The Journal on Accounting & Management Education, Research & Practice is a peer-reviewed international research journal of the University of the Cordilleras, through the College of Accountancy and Research & Development Center, and in collaboration with Facultas Ekonomi, Universitas Negeri Jakarta, Indonesia. The publication is a supplement to the International Conference on Accounting & Management Education, Research & Practice.

Copyright © 2014University of the Cordilleras.Materials published here may not be reproduced nor copied in any form or by any means without written permission from the editor or publisher.

The JAMERP Editorial BoardEditor-in-Chief: Prof. Cristina A. Gervacio-Gallato, CPA, MSBA, DBE, Ed.D.Associate Editor: Engr./En.P. Nathaniel Vincent A. Lubrica, MAEHPManaging Editor: Mr. Carljohnson G. Anacin, MASSEditorial Board Members:Prof. Charles A. Rarick, Ph.D. Purdue University Calumet, USAAssoc. Prof. Ari Warokka, Ph.D. Universitas Negeri Jakarta, IndonesiaProf. Darlyn T. Tagarino, Ph.D. Benguet State University, PhilippinesAssoc. Prof. Marilou P. Lucas, Ph.D. Mariano Marcos State University, PhilippinesAsst.Dir. Gina T. Gacusan, MA Econ., M.Sc. National Economic Development Authority, Philippines Prof. Felina P. Espique, Ph.D. Saint Louis University, PhilippinesAssoc. Prof. Jane K. Lartec, Ph.D. Saint Louis University, PhilippinesProf. Cleofas M. Basaen, Ed.D. University of the Cordilleras, Philippines Prof. Rhodora A. Ngolob, Ph.D. University of the Cordilleras, PhilippinesAsst.Prof. Constantino N.V. Sanchez, Ph.D. University of the Cordilleras, PhilippinesProf. Santos Jose O. Dacanay III, Ph.D. University of the Philippines Baguio, Philippines Technical Assistants:

Asst.Prof. Julie Ann M. Abellera, CPA, MBA, Ph.D. (candidate)Asst.Prof. Jasmin May P. Baniaga, CPA, MBA, Ph.D. (candidate)Mr. Danilo B. Azarcon, Jr., MBA (candidate)

Editorial CorrespondenceThe Editor-in-ChiefJournal of Accounting, Management, Education, Research, & Practice,University of the Cordilleras, Governor Pack Road, Baguio City 2600, Philippines.Tel. No.: (074) 442-3316 local 205, 129, 135, or 136; Fax No.: (074) 442 6268; Email address: icamerp.ucbcf@gmail.com; Website: www.icamerp.org

Contents

An Investigation into the Relationship between Cultural Values 1and Entrepreneurial Success across CountriesCharles A. Rarick & Thaung Han

Cost-effectiveness Study of Review Programs: 8Policy Implications for School AdministratorsMarivic L. Daguio

Innovations on the Nexus of Sectoral Players 19in the Traditional Community-based Carabao Dailry IndustryMatilde Melicent Santos-Recto

An Alienated Power of Higher Education Evaluation: 37College Labors Within, Against and Beyond EvaluationKang-Lin Chao

Improving Grammar Proficiency through Powerpoint 46Presentation-Assisted InstructionShirley D. Frigillano, Ma. Salome R. Magbanua, & Joel E. Ferolino

The Journal of Accounting & Management Education, Research & Practice

Volume 1, Issue 1 (2014)

INTRODUCTION Culture represents the values, beliefs, and assumptions of a given group of people. The most popular and most cited research concerning cultural values is that of Geert Hofstede. He proposed that culture played an important role in determining appropriate managerial behavior (Hofstede, 1980a; Hofstede, 1980b; Hofstede, 1983; Hofstede, 1994; Hofstede, 1997; Hofstede, 2001). Hofstede’s work has been widely cited in various academic studies and disciplines and often forms the basis for cross-cultural analysis in university business and other courses. Hofstede originally surveyed 72 countries and was able to profile 40 different cultures. Later research added 10 more countries and three regional groupings. While not specifically addressing the issue of entrepreneurship, it could be reasoned that culture might play a part in determining the success of

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURAL VALUES AND ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS ACROSS COUNTRIESCharles A. Rarick1* & Thaung Han2

1 College of Business, Purdue University Calumet, USA2 College of Business, University of Texas-El Paso, USA

AbstractNational culture plays a large role in shaping the values, beliefs, and assumptions of people raised in a given culture. This paper, using the Hofstede typology, investigates which cultural values appear to have the most impact on shaping an entrepreneurial mindset. Cultural values included in the analysis include power distance, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance. An analysis of country ranking on entrepreneurship, as measured by the newly developed Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) and using the Hofstede 4-D model reveals interesting differences among high, medium, and low entrepreneurial countries.

Keywords: Cultural values, Entrepreneurial success, GEDI, Hofstede

entrepreneurial activity as well.Hofstede initially discovered four

dimensions of culture referred to as power distance (PDI), individualism (IDV), masculinity (MAS) and uncertainty avoidance (UA). Power distance is the degree to which members of a society accept differences in individual power and rewards. Cultures high in power distance accept those with power being treated differently than those without power. Individualism measures the importance of the individual over the group. Masculinity is the extent to which people value competition assertiveness, the acquisition of material goods, and maintaining role relationships. Uncertainty avoidance is a measure of a culture’s collective tolerance for ambiguity and its efforts to assure certainty through rules and other dictates. Later research by Hofstede and Bond (1988), added a fifth dimension referred to as long-term orientation (LTO). That dimension reflects the extent to which a society values future-oriented behavior. Limited data is *E-mail address: crarick@purduecal.edu

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available on the LTO scale, therefore, it is not possible to use this dimension for this study This paper explores the possible relationship between the original elements of the Hofstede model and entrepreneurial success across countries and their cultures.

Entrepreneurial SuccessEntrepreneurial success can be

measured in terms of both a micro and macro view. The micro view explores factors such as traits of successful entrepreneurs, while the macro view explores external factors such as environmental conditions (Kuratko, 2014). While much research has been conducted on entrepreneurial traits (Caliendo, Fossen, & Kritikos, 2012; Galor & Michalopoulos, 2012; Koe Hwee Nga & Shamuganathan, 2010; Obschonka, Silbereisen, & Schmitt-Rodermund, 2012; Ong & Ismail, 2012; Zarafshani & Rajabi, 2011) and some consistency in research can be found concerning the effect of traits on entrepreneurial success, the concern of this paper is focused on macro influence, especially that of national culture. The question to be investigated concerns the possible relationship between national culture and the entrepreneurial success of countries.

Countries vary in terms of entrepreneurial success. Entrepreneurial success can be measured in terms of the percent of the population engaged in entrepreneurial activity, however, in many countries people become entrepreneurs not because they value the idea of being an entrepreneur but because they have few employment opportunities (Banerjee & Duflo 2011). These “reluctant entrepreneurs” may prefer to work for established firms but cannot find a position and instead

engage in what are usually very small entrepreneurial operations. A better measure of the entrepreneurial success of a country would be one in which the country produces not necessarily many entrepreneurs, but rather successful enterprises which have high impact. Creating and running a small shop inside one’s home to sell basic goods in the neighborhood is compared to creating a successful large organization. While both businesses are created by an entrepreneur, the overall impact on the country is quite different.

Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index

In an effort to assess high impact entrepreneurial success, the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) was created by Professors Acs and Szerb in 2008, and the most recent publication of the Index by Acs, Szerb, and Autio (2013). The GEDI seeks to measure a country’s success in producing high quality and impactful entrepreneurial enterprises. The Index goes beyond measuring a country’s self-employment rate or the number of start-ups in a country and measures the potential impact of the entrepreneurship that is occurring in a country. The Index looks at three important aspects of high-quality entrepreneurship: attitudes, activity, and aspiration. The attitudes dimension measures things such as national perception of the value of entrepreneurship to the economic success of a country. Activity measures the level of start-up activity in the technology sector of a country. Aspiration measures the activities of entrepreneurs in a country to introduce new products and to expand their businesses. The GEDI ranks most countries on these combined dimensions to show what

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countries. It should be noted that some of the countries on the bottom of the index could not be included in the study due to a lack of cultural data available on those countries. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results indicate that significant differences exist. As can be seen in Table 1, significant differences exist on the cultural dimensions of individualism (IND) and power distance (PDI).

Countries and cultures high in

individualism were more successful in terms of entrepreneurship than countries low in individualism. Countries high in power distance were not as successful as countries low in power distance. While there is some correlation between the other cultural variables and entrepreneurial success, they are not statistically significant.

Using regression analysis we can see differences among the three groups on some dimensions.

Figure 1-4 show the relationship between the four Hofstede cultural dimensions and entrepreneurial success.

The figures indicate that when comparing the top, middle, and bottom GEDI countries there are differences generally in terms of the measured cultural dimensions. Individualism is a strong predictor of entrepreneurial activity in top GEDI countries and to some extent a predictor in middle and bottom countries.

is believed to be true entrepreneurial success.

METHODOLOGY

Countries on the GEDI were grouped into top, middle, and bottom entrepreneurship success. The three groups consisted of 57 countries and these countries were then analyzed to see if there were differences relative to the Hofstede 4-D scores for those

GEDI IND UAI PDI MASGEDI 1 .759** -0.231 -.631** -0.232IND 1 -.287* -.654** -0.032UA 1 0.187 -0.041PD 1 0.119M 1

Mean 0.3405 40.89 65.14 58.68 49.09STD 0.16502 24.697 24.383 21.549 17.901N 57 57 57 57 57

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level

Table 1. Cultural dimensions of individualism (IND) and power distance (PDI)

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Figure 1. Individualism

Figure 2. Uncertainty Avoidance

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Figure 3. Power Distance

Figure 4. Masculinity

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Uncertainty avoidance is a strong predictor in top GEDI counties, meaning that countries with low uncertainty avoidance produce more high-quality entrepreneurial activity. Middle GEDI countries have the opposite relationship and essentially no predictive ability exists for low GEDI countries on this dimension. Power distance has some predictive ability in top and middle GEDI countries, with low power distance being a predictor of entrepreneurial activity, but no effect in low GEDI countries. Masculinity has some predictive ability with high and low GEDI countries but not much effect in middle GEDI countries.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS The results of this study show that culture may play an important part in the entrepreneurial success of a county. Using the Hofstede model some association can be seen between the cultural values and high-quality entrepreneurial activity. Countries high in individualism and low in power distance seem to have the edge in creating high impact entrepreneurial enterprises. It would seem reasonable that in cultures in which individuals are responsible for themselves, more entrepreneurial activity would be present. Cultures with low power distance also seem to be better at creating high impact entrepreneurship. Low power distance countries may allow for the sharing of power and resources, and social mobility, which may be necessary to develop impactful entrepreneurial ventures. The differences among the top, middle, and low GEDI countries provide interesting avenues for further research.

REFERENCES

Acs, Z., Szerb, L. & Autio, E. (2013). Global entrepreneurship and development index 2013. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Banerjee, A. & Duflo, E. (2011). Poor economics: A radical rethinking of the way to fight global poverty. New York: Public Affairs.

Caliendo, M., Fossen, F. & Kritikos, A. (2012). Trust, positive reciprocity, and negative reciprocity: Do these traits impact entrepreneurial dynamics? Journal of Economic Psychology, 33(2), 394-409.

Galor, O. & Michalopoulos, S. (2012). Evolution and the growth process: Natural selection of entrepreneurial traits. Journal of Economic Theory, 147(2), 759-780.

Hofstede, G. (1980a). Culture’s consequences: International differences in work-related values. London: Sage Publications.

Hofstede, G. (1980b). Motivation, leadership, and organization: Do American theories apply abroad? Organizational Dynamics, 16(4), 42-63.

Hofstede, G. (1983). The cultural reliability of organizational practices and theories. Journal of International Business Studies, 14, 75-89.

Hofstede, G. (1994). Management scientists are human. Management Science, 40(1), 4-13.

Hofstede, G. (1997). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Hofstede, G. & Bond, M. (1988). The Confucian connection: From

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cultural roots to economic growth. Organizational Dynamics, 16(4), 5-21.

Koe Hwee Nga, J., & Shamuganathan, G. (2010). The influence of personality traits and demographic factors on social entrepreneurship start up intentions. Journal of Business Ethics, 95(2), 259-282.

Kuratko, D. (2014). Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, practice. Mason, OH: South-Western.

Obschonka, M., Silbereisen, R. & Schmitt-Rodermund, E. (2012). Explaining entrepreneurial behavior: Dispositional personality traits, growth of personal entrepreneurial resources, and business idea generation. Career Development Quarterly, 60(2), 178-190.

Ong, J. & Ismail, H. (2012). Entrepreneurial traits and firm serendipity – seeking on SMES’ performance: The effect of firm size. Journal of Enterprising Culture, 20(3), 265-286.

Zarafshani, K. & Rajabi, S. (2011). Effects of personality traits on entrepreneurial intentions: An empirical study in Iran. International Journal of Management, 28(3), 630-641.

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INTRODUCTION

The high private costs of education demand that school administrators make sound financial decisions. This is to make certain that scarce budget is apportioned to priority school programs that are deemed contributory to the realization of promised quality education. This could be made possible through the conduct of studies that assess and evaluate curricular and co-curricular programs’ cost-effectiveness.

The school under study is a Christian Chinese-Filipino basic

COST-EFFECTIVENESS STUDY OF REVIEW PROGRAMS: POLICY IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORSMarivic L. Daguio* University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines

AbstractCost-effectiveness study, a relatively uncommon focus of research in education in developing countries, is vital for educational institutions, especially in private schools, which operate on limited resources and where budget has to be circumspectly planned, allocated, and spent. This study analyzes the cost-effectiveness of a review program, of a private basic educational institution, which has been running for several years despite absence of empirical data to support its cost-effectiveness. In analyzing the cost-effectiveness of the review program, two key factors are considered: (a) the institutional cost, which is the computed sum of all the recurring and non-recurring costs, as the input. The total recurring cost include the teachers’ honoraria, non-teaching staff’s salary, energy and water charges and cost of instructional materials. The total non-recurring or fixed cost covers the use of classrooms, furniture, equipment, fixtures; and (b) the educational outcome, which is determined by Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and the students’ passing rate in the College Entrance Tests (CET) of top universities in the Philippines, as the output. Cost-effectiveness study associates financial inputs to educational output. Result reveals that the review program is cost-effective as it yielded a significant improvement in the students’ achievement level. This study shows that cost-effectiveness study can be a useful tool for evaluating an educational investment decision and for driving the management budget policy directions. The method utilized can be employed as groundwork for future cost-effectiveness studies in education and management.

