Ano [Wi]Ka Mo Lecture-Forum on World Teachers' Day

They are not just teachers. They are a force who carry and share not just a wealth of knowledge but also life's lessons to students with ardent passion.

courtesy of Kuya Mhawi Rosero

In celebration of World Teachers' Day, our organization UP Layap conducted  a lecture-forum on the significance and relation of language and education both for students and teachers. Entitled "Ano [Wi]Ka Mo? Lecture Series on Language and Education, the forum was visited by a number of students from UP Layap and others from other courses where two speakers talked about the importance of changing the education system on General Education subjects and on Development Appropriate Practices for pre-schoolers. 

The first speaker, Associate Professor and major proponent of the Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education Dr. Ricardo Ma. Nolasco talked about the need of to evaluate teachers in their knowledge in their own fields so that the implementation of the program K to 12 would be maximized efficiently for the students. He discussed the low scores of teachers in different nationwide tests such as a the Test of English Proficiency for Teachers (TEPT) and Process Skills Test (PST) in Science and Mathematics. He pointed out that the teachers who took the test only got average scores between 36-50%, which is indeed alarming because this seems to entail a garbage-in garbage out system of teachers teaching students in an inappropriate way despite the two more years of basic education that should be utilized for the improvement of the education system in the Philippines. These appalling results also explains the low scores of the students in the National Achievement Test (NAT) because teaching in the country is low in quality, Dr, Nolasco added. There has been a weakness in content in teaching ever since the 1970's, he added. World Teachers' Day, therefore should be about changing the system of education in the Philippines and for the teachers to get out of their comfort zones in teaching and adapting the new system for maximum efficiency of teaching the students in the country.

With regards to the General Education subjects like Filipino, Dr. Nolasco pointed out that there is also a poverty of content with such courses and proposed that language should be taught using an integrative system and cited the importance of distinguishing Philippine and regional literature. He also emphasized that the new system and teachers should explore the possibility of teaching Wika 1 and Wika 2 in schools. Moreover, the GE subjects should be multidisciplinary and integrative as well, where Wika 1 should also be taught in different lenses of the study that is holistic, broad and and wider-ranging in understanding.

He also pointed out the significance of letting the students think big ideas and develop their critical thinking skills. In conclusion, he said that to revolutionize the system, there are three principles that should be put into action: 1) the theory should be on just grounds 2) there's a principle of defense and 3) there is a principle of restraint. 

The next speaker, Sir Ramon Jericho Santos of the Department of Family, Life and Child Development discussed about the Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) in relation to language and literacy development for children. He said that DAP is an approach in teaching that is grounded on research and it aims to maximize the child's potential in learning that is appropriate for his age. There are three considerations for this program: 1) age appropriateness, that involves the manipulation of children and incorporating their interests for them to enjoy and learn better. There should be increased interest in print materials and phonemic awareness by providing exposure to print materials and sessions. In conclusion, the teaching strategies should depend on the nature of knowledge on language that is appropriate for the child.

2) Individual appropriateness. This encompasses the knowledge of each child which includes language acquisition. That is, the teaching strategy on giving activities such as use of short sentences, phrases and words should be individually appropriate for each child. The reading materials should also accommodate the age bracket of the child. The speaker also said that the teachers should give the children the chance to choose their activities, opportunities to express their thoughts and develop the child's uniqueness. 

3) Socio-cultural appropriateness. This is the knowledge about the cultural and social background of each child that is essential in creating teaching strategies. These socio-cultural factors include language, religion, family types, parents' professions, socio-economic situation and residence type, among others. The speaker shared some of his experiences with regards to this aspect with his interaction with children of different backgrounds. He concluded that the teacher should be culturally sensitive when teaching the child. 

He also infused DAP with the use of language, where in kindergarten the students should already master phonemic awareness, spelling and writing. He said that language and literacy are interconnected from infancy onwards and should be holistic on speaking, reading, writing and listening. They should learn the things that are relevant and meaningful to them. 

He also discussed the characteristics of a good teacher-made material, which includes 1) purposeful 2) interactive 3) flexible 4) appropriate 5) sensorial 6) interesting 7) durable 8) safe and 9) indigenous. Things to consider in making materials should also based on the child's capabilities and being clear target skills. 

