Leadership behavior of deans as a determinant of faculty job satisfaction and job commitment

Background: Faculty job satisfaction and commitment contribute to the success of academic programs of a college. The main purpose of the study was to determine the relationship of leadership behavior of the deans of nursing colleges to the job satisfaction and job commitment of the faculty members.Methods: The study used a descriptive correlational design. Twenty deans and 100 faculty members from 20 nursing colleges in the National Capital Region, Philippines participated. Survey instruments used were the (1) modified Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire, (2) modified Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire, and (3) Job Commitment Questionnaire. Leadership behavior was measured based on the “initiating structure” and “consideration” dimensions.Results: Deans of nursing schools viewed their leadership behavior as “highly initiating” (M = 44.0, SD = 5.61) and “very highly considerate” (M = 50.1, SD = 4.99). Assessment of faculty members revealed congruent findings for the leadership dimensions of initiating structure (M = 46.6, SD = 3.83) and consideration (M = 49.9, SD = 2.66). Faculty members were generally “satisfied” (M = 4.20, SD = .25) and “committed” (M = 4.00, SD = .23) to their teaching job. Among the recently established colleges, the “initiating structure” dimension was highly positively correlated with job commitment of faculty members, r = .82, p < .05. There were no statistically significant relationships between the school classification, and the job satisfaction and job commitment of nursing faculty members.Conclusions: Measures must be instituted to improve the “initiating structure” behavior of deans of recently established nursing schools to increase job commitment of faculty members. Other factors associated with job satisfaction and job commitment should be explored.

Acoustic classification in multifrequency echosounder data using deep convolutional neural networks

Acoustic target classification is the process of assigning observed acoustic backscattering intensity to an acoustic category. A deep learning strategy for acoustic target classification using a convolutional network is developed, consisting of an encoder and a decoder, which allow the network to use pixel information and more abstract features. The network can learn features directly from data, and the learned feature space may include both frequency response and school morphology. We tested the method on multifrequency data collected between 2007 and 2018 during the Norwegian sandeel survey. The network was able to distinguish between sandeel schools, schools of other species, and background pixels (including seabed) in new survey data with an F1 score of 0.87 when tested against manually labelled schools. The network separated schools of sandeel and schools of other species with an F1 score of 0.94. A traditional school classification algorithm obtained substantially lower F1 scores (0.77 and 0.82) when tested against the manually labelled schools. To train the network, it was necessary to develop sampling and preprocessing strategies to account for unbalanced classes, inaccurate annotations, and biases in the training data. This is a step towards a method to be applied across a range of acoustic trawl surveys.

Social Networking Exposure and Academic Performance of Secondary Students in Kabankalan City, Philippines

This study determines the relationship between the social networking exposure and the academic performance of the second-year high school students in selected schools in Kabankalan City. It aims to assess the respondents’ visited networking sites, the purpose and importance of visits, frequency of visits, the number of hours spent on each visit, their demographic profile, as to gender and school classification, and their academic performance. This study utilized the descriptive correlational design to determine and discuss the quality and characteristics of the variables on students’ demographic data, their social networking exposure, and their academic performance. There were 286 respondents who were enrolled as second-year high school from three private and three public schools in Kabankalan City and who had been internet users for at least about a year. Findings show that there is no significant difference in students’ academic performance when grouped according to the networking sites visited and the number of daily hours spent during visit. The data further revealed that neither gender nor school classification have any correlation with the social networking sites that students choose to visit. A significant correlation was noted between students’ school classification and the number of hours they spend on daily visits. Finally, this study found that students’ school classification did not have any correlation with their purposes for visit, leading to the conclusion that being enrolled in a public or private high school does not have any relationship with students’ utilization of the SNS

The emergence of professional learning networks in Spain

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to construct a policy map of professional learning networks (PLNs) in Spain. It includes initiatives prompted in Spanish schools in which social, political, cultural and educational elements are integrated. At the same time, it analyses which organization promotes each of the networks, the objectives pursued and the scope of the network in the territory in which it is created. Design/methodology/approach The methodology followed is essentially descriptive and incorporates the first experiences with school networks which have been disseminated in the Spanish literature. It stimulates reflection on the role networks are expected to play in relation to local developments in this specific school system. Findings The cases described (Castellon, Catalonia, Malaga and Seville) suggest a way forward for practitioners to advance toward an educational paradigm based on greater collaboration. This includes a partnership approach among professionals within and across classrooms, schools, communities, districts and education systems. In particular, the results place the focus of the network on the prevalence of the following school classification, included schools (community networks linking to the territory), extended schools (socio-educational networks), equity schools (equity fostering networks) and partnership schools (school-to-school support networks), whose objectives and scopes are reviewed. Research limitations/implications With the Spanish context in mind, it is essential to recognize that more empirical evidence is still needed to make a significant contribution toward building knowledge in this research line. Indeed, sustainability seems to be an important point to consider in a short-term world where quick-fix solutions are required. However, PLNs need time to know how beneficial they really are, for example, in terms of student outcomes and school improvement. Practical implications The argument developed assumes networks as a mirror wherein the present and future of education takes place. In this sense, the scientific and educational communities have both a challenge and an opportunity to rethink the potential of networking and collaboration in education. The article tries to be attractive to a specialized reader or one simply interested in the problem of networks in education and the reality of PLNs in Spain. Social implications The network society demands a network school environment where communities are part of a local character strategy. Originality/value This document offers an interesting view on networks that not only focus on education but on social and welfare issues and it aims to target education from a broader perspective; so resulting in opening schools to the community, which is not a widely covered topic in education research. In summary, the paper can be considered as a pioneer study in the Spanish context, which contains valuable information about PLNs, their origin and current status in this part of the world.

ANALISIS KEMAMPUAN HIGH ORDER THINKING (HOT) SISWA SMP NEGERI DI KOTA CIMAHI

high order thinking skill is an important skill that student must have, especially in mathematics education. In the process of solving problems, students are required to be able to think fundamental and creative. The purpose of this research is to analyze the comparison of high order thinking ability of students in SMPN Cimahi based on school classification. The research method used is experimental with the design of two class and post-test only. the sample taken in this research is the students of class VII SMPN in Cimahi with high classification and moderate classification. The result of this research is there's still a very significant difference in high order thinking the skill of junior high school student in Cimahi city. SMPN with high classification has good high order thinking skills than SMPN with moderate classification. This is due to the following factors, (a) the students have different bits of intelligence; (b) the way students face difficulties (problems) that varies depending on how the students' everyday learning process; (c) the classification of schools have an effect on student’s high order thinking skill.

Teacher’s Council in a Top Rated School

This research aimed to understand the judgments made about students during the teacher’s council in a top rated school at Rio de Janeiro. These meeting is a collective assessment place, exceptionally adequate to perceive through the speeches of the agents how the school classification system is produced and reproduced (Bourdieu). The school attends middle to upper class students. It was observed that the evaluation criteria have academic origin, but are not strictly academic. Cutting class will operate in the kind of attitudes towards school (docility and academic aptitude). The desired profile is middle class students which families adhere more easily to the values and school who have the necessary cultural goodwill. The social selectivity at the school is distinctive selectivity.