Keywords: Cost-effectiveness evaluation, Educational investment, Review program

*Tel.: +639186498881 E-mail address: mariel1623@yahoo.com

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educational institution with a reputation for academic excellence. This is shown by its consistent high ranking in National Achievement Test (NAT), its students’ commendable performance in numerous national and international assessments and competitions, and the significant percentage of its fourth year high school students who successfully pass the College Entrance Tests (CETs) of top universities in the Philippines. It is purported that the school-initiated review program has an effect on its students’ achievement level in standardized tests.

The conjecture that the review program is an investment that contributes to students’ improved academic performance drives the school

administrators’ decision to provide resources for the conduct of this activity. The College Entrance Tests Review Program (CETRP) has been running for a number of years now. Scarce studies, however, were conducted to provide evidence of its cost-effectiveness. This practice is not uncommon, as captured in the observation that throughout the world quality improvement is often sought through investments made on the basis of untested or partially tested assumptions about the cost-effectiveness of particular interventions (Schiefelbein & Wolff, 2007).

Cost-effectiveness studies are relatively uncommon in education in developing countries. Most studies for school improvement have concentrated on school effectiveness, without also combining effectiveness with information on costs. In the Philippines, available cost analysis studies have mostly been done for health program interventions (Hidalgo et al., 2013). This is explained by the reality that current knowledge about cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is extraordinarily inadequate (Schiefelbein & Wolff, 2007) and is very much underdeveloped in education research (Belfield & Levin, 2013). The actual presence of cost-effectiveness evaluations in education is minimal due to lack of training, lack of effects, and lack of demand by policy makers. In this respect, cost-effectiveness results may even serve as a threat to decision makers by providing information that is counter to common sense, popular appeal, and support of particular constituencies (Levin, 2001).

The necessity to conduct cost-effectiveness study is crucial, especially for a private educational institution, which operates on limited resources. This proposition is consistent with the

assertion of Belfield & Levin (2013) that costs need to be incorporated with effectiveness and that implementing the most effective program is nonsensical if it is too expensive. Cost- effectiveness study can therefore contribute significantly to improved planning, monitoring and policy decision - making by school administrators. In addition, the process of estimating cost- effectiveness can be an effective teaching device for training policymakers and educational planners, since it forces them to clarify their own thinking (Schiefelbein & Wolff, 2007).

Furthermore, cost-effectiveness study plays an important role in evidence-based decision making where resources are desired to be used in the most efficient way possible (Levin & Garcia, 2013). In education, the purpose of cost-effectiveness analysis is to ascertain which program or combination of programs can achieve particular objectives at the lowest cost. They offer powerful and valuable insights for evaluators (Levin, 2001). McEwan (2012) observes that there is broad consensus that cost-effectiveness analysis is necessary to inform resource allocation decisions.

This study is anchored on the economic framework in which education is equated with economic production (Hanushek, 1979; Lau, 1979 in Tsang 1998). In economic production, given production objectives, prices, and technology, inputs are transformed into desired outputs. The internal process that transforms inputs to outputs is represented by a production function that is the relationship indicating the maximum amount of outputs that can be produced for given inputs. (Tsang, 1998)

For the review program, the 9JAMERP 2014

desired output is a significant increase in students’ academic achievement. The teachers, staff, instructional materials, facilities, equipment, and fixtures are the inputs to the review program. The resources allocated to these inputs comprise the institutional costs of the review program. The relationship between inputs and outputs is represented by an educational production function (EPF). Using this framework, the concept of internal efficiency in education cost analysis can be applied. In this study, the internal efficiency of education compares the costs of the review program to the students’ level of achievement. The review program is considered internally efficient when it results to a significant increase in the students’ level of achievement as measured by Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and a considerable number of students passing the college entrance tests.

At the micro level, this research endeavour seeks to investigate the hypothesis that the conduct of a review program is a sound educational investment decision. Evidence to support such proposition includes the achievement of an acceptable ratio of the attainment of program objective vis a vis program costs. Albeit implicitly, this desired result will support school administrators’ assertion that available school’s resources are maximized. Furthermore, the result of the study aims to inform school administrators’ policy decision pertaining to the review program’s enhancement, replacement, or termination.

On a macro level, this study aims to contribute to the body of knowledge on the benefit of conducting cost-effectiveness study as an important tool in making educational policy decisions at the institutional level.

METHODOLOGY

This study involved forty-five (45) participants, 56% are males and 44% are females, with an average age of 16. They are of Chinese, Filipino, Chinese-Filipino, and Korean descent belonging to the middle and upper socio-economic class. They comprise the school’s total population of fourth year high school students who were in the process of applying in higher educational institutions for their tertiary education. Students were given a pretest on day one of the review and a posttest on day seven of the review program. The pretest and posttest scores were subjected to statistical analysis. Only complete scores, those with both pretest and posttest, were included in the analysis.

This study utilizes a descriptive, single case analysis research methodology. It seeks to find answer to the question through the analysis of variable relationships (West & Kahn, 2003). For this study, the focus is on the relationship between financial investment and students’ level of achievement.

In analyzing the cost-effectiveness of the review program, two key factors are considered: (a) the institutional cost, which is the computed sum of all the recurring and non-recurring costs, as the input and (b) the educational outcome, which is determined by Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and the student passing rate in the college entrance tests, as the output.

Costs incurred at the institutional level (government, private or mixed) are called institutional costs. In this study, the institutional costs of education are analyzed using recurring costs, also known as variable costs, and non-recurring cost, also termed fixed cost

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or opportunity costs variables (Tilak, 1985). The institutional cost is the sum of all recurring and nonrecurring costs.

IC=TRC + TNC Where, IC = institutional cost TRC = total recurring costs TNC = total non-recurring costs

To measure the internal efficiency of the review program, the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was employed (see Table 8). This non-parametric test is used to determine if there is a significant improvement in the students’ academic achievement before and after the review sessions using the pretest and posttest scores.

This test was applied to the students’ scores in Math only (see appendix A). The original intent was to subject all the students’ scores in the four subjects to the test. However, this did not materialize because the teachers for the English, Science, and Filipino subjects discussed the correct answers immediately after the pretest administration. This lapse in knowledge of pretest–post test administration led to the judgment of not including

the scores in the statistical test. This decision is consistent with the recommendation of Levin (1994) who maintained that if student learning is the program objective, test scores in appropriate domains utilizing appropriate test instruments are measure of effectiveness.

Both the W-value and Z-value were calculated. Since the N is more than 20, then the distribution of the Wilcoxon W statistic tends to form a normal distribution. This means the Z-value can be used to evaluate the hypothesis.

Note that the sample size is only thirty-nine (39) due to the following reasons: one (1) participant has the same score in both treatment conditions which caused the test to discard the individual’s pretest and posttest score; two (2) participants were not able to take both pretest and posttest; and three (3) participants were not able to take the pretest.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This study utilizes the ingredients approach to cost estimation which entails three distinct phases: (a)

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Table 1. Total Costs

Recurring Cost Unit Cost in Php Total Amount in Php

Teachers’ honoria 700.00 (Unit cost x quantity x 7)

(2 teachers per session) 9,800.00

Salary of non-teaching staff

Janitor 200.00 2,800.00

Security guard 200.00

Review materials in print 2.00

(270 pages per session) 3,780.00

identification of ingredients; (b) determination of the value or cost of the ingredients and the overall costs of an intervention; and (c) an analysis of the costs in an appropriate decision-oriented framework. Identification of ingredients require a level of detail that is adequate to ensure that all resources are included and are described adequately to place cost values on them (Levin, 1994) .

Recurring costsRecurring costs are those that occur

repeatedly and predictably. The total recurring costs for the review program include the teachers’ honoraria, salary of non-teaching staff, printing of review materials, energy and water expenses.

Two teachers conduct the review every Saturday; each receives an

Table 3. Recurring Costs

Recurring Costs

Total Consumption

Total Amount in Php

Water 9.45m3 837.35

Electricity 505kWh 4,479.39

honorarium of Php 700.00 as stipulated in the school’s personnel manual. Instructional materials are printed and duplicated for students’ use. Each student utilizes an estimated average of six pages of review material per session or three pages per subject. This estimate is based on the review guideline which requires teachers to provide written practice exercises at the beginning and towards the end of each subject review session. The price per page is capped at Php 2.00 based on the school’s photocopying fee. For the duration of the review, an estimated total of 1,890 pages were utilized by the students.

To maintain the cleanliness of the facilities during the review, a maintenance person reports and receives Php 200 every Saturday based on a Php 50 hourly rate. The security guard, who ensures students’ safety while they are inside the school campus, receives the same amount. The aforementioned recurring costs are computed over a course of seven (7) Saturdays and are summarized below.

The water consumption is

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Table 2. Energy Consumption

Equipment/Fixture

Unit Wattage

Quantity Total Energy Usage in kW/hr

Total Energy Usage in kW/hr for the review duration

LCD projector 400 2 0.80 22.40

Computer 600 2 1.20 33.60

Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR)

500 2 1.00 28.00

Fluorescent bulbs 36 36 1.30 36.40

Air conditioning units

3 732 4 14.93 418.04

Total 2.00 538.44

Estimate on energy consumption data was provided by the school’s Physical Plant Dept. and Construction and Administration Department of SFS Group of Companies to which the school belongs.

Table 4. Total Recurring Costs

Recurring Costs Total Amount in Php

Honoraria and wages 9,800.00

Salary of non-teaching staff

2,800.00

Review materials in print 3,780.00

Water charges 837.35

Electricity charges 4,479.39

Total 21,696.74

computed based on an estimated three times restroom visit by each student per review session. Each toilet water tank in the female’s restroom has a capacity of fifteen (15) liters while that for the males is six (6) liters according to the administration staff. The computed water consumption for the duration of the review is 9.45 m3. Water cost baseline at 10 m3 is Php 459.06. With Foreign Currency Differential Adjustment (FCDA), environmental fee

and other charges, the total water cost is Php 837.35.

The total cost of electricity is computed based on a four-hour per meeting review session. It includes the use of electrical devices such as air-conditioning units, computers, LCD projectors, Automatic Voltage Regulators (AVRs) and fluorescent bulbs located inside the classrooms, along the hallway, and in the restrooms.

The computed energy consumption is 538 kW, which is the baseline for computing the electricity charges for the duration of the review program. With generation, distribution, system loss, transmission, universal charges and corresponding taxes included, the total costs for electricity is Php 4,479.39. The total water and energy costs are summarized in Table 3. Likewise, as shown in Table 4, the non-recurring costs yields a total of Php 21,696.74.

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Table 5. Opportunity Costs

Asset Quantity Useful Lifetime of asset (n)

Unit Cost

Capital in Php

Annual (A) Opportu-nity Cost (OC) in Php

Review Program Opportunity Cost in Php OC /365*7*n

Air conditioning units

4 5 20,000 80,000 16,450 1,577.40

LCD Projectors 2 1 19,900 39,800 2,931 56.21

Computers 2 1 25,000 50,000 3,682 70.61

AVR 2 1 450 900 66 1.27

Teacher’s table 2 3 7,000 14,000 1,989 114.44

Armchairs 45 3 1,000 45,000 6,393 367.82

Fluorescent bulbs 36 1 123 4,428 326 6.25

Whiteboards 4 3 3,600 14,400 2,046 117.72

Bulletin boards 4 3 1,960 7,840 1,114 64.09

Total 2,375.81

Non-recurring costs The total non-recurring or fixed cost

covers the costs of classrooms, furniture, equipment and fixtures. Tilak (1985) affirmed that calculating the unit cost per year with regard to the fixed costs is difficult. He added that generally, in most of the studies, it is either ignored, or the rate of depreciation is calculated. However, if required data are available, which is the case in this study, fixed or non-recurring costs per annum can be calculated using the following formula.

Annual fixed = r(1 + r)n x initial capital cost (1 + r)n - 1

Where,

r = discount rate n = the life span of the asset and 1 = is the initial capital (fixed)

investment

According to Tilak (1985), the value of the annualization factor can be derived and used to estimate the annual fixed cost. Robert Ongaria, the school’s

official Math trainer and the Math Teacher’s Guild (MTG) of the Philippines’ Luzon coordinator, derived the formula for the opportunity cost as shown in the equation below. The formula could be used not only in estimating annual fixed cost, but also in depreciation and the opportunity cost of capital.

A(r,n)=r2(1+r)n+r(1 + r)n-r x initial capital r(1 + r)n

The opportunity cost computation was based on different periods of depreciation and interest rate of 3.75%, the prevailing discount/interest rate during the review period. The classroom, equipment and fixture’s useful life expectancy was based on the year in which the classrooms were built and equipment and fixtures were purchased and initially used. The program’s opportunity cost is computed based on the number of the review days in a year and the number of asset’s useful life.

Each of the two classrooms is rented out for Php 500 for a four-hour weekend use. This rate applies to classroom use for educational purpose (e.g. training). For the seven review sessions, the total opportunity cost for the two classrooms is Php 7, 000. Thus, the total opportunity cost from assets and rent is Php 9,375.81.