With regards to DAP and MTBMLE, the child's play should often be used to incorporate teaching, where cooperative play develops the his sense of socialization. DAP also lets the children speak out and develop their confidence. In conclusion, the developmentally appropriate practices anchor on the principles of 1) how children develop and learn 2) child's strength and individual interests and 3) taking into account the child's socio-cultural background.

Katha 2014: Lesson Study Part 2

Minutes of the workshop transcribed. Speaker Dr. Allan Canonigo

 KATHA 2014: Day 5 

Revisiting Lesson Study

Mr. Allan Canonigo

NISMED, UP Diliman

August 9, 2014

Minutes of the Workshop

1. Review. The speaker reviewed the teacher-participants on their understanding of the Lesson Study based on the previous lectures and some raised the definition of Lesson Study as a strategy to improve research teaching, doing research on one lesson/objective, and where observers or experts would be invited for the evaluation of their respective lesson studies. In conclusion, the speaker clarified that Lesson Study is a systemic cycle towards improvement of teaching.

2. Discussion of Lesson Study Misconceptions. The speaker also clarified some points raised by the participants. 1) Lesson study is not a teaching strategy technique. He pointed out that we can never make Math easy for the students. However it becomes more difficult when teachers can’t think of ways on how to improve the student performance on math. Teachers should not say that why their students do cannot get the formula or the problem right because it would provide more stigma to the students on math. 

3. Ways on Studying Math using Own Content. The true meaning of lesson study lies in the will power of the teachers to become better one where its effect and application would be long-term. 

3.1. Research in Lesson Study. Lesson study involves studying and planning together the teachers’ respective lesson studies for a particular strategy to implement and improve on. This is to improve the student performance which should be learner-centered. Teachers should be anticipating how students are learning and not how to teach the study/topic; that is, they should improve the thinking skills of the students.

3.2. Student-thinking. Why do these certain solutions work for some of the students? This should be anticipated and appreciated and considered by the teachers; that is, they should not limit the students to one solution only.

3.3. Observer Invitation. The trick in this strategy is to observe the teacher, not dictate what he or she should do. Learning from one another should be done as equals, not as bosses or subordinates; otherwise it would not be an effective lesson study. They should work together and try to change the culture of the Filipinos where ego is implemented every time there is a teacher invitation because of unpreparedness.

3.4. Preparedness. The teachers should encourage the students to think critically. There is this teacher culture where the fear of the teacher to explain the many solutions generated by the students overpowers the catalyst for better critical thinking of the students. They should help the students out for the lesson study improvement and claim that there is always a room for improvement. After the lesson study implementation, post-learner/discussion, suggestion and recording sessions should be done.

4. Lecture Proper: Activity. The speaker divided the participants into elementary and high school group and by district. He focused on the Understanding by Design (UPD), a part of the K to 12 goals in Math where problem solving involves critical thinking in the students. The speaker related the topic in real life where reality is without any easy solutions or formula. Problems are best solved by looking for answers and struggle is part of the equation. 

4.1. Reflection. The speaker gave three questions to the participants to answer and reflect and discuss them. 1) What kind of lectures at school you want to see implemented in your own class? Provide evidence. The participants said they want the students to be critical thinkers, problem solvers, competent and independent and active learners in math. 2) What kind of lectures is implemented at school? Students are dependent, frustrated and stigmatized by math, poor study habits and poor comprehension of the problems. 3) How do you think would you be able to bridge the gap between the aspirations and the reality of this particular dilemma? Efficiency of the lesson study, developing critical questions and applying the 3Es: Explore Experiment and Experience. Some teachers raised issues on the number of students, teacher mood, insignificance of the attendance and zero critical thinking in exams. 

4.2. Teachers learn in lesson study. The teachers should focus on how students learn and observe them in the right path. They have to analyze and observe students and use this information on revising student lesson study and learning.

5. Reasons for Lesson Study. This is for teaching improvement, instructional materials improvement, professional learning community and finally scholarly inquiry due to research.

5.1. Professional Research Study Equipment. The lesson study should be devised based on the words that work best for both the teachers and the students. There should always be someone to evaluate you because it is very hard to evaluate oneself because there are not wider perspectives. The long-term goal was discussed by the speaker based on his experiences in Cabanatuan City workshop. He said that sample teaching for problem solving or content is important, where you first teach the problem, solve it in different ways and use the problem critique.

