta-study of the Evaluation of School-Based Management (SBM) Practices in the Philippines” aimed to assess the overall effectiveness of SBM practices in the Philippines and identify the improvement areas. The study answered the following questions:
1. What are the common variables of the evaluation studies on the implementation of SBM in the Philippines that significantly contribute to the effectiveness of SBM?
2. What are the specific effects of SBM on school performance as a whole?
3. What are the common recommendations of the studies on the improvement of the implementation of SBM in the Philippines?
The study also sought to answer the following questions:
1. What are the enabling factors of SBM implementation in the Philippines?
2. What are the hindering factors of SBM implementation in the Philippines?
3. Which dimension of SBM implementation has the strongest impact on school performance?
4. Which dimension of SBM implementation has the weakest impact on school performance?
The study used quantitative and qualitative method. For qualitative analysis, thematic analysis was done. The analysis was based on the substantive issues, methods and procedures, findings descriptors, and source of descriptors of the research studies. Based on the thematic analysis, the enabling factors of SBM implementation in the Philippines are school leadership, internal stakeholders, external stakeholders, and school-based resources. They have positive influences on SBM implementation and school performance. For quantitative, meta-analysis was employed to synthesize the 23 research studies. Out of 23 studies, only 15 studies qualified for meta-analysis. Eight studies were excluded from the meta-analysis because of the lack of statistical values for higher analysis and the incomplete set of findings. Fixed Effects Model, Random Effects Model, and Combined Effects Model were examined; and it was found out that Random Effects Model was the most appropriate because of the heterogeneity of the effect sizes. The implementation of SBM in the Philippines is generally successful because of the strengthened leadership and governance and well-developed curriculum and learning. The success is manifested in the very good performance of school heads and teachers and the increasing National Achievement Test (NAT) scores of the students. This situation leads to the generalization that SBM implementation has positive impact on school performance. However, accountability, continuous improvement, and management of resources need enhancement and modification.

This study aimed to investigate the implementation of public city school improvement planning (SIP) that sought to increase the achievement of urban students. In this qualitative research, the SIP implementation practices of ten public city school principals were described and their influencing factors identified. Based on interviews, survey results and the schools’ official SIP documents, analysis found that the school principals’ enumerated practices supported SIP’s objectives namely equitable access, quality and relevance, school management and school efficiency. The influencing factors identified were provisions, process, people and performance. Insufficient provisions restrained the public city school’s capacity to accept increasing student enrollment, raising student National Assessment Test (NAT) scores, maintaining positive learning environments and improving school efficiency indicators. The following are the recommendations: 1) the discovery and sharing of more innovative SIP implementation practices among school principals and 2) leveraging the identified factors to realize the school improvement plans.

This study sought to identify the perspectives of public high school teachers in Kasiglahan Village National High School on the existing school culture, teacher professionalism and K-12 educational reform. The study employed narrative inquiry as a qualitative method of research. There were 32 teacher-respondents in the study. These teachers were the ones handling grade 7 and grade 8 under the K-12 educational reform. There were seven interview questions presented. The first interview question was made to gather the profile of the respondents. The second interview question was prepared to get the perception of the respondents on teaching professionalism influenced by personal factors, the third interview question was asked to get their perspectives on teaching professionalism by interpersonal factors. The fourth was to get the dominant school culture as perceived by the respondents. The fifth was made to gather their perceived status of K-12 educational reform. The sixth and seventh were made to ask the respondents of the perceived effect of the educational reform to their teaching professional and the existing school culture. The respondents perceived that the new curriculum, K-12, gave way for better school culture. As they mentioned, the new curriculum paved way for cooperation. It affected their professional relationship and created a climate that searches for professional growth. They accepted that the established comfort for the new curriculum leading to professional stagnation was disturbed enabling them to move into action. Involving this, they had to communicate, collaborate and build partnership with fellow teachers. The findings affirmed the concepts that surface throughout the study. These were the perspectives of the public high school teachers specifically from Kasiglahan Village National High School about school culture, teacher professionalism and the K-12 educational reform.