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Table 7. Review Program Rates

Number of hours

Amount in Php

Amount in Php/hour

Class Size

MHCS CETRP 28 690.50 24.66 22

ACES Tutorial and Review Center

30 8,900.00 296.67 25

Ahead Tutorial and Review Center

37 6,415.00 173.38 15

Table 6. Total Costs

Amount in Php

Recurring costs 21,696.74

Non-recurring costs 9,375.81

Total 31,072.55

Table 8. Wilcoxon Test Results

Significance level 0.05

W-value 77.5

Mean difference 1.95

Sum of positive ranks 77.5

Sum of negative ranks 702.5

Z-value -4.3609

Mean (W) 390

Standard Deviation (W) 71.66

Sample size (N) 39

Levin (1994) suggested that once each of the ingredients is costed, these can be added to obtain a total cost for the intervention. From the foregoing calculations, the total recurring and non-recurring costs are summarized below.

Although the cost of an educational innovation or plan is often expressed in terms of its total cost, unit costs are more meaningful, especially for diagnostic, comparative, and evaluative purposes. Although each unit-cost measure has its own application, and no one measure is suitable for all purposes of costing, cost per pupil enrolled should probably be considered on most educational costing (Tsang, 1998).

Cost per learner (unit cost of education) = total expenditure/total enrolment

Unit cost = institutional cost total enrolment = Php 31 072.55 45 students = Php 690.50/student

To appreciate the value of the unit cost of the review program, this is compared with the established rates of known review centers in Makati as shown in Table 7.

With comparable class size and review facilities, the MHCS CETRP unit cost may be considered low. However, this is not sufficient to conclude that the review program is cost-effective. Hence, the quality of the program must likewise be assessed. Table 8 shows the result of the measure of internal efficiency of the review program through the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test.

At 0.05 level of significance level and obtained z-value of -4.3609, the result is significant. This implies that the review program made a significant difference in the students’ level of achievement in Math.

To further validate the effectiveness of the review program, the batch performance in the college entrance examination of the top three universities in the country was collected. Results show that the MHCS passing rate is higher than the national passing rate (Table 9).

Based on the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test and the school’s CET passing rate, it could be deduced that the MHCS CETRP was effective. This study supported researches which concluded that school variables can be effective in raising student achievement (e.g., Wong & Wong, 1998; Huitt et al., 2009; Louis et al., 2010). This is consistent with the school administrators’ belief that the review program plays a significant role in the significant percentage of students who pass the entrance exams of the top universities in the country in the past.

The key finding of this cost-effectiveness study can be utilized by the school administrators to make informed decision as suggested by McEwan (2012) and evidence-based decision making by Levin & Garcia (2013) to maximize

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the limited resources which is common among private schools. In addition, it may require the school leaders to clarify their own thinking (Schiefelbein & Wolff, 2007) regarding the kind of support provided to the review program and the school’s budget allocation policy. This is very important in view of the reality of continued expansion of education costs.

Although this undertaking was able to satisfy the objective at which it was conceived, caution must be exercised with regard to interpreting and/or generalizing results of cost-effectiveness studies. This in view of what Hanushek (1979) stated that frequently, educational production functions are interpreted as if the included variables are conceptually and accurately measured, when in fact this is not the case.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The study shows that the review program with a unit cost of Php 690.50 per student resulted to a significant difference in the students’ achievement level. This finding has validated the school administrators’ assumptions

that: (a) the review program is effective in view of the attainment of its objective as supported by the students’ improved performance in Math and in college entrance tests, and (b) investing in this activity is a sound financial decision as results show that it is cost-effective in terms of outcome per unit (per student).

The results of the cost evaluation have to be given due consideration in future educational planning with the intent of employing cost-effective strategies that maximize use of scarce school resources by focusing on unit cost reduction without decreasing the program quality and school’s technical efficiency .

It is desired that school administrators initiate and support the conduct of cost- effectiveness study as it provides an empirical basis for drafting policies that determine the directions of educational programs in every institution.

REFERENCES

Belfield, C. & Levin, H.M. (2013 January). Cost-effectiveness in school education. (Institute of Education Sciences Award

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Table 9. CET Passing Rates

College Entrance Test

Number of MHCS students who took the test in 2013

Number of Test takers who passed

MHCS Passing Rate

National Passing Rate

Annual (A) Opportunity Cost (OC) in Php

UPCAT 33 8 24.24 % 17% 16 450

ACET 38 17 44.74 % 20% 2 931

DLSU 42 29 69.05 % - 3 682

*Data for number of students who took and passed the college entrance examinations came from MHCS Registrar. The national passing rate estimate for UPCAT and ACET is available online. No data is available for DLSU.

Number R305U120001) Retrieved from Alliance 21 website: http://www.alliance21.org.au/site/assets/media/Belfield_Alliance-21-Education-Innovation.pdf

Best, J. & Kahn, J. (2003). Research in education (9th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education.

Hanushek, E. (1979). Conceptual and empirical issues in the estimation of educational production functions. The Journal of Human Resources, 14(3), 351-388.

Hidalgo, A., Castillo, E.M., & Terosa, C. (2013). A cost-effectiveness analysis of two secondary school interventions: The case of Pasig City Division School. UK: Global Development Network. Retrieved from http://www.gdn.int/admin/uploads/editor/files/GDN_PEMRP_CRC_CEA_Education.pdf http://www.gdn.int/admin/uploads/editor/files/GDN_PEMRP_CRC_CEA_Education.pdf

Huitt, W., Huitt, M., Monetti, D., & Hummel, J. (2009). A systems-based synthesis ofresearch related to improving students’ academic performance. Paper presented at the 3rd International City Break Conference sponsored by the Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER), October 16-19, Athens, Greece. Retrieved from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/papers/improving-school-achievement.pdf

Levin, H.M. (1994). Cost-effectiveness analysis. In M. Carnoy (ed.) International Encyclopedia of Economics of Education 2 (Ed.). Oxford: Pergamon, 381-386.

Levin, H.M. (2001). Waiting for Godot: Cost-effectiveness analysis in education.” In R. Light, (ed.), Evaluation Findings That Surprise in New Directions for

Program Evaluation, 90, 55-68Levin, H.M., & Garcia, E. (2012). Cost–

effectiveness of accelerated study in Associate Programs (ASAP) of the City University of New York (CUNY). Retrieved from City University of New York website: http://www.cuny.edu/academics/programs/notable/asap/Levin_Report_WEB.pdf

Louis, K.S., Leithwood, K., Wahlstrom, K.L., & Anderson, S.E. (2010). Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning: Final Report of Research Findings. Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement.

McEwan, P. (2012). Cost-effectiveness analysis of education and health interventions in developing countries. Journal of Development Effectiveness, 4(2), 189-213.

Schiefelbein, E., & Wolff, L. (2007). Cost-Effectiveness of Primary School Interventions in English Speaking East and West Africa: A survey of opinion by education planners and economists. Retrieved from http://www.educationfasttrack.o r g / m e d i a / l i b r a r y /afrSchWolffCostEffeaug262007.pdf

Tilak, J. (1985). Analysis of Costs of Education in India. National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (India), Occasional Paper No. 10. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 261 946)

Tsang, M. (1988). Cost Analysis for Educational Policymaking: A Review of Cost Studies in Education in Developing Countries. Review of Educational Research, 58(2), 181

Wong, H. & Wong, R. (1998). The first days of school. Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications, p. 167.

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APPENDIXMath Pre-test and Post-test Overall Results by SectionSection A Section B

Male Psretest Score

Post-test Score

Male Pretest Score Post-test Score

1 21 25 1 17 12

2 4 18 2 22 32

3 12 3 23 29

4 29 33 4 15 26

5 19 32 5 23 30

6 7 21 6 16 28

7 24 27 7 24 34

8 32 38 8 14 19

9 21 22 9 23 27

10 30 32 10 19 19

11 26 20 11 31 32

12 10 24

13 18

14 19 26

Female Female

1 18 24 1 13 14

2 24 32 2 25 33

3 20 27 3 8 15

4 25 13 4 16 13

5 15 22 5

6 25 26 6 37 39

7 16 22 7 26 30

8 18 19 8 13 23

9 9 13 24

10 18

11 15 19

N 20 22 N 20 21

HSO 32 38 HSO 38 39

LSO 4 12 LSO 12 12

MEAN 20.15 24.23 MEAN 24.23 24.57

MPS 50.38 60.58 MPS 60.58 61.43

SD 7.33 6.52 SD 6.52 7. 8

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INNOVATIONS ON THE NEXUS OF SECTORAL PLAYERS IN THE TRADITIONAL COMMUNITY-BASED CARABAO DAIRY INDUSTRYMatilde Melicent Santos-Recto*Central Luzon State University, Philippines

AbstractThis research shows that the dynamics and mechanisms of Schumpeterian economics in terms of innovation and creative destruction have worked in the Philippine carabao industry. It is an exposition of the development of the traditional community-based carabao dairy industry through an innovative pathway analysis in historical context and describes the nexus conditions and patterns of the carabao dairy industry sectoral players through non-parametric statistics and triangulation. Essential revelations of the discourse disclosed the importance of sectoral players and their linkages within and outside of the industry in terms of business process management transactional fields of activities and strategic partnership relational characteristics; divulged the explication of the state of the entrepreneurial management and economic arrangements of two traditional carabao-based sectors; and presented a discernment of the development implications of the entrepreneurial and sectoral nexuses of the carabao milk chain. Three distinct models serve as leads in the design of innovation-based industry development, forge of entrepreneurial management of players to form a nexus, and reconfiguration of the carabao milk chain. Á la fin, Schumpeter’s creative destruction, as depicted in Philippine carabao industry, is innovation in technical approach that progresses to the formation of a variety of social network structures and community-based entrepreneurial activities which serve as decisive determinants of players to become adaptors of innovations and active agents of evolutionary change in the socio-economic systems of the traditional carabao farming communities..

Keywords: Carabao dairy industry, Five field synergy system model, Germ cell model, Single step demand driven model, Socio-economic systems

INTRODUCTION

The less fortunate plight of the smallhold dairy farmers in rural Philippines necessitates the multi-faceted involvement of the government to transform the countryside from subsistence living to one of sustainable income generation. Various intercessions were introduced through innovations in technology and welfare provision for higher level sustainable development schemes such as capability building for

enhancing and generating income and employment, increasing productivity, and value-adding economic activities. Considering all these, this evaluative study was conceptualized to assess these intercessions in terms of innovations introduced. To find out whether these were successful or not in the development of the traditional community-based carabao dairy industry and in the forging of socio-economic linkages of sectoral players in the industry serves as the main point of this study.

In 1999, Nueva Ecija was chosen as the National Impact Zone (NIZ) for an innovative carabao development project (Cruz & Battad, 1998), with its 25-Cow

*E-mail address: voudaque@yahoo.com.ph

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Dairy Buffalo Module project as one of the main strategies in accelerating the objectives of the Carabao-Based Enterprise Development Program (CBED). The province of Nueva Ecija was chosen to model the production of milk from quality purebred buffaloes and of specialized buffalo-based products through the establishment of viable, cooperative-led enterprises. Bulacan, being the nearest province in the area and where sweet delicacies especially pastillas de leche are made, has long since been the major recipient of fresh carabao milk from Nueva Ecija. It has initiated carabao-based programs for the development of its dairy industry and also created business linkages and alliances with Nueva Ecija through the carabao milk thereby reaping the value added benefits of raw milk production plus the add-ons of pastillas de leche production. Considering these alliance, the carabao milk chain starts on the supply side of fresh carabao milk production activities in the NIZ and ends on the demand side of pastillas de leche production activities in Bulacan. Owing to the high demand for NIZ carabao milk by the Bulacan pastillas sector, NIZ has to initiate and sustain continuous supply of milk fuelling a supply channel.

With the institutionalization of the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC), the development of the carabao milk industry and the carabao milk-based pastillas industry have become recognizable. Yet, these expectations although realized, cannot be taken as successful determinants of innovations in the industry of the native carabao because the institutional inputs, community environment and the roles of players occupy important positions from the perspectives of sustainable enterprise management and development practices.

The theoretical framework of the study is based on Schumpeter’s Economics of Innovation, Creative Destruction and Entrepreneurial-Based Innovation (1964) in relation to the management concepts of Business Process Management (Huddleston, 2009) and Strategic Partnership (Bensaou, 1999). To a certain extent, it is anchored on the principles of Food Supply and Demand Chains as factors that establish relationships among the industry players (Canever, 2006). Based on the given theories and the empirical insights, the research considered some new dimensions of explaining rural development through the community players’ business and entrepreneurial choices, capabilities and opportunities for transactional and relational networking with PCC as the lead innovator.

The framework was based on the theory of economic development being a result of three types of factors: “primarily, innovations; then, external factors such as the government or institutions as weapons of development; and last, other identified factors of growth or gradual changes in social and economic life which are accomplished through day to day activities and adjustments” (Schumpeter, 1964) like business process management activities and strategic partnership. For Schumpeter, innovation is the chief force in what he calls “economic evolution.” Yet, innovations are worthless unless manifested in the changes of the status quo of the lives of the people (Yunus, 2007), new business processes (Huddleston, 2009), and economic management of frequent relations (Bensaou, 1999).

For this academic construct, it was assumed that the main factors that led to the development of the Philippine carabao industry are the innovations

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on the genetics of the native carabao as a result of research and technology development. Its repercussions on institutional thrusts as emulated by the creation of the PCC and socio-economic endeavors that were adopted by the traditional network of dairy community industry players in terms of business and entrepreneurial aspects were considered as resultants of the genetic innovation and development. Amidst the novel factors affecting change and on the assumption that structural changes have occurred due to PCC’s innovational capacities, the research likewise focused on the Business Process Management (BPM) concepts describing the transactional characteristics of the states of carabao milk production and milk processing sectors. These transactional characteristics were based on the entrepreneurial frameworks of operation, production, marketing, financial and intermediary fields of each type of player. Likewise, the business management principle of Strategic Partnership (Strat-P) describing the relational nexus of the players in the carabao milk chain was characterized in terms of coordination and complementation. The assessment of the B2B relationships among the sectors resolves the identification of transactional BPM characteristics affecting the interactional Strat-P factors.

The core of the study is founded on the primary inquiry: How did government-induced innovations develop the traditional community-based carabao dairy industry ?