6. Professional Development. The speaker started with a chart differentiating the traditional and research based lesson studies: traditional approaches include getting the answer, expert observation, trainer-teachers and hierarchical way of teaching, while research based studies include posing the question first, engaging the participants, implementing the teacher training and a reciprocal way of teaching method. 

6.1. Differences. There are differences in lesson planning, curriculum planning, demonstration where a different fate lies: reinvention learning, learning centers, continuous improvement and usefulness loop.

6.2. Research Lesson Planning Questions. The teachers should first decide the topic, today’s lesson, the plan, the activities, and the fact on how the students would understand the topic on hand. It is important that the teachers should know the knowledge of the children beforehand they teach the lesson because there might be miscommunication of sequence of the lessons.

6.3. Problems. Problems posed by the teachers include the explain ability of the lessons, no cooperation from other teachers, sustainability, government support, fund for books and other resources, funding for the experts and incentives for the students. Most of all the problem lies in the time for the teachers to work together. Questions were also raised on the teaching competency of the teachers, the spiral loop concept where teachers build on by activating previous knowledge on prior topics in math. The topics should also be connected and finally researchers helped by teachers can be done by etic realizations and suggestions. 

Katha 2014: Lesson Study as a professional development model

Minutes of the workshop transcribed. Speaker Sir Levi

KATHA 2014: Day 3:

LESSON STUDY as a professional development model

Mr. Levi

Minutes of the Workshop

Mathematical knowledge should be redefined and reconceptualize for the students to be able to grasp its essential components and comprehend and appreciate at the same time the field that has been long way conditioned to be stigmatized. The speaker first presented the Characteristics of Mathematical tasks in the cognitive level of a low level task, compared to a high level task.  The speaker proposed a task analysis and problem set for the participants by letting them think of high-order mathematical questions and problems for their students.

During the evaluation of the task, the teachers said that their main goal is to retain the most basic concept in the students’ mind and develop their critical thinking. One of the teachers presented a dilemma where learners tend to think that Math is already difficult as it is. The speaker presented a solution: LAS; that is, this is to imbibe the students to Love All Subjects and impose it as a school policy. Another teacher explained that there is a difficulty in the basic operations in the students. Another raised the issue of planning the lesson study for the day, if the topic should be one by one or by integration. The speaker explained that it would be better if the teachers first give the problem set to the students to reflect on before presenting the lesson for the day. One teacher said that students also tend to forget the lesson of the previous session, and the speaker explained that this is because the students are honed to memorize the topic instead of understand its basic concept. It would be better, furthermore that the teachers let the students discover the solutions and conclusions to the previous problem sets so that they will be able to remember the lesson better.

More solutions to the problems presented by the teachers during the evaluation include letting students discover multiple solutions to the problem set, make math learning fun for them and give them small incentives once they improve on their skills.

The speaker also presented general truths regarding Math teaching and lesson study: 1) Heterogeneous classes are very hard to handle. This is to mean that not all students will be able to grasp the basic concept all at once. 2) Teachers are forced to fit to the basic and traditional curriculum standards, which will be very hard to penetrate especially because improving lesson study is exactly the opposite method of the traditional lesson study planning. 3) Student attitude is typically reluctant with low confidence over a problem set because of the conditioned stigma and the deemed difficult problem sets. This is one problem that should be specifically addressed. 4) Teachers have no guts or the opportunity or the time to do proper mathematical teaching.

The speaker proceeded to discuss the Problem Set Analysis, which would help scaffold the lessons for the slow learners and be expanded for the advanced students. He proposed that there should be collaborative groups for the students, outline expectations and identify one lesson topic for each group, identify exercises with potentials, access the difficulty of the questions and illustrate samples of deep and challenging problem sets to the students. Given the traditional books in school, the teachers may revise the textbook questions to problem task analyses. The may also discuss concepts of different math topics without really using jargons and technical terms. Finally, it would be effective for the teachers to let the students arrive at the conclusions of patterns and discovery of solutions. That is, they have to let the students make sense of the problem, reason abstractness, and construct their own concepts.

