This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Pedagogical Content Knowledge-Guided Lesson Study (PCKLS) as an intervention to develop PCK competencies among teachers and consequently enhance student achievement in terms of conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills. Using quasi-experimental design, teacher competencies and student achievement in the PCKLS group and the conventional group were compared. In the PCKLS group, the intervention involved planning the lesson by the research team, teaching the planned lesson while PCK observations were made by the researcher and another teacher from the group, including a feedback meeting, implementing the improvements in the reteach stage of the lesson study cycle by another teacher from the research team, and, finally, revising lesson plans based on the consolidated suggestions for improvement. Analyses of data showed that there was a significant difference in the science teacher competencies of the PCKLS group teacher respondents compared to those of the conventional group. Also, student respondents showed a significant increase on mean scores in terms of conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills. Therefore, it was concluded that PCKLS was an effective method to develop the teachers’ PCK competencies and student achievement in terms of conceptual understanding and problem solving. This study recommends that this intervention be used across chemistry topics and in other science classes such as Biology, Earth and Environmental Science, Physics, and Mathematics.

Dermatoglyphics is the study of dermal ridges. Since dermatoglyphic characters are recognized as a unique individual trait and follow a multifactorial or polygenic pattern of inheritance, it is necessary to understand the variations leading to this pattern. The present paper, through appropriate descriptive approach, has revealed the variation in the pattern of inheritance in the TFRCs of the Dumagat-Remontados from Puray, Rodriguez, Rizal, Philippines. The study also reported a large discrepancy on the total fingerprint ridge count among the Dumagat-Remontados compared to established researches. Also, the increased heterozygosity due to genetic admixture led to the dominant occurrence of the loop pattern (ulnar) in the fingerprints of this group of indigenous people as compared to few established data stating that the frequency of whorl patterns dominates the universal population and other Asian racial groups. In this study, a special feature on the fingerprint patterns of the pure Dumagat-Remontados was reported. Aside from the high frequency of loops and whorls, a distinct club dent, concluded to be a unique feature found among this tribal population, was noted from at least one of the fingers of the majority of the pure sample.