Corollary to this, the study also tackled sub-queries on the different PCC initiated innovations in the development of the traditional community-based dairy industry and how were they operationalized; as well as the outcomes

and challenges of the innovations introduced and done in terms of carabao-dairy entrepreneurial development, particularly, its effects on the carabao milk supply and demand sectors, and on the linkages of the players in the industry.

This research, then, aims a) to determine the traditional business to business (B2B) characteristics describing the transactional and relational linkages of the supply and demand sectors in the carabao dairy industry; b) describe the dynamics of interaction between the supply and demand entities of the carabao milk and pastillas chain; c) to find out the significance of the institutional factors in the forging of nexus among the sectoral players of the traditional community-based dairy industry; d) to configure the carabao milk chain, approximate particular predictors of sustainability, and identify areas of potential replication; and e) to recommend policy proposals to fill in the knowledge gaps and address problems besetting the government-sponsored innovation.

In particular, the study included the determination of the issues, factors and features of the PCC-led innovations affecting the industry of dairy carabao raising, carabao milk production and processing in the traditional community. As to the Bulacan pastillas industry, the study was confined to its use of carabao milk in pastillas de leche processing and did not map out other concerns of the pastillas industry chain like pastillas demand and marketing. The business and entrepreneurial facets of the study were narrowed on the B2B transactional characteristics and the relational and linkage practices of the carabao milk chain players.

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METHODOLOGY

Field research was undertaken to find out the actual activities and processes within each sector of the dairy community of players and other participants. Descriptive statistics was used to determine and explain the states of the demand and supply sectors and their entrepreneurial linkages. Evaluation and analysis of data gathered were facilitated to extract concepts, insights, and notions to determine the status quo of the carabao milk supply and demand sectors, to resolve areas of potential replication, configure the carabao milk chain, and approximate some predictors of sustainability.

Locale. The locale of the respondents

covered 12 cities and municipalities from the NIZ. For the carabao milk production side (supply), there were three cities (Science City of Muňoz, San Jose City and Cabanatuan City) and four municipalities located in the NIZ (Rizal, General Mamerto Natividad which is also called Llanera, Talavera and Guimba). The additional two cities (Palayan City and Gapan City) and three towns (San Antonio, Jaen and San Leonardo) were not part of the NIZ project. The NIZ member areas converged in the northern part of Nueva Ecija while the non-NIZ constituent areas were located in the southern portion adjacent to Bulacan. The Bulacan “Pastillas Countries” composing of four major municipalities (San Miguel, San Ildefonso, San Rafael and Baliuag) congregate along the Maharlika Highway.

Respondents. The respondents on the milk production side (supply) were 88 smallhold carabao milk producers, 64 of whom were independent producers and 24 cooperative-based or

member-producers selected at random based on a given list and area; 8 active milk producing cooperatives located in the NIZ; 2 institutional producers particularly Nueva Ecija Federation of Carabao Cooperatives (NEFEDCO), the umbrella organization of cooperatives; and PCC at Central Luzon State University (CLSU) Techno-Demo Farm. The respondents on the carabao milk consumption or milk processor side (demand) based on a given list by the Bulacan Department of Agriculture were 12 independent milk processors, 4 cooperatives and 3 organized commercial processors from the Pastillas Countries.

Data Collection. Data collection was survey via the use of questionnaires and guided interview schedules (GIS) with a roll of follow-up questions for key informants (KIs) and focus group discussions (FGD). The FGD was augmented by a structured questionnaire on selected variables for the smallhold milk producers and individual pastillas processors. Secondary data were also used. Purposive sampling was employed to gather data from the industry players’ influencing and transactional business process management (BPM) characteristics and relational strategic partnership (Strat-P) practices. Criteria for the sampling method were based on the proximity of the producer and processors, recommendations of the PCC and the Bulacan Provincial Government, and the convergence of the players in the locale of the study.

Analytical Techniques. Data gathered were tabulated and analyzed based on the specific objectives of the study using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS). Frequencies and percentages were used to interpret

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and explain the socio-demographic characteristics of the milk producers and processors. Qualitative analyses like primary data review, process evaluation, and activity identification were carried out to describe, evaluate, and determine the contributions and effects of factors, characteristics and practices of the players in the traditional community-based dairy industry. To cross verify data on claims, triangulation technique was applied. Chi-square analysis was used to determine the extent of transactional characteristics and relational practices of milk producers and pastillas processors who are either members or non-members of a cooperative, as it is the most applicable test for determining relationships of categorical characteristics being investigated using Likert Scale questionnaire format (Danao, 2005). Partial correlation was used to determine the status quo (Albright et al., 2003) of the supply and the demand sectors of the carabao milk chain. Ranking was used to identify the best practices, problems confronting the respondents, and solutions carried out. Historical data and events analysis were drawn on in the determination of innovations introduced in terms of research and technology development, institutional thrust and socio-economic endeavors which led to the advent of a model for rural development based on the carabao or large ruminant sector.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Analysis and Synthesis of the Philippine Carabao Industry Development: The Static and the Dynamic Germ Cell Models

The flow of historical facts led to an inspired idea of offering a model through

the use of a metaphorical image to describe the dynamics of the Philippine carabao industry development. It is an industry development model based on the uniqueness of a germ cell which carries the life-giving forces of any living thing. The model is specific to the carabao industry of the Philippines as it is founded on its factual chronological information. It was thought of to resemble the germ cell system; hence, it is named the Germ Cell Model of Development. The three main parts of the germ cell considered in the model are the nucleolus, the nucleus and the cytoplasm. The model contends that each of the chambers of the germ cell represents an aspect in the historical milieu that caused the development of the carabao industry. Each representation shows containment, hierarchical relations, and progression of relationships.

The nucleolus represents the Pre-PCC Era (before 1992, 1972-1991) when the primary focus was on carabao research and technology development through centers under the auspices of the Government of the Philippines (GoP). The nucleus signifies the period of institutionalization of the PCC (beginning 1992), culminating in the ratification of the Carabao Law and institutionalization of the PCC Network of Centers. The cytoplasm characterizes the period of socio-economic endeavors or the period of diffusion of the innovated carabao in which the focus is the provision of extension functions in cooperativism and entrepreneurial activism in the traditional dairy industry. At this stage, the model is yet regarded as the Static Germ Cell Model of Industry Development, since in the event of its proper function, the change is confined only within the carabao. It is restricted only within the germ cell in which the

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state of continuous stability and survival depends on the facilitated diffusion among each body of concentration, whether the nucleolus, nucleus or the

cytoplasm. From the perspective of the model, the engagement of development is restrained and curbed in research and technology development to institutional

Figure 1. Operationalization of the Dynamic Germ Cell Model of Development in the Philippine Carabao Industry

thrusts towards socio-economic endeavors and then back and forth and in-between. For a certain period of time, the static model may serve as efficient and satisfactory but not for long.

Certainly, the carabao sector is not static as it evolves through time. Traditional as it may seem, it is defined by constant changes. This traditional community-based sector is basically within the agricultural industry and needs the elements required for a rural industry development. Traditional rural industries are typically characterized by agrarian-based economic activities, which oftentimes are interchanged with agricultural undertakings. The three basic elements of rural community development are financial infrastructure, physical infrastructure and socio- economic infrastructures that must be fundamentally present in order to harness all possibilities for social

alleviation (Bale, 1999). The dynamics of these three new elements can pave for the upliftment of the conditions of the industry. Observing events and issues related to such dynamics can facilitate the extent of advancement within the traditional community-based dairy industry. Episodes that comprised the provision of services regarding carabao care in impact areas; establishment of carabao-based enterprises; organization of activities in rural communities, market towns and cities that are closely linked to the carabao sector; upliftment of entrepreneurial activities; and provision of other needed physical and social infrastructures best described the dynamics of the three elements.

In the end, such forces spilt over into the surrounding communities and other industries. As in the case of milk production, carabao milk has

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since been of high demand for the milk candy or pastillas industry in the surrounding provinces. The Static Model of Industry Development is thus upgraded into the Dynamic Germ Cell Model of Development. The activities of change in the Dynamic Germ Cell Model of Development are caused by its peculiarities. Like any living cell, it possesses characteristics that are exclusive to itself. The distinguishing characteristics of the model have been observed within the functions of the PCC and its constituents: it is subject to external factors, it is manageable, it acts based on facilitated diffusion and selective permeability, and it is measurable. Considering the cellular view of development, the perspectives of ascertaining developmental change is based on the given peculiarities.

The interaction of the essential elements of rural development which are social infrastructure, physical infrastructure, and financial services are likened to the interface of the cellular parts of the model. This complex complementation provides the establishment of linkages that can be relegated to the unity of purposes and end: the attainment of rural community development and enhancement of the lives of the beneficiaries. As deduced, it is the innovations in the carabao genetic improvement in milk production that have led to the successive steps of carabao industry development. With these innovations on carabao genetics and its bundle of technologies for the improvement of milk production, a natural succession of events resulted: from the institutionalization of infrastructures needed, to socio-economic concerns through entrepreneurial undertakings of rural farmers, to the ultimate aim

of community development. The given figure shows the Dynamic Germ Cell Model of Industry Development operating in the Philippine carabao industry.

The challenges in the creation of the given theoretical models, the Germ Cell Model of Development in two strains, the Static and the Dynamic, which indicate the development paths and potentials of the Philippine carabao industry, were the choice and use of the numerous data, historical events and records available that would further substantiate the simile of the germ cell and the industry. Yet, it hopes to provide a distinctive depiction and illustration of a development of a traditional community-based dairy industry, Philippine scenario.

It is developed in anticipation of a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Philippine context of development through introduction and use of innovation. Hitherto, on the disconcerting side, when the model is applied in real management teams, the consideration of the cellular divide could exhaust potentials in terms of technical expertise and knowledge of project implementers from actual field situations. The substantiation that the Philippine Carabao Center is contributory to the introduction of and use of innovations by dairy farmers was based on the iterative results of programs and projects according to its mandate. In 39 years, since 1975, the industry has been modernized in terms of financial, physical and social infrastructures leading to remarkable progress in the areas of animal genetic research and technology, institutional thrust and socio-economic endeavors.

Synthesis and Analysis of the Sectoral Entrepreneurial Management and Linkage: The Generic and Radial Five-

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Fields Business Process Management Synergy Models

The carabao dairy industry must not be seen only from the standpoint of the genetic improvement aspects of the animal and the development of milk production enterprises but also beyond. It has to encompass the end sectors affixed to the carabao-based products and not only consider them as extensions but as vital components to contend for the full development of the industry. Milk is a primary good derived from the carabao that has been the subject of merchandising since its domestication and as such, milk production as an activity has evolved as a sector of the carabao industry. The pastillas de leche derives its basic input, the milk, from the carabao. With the milk used in processing, the activity is practically an extension of the milk production sector, if not one of its essential facets. Taken as a sector of the industry, it completes the carabao milk production chain.

Supply Sector. The State of Milk

Production in Nueva Ecija. The current condition of the milk production players in Nueva Ecija is shown by the favorability and unfavorability of their business process management practices and strategic partnership. Data showed that the players within the milk production sector have favorable practices in terms of operation, marketing and coordination. The observed weaknesses were in production, financial, intermediary and complementation practices as shown by more unfavorable values. The unfavorable situation on intermediary factors refers to the access to information and technology by the producers who were not members of cooperatives at the time of the study. Price was also a setback because they

could not position standard pricing as it differed from one community to another aside from being set by the NEFEDCO for the cooperative member producers and the prevailing market price for the non-cooperative members.

Demand Sector. The State of Pastillas Processing in Bulacan. The milk processing sector players indicated favorability in the BPM and Strat-P practices among themselves except in intermediary factors. The unfavorable situations regarding intermediary factors were based on the seasonal sales experienced and the presence of third-party players who affect milk pricing. Other than these, as shown by the findings, the pastillas sector, although small, can very well thrive on its own.

The Five-Fields Business Process Management Synergy Models. The relationship of the members of a sector, whether in the carabao milk or pastillas sector, is founded on an entrepreneurial link which exposes members to more and better opportunities if given the right management concerns. The focus on relations among sectoral players as a key strategic initiative for development illustrates the importance of the stakeholder theory (Solnet et al., 2007), and relationship management and generic value chain (Porter, 1985). The link between the stakeholders has always been regarded by chain enthusiasts as a continuous unilateral series of activities inducing change per step and altering an original form into an improved final process or good. The proposed depiction of an entrepreneurial and management linkage among the players refers to a synergy of business process activities interlinked together resulting to a shortened variance among and between

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the allied players within the sectors. Instead of the conventional supply or demand chain figured along a straight continuum, an innovative synergistic system is introduced to close the gap or minimize the differences among the sectoral players. Having identified the fields of business processes (production, operation, marketing, financial and intermediary) and the specific activities that fall in and delineate each field, they are combined and illustrated collectively into a basic radial figure representing the Generic Five-Field BPM Synergy System Model of Management applicable to individual/independent players. When taken as a system, each field is able to interact and react with other players in the industry and form a working connection with them.

Considering the strategic partnership practices of coordination and complementation in the field of business process, the Generic Five-field BPM Synergy System Model of Management is further improved. The new fields of relational nature, coordination and complementation are incorporated and placed as the core of the radial indicating an orchestrated harmony among the five BPM fields. In effect, a featured hub that can synchronize all fields and activities shortens the traditional extended chain.

The Five-Field BPM Radial Synergy System Model of Linkage Management of the traditional entrepreneurial nexus of sectoral players offers to show the transactional and relational activities tied together in a condensed mold and synergized by a driving force performing the matching process. This radial synergy system provides for the interconnection of relationships, directly or indirectly, in a non-chaotic mode because matching of

activities is assumed to be transaction specific. With the hub working to match the practices of the players at opposite ends, the players become interlinked and eventually sustain each other. The fundamental importance of the model is that it can make the players depend on each other and in the long run develop and expand together.