The speaker followed the discussion with Performance Scores. This topic includes the rubrics, descriptions of benchmarks and evaluation of the level of proficiency of the student in their mathematical skills. The speaker presented this lesson study by providing problem sets to the teachers in five ways:

1) Comparing Numbers by 100 000. This activity may be discussed using number cards and use elements of surprise as well. This can be applied to Grade 2 and above. This activity identifies and enhances the learning capacity of the students and at the same time scaffolding the lesson plan to avoid curriculum congestion, which is a number one problem in the traditional curriculum. It would also be better if the teacher uses the lesson plan as part of the puzzle for the lessons of the week; that is for integrated learning.

2) Exploring Numbers with 10 000. Teachers may use guide questions to scaffold and extract patterns and similarities from students based on their own concepts. The teachers should also let the students generalize and find their own solutions and patterns. This may be applied to different topics in subtraction, place value and addition as well, which can all be integrated into one lesson study for the week.

However one teacher raised the issue of the complexity of the integrated lesson study which he thought would confuse the students just as much as the teacher would be confused especially on his lesson study for the week. But then the speaker pointed out that was exactly what the old curriculum had been inhibiting the teachers and students to think in high order critical thinking,no integration and connections on the topics in mathematics.

3) Looking at Multiplication Errors. Teachers may give out questions for the students and applying the technique of Cuisinaire Rods; that is, using fractions, grouping the students by problem sets and letting them come up with their own generalizations.

4) Fractions as Percentages. Teachers may apply paired grouping in this lesson study and draw models to illustrate fractions to integrate with percentages (using proper and improper fractions). This may also be the time to scaffold terms used previously.

One teacher raised a question on the structure of the lesson plan and how to apply the lesson proper. The speaker said that the ultimate end product of lesson study is assessment and evaluation of the student’s knowledge in the different math problem sets presented for the day. This he said is termed as the problem-structured approach.

5) Average and Making Connection. Teachers may illustrate integration of the topics in math to both cater slow learners and advanced students; also by using extension questions. Teachers may also use pattern mobiles by using cut-out shapes of the different topics in math for the week.

Finally the speaker left the participants with an activity on formulating high level tasks for their classes for one week, by using the lesson study problemstructured approach, guide questions, multiple choice questions and report on its implementation.

Katha 2014: Singapore Math and PSA

Minutes of the workshop transcribed. Speaker Ms. Pauline Mangulabnan.

KATHA 2014: Day 2: 

PSA Japan

Ms. Pauline Mangulabnan

De La Salle University Manila

July 26, 2014

Minutes of the Workshop

1. Introduction. The speaker first presented a photo of a classroom with students for the teacher-participants to interpret it in different ways. She explained that teaching plans should not produce monotonous teaching, but should be a one-to-one teaching with one-to-one assessment per student. This should end with a post-lesson discussion in class.

2. Lesson Study. Lesson Study is a professional development model where the teacher practice their research in Japan (called jugyou kenkyuu). This is a collaborative effort where research is put into practice and the lesson study is a partnership of theory and practice. It is also a collaborative effort and a systemized cycle in teaching.

2.1. Lesson Study Cycle. The lesson study cycle should start with a identifying a goal or a problem. This is a Japanese way of teaching students to achieve a motivation for each student for advancement in their learning. This is also a transition for primary to secondary learning which is a number one dilemma according to one of the teachers who raised the issue.

For Mathematics, the teachers should let the students enjoy the fun of discovering and achieving knowledge through their own unique methods. The speaker said it should be remembered that there are 6 years of elementary schooling and another 3 years of transition middle schooling and this should be addressed properly and in the most efficient way possible. The grade levels in Grade 1 for example, should be able to master addition, by Grade 4 arithmetic equations, by Grade 6 Division and Multiplication.

There should also be a collaboratively developing lesson time and teacher meeting for a prelesson preparation. That is, there should be a dryrun of the lesson study plan for the other teachers to be able to evaluate each others’ methods and further improve their lesson study. This also follows that the implementation of the lesson plan may include inviting other teachers for observation and assessment, which all results to collaborative effort.

2.2. Research Lesson. Research lesson involves a very specific and detailed lesson study where students must be very engaged in the lesson of the day. Students must also be assessed and there is an importance of teacher intervention. Teachers must devise activities and lesson for the students and let them discover the solution. 

3. Implementation. Implementation of the PSA and Lesson study plan include post-lesson plans and collaborative efforts on school-based institutions.

