The Mediating Effect of Happiness on the Job Satisfaction of Aging Filipino Workers: A Structural Equation Model (SEM)

Job satisfaction is a frequently studied topic among scholars, but only few have taken into account the job satisfaction of older workers. This study aims to develop a model that describes the mediating effect of happiness on job satisfaction specifically on a select group of aging Filipino workers. This paper utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) for its data analysis to test what impact happiness has on job satisfaction. Three hundred aging Filipino workers, both from public and private organizations in the Philippines, took part in this study by completing a five-part research tool that consists of a Robotfoto (a Dutch term that describes a photo-like picture drawn by police to describe a suspect from a witness's illustration) and adopted questionnaires for physical and mental well-being, employee recognition, happiness, and job satisfaction. The structural equation model revealed that physical and mental well-being and employee recognition significantly affect—and are predictors of—happiness. Moreover, it was found that happiness has an impact on the job satisfaction of older workers. Findings generated in this study cater relevant ideas in developing programs and practices for the aging workforce in the field of Human Resource Management.     

Identities of special needs education in the discourse of Finnish professors of the field

This article examines both the discourses upon which Finnish special needs education professors draw when speaking about their field, and the consequent identities for it. The research material consists of theme interviews with 10 professors of special needs education and is analysed from a socio-constructionist, discourse analytical perspective. The results show that the professors defined special needs education from two separate viewpoints: on the basis of their own personal views, or on the basis of the classical definitions of special needs education. The professors spoke about the field through five different discourses: professional, emancipatory, relativistic, autonomous and critical. The majority of these discourses constructed special needs education as an important part of the science field, although the relativistic discourse problematised its position as an independent discipline.     

Active Learning and Student-centered Pedagogy Improve Student Attitudes and Performance in Introductory Biology

We describe the development and implementation of an instructional design that focused on bringing multiple forms of active learning and student-centered pedagogies to a one-semester, undergraduate introductory biology course for both majors and nonmajors. Our course redesign consisted of three major elements: 1) reordering the presentation of the course content in an attempt to teach specific content within the context of broad conceptual themes, 2) incorporating active and problem-based learning into every lecture, and 3) adopting strategies to create a more student-centered learning environment. Assessment of our instructional design consisted of a student survey and comparison of final exam performance across 3 years—1 year before our course redesign was implemented (2006) and during two successive years of implementation (2007 and 2008). The course restructuring led to significant improvement of self-reported student engagement and satisfaction and increased academic performance. We discuss the successes and ongoing challenges of our course restructuring and consider issues relevant to institutional change.     

The Effects of Goal Origin and Implementation Intentions on Goal Commitment,Effort, and Performance

Self-set goals, selected by students for themselves, have known motivational benefits leading to increased autonomy and intrinsic motivation. In spite of the motivational benefits, students often fail to accomplish self-set goals because they lack the social motivator ascribed to assigned goals. The purpose of this research was to investigate methods of increasing students' commitments to self-set goals using implementation intentions: plans for when, where, and how to work toward a goal. The results of two studies revealed that implementation intentions increased students' performance on self-set goals relative to assigned goals through enhanced goal commitment and effort. Our findings suggest that the positive effects of self-set goals are greater when they are coupled with implementation intentions.     

The managers guide to understanding,detecting, and thwarting computer crime: An international performance issue

Cyber crime poses an ever‐growing international threat to businesses. Organizations need to address this threat through a performance intervention by making managers aware of the reasons cyber crimes are committed so that they can detect and prevent them. This research details the primary types of cyber crime, describes and suggests managerial defenses to cyber crime, and reviews the importance of synchronized international legislation in the fight against cyber crime.     

Benchmarks Curricular Planning and Assessment Framework: Utilizing Standards Without Introducing Standardization

The national early learning community faces the challenge of using early learning standards and assessments to improve learning environments while preserving educators’ freedom to plan early childhood curriculum that accord with a child-centered focus and developmentally appropriate practices. Drawing on recent developments in approaches to undergraduate assessment, this article introduces an approach to curricular planning and assessment that uses state benchmarks as an umbrella structure to support curricular planning, assessment, and feedback among them. The benchmarks have a hierarchical structure that allows educators to think about benchmarks as embedded within educational goals, spanning different age-ranges, and involving activity across multiple domains of child development. The framework prompts educators to identify benchmarks for particular activities and to assess the age-appropriateness of activities and the degree to which they incorporate multiple domains of development. There are two primary curricular measures: (1) the match measure between educator predictions and observed activity, which provides timely feedback about the accuracy of educator predictions for different age-groups and across developmental domains, and (2) an open-ended measure, which provides information about the ways the children surprised educators by using the activity in an unpredicted manner. Both of these measures inform the development of classroom activities and curriculum. This article reports on the pilot implementation of this approach within an early learning program.