Based on survey, each of the BPM activities and Strat-P characteristics of the traditional milk sector and pastillas sector players are numerous and varied, but, they are able to form a working relationship according to some commonalities and coordinating institutions (like the PCC Main and the PCC at CLSU for the production sector). The synectic figure corresponds to the actual circumstances in the carabao milk industry where there are still many transactional activities and relational aspects that are of concern and needed to be harmonized between the players in the milk production sector and the pastillas sector. The

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Figure 2. Five-Field Business Process Management Radial Synergy System Model of Linkage Management of Sectoral/Industry Players

statuses of the sectoral players as well as the bi-sector case of entrepreneurial linkage of the carabao industry offer areas of opportunities to synergize as shown by the results of statistical and qualitative information gathered.

The application of the model can create benefits for the given traditional community-based carabao milk industry players, such as: industry positioning, greater strengths in production, leverage based on capitalized capabilities and resource-based advantages. The logistics of administering the submitted model of sectoral engagement creates a range of peculiarities that can be considered in the event of its utility: it is not a stand-alone system; it is affixing and not unifying; it requires a commodity link; it is transaction matching and not cloning; the shortening of transactional events depends on the commodity link (in this case, perishability of milk). Within the framework of the sectoral players, the quantitative and qualitative information gathered catered to the conception of the Five-Field BPM Radial Synergy System Model of Linkage Management, which, when impressed on the status quo situation of the sectors, is already partially discernible within and about the five fields of activities.

The Entrepreneurial Nexus and the Carabao Milk Chain: The Coordinated Single Step Demand-Driven Model

The convergence of BPM and Srat-P characteristics of the milk producing sector and the pastillas sector defines the economic nexus of the industry players. It is important that the two sides of the carabao milk equation converge so that milk movement is aligned and become more economically viable. The determination of the present state of the link between the two sectors sets

the basis for the reconfiguration of the carabao milk chain. The derivation of the proposed model was based on the findings pertaining to the performance in BPM transactional characteristics and conduct of Strat-P relational practices of the supply and demand side sectors of the carabao milk industry. Both sectors were described in terms of the BPM and Strat-P fields further qualified based on specific activities. The validity of the choice of activities was based on observability in actual practice, explanatory relevance and testability (Bordens & Abbott, 2008). From out of the players’ activities, particular characteristics and practices that were of significance or non-significance were extracted to determine what variables make the two sectors mutually go together.

As a proposition, the more variables there are that show parallel practices, the more synergy there is in the system and the more synchronized is the management of activities and decisions between the sectors.

The Status of the BPM Transactional Linkages. These activities refer to the common and explicit actions undertaken by the milk producers and milk processors in relation to their entrepreneurial undertakings and position in the carabao milk chain. Statistical results in the field of operations indicated significantly different practices of the milk producers and the milk processors in most operational activities. Only in inventory management did the milk producers and the pastillas processors showed parallel or similar practices. The two sectors were linked in terms of standard measure used, delivery time which is a determinant of freshness, sanitation practices on milk containers, and milk handling practices. In the

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Table 1. Summary of Parallel and Divergent Practices of the Milk Production Sector and the Milk Processing Sector Transactional and Relational Fields

Parallel Practices Divergent Practices

Operation Inventory Management Order Receipts and FulfillmentProduction and Resource CareOperations Assistance and Technical SupportLabor Management and Employment

Production Handling and Processing Quality Control and CertificationsPackaging and Labeling

Marketing Transport and Distribu-tion Delivery Returns

SalesMarket and CompetitionsFeedback After Sales

Financial Other Costs Billing and Payments

Intermediary - Pricing and Mark-upsAccess to InformationTechnology and Institutional SupportSeasons and MarketThird-party Players

Coordination - Communication with ClientsEnabling Environment

Complementation - Customer or Vendor-Client Relations

production field, it is only in handling and processing that the two sectors have parallel practices particularly in the adoption of manual and traditional procedures of production. In marketing, commonality is illustrated based on Chi-square results among the end to end players, particularly in transport and distribution and delivery returns as both have recognized the importance of the time involved and the physical condition of their products. The practices in the financial field regarding disposition of costs show similarities, however, there is still a need to harmonize billing and payments among the sectors. The intermediary field illustrates the gaps in the particular areas of pricing, access to information, technology, and PCC support. The end results indicated greater unfavorable values signifying weaknesses for both sectors.

The State of Strat-P Relations.

The two-way entrepreneurial linkage and management representation of parallelism among the two sectors in the carabao industry showed that there were more gaps to bridge so that a mechanism to harness the unmatched processes and practices has to be considered. The relational field of coordination statistically showed differences in the component items particularly on communication with clients. Considering that the two sectors are placed in a chain situation, the production sector’s client is the processing sector. The small players from both sectors have no direct contact with each other, have no formal contracts, seldom attend joint activities of milk producers and processors, and are placed in vastly different enabling environments. Findings indicated that the two sectors have not been keen in building relationships together. There was a lack of institutional initiations

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that can provide for enabling sectoral engagements, thus, resulting to displacement of economic returns from the carabao milk for both of the sectors. The relational field of complementation shows higher values indicating significantly different practices and activities. Each sector contended that “the other sector is not their partner but just clients or source”; thus, there was really “no need to have shared objectives, tactical arrangement or mutual agreements with them” (Reyes, 2011: GIS-KI).

Nexus Situation of the Supply and Demand Sectors. The current characters of the linkage between the carabao milk production and the milk processing sectors were considered as basis in determining the extent of development repercussion that the

Figure 3. Single-Step Demand-Driven Carabao Milk-Pastillas Chain Modelwith Infusion of PCC Innovations

carabao genetic improvement program has made. The evaluation of the BPM practices in terms of transactional deals and Strat-P characteristics in terms of relational arrangements showed that more activities and factors between them did not converge. Only five specific activities done in between were seen to match with each other which meant that they have agreed on each other’s practices while the majority showed non-alignment. Table 1 presents the divergent practices on the nexus that are needed to be matched. The parallel practices perceived to be compatible have put the two sectors together. The degree or significance of compatibility or alignment of the activities has illustrated the transactional and relational characters of the nexus. Having determined the five parallel practices with particular levels of significant relationship, it

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could be surmised that the divergent practices could likewise be aligned.

Results showed that it was in the milk inventory management that the two sectors have the highest compatibility (85.70%) indicating that there were only a few specific activities needed to be coordinated in that category so that full complementation may ensue in the sectors. Statistical outcomes also showed that it was in the customer or client-vendor relations that the two sectors have the weakest link. This validated the claims of the sectors that they have “not initiated efforts to build relationships with one another”. Handling and processing were on 50-50 level of significance due to the differences of final inventories handled, fresh milk and pastillas, but the same commodity link in raw form. Overall Chi-square cross tabulation results revealed that the total activity divergence level was at 66.90 percent with only 33.10 percent level of activity convergence. The alignment of the divergent activities called for a configuration of the practices that link the two sectors to bring into line and focus the flow of milk within the carabao milk chain. The overall results of the chi-square test showed significantly divergent practices.

The Reconfigured Carabao Milk Chain: A Demand Driven Model. To establish the nexus between the two sectors in the case, there was a need to initially consider the conditions of the carabao milk production and supply in relation to the carabao milk demand for pastillas processing. Results of the survey showed an abundance of carabao milk supply but it could not cope with the high demand for raw milk to be used in processing by the pastillas sector. The milk processing sector

claimed that “carabao milk supply was not enough for their needs” and that they have been sourcing out from independent milk producers located in Cabanatuan City, Palayan City, Gapan City, Jaen, San Leonardo, Cabiao and Zaragoza in Nueva Ecija besides getting from PCC, NEFEDCO and some Bulacan milk producing communities.

A difference has to be satisfied in the area of demand by arranging the way raw milk moves from the production side to the consumption side. This observation is proposed to be resolved by bringing into application a “coordinating mechanism” that can align the needs of both sectors. Coordination ensures that sectors along a chain exhibit some manifestations of organized configuration rather than just simply being connected. There has to be key participants in the chain who must take responsibilities for the inter-sector coordination of capabilities in particular fields of activities (van Hofwegen et al., 2005). The interconnection is illustrated in terms of activities, actions and decisions that could activate a connection between the end to end sectors. In the case of the carabao milk and pastillas chain, the above postulated Five-Field BPM Radial Synergy System Model of Linkage Management can be enthrusted and applied in between the sectors to ensue a reconfigured carabao milk chain.

The process of value chain reconfiguration takes place in many ways such as relocating activities, inserting new value-adding players, eliminating parts, dismantling activities to concentrate on competencies, etc, but will result only to one end: a new distribution channel or selling approach (Porter, 1985). It also may result to integration which refers to the development of a partnership through a

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simple connection of communities that create customer value: an integrating value chain that is a kind of strategic alliance (Yang et al., 2004; Rainbird, 2004b). Results of the research showed that the fields of coordination and complementation have not materialized indicating very weak relations among the two sectors and that their working relations were based only on parallel practices. With these postulations, the reconfiguration of the carabao-pastillas chain is shown by the coordinated Single-Step Demand-Driven Carabao Milk Chain Model (Refer to Figure 3). The model is incorporated with the Five-Field Radial Synergy System Model of Management placed in between.

The findings in the status quo of the supply and demand sectors revealed that the supply portion is smaller than the demand part of the abridged and syncopated chain. This indicates that the unfulfilled demand has to be matched by the supply side through the synergy of the five fields of operations. The chain is demand-driven because it is supposed that the consumer side would affect the manner in which production is to be directed. Research outcomes exhibited that PCC expounded a product-driven entrepreneurial design (Gasmeña, 2008) resulting to an inward looking NIZ model: like, the producers sector was taught to process their own milk leading to diversification. The proposed model extricates the diversification initiative and suggests sector specialization. A common commodity link, in this case, the carabao milk, between the two different specialized sectors is pivotal for the chain to connect and become operational.

It is a one-step chain because the linkage is in effect singular and radiates around BPM domains, processes and activities. PCC has initially supported

the carabao sector through its innovative efforts in research and technology, institutional thrust, and socio-economic strategies without much regard for the pastillas sector. The proposed model contends that PCC, in addition to being the pivotal organization in the carabao milk production sector, has to serve as the coordinating link between the two sectors and can provide for the synchronization of the BPM fields of entrepreneurial coordination and complementation. The demand side of the chain is depicted as larger than the supply side representing more milk gaps to be filled and open opportunities for the sectors. It likewise portrays the reorientation of the carabao milk chain from a product-driven supply chain to a market-driven demand chain. Derived models present characteristics of their own that make them particular yet in some aspects general and universal. The given proposition that provides a solution to a disconnected demand-driven chain of two different sectors present peculiarities that could be found in effect: it bridges gaps and adversities simultaneously among sectors; it features a coordinating unit force; it boosts sector specialization; it can be win through by small players; it features interdependency and shared accrual of returns.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the problems of the study, findings referring to innovations were anchored on the way the government has provided infrastructures to induce the development of the carabao industry through a creative destruction mode, particularly the genetic improvement of the native carabao. As an extension, the

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enhancement of the carabao community in terms of entrepreneurial undertakings was embarked on yet dependent on how the PCC set the provision of investments and pacing of government-based projects.

The Philippine carabao industry went through four episodes of development activities that shaped its history from the 1900. These were known as the “Junctures of Importation” in intermittent periods throughout the 20th Century, the Slaughter and Ban Mindset Stage around the middle of the century, the Research-Focused Era towards the end of the century, and the Center and Project Oriented Phase by the end of the 20th Century and the onset of the 21st Century. These activities set the pace of the industry’s change based on innovations. The government provided for the investments in research and technology at the onset of the PCC organization focusing on the genetic improvement of the carabao as a producer of milk. The institutionalization of the PCC catered to the funding of more researches on the carabao and formulation of innovative projects introduced to the traditional community-based dairy farmers. The socio-economic innovations were embodied in the carabao-based entrepreneurial endeavors leading to the transfer and adoption of technologies from the PCC to the dairy farmers further leading to the proliferation of independent smallhold dairy farmers within and outside of the NIZ. The Static Germ Cell Model of Development and the Dynamic Germ Cell Model of Development with Infusion of Infrastructures were originated and formulated to outline the development of the Philippine carabao industry in metaphorical approach. The models were specific to the Philippine carabao industry but in general terms can be

applied to other rural community-based development undertakings anchored on an agricultural commodity.

The aim of the PCC for Nueva Ecija to be the top carabao milk producing province has been practically attained but it was not able to consider the external high demand for carabao milk and put it on the market outside of Nueva Ecija, particularly outside of the NIZ clout. Considering that the carabao milk is the basic ingredient in pastillas, the economic opportunities of continuously supplying fresh milk to the pastillas sector by the milk producers as an organized sector was lost. There was a faint effort of the PCC to form possible and viable transactional and relational linkages with other milk-based sectors, particularly, the processing sector in Bulacan, which Nueva Ecija can sustain with its abundant milk produce. It was found that the NIZ converge in the northern and central parts of Nueva Ecija while the unorganized independent smallhold producers that were not members of any cooperatives, not linked with one another, and has a nil or very little degree of association with PCC. The Bulacan pastillas processing sector has not been organized at all as a group or as a sectoral cluster. In addition, data revealed that the milk producing sector in Nueva Ecija and the milk processing sector in Bulacan were only able to link in particular activities. In general, the majority (72.22 %) of the transactional and relational factors studied revealed total divergence indicating very weak linkage among the two sectors.

One of the objectives of the innovations of the PCC was to come up with standards that could set the pace of activities of the enterprising players in the carabao milk chain. The standards generated were found out to have changed

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through time. The entrepreneurial standards for the pastillas sector is yet unfounded because no updated available data was uncovered. With the continuous alteration of standards set on sustainability predictors, it was inferred that the innovations on carabao genetics, farming and enterprising activities were sustainably viable. The proposed models based on a commodity link could be replicated, objectively with the consideration of the carabao itself. As such, in reference to the continuous PCC genetic improvement undertakings in the meat and hide aspects of the carabao, duplication of the strategies in the milk aspects can be done in the carabeef and meat processing sectors, carahide and the leather sectors, and again, the caramilk and the gourmet and exotic food sectors. Finally, the industry development models proposed can likewise be duplicated in some other industries as long as there is one commodity link among the concerned sectors.

