ASHS faculty Cobar and Sagun are University Scholarly Work awardees

Ateneo de Manila Senior High School faculty Mr. Jok Cobar and Mr. RD Sagun were both awardees at the University Scholarly Work Awards (USWA) 2022, which were held on June 6, 2022 at the Leong Hall Auditorium.

Mr. Cobar’s award was in recognition of his three published Scopus-indexed journal articles scoping Exercise Physiology, Sports Performance Psychology, and Health & Physical Activity Studies. The first one was published in 2016 and investigated how increasing muscle output at the maximal phase of training can improve an athlete’s endurance performance. It was followed by a study published in 2019 about how the use of music with altered soundwave frequency improves alertness and performance arousal of athletes. Lastly, the study he published in 2021 investigated how barriers affect college students' physical activity profile due to restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. Sagun’s award recognized his team’s study on the effectiveness of integrating metacognitive-enhanced and self-regulated learning strategies in understanding molecular genetics. The team also explored and interpolated the roles of self-efficacy and metacognition in relation to their impact on Filipino students’ scientific reasoning skills and conceptual understanding in the context of a Philippine science classroom. The study was done by applying the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) action research model, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods. The results of the study highlighted the interconnectedness and interplay of science self-efficacy, metacognitive awareness, metacognitive-orientation of the classroom, and the scientific conceptual understanding of the students.

Organized by the University Research Council (URC), the USWA was established to provide incentives for knowledge production in ways that allow Ateneo de Manila University to be recognized as a thought leader in given fields, to increase the number of peer-reviewed publications by its faculty, and to motivate members of the university community to publish regularly and improve the quality of publications. The USWA only recognizes scholarly works that are of high quality and are compliant with ethical standards. A basic requirement is that scholarly work must undergo the refining trial of critical review by the scholar’s discerning peers and obtain their approval for its public circulation. Thus, only peer-reviewed publications are eligible for these publication awards.