3.1.Postlesson Plan. There should be a debriefing of the lesson discussion and revising the traditional cycle. There should also be future directions and research trajectories. There must also be detailed lesson plan with collaborative efforts, where teachers also become researchers to be able to create a formative assessment for the students.

3.2. Process of Lesson Study. Training teachers is a number one must in the process of the new lesson study. Research should also be developed in educational institutions and demonstration of extra-curricular studies for the students. Steps on the lesson study include analogies on experiment, practice, observation, seminars and research. The teachers should also look into the context of classroom and society development. The hierarchy includes the lesson study which is deeply ingrained in classroom performance. Teachers should be in full power on knowledge (bottom to top model) and initiatives must come from the teachers themselves. 

Research also informs lesson studies, where the lesson study plan for the day should also be considered as part of the teachers’ research. Questions were raised on the collaborative efforts and multiple or integrated topics and how to write the study plan. The speaker explained that this should be the way to go because the monotonously traditional lesson study that has been imbibed in the cultural education in the Philippines for many years has been the core problem in the first place.

3.3. Replicability of LS in the Philippines. A video on Japanese teaching was shown to the teachers where the there is an induction teaching for the teachers. In Japan, there is teacher collaboration for 10 years. There is mandatory training and voluntary leadership trainings for lesson studies in Japan to achieve the advocacy of practical learning in the country. Constructive criticisms are required for teacher observation for improvement of the lesson study.

3.4. Lesson Study Steps. First is the lesson study planning, that is, how the lesson is presented in class and how students can learn in par with the objectives of the teacher for the day. There should be a set selection of subjects and appropriate test materials which may be unique. There should also be specific steps for lesson plans and questions should be raised for the students to answer. Teachers may seek advice from their principals and other teachers.

Lesson study is also observed by other teachers and students themselves. It is a fact that the student’s mind is unpredictable and reveals that collaborative interaction between the teacher and the student is a must.

Reflections of the lesson study include overview of the lessons, constructive criticisms from other teachers and suggestions of concrete opinions for lesson improvement. This develops a keen eye on the part of the teacher to improve his lesson study in classrooms.

4. Implementation Structure. The speaker presented the participants with a math activity on filling in the blanks on a problem set by pairs. This is to make math more enjoyable both for them and for the students themselves. The teachers should also be more open to others’ opinions and suggestions. They should also explore new methods on how to approach the lesson to engage as many students as possible. This should result to the enjoyment of both the students and the teachers. Again, lesson study is equivalent to research study for the teachers.

5. Problem Solving in Mathematics. Assessment practices should be implemented to develop a conceptual understanding of the topic in math. There are stages of the Structured Problem Solving: 1) posing the problem; 2) autonomous problem solving 3) whole class participation 4) summing up 5) exercises and finally 6) evaluation that there are no perfect solutions.

6. Final Activity. The speaker gave a final activity for the participants by pair on how to assess a problem set. There are theories on learning: 1) behaviorism, or assessing learning via change of behavior, that is, the knowledge is incremented; 2) cognitivism or assessing the order of thinking and takes time to assess the knowledge of the student and 3) social, or the change in participation. The speaker also gave the participants homework on dividing fractions and how to come up with different explanations and solutions.

Inquirer's SPECIAL REPORT: Language-in-education row: A ‘bibingka’ solution

Behold the theory of Bibingka, the last of the three-part series of the Special Report.

By Isabel Pefianco Martin, Resty M. Cena, Ricardo Ma. Nolasco

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/630863/language-in-education-row-a-bibingka-solution

MANILA, Philippines–While the language-in-education controversy at the college level is at a cross-point, the lower levels are having troubles of their own.

At a curriculum forum held on July 31, results of a study on “Understanding Best Practices in Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education in (MTB-MLE) in the Philippines” have confirmed the fears of many: Problems are piling up, with teachers barely getting by.

Jointly undertaken by the University of the Philippines’ Assessment Curriculum Technology Research Center-College of Education (ACTRC) and the University of Melbourne, the study sought to identify the challenges stakeholders are facing in implementing MTB-MLE and the coping strategies they are adopting to overcome these challenges.

Participating in Phase 1 of the study were eight schools, five MTB-MLE coordinators, 32 mother tongue teachers, and 56 parents of pupils/learners taught in their first language (L1).