The dynamics of interaction between the two divergent sectors was found out to be self-motivated. It was the personal concerns and initiatives of the very few carabao milk producers to seek and maintain entrepreneurial relations with the players of the pastillas processing sector and vice versa. There was also no coordinating body that accounted for the complementation and coordination mechanisms of their milk-based entrepreneurial ventures. The hardly noticeable chain relationship that existed through the BPM transactional characteristics in intermittent conduct was between the smallhold cooperative-based milk producers, NEFEDCO, PCC at CLSU in Nueva Ecija and the more established commercial pastillas processors in Bulacan. The relations

of the independent non-cooperative member carabao milk producers in Nueva Ecija and the individual pastillas processors in Bulacan were linked through the milk agents/collectors as intermediaries. The configuration of the two-sector chain between Nueva Ecija producers and Bulacan processors was not complex because the commodity link, the fresh milk, does not go into several steps of processing. Thus, the single step one commodity chain model has emerged. The multifaceted element of the chain was manifested in the linkage of the two-sector players with vastly divergent transactional and relational characters. As such, it was fully established that a weak link exists between the two sectors and that they are only connected in parallel based on few BPM transactional activities. It was also ascertained that the practice of strategic partnership through coordination and complementation among the players was hardly existent, if not nil.

Based on the findings, the issues that could be improved in terms of projects and policy positions are: inclusion of non-cooperative member dairy farmers in the future plans of PCC and harnessing their full potentials as carabao milk producers in line with the move of Nueva Ecija to become the Dairy Capital of the Philippines; contemplation and initialization of sectoral and inter-sectoral collaboration of carabao-based industries; consideration of moving away from the carabao-focused NIZ realm by including other unorganized existing food or commodity sectors that depend on the carabao as a commodity source of inputs such as the pastillas sector to further sustain the carabao milk production sector; reconfiguration of the BPM field of marketing and carabao milk chain like moving along the

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demand-driven (consumer-pull) carabao milk chain and veering away from the traditional product-driven supply chain marketing approach; changing and/or updating policy positions regarding milk supply provision and drawing on linkage policies if PCC wants the carabao milk production sector to be sustained and be able to obtain all economic returns from it; enticing the involvement of the private sector which can provide the needed investments in the modernization needs of the traditional community; focusing on the building and provision of structures for specialization to jumpstart the aim of making Nueva Ecija as the Dairy Capital of the Philippines; evolvement of the NIZ to undergo a structural shift from a model to a “functional development system” spilling over to other communities outside of NIZ; replication of the milk-based innovation on the carabao to other carabao-derived products (the meat and the hide); and in the event of the ripple effects on carabao dairying, more researches can be effected on the other factors related to carabao dairy community development like in the aspects of cultural, social, business, physical and even policy environment as it may be able to trigger another blast of creative destruction in its technical (or even social) expressions among the other players in the dairy community.

Noting of the carabao industry’s future or any other sectors attached to it, the prayer that is hoped to become a certainty, is that the notions of this research may be reflected on for consideration and be used in development purposes and plans.

REFERENCES

Albright, C.S., Winston, W.L., & Zappe,

C. (2003). Data analysis and decision making. U.S.A.: Thomson Learning, Inc.

Bale, M. (1999). The rural poor: A thematic approach, The World Bank: East Asia and Pacific Region. World Bank

Bensaou, B.M. (1999). Portfolio of buyer-supplier relationships. Sloan Management Review, 40(4), 35-44

Bordens, K.S. & Abbott, B.B. (2008). Research design and methods. Singapore: Mc-Graw-Hill Education for Asia

Cruz, L.C. & Battad, Z.M. (1998). The national impact zone for dairy buffalo development in the Philippines: Program document. Nueva Ecija, Philippines: Philippine Carabao Center

Cruz, L.C. & Battad, Z.M. (2007a). NIZ strategic organization development program document. Nueva Ecija, Philippines: Philippine Carabao Center

Cruz, L.C. & Battad, Z.M. (2007b). Carabao-based enterprise development program. Nueva Ecija, Philippines: Philippine Carabao Center

Danao, R.A. (2005). Introduction to statistics and econometric. UP Diliman, Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press

Gasmeña, J.G. (2008). Supply chain analysis of smallhold carabao-based enterprises: The case of Nueva Ecija federation of dairy carabao cooperatives. Unpublished Thesis, Central Luzon State University, Philippines

Huddleston, E. (2009). Business community management. Inovis, Inc.

Nelson, J. (2006). Building linkages for competitive and responsible entrepreneurship: Innovative partnerships to foster small enterprise, promote economicgGrowth, and reduce poverty in developing countries. Geneva and Boston, MA: United Nations Industrial

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Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Fellows of Harvard College

Patalinghug, E.E. (2004). The Philippine innovation system: Structure and characteristic. Research Paper Series No. 2003-04. Makati City: Surian sa mga Pag-aaral Pangkaunlaran ng Pilipinas (Philippine Institute for Development Studies)

Porter, M.E. (1985). Competitive advantage: Creating and sustaining superior performance. New York, U.S.A.: The Free Press

Rainbird, M. (2004). A framework for operations management: The value chain. International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, 34(3).

Reyes, E. (2011). Individual milk processor and entrepreneur-owner, Aling Nene’s Special Pastillas, Tigpalos, San Miguel, Bulacan

Schumpeter, J. (1961). Theory of economic development. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press

Schumpeter, J. (1964). Business cycles. New York: McGraw Hill

Solnet, D., Robinson, R., & Cooper, C. (2007). An industry partnerships approach to tourism education. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education, 6(1), 66-70

Spielman, D. J. (2005). Innovation systems perspectives on developing-country agriculture: A critical review. ISNAR Discussion Paper. U.S.A.: International Food Policy Research Institute

Tamm, D. (2010). Alignment between factors of the innovation process and public sector innovation support measures: An analysis of Estonian dairy processors and biotechnology enterprises. Baltic Journal of Economics,10(2), 93-94,

van Hofwegen, G., Becx, G., & van den Broek, J. (2005). Drivers for

competitiveness in agri-food chains: A comparative analysis of 10 EU food product chains. The Netherlands: Wageningen University

Witt, U. (2002). How evolutionary is Schumpeter’s theory of economic development?. Industry and Innovation, 9(1/2), 7–22

Yang, D., Kim, S., Nam, C., & Moon, J. (2004). Fixed and mobile service convergence and reconfiguration of telecommunications value chains, IEEE Wireless Communications, 1(5), 42-47.

Yunus, M. (2007). Creating a world without poverty: Social business and the future of capitalism. New York: Public Affairs

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AN ALIENATED POWER OF HIGHER EDUCATION EVALUATION: COLLEGE LABORS WITHIN, AGAINST AND BEYOND EVALUATIONKang-Lin Chao*Yung Ta Institute of Technology & Commerce, Taiwan

AbstractHigher education evaluation has become widely predominant. Evaluation is delineated as a means to reveal institutional effectiveness, support institutional improvement, and illustrate accountability. There exists a crucial call for achieving a deeper understanding of “evaluation” that developing alienated power brings to new creation. This article, then, examines an understanding of higher education evaluation in Taiwan through qualitative research design. Analysis of documents and semi-structured interviews reveal the relationships that the students, professors, and administrators perceived to change by evaluation results. For the purpose of understanding this relationship better, this paper essentially presented a brief history of higher education evaluation. The article also discussed the movements of college labors as feedback to higher education evaluation with alienated procedures and argued that these acknowledgements serve to develop deliberation on synthesized matters of higher education evaluation. The article ended with recommendations for further examination of this hostile evaluation to emphasize the interest, strategies, and solutions to alienated labors who are viewed as assets of the college.

Keywords: Alienation, Capital, Evaluation, Higher education

*Tel.: +886-8-7233733 +886-9-53782345 E-mail address: chaokanglin@gmail.com

INTRODUCTION

What is new about today’s university is not only that it serves the corporate world but that it also emulates it (Johnson, Kavanagh, & Mattson, 2003). These indicators include the growth of “for profit” institutions; invasive intervention of both private-sector corporations and government in the day-to-day running of “public” universities; the increasing importance of market relations; management’s usage of “performance indicators” , “performance management” and various forms of “merit pay”; the rhetoric of “efficiency” and “global competitiveness” (Harvie, 2006). All of the above lead evaluation toward prosperity in tertiary education.

The expansion of higher education evaluation in Taiwan can retrace to 1975. It spotlights on keeping the quality of higher education in applying, developing, and performing accountability. According to the Article 5 of the The Legislate Yuan, universities should periodically evaluate teaching, research, service, counsel, school administration and students involved in such matters, through self-evaluation as well as distribution of its evaluation, which is to be determined by the University. The fellows of evaluation committee should revise regularly, with the help of the academic community or professional accreditation bodies, request for university accreditation, and the report of its outcomes, as government funding for education grants and school improvement of the reference of the scale of evolution. The

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significant outcomes of higher education as a marketable means are purportedly more valuable than liberal procedures, which involves with accountability, scholarship, and student abilities paving the path for new types of assessment, monitoring and surveillance (Doran, 2012).

The main purposes of institutions are to nurture quality improvement and contribute quality commitment, which is deemed to be a keystone of higher education evaluation. Higher education’s obsession with performance, efficiency, external controls and measure (metrics) for funding has the effect of deepening the alienated and abstract labor characteristics of concrete teaching activities (David, 2006). Today, it manifests the interpretations of opposition movements to evaluation (Taiwan Higher Education Union, 2012).

In late years, the dwindling supply of national funds coupled with the development of consumer culture and growing excitement for corporate capitalism has done much to reconstruct higher education by evaluation (Molesworth, Nixon, & Scullion, 2009).

Hence, this article aimed to describe and analyze in a sociopolitical perspective the increasing evaluation experiencing higher education reform. This was done by integrating historical, theoretical, and empirical prospects from literature on labor power, political arrangement, critical policy analysis, and the function of performance in evaluation, desiring a multifocal approach.

College and university evaluation within the context and goals of the Ministry of Education

It is important that people questioning the formulation of evaluation are aware of the field’s

causes and origins. A historical record of program evaluation should be a guide to a better understanding (Stufflebeam, Madaus, & Kellaghan, 2000).

To exercise the quality of higher education following this impressive expansion, the MOE established the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT) in 2005 and encouraged schools to create their own self-evaluation systems. The HEEACT established objective standards, improving the quality of higher education to evaluate higher education on their administrative and management systems, academic performance (HEEACT, 2005).

MOE has launched the Aim for the Top University Project to raise the excellence in teaching and learning that reallocate educational resources and benefit colleges and universities finding their indications and strengths so as to compete with internationally famous universities through higher education evaluation.

These intentions comprise the development of “for-profit” education institutions, the intruding intervention of both private-sector industry and public university, the increasing implication of marketing connections, management’s usage of performance indicators, performance management and different forms of performance-related (or ‘merit pay’), the rhetoric of efficiency and global competitiveness, and the ‘proletarianisation’ of academics (Harvie, 2006). A question to the education debate, with the growing proportion of education being provided by non-traditional sources is whether education is still a public good or whether it contributes to the development of society as opposed to the development of individuals (Knight, 2006).

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The higher education evaluation within the situation of financial goals

Accountability and the observation of results have become growth in education in recent years (Natale & Doran, 2012). The characters of higher education evaluation question advanced by Money-oriented discussion comprise: Do overall administration, academic affairs, student affairs, and general affairs provide beneficial affluence for capital? Is fund being employed sagely and expertly? Is there a desirable social interchange on the contributions that are provided in higher education, both directly and indirectly, by students and their parents, corporations and MOE? Under such an intervention, “sagely and expertly” are specified by and amplifyingly affected by the budget in connection with what is taught in order to advance in job markets rather than by an experienced field of more ample interests. Do students have the required cognition and proficiency to make them employable in a progressive economy? Students may well be skilled in the features of professional theory, but what can they accomplish? Are they subject to communication and performance in parties? Do they perceive business? Do they have the evidence or skill required for job? Such accountability is regularly evolved in the employment of accounting professionals (Natale & Doran, 2012). It seems to be in favor with submitting money above all else.

The higher education evaluation within the context of other organizations’ goals

Nowadays, there are research lists, joint projects with various researchers, including individuals who are expendable and exchangeable, they have ripened into organized programs required by

management with evidently defined business goals unreasonably influenced by corporations(Natale & Doran, 2012). All the means are for indulging to the evaluation and ambitions of earning more funds. It seems that evaluation results have become the tool for admissions.

Training and the contemporary model of education

Public relationship with scholarship is altering: it is trading to one where society is increasingly involved with the practicality of knowledge. A current model of higher education seems to be progressing where the investigation of knowledge associated to the “practical” rather than the pursuit of education related to what is “true” or “excellent” has become the commanding goal. The knowledge society is interested only in particular kinds of education and benefits only certain kinds of learning. Accordingly, teachers pursue the criteria and students are separated between self-development and the demand to have marketable competence. The turbulence of evaluation yield the condition which students are concentrated on provision for the workplace and are excessively focused on subject associated only to the job( Molesworth, Nixon & Scullion, 2009; Natale & Doran, 2012). Such a new lecture likely splits the roots of the university from its time-honored situation (Natale, Doran, 2012).

The multiplied focus, aimed to distinguishing job requirements rather than the converging on breeding the level of students’ ability to draw in more abstract and critical thinking, is accelerating (Natale, Doran, 2012).

Staff and modern model of educationUniversities were previously

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considered as associations for the public good, sustaining the interests of the society and the residents of the world. A question to the education argument, with the development of education being supplied by nontraditional sources is whether schooling is still a public good or whether it confers to the evolution of society as fight to the development of individuals (Knight, 2006). Today education is chiefly regarded as a marketable product. Education once seen as a procedure has been lessened to job preparation, making higher education a product where one devotes to the intention of one’s expected job opportunities in business and technology. Furthermore, rather than guiding and supporting the student in ripening into more educated competence, universities and colleges that are excessively commercialized serve to lead the student to become a fellow in the consumer culture and no longer fight to promote the student’s reflection and crucial thought. It appears like to yield to fund above all else with criteria of evaluation.

Evaluation with capital and alienationStakeholders of higher education

and its corresponding evaluation play a key role in the reproduction of capitalist relations of production and of special commodity, i.e., labor power in particular. Those who are engaged with training productive workers are involved with changing the special commodity labor itself (Yaffe, 1976). Economically, educators are placed between the capitalists and the working class, and carry features common to both (Marx, 1976; Harris, 1982).

The institution system’s regime of hierarchical, continuous and functional surveillance, stimulates it as an integral

part of disciplinary society. It is impossible to disentangle any ‘nature’, human ‘essence’ of people from their existence as labor power within capital (Harvie, 2006). Higher education evaluation in relation to the substance of value is embodied labor that is abstract labor. Abstract labor is labor that is alienated, imposed, and boundless in character (De Angelis, 1995). The four types of alienation are: alienation of the employee from the work (from the product of his labor); alienation of the employee from operation (from the act of producing); alienation of the worker from himself, as a producer (from his species-essence); relation of production (Marx, 1976).

With this, the main purpose of this study is to achieve a deeper understanding of higher education evaluation and its effects to the development of alienated power as an emerging concept.

METHODOLOGY

There exists a crucial call for achieving a deeper understanding of “higher education evaluation” that developing procedures bring to new creation. The qualitative character of evaluation has enforced the researcher to survey beyond quantitative research approaches for acquiring better knowledge about the issue at hand. The higher education as a study area investigates where the focus is on exposing professors, students and administrators to higher education evaluation.

There are two main methods used to examine the issues around higher education evaluation. First, evaluation-generated documents were examined to discover how higher education evaluation was representing itself.

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Second, in-depth interviews were conducted to accumulate data about the change of higher education evaluation. A list of questions on higher education evaluation was developed based on the literature review including but not limited to: “Why do you participate in evaluation?,” “How do higher education evaluation affect universities and faculty members?,” “What challenges do you face when doing evaluation?,” and “Have you yielded these challenges?,” among other. The list was given to an expert panel consisting of three lecturers to ensure the content validity of the questions.

For this study, a total of thirty-two respondents were interviewed composed of 8 students, 8 professors, and 16 administrators from both public and private universities (four public and four private universities in Taiwan).

The interviews were conducted to to collect the respondents’ perceptions of higher education evaluation procedure and direct information about their reports on the change brought about by evaluation.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Results indicate that universities face challenges in evaluation including the influence of adapting priority, management, student learning and administration. Moreover, the higher education evaluation is competent in yielding battle, as illustrated in the detailed accounts in this section.

Adapting Priority and its Influence to Management and Learning

Enrollment management and rankings

Competitiveness is a key in the

future development of universities in Taiwan as the national birthrate keeps dropping. The Ministry of Education determines the amount of subsidy, enrollment and exit mechanism for the decreasing birth rate and higher education evaluation (MOE, 2013). The changes can be seen to focus on academic results, obtaining employment of students, teaching qualifications, professional development and student retention. As an administrator said,

We would stick by the indications if we tried to pass the evaluation. MOE managed the enrollment management and ranking with evaluation. It was a key point for the funding. (A10P5)

Issues of validity and utility of learning

Jobs and lifestyle demand different and diverse skills and experiences. This makes it urgent for schools to initiate 21st century learning environments to raise schools and undergraduates to modify with the evaluation system to such a change. A new philosophy of education pursuing accountability and performance is so restricted that it precludes issues of citizenship. This is a new paradigm for teachers to get certifications for further teaching development. As a professor said,

The criteria of evaluation were too inequitable, we needed to meet up the demand but higher education is not vocational training. (P6P5)

The evaluation system, with its secured and identical indicators measuring accountability, is established in education (Sigler, 2007; Natale & Doran, 2012). The MOE allows schools to get distinguished evaluation scores to elevate their own self-evaluation

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systems. However, the policy is likely to separate the society’s higher education grades into” good students” and “bad students “(THEU, 2012). As a student said,

I became a bad student if my college got the bad evaluation result, it was so ridiculous for me. (S7P8)

Authorized depictions of involvement in these evaluations have instead preferred to focus on the engagement of supporters and execution in performance recommendation, thereby obscuring the level of students’ ability to join in abstract and critical thinking, which originates from business practices and doctrines (Natale & Doran, 2012). As a student said,

It led me to become more like a participant in the consumer culture and I needed to get the certifications to progress the prestige of my school. (S2P5)

More absurdities will be achieved being evaluated on the bulk of certificatios and jobs. It rocks to qualify graduates performances and academic effectiveness.

Non-cooperation: Universities and Staff Against and Beyond CapitalVisible and corporate struggles

The Ministry of Education’s project to evaluate universities and colleges has seriously determined teachers’ performance. The faculty of the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan is a quasi-official agency whose fellows include an amount of current and retired superior MOE officials. The consultation delegation is constituted of academic experts,

presidents of High Education Institute (HEI) and other educational officials. The evaluation system impedes the realization of a clear and diverse school environment and neglects to take dissident opinions, or value diversity as noted by the Taiwan Higher Education Union (Yi, 2012).

What the present university aims for is not only that it provides with the rise of the collective and chart universities themselves getting businesses but that it exceeds it (Johnson, Kavanagh, & Mattson, 2003; Natale, Doran, 2012; Ovetz, 1996).The more universities come to depend on research funding from government or business, the more researchers are compelled not to deviate in their findings from the interests of those who fund them. An administrative assistant said,

We as a team executed with a lot of paper, it tore our spirit to a marketing education just for the evaluation. It had more like a training ground for large corporate, we actually want education, not transaction. (A4P12)

Hinder and blind: Individual and invisible struggle

In the trendy integrated model of college and university evaluation, faculty members perform on the board of leaders of Taiwan Higher Education Society accomplish to measure the evaluation system with the inflexible, uniform evaluation indicators by academic staff. Despite the characteristics and differences in each department, in order to compromise the evaluation committee’s demands, department executives wind up borrowing others’ reports to shape the work (Yi, 2012). As an administrator said,

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The introduction of performance pay was based on merit pay, knowledge pay and skill pay, all of these drove us to a conflict. The indicators hinder the characteristic with the indicator of unity. We did too a lot of paper work to meet the requirement. We maybe meet the subjective members. We lost our liberty and we didn’t tell where we were. (A6 P9)

An ethical crisisFor teachers, there are challenges

to be addressed like “Should we pay more attention to publish in a journal than to teach?,” “Should we approve corporations to pay for the right to acquire more funding?,” “Is it right to determine the survival of university by student admission rate?,” “Is it proper to be audited on everything for the sake of budget?, If so, how can we still possess the true values of education?,” “What are the moral boundaries of evaluation?”

For students, a present framework of higher education that seems to evolve and to be in quest of knowledge involved to the “practical” rather than what is “true” or “good” has become the prevailing target. Students are ruptured between self-development and the demand to have marketable expertise (Natale & Doran, 2012). It seems that staffs and students devote more time to meet the criteria with invisible struggles. The top-down processing is the reason for failure. Interviewees said,

The linking of performance to the market was related to a situation where the resources required for the operation of the school were decentralized for local decision making, so the funding followed the students. All of the bureaucratic execution brought the strife within colleagues. The hard moral question we met was how we

protect the moral and civic goods that markets don’t honor and that money can tell. (P3P0)

I worried that the students gave me lower scores, I didn’t know how to deal with the comments of students.(P5P12)

There were pile of data and forms to fill out.(A12P7)

My teacher asked me to say more nice comments about my school.(S6P3)

The main purpose of this study was to identify the alienated power of higher education evaluation in Taiwan. The findings revealed value production and struggle of workers in higher education evaluation. The evidences showed the defects of indications of unity, subjectivity, the authority’s management and paper burden to yield battle.

Evaluation develops part of the ideological state apparatus to generate and install in ruling system of values and ideas. It neglects the domination of Confucian in Taiwan and causes other types of alienation. This highlights alienation as one of the main challenges that higher education evaluation has forced employees of higher education to reinvent themselves as a response to market, evaluating for evaluation’s sake, concern of the alienation product, the alienation from their species-being and antagonistic within the relationship of teacher-student. Higher education elevation with capital develops in response to struggle. Students, administrators and professors, like all other human beings, exist within –against and beyond capital. Their behavior is both productive and unproductive of value and struggle.

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The strategies are psychological ownership, empowerment evaluation, the development of characteristic by universities, university autonomy and meta-evaluation. The strategies of all are to minimize the pressure placed on the staffs and to encourage them to develop their own “brands”and characteristics.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Implementing higher education evaluation is a vibrant factor that pursues and energizes universities and colleges. In every condition, higher education personnel have been shaped by and embodied with higher education evaluation.

Higher education evaluation’s enthusiasm with performance, efficiency, external control, and metrics has the impact of deepening the alienated-and-abstract-educator characteristics of specific education activities.

The institutions seem undifferentiated for the criteria of evaluation. The development of “for profit” education institutions finally has led college labors to an embarrassing situation. Besides visible and invisible struggles, the procedural evaluation presents staffs with the dilemma of contrasting strategic approaches to create value. Struggles are ambiguous which may drive the development of the capitalism/evaluation into alternative directions.

However, the limitations of the findings should be recognized. Qualitative studies have limitations related to generalization of the findings to larger population (Krueger, 1998). The data, therefore, is highly contextual and findings should be limited to the interviewees who are involved in higher

education evaluation in the settings covered by the purposive sample. This study also opens several areas for future research including formulation of a research involving larger stakeholders to investigate if alienation would emerge in the individuals as shown in this study. Moreover, the alienation of higher education evaluation can be tested among stakeholders.

REFERENCES

Baker, R. L. (2002). Evaluating quality and effectiveness: Regional accreditation principles and practices. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 28(1), 3-7.

De Angelis, M. (1995). Beyond the technological and social paradigms: A political reading of abstract labor as the substance of Value. Capital & Class, 16(57), 107-134.

Harris, K. (1982). Teachers and classes: A Marxist analysis. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Harvie, D. (2006).Value production and struggle in the classroom: Teachers within, against and beyond capita. Capital and Class, 30(1), 1-32.

HEEACT (2005). About HEEACT. Retrieved from http://www.heeact.edu.tw:8080/conference/About.html

Johnson, B., Kavanagh, P., & Mattson, K. (Eds.) (2003). Steal this university: The rise of the Corporate University and the Academic Labor Movement. New York: Routledge.

Jones, S.R. (2002). Writing the word: Methodological strategies and issues in qualitative research. Journal of College Student Development, 43, 461-473.

Knight, J. (2006). Higher education crossing borders: A guide

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to the implications of the general agreement on trade in services (GATS) for cross-border education. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001473/147363e.pdf

Krueger, R.A. (1998). Developing questions for focus groups: Focus group kit 3. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Marx, K. (1999). Capital: A critique of political economy, Volume I: The process of capitalist production. Retrieved from http://www.marx is ts .o rg/arch ive/marx/works/1867-c1/index.htm

Ministry of Education (2003). Plan and objectives. Retrieved from http://www.edu.tw/

Molesworth, M., Nixon, E., & Scullion, R. (2009). Having, being and higher education: The marketisation of the university and the transformation of the student into consume. Teaching in Higher Education, 14(3), 277-287.

Natale, S.M. & Doran, C. (2012). Marketization of education: An ethical dilemma. Journal of Business Ethics, 105(2),187–196.

Ovetz, R. (1996). Turning resistance into rebellion: Student struggles and the entrepreneurialization of the universities’. Capital and Class, 58, 113-152.

Patton, M.Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods (2nd ed.) Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Stufflebeam, D.L., Madaus,G.F., & Kellaghan, T. (2000). Evaluation models: viewpoints on educational and human services evaluation (2nd ed.)., Dordrecht, OR: Kluwer Academic.

Taiwan Higher Education Union (2012). Education evaluation under fire. Retrieved from http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/

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IMPROVING GRAMMAR PROFICIENCY THROUGH POWER POINT PRESENTATION-ASSISTED INSTRUCTIONShirley D. Frigillano*, Ma. Salome R. Magbanua**, Joel E. FerolinoSouthern Iloilo Polytechnic College - Western Visayas College of Science and Technology Miagao Campus, Iloilo, Philippines

AbstractThis action research attempted to determine the effectiveness of power point presentation-assisted instruction as a technique in improving the students’ grammar proficiency specifically, proficiency in understanding and applying the rules in subject-verb agreement. This was done using quasi-experimental method with twenty (20) second year Bachelor of Secondary Education students, major in English at Southern Iloilo Polytechnic College-Western Visayas College of Science and Technology. They were taught using the power point presentation-assisted instruction as an intervention technique in their difficulty in subject-verb agreement rules. A 90-item test was used to obtain the students’ pre-intervention and post-intervention grammar proficiency level and analyzed with mean and standard deviations, as well as the significance of the difference using the t-test for dependent samples. With this, the respondents had the average level of or better proficiency in understanding and applying the rules in subject-verb agreement prior to and after the intervention; however, t-test results showed that a significant difference was noted between the pre- and post-intervention proficiency level of the respondents in subject-verb agreement. This result proved that using power point presentation as assisted- instruction technique can help improve proficiency in understanding and applying the rules in subject-verb agreement.

Keywords: Technology-assisted instruction, Teaching grammar, Power point presentation

*E-mail address: shirleyfrigillano@yahoo.com ** magbanua_salome@yahoo.com

INTRODUCTION

The most powerful learning takes place when students are allowed to become immersed in the wealth of information that is available to them. Students gain valuable insights by using different methods of learning in the classroom. Teachers have been seeking ways to enhance language instruction through activities and experiences with the aid of technology. More studies support the use of technology as effective in the teaching of grammar in the second language learning.

The use of multimedia helps

students move away from "chalk and talk" which encourages higher order thinking skills in the classroom. Teachers can have access to seemingly unlimited resources through the Internet, CD ROMS, videos and power point presentations.