The problems revealed by the study are not totally unanticipated. These are the typical hurdles that education reform projects initially encounter while being carried out on a massive scale.

Such difficulties, however, will become serious and irreversible if appropriate coping strategies are not applied soon.

One problem is that stakeholders perceive limited use, as well as lower value of the mother tongue outside specific domains.

As expected, English remains more highly regarded and valued by the community. It is a perception that is borne by facts. Lost or ignored was the primary reason for MTB-MLE, which is to give students a head start in developing higher-order thinking skills, particularly in the elementary grades.

This problem may be a sign that MTB-MLE and the community are at cross-purposes. Advocacy efforts may have to be reinvigorated.

More problems

The rest of the concerns points to inadequacy of resources—physical, human, intellectual, as well as financial resources.

This is manifested in the following: the short supply of learning and teaching materials; the tendency to translate existing materials instead of creating new ones directly from the L1; the lack of academic science and math vocabularies in the L1; the teacher’s low proficiency in the spoken and academic L1; and specific to the Tagalog regions, the confusion caused by teaching the Mother Tongue subject (Tagalog), while also teaching the Filipino subject.

Although the ACTRC-University of Melbourne study did not touch on the teachers’ mastery of content, there was some discussion at the forum about teachers’ poor performance in the English, Science and Math tests given in 2012 and 2013.

Test results for the two years showed elementary teachers getting low mean percentage scores of 50.53 percent and 54 percent in the English test, and 46.7 percent and 49 percent in the process skills test for Science and Math.

Clearly, there are serious digressions from our language-in-education policy and formidable-looking obstacles to its implementation.

Bottom-up approach

We argue for solutions that take both the top-down and bottom-up approaches. In other words, we push for addressing the problems in two directions, similar to cooking “bibingka” (rice cake).

Following this bibingka approach, one “apoy sa ilalim” solution is to intensify teacher development efforts, specifically, in the formation of “lesson study” groups at the school level or in a group of schools.

In Japan, where this concept originated, lesson study is a process in which teachers jointly plan, observe, analyze, produce materials, test and refine classroom lessons. A lesson study group is made up of five to six teachers who collaborate with an expert in tackling one lesson at a time.

It is an approach that hits three birds with one stone because it targets the preparation of quality materials, the training of teachers, and the gradual development of the academic vocabulary and register. It is a homemade solution to seemingly insurmountable problems.

Widely credited for the steady improvement of math and science education in Japan, lesson study also applies to language, social studies and other subjects. It is now being popularized in the Philippines by the UP National Institute of Science and Mathematics Education and is being tried out on a division-wide basis in Valenzuela City by Willy Cabral, superintendent of the Department of Education.

Top-down approach

To strengthen our MTB-MLE, practice also requires “apoy sa ibabaw” solutions. After all, without fire from the top, the bibingka would be half-cooked.

The top-down approach may be useful in providing clear-cut answers to some language-in-education questions that remain unanswered. Such questions include the following:

– What exactly is the content of the Mother Tongue subject, especially in the Tagalog regions where teachers understandably find overlaps between this subject and the Filipino subject?

– What is the place of code-mixing and code-switching in our language-in-education policy, considering that these practices come naturally in a multilingual country where language contact is inevitable?

– Why are materials continually translated and not created originally from the L1 as is the ideal practice in MTB-MLE policies?

In the end, it is the monolingual mind-set that is the true enemy of MTB-MLE. While this mind-set exists, our efforts at educational reform will surely fail. And with this failure looms a dismal future for our children.

Editor’s Note: Dr. Isabel Pefianco Martin (mmartin@ateneo.edu), Dr. Resty M. Cena (restycena@gmail.com) and Dr. Ricardo Ma. Nolasco (rnolascoupdiliman@gmail.com) are practicing Filipino linguists and educators.

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/630863/language-in-education-row-a-bibingka-solution#ixzz3AsZeBvw6 

Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

Inquirer's SPECIAL REPORT Language: Math without numbers, systems building without Lego pieces

DAP, Lego, watch out for the theory of BIBINGKA tomorrow. 

By Isabel Pefianco Martin, Resty M. Cena, Ricardo Ma. Nolasco  

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/630540/language-math-without-numbers-systems-building-without-lego-pieces

(Second of three parts)

We are proposing two core subjects, Wika 1 and 2, in the general education curriculum (GEC) for college. They deal with language as an integrative system and as a systems-building enterprise; they are not courses for learning Tagalog/Filipino or Philippine literature.