In this age of computers, the highlighting of forms can be effectively achieved by the use of relatively easy-to-use technologies. For instance, language teachers increasingly use PowerPoint presentations (PPTs) for teaching grammar. Color coding, font manipulation, underlining, animation schemes, and custom animation make grammatical rules more salient. The use of color, according to Engelbrecht ( 2003), demonstrates effectiveness on improving student’s attention span as

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well as both student and teacher’s sense of time and increases productivity in a classroom.

Through the use of technology, students can become active participants as opposed to passive ones where they simply receive instructions or information. With the help of technology, teachers can establish credibility in what they are teaching. Web based tools can be used for providing demonstrations and examples that can help students establish credence in what they are learning.

On the other hand, Corbeil (2007) found that PowerPoint presentations were as effective as the use of a textbook plus blackboard. In students' answers to the questionnaire, indicated their preference for the PowerPoint presentations as a more effective learning tool than the textbook. With these findings the current study aims to uncover the significant effect of using power point presentation as aid in improving students’ grammar proficiency, specifically their ability in applying the correct subject-verb agreement rules in sentences, determined through a test given prior to and after the intervention.

This study is anchored on the Cognitive Learning Theory by William James. This theory implies that the different processes concerning learning can be explained by analyzing the mental processes first. It posits that with effective cognitive processes, learning is easier and new information can be stored in the memory for a long time (Sincero, 2011).

It is associated to Theory of Working memory (WM) where this part of the brain's vast memory system provides temporary storage and manipulation of the information necessary for complex cognitive tasks, such as language

comprehension, learning, and reasoning (Szatmáry & Izhikevich, 2011).

In this context, it has historically been assumed that Power Point - assisted instruction would probably interfere with cognitive processing. This is supported by Paivio’s Dual-Code Theory (DCT) which claims that there are two cognitive subsystems. One specializes in the representations of verbal intake such as language, while the other specializes in non-verbal intake such as objects (Paivio, 1986). According to this construct, DCT is the result of both the auditory and visual nature of the processing capabilities of the human brain. In DCT one is to understand that mental representations are associated with two symbolic modes. DCT is grounded in research that found human memory is much better if one can develop mental images for verbal material (Mayer, 2001).

This action research aimed to determine the effect of power point presentation - assisted instruction on the grammar proficiency of the second year BSED students of Southern Iloilo Polytechnic College-Western Visayas College of Science and Technology (SIPC – WVCST) Miagao Campus. Specifically, the study sought to find out the students’ level of proficiency in subject-verb agreement prior to power point presentation-assisted instruction and after using the said technology as intervention.

METHODOLOGYThis quasi-experimental study

utilized power point presentation assisted instruction as a strategy in improving the grammar proficiency of the Education students. Specifically, a comparison group pre-test/post-test design (O1 X O2 O1 O2) was used where the level of proficiency in subject-verb

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agreement of the same group, before and after the intervention, was determined and compared.

In this study, power point presentation assisted instruction was used as an intervention technique in improving the students’ proficiency in understanding and applying the rules in subject-verb agreement, a skill which is a common difficulty in English grammar.

Participants The participants of the study were

the twenty (20) students taking up Bachelor of Secondary Education major in English of SIPC-WVCST Miagao Campus. These students were purposively chosen as experimental group considering their course and the major subject - ‘Structure of English.’ Their skill in understanding and applying the rules in subject-verb agreement is one of the common difficulties of these students that affect their written and spoken language.

There were four (4) male and sixteen (16) female participants who were involved in the study. The participants answered the pre-and post-intervention test on subject-verb agreement.

MaterialsA researcher-made instrument was

used in obtaining the pre-intervention and post-intervention test proficiency level of students in subject-verb agreement. The test was validated by a panel of jurors who were the English college instructors/professors. The test was composed of 90 items on subject – verb agreement. The participants had to choose the correct verb and to identify and change the verb errors in the given sentences and paragraphs. The test included items showing different rules to apply in subject-verb agreement. To determine the time element of testing

and the difficulty of the items, a pilot test was conducted among the selected BSEd second year students of the college. The participants were made to choose the correct answers to the given items.

To score, the values of the checked items were added to represent the participants’ score. The total score was then divided by the number of items to describe the participants’ mean score. The study utilized the following scale in determining the level of proficiency:

Score Level 61- 90 High Proficiency Level 31 - 60 Average Proficiency Level 1 - 30 Low Proficiency Level

Procedures A class of 20 students were given

the pretest to find out their proficiency level in subject-verb agreement. After conducting the pretest, six-week sessions of lecture and discussion using power point presentation assisted instruction was set. These sessions were allotted in the discussion of 24 rules in subject-verb agreement. Two rules on S-V agreement were explained each meeting using powerpoint presentation with corresponding drills and examples. After

six weeks, using the same instrument, the participants were given the posttest to find out their proficiency level in subject-verb agreement. The scores of the twenty participants were tallied and subjected to appropriate statistical analysis and interpretation.

InterventionSeries of lectures on subject-verb

agreement rules using power point presentation assisted instruction were conducted. The rules were presented using slides with examples. In the presentations, the rules were highlighted

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Grammar Proficiency

N Mean SD DE

Pre-Intervention

20 53.8 12.06 Average

Post-Intervention

20 69.7 8.38 Average

Table 1. Participants’ Pre- and Post-Intervention S-V Proficiency Level Using Power Point Presentation

by arrows which connect the verb to the subject. Color coding and underlines were also used to identify the nouns from the verbs. All subjects in the sentences were highlighted with red color while verbs were in blue color. The subjects were underlined once, while verbs were underlined twice. The subject and verb in each sentence were in bold fonts for the students to identify clearly the correct agreement as explained by the rules.

Two to three meetings were allotted each week following the schedule of the class. The students were made to explain the given rules presented in the slides with specific examples of sentences. A writing activity followed as check up and assignments were also given to see student improvement in the rules discussed. Forty minutes was allotted each meeting which was completed in six consecutive sessions. After the intervention, a post test was given to the participants to compare the results as to how effective the power point - assisted instruction is, in improving the level of proficiency in subject-verb agreement. It was then proven effective as significant difference resulted between the students’ pretest and posttest intervention test proficiency level.

Data AnalysisThe data gathered for this study

were subjected to appropriate computer-processed statistics.

The obtained mean score was utilized to describe the participants’ pre-and-post intervention proficiency level in subject-verb agreement categorized as high, average, or low. In order to determine the students’ homogeneity or heterogeneity in terms of proficiency level in subject-verb agreement, the standard deviation was

used. To determine the significance of the difference between the pre- and post-intervention proficiency level in subject-verb agreement of the students, the t-test for dependent sample set at .05 alpha level was utilized.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

With the aim to find out the level of grammar proficiency of the students when subjected to pre- and post-interventions, the table below shows the results.

The table revealed that the participants had the average level of proficiency in subject-verb agreement, M=53.8; SD=12.06. After the intervention, the participants maintained an average proficiency level in subject-verb agreement, M=69.7; SD=8.38. This implies that the students’ proficiency in understanding and applying the SV rules agreement was neither high nor low. There were SV agreement rules presented in powerpoint which, for students, easy and difficult to understand and apply. They seemed to do better in test items with SV rules as common to and well understood by them, and they were confused in other test items where the SV agreement rules were not mastered by some of them. With the bigger mean increase in the pretest and posttest, results showed that students’ proficiency was better with the use of powerpoint

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Grammar Proficiency

N Mean Mean Difference

t-value df P value

Pre-Intervention 20 53.8 15.90 -7.83 19 .00*

Post-Interven-tion

20 69.7

Table 2. t-test Results for the S-V Proficiency Level of the Participants using Power Point Presentation

presentation assisted instruction. This result was supported by Harrison (1999) who affirms that PowerPoint enhances instruction and motivates students to learn. This technology helps structure the content and processing of a lesson or lecture (Mason & Hlynka,1998).

On the other hand, Table 2 shows the t-test results for the participants’ pre- and post-intervention subject-verb proficiency level using power point presentation - assisted instruction.

The t-test result in table revealed that a significant difference existed between the pre-intervention (M=53.8) and the post-intervention (M=69.7) on the participants’ level of proficiency in subject-verb agreement, t (19) = -7.83, p = .00, p < .05. This implies that using the powerpoint assisted instruction in presenting the SV agreement rules has improved the students’ proficiency in understanding and applying the S-V agreement rules. According to Ranade (2001), computer - assisted instruction like the use of powerpoint presentation is effective in teaching. The features of powerpoint give students a positive reaction which leads to greater interactions and increased achievement. Color coding, using bold font, font manipulation, underlining, animation schemes, and custom animation all serve in making grammatical rules more salient. According to Engelbrecht, (2003), color demonstrates effectiveness on improving student’s attention span as

well as both student and teacher’s sense of time, as well as increases the productivity in a classroom. Corbeil (2007) added that PowerPoint presentations were as effective as the use of a textbook plus blackboard. The efficacy of PowerPoint presentation on students’ perception has been proven. More students preferred PowerPoint presentations over traditional methods of lecture delivery and they had positive attitudes towards PowerPoint presentations and lecturers as PowerPoint presenters (Anh, 2011).

The participants had the average level of proficiency in subject-verb agreement prior to and after using power point presentation assisted instruction. This implies that students manifested a better proficiency in understanding and applying the SV agreement rules using powerpoint presentations.

Using power point assisted instruction as a technique in grammar teaching has improved students’ proficiency in understanding and applying the subject-verb agreement rules.

In language teaching, English teachers turn to computer technology as an effective tool in the classroom. The use of multimedia as video, slides, and power point presentation has been common, especially to teachers who are adept at computers. PowerPoint presentations hold concentration and guarantees effective learning for they are attractive. It has been tried to

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improve students’ various English skills, including grammar which is counted as important. The use of computers and multimedia serves the purpose of making the classroom more attractive and meaningful to the students.

Nouri and Shahid (2005), reported that students exposed to the use of PowerPoint perceived higher understandability of the presented materials. Cognitive Learning Theory by William James suggests that the mind has limited attention resources in processing parallel streams of information, and can succumb to overload when subjected to too much information. Therefore, there is a need to employ certain techniques that can help develop the mental processes of the students.

As a summary, a significant difference between the students’ pre-and-post intervention subject-verb agreement proficiency level using power point - assisted instruction was seen in the study. This finding essentially support the literature claiming that the use of power point presentation is an effective classroom teaching technique that enhances learning. This computer- assisted educational medium impacts learning especially when it comes to grammar acquisition.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Computer-assisted instruction like powerpoint presentation makes the learning process and easy and meaningful to the learners. Computer is a powerful tool that facilitates students’ work and makes the work faster and easier for them.

Employing this classroom technique helps improve proficiency in understanding and applying the rules

in subject-verb agreement. The use of effective salient features of power point like color coding, underlines, and arrows help students recall the grammatical rules which may lead them to apply in the actual drill.

The use of power point presentation especially in teaching grammar rules must be considered for some students learn and recall well from visually presented information than from verbally presented information.

The use of computers as aid in classroom teaching is a familiar sight in the twenty-first century. This technology has been used to improve many educational tasks. Its effectiveness in technology assisted instruction has been widely explored and tried. Computers enhance classroom interaction for they illustrate concepts through attractive animation, sound, and demonstration. Computers offer a different type of activity and a change of pace from teacher-led or group instruction. The use of computers has been the teachers’ partner in teaching for the convenience it gives and the impact on students in the classroom.

As part of classroom instruction, especially in Grammar teaching, teachers may use power point presentation as a technique to enhance interaction and improve their proficiency in English.

The use of technology as assisted instruction may be of maximum use especially in the language classroom. This usage may not make the teaching-learning process easy and meaningful but effective in developing language skills of students.

Language classrooms may be set up with multimedia or projectors for student and teacher use in order to facilitate better grammar learning and interaction.

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The use of power point presentations may be tried in other grammatical rules or other English structures to make teaching and learning process more interesting for students.

Teachers teaching other subject areas may try using this instructional medium to vary their teaching technique which makes learning more interesting and challenging.

A follow up study must also be undertaken to see the improvement on the students’ English performance especially in other important areas as writing, speaking, or vocabulary.

REFERENCES

Anh, N. T. Q. (2011). Efficacy of Powerpoint presentation: students’ perception. Retrieved from Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference of Teaching and Learning (ICTL 2011) INTI International University, Malaysia. Retrieved from www.pixel-online.net/ICT4LL 2011 /acceptedabstracts.php.

Corbeil, G. (2007). Can Powerpoint presentations effectively replace textbooks and blackboards for teaching grammar? Do students find them an effective learning tool?. CALICO Journal, 24(3), 631-656.

Corbeil, G. (2007). Computer assisted language instruction consortium. Retrieved from Journal Articles, 214 Centennial Hall, 601, http://calico.org.

Engelbrecht, K. (2003). The impact of color on learning. NeoCon, Perkins & Will Chicago, Illinois. Retrieved from http://sdpl.coe.uga.edu/HTML/W305.pdf

Mayer, R.E. & Moreno, R. (1998a). A cognitive theory of multimedia learning: implications for design

principles. Retrieved from http://www.unm.edu/ ~moreno/PDFS/chi.pdf.

Mayer, R.E. & Moreno, R. (1998b). A split-attention effect in multimedia learning: evidence for dual processing systems in working memory. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90(2), 312-320.

Nouri, H. & Shahid, A. (2008). The effects of PowerPoint lecture notes on student performance and attitudes. The Accounting Educators’ Journal, XVIII, 103 -117

Paivio, A. (1971). Imagery and verbal processes. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawerence Erlbaum Associates.

Ranade, M. D. (2001). Science teaching through computer-assisted instruction: Research findings and insights. SNDT Women’s University, Pune, India. Retrieved from http://www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/ episteme/episteme-1/allabs/sci_teachcomp.pdf.

Sincero, S.M. (2011). Cognitive learning theory. Retrieved from https://explorable.com/cognitive-learning-theory

Szatmáry, S. & Izhikevich, E.M. (2011). Spike-timing theory of working memory. PLoS Computational Biology, 6(8). doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000879

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