A key idea in the new GEC is holistic education through a multidisciplinary approach. The GEC introduces students “to different ways of knowing” and “to broad and wide-ranging understandings.”

In broad terms, a multidisciplinary approach examines issues in one discipline through the lens of various fields of study and reexamines the issues in reverse.

Human problems are products of the interplay of complex social and natural factors. An approach that integrates perspectives from different fields offers better solutions.

Aspects of language

Wika 1 will examine the contributions of related disciplines in explaining various aspects of the nature of language and its use.

Is language a uniquely human trait? What distinguishes human languages from animal forms of communication and artificial languages? Do we “learn” our first language (L1) or does it naturally manifest itself, like walking?

Does language shape the speakers’ world view? Does the critical period hypothesis apply to second languages as well? Is it better to learn through one’s L1 or through a language of wider communication like English? Why do people go to war over language?

On a personal level, Wika 1 will alert students to the ways language is used to persuade or to manipulate, to dominate and control, and to make or destroy identities.

Understanding the puzzle

Various disciplines have contributed pieces in understanding the puzzle of language. The relationship is not one-way.

Language serves as a primary source of data in many disciplines: sociology, psychology, culture, philosophy, criminology, politics and the law, mind and brain sciences, and human migration (language data confirmed that maritime Madagascar in the African continent was settled by migrants from our part of the world).

Wika 1 will deal with how these various fields are enriched with language data. Students will emerge with sensitivity to and experience in crafting holistic and integrative explanations, and, at the very least, with scientific knowledge that will help them make informed statements on language issues.

The new GEC is about education for innovation in the 21st century. The mantra at the global stage, and increasingly at the personal level, is “Innovate or perish.” The key to innovation is the ability to (re)build “things.”

Systems-building

The GEC aims to prepare students “to think innovatively, and to create solutions to problems.” And yet, conspicuously missing is the one course that prepares the mind for innovation: a course on examining system flaws and (re)building systems.

The second GEC course, Wika 2, is a systems-building course.

Doing well in many endeavors today depends on harnessing “think big” ideas. But with big ideas come massive data. Making sense of this massive data requires an organizing theory and a series of models to test the theory.

Out of this will emerge a well-defined system that describes how the underlying mechanism works. Without this understanding, there can be no assessment of flaws, no innovation, and without innovation, no progress.

Like the objects of inquiry of the physical sciences (the solar system, for example), language is a (layered) system.

Investigation methods

Discovering the properties of this complex system follows the methods of empirical investigation: From observations, a theory is formulated, which is repeatedly validated internally with more data until contradictory evidence knocks it down, or it collapses under the weight of layers and layers of patches to a weak foundation.

Language as an empirical object of study has two advantages over the physical sciences.

First, language data is straightforwardly accessible. While physics and chemistry experiments require laborious setup of expensive apparatus to generate data, testing a language hypothesis merely engages the experimenter to reflect on knowledge of his language. Thus the “test-revise-gather data” cycle iterates quickly.

The steps are similar to product development: gather usability data, revise model/prototype, product. For gaining experience in systems building, language is an ideal playground.

‘Imperfection’

Language offers an advantage that no physical or mathematical system would dare be associated with: “imperfection.” Language is a “good enough system for the purpose,” an optimal system. It does not achieve the perfection of mathematical systems.

Superimposed on top of the underlying deterministic component are speaker innovation in response to functional pressures; as a result, language is always in a process of accommodation.

The study of this “good enough system” confers an advantage because the biological and human systems the students will encounter in later years are similarly optimal.

Language is mathematics without the numbers, systems modeling without the Lego pieces. Language is an exemplary training ground to build generalized abstract systems. This prepares students in their quest for specialized solutions in their chosen fields.

Wika 1 will introduce students to a multidisciplinary, evidence-based and argument-driven approach to language study. Wika 2 will teach them how to make systems work better.

Editor’s Note: Dr. Resty M. Cena (restycena@gmail.com), Dr. Ricardo Ma. Nolasco (rnolascoupdiliman@gmail.com) and Dr. Isabel Pefianco Martin (mmartin@ateneo.edu) are practicing Filipino linguists and educators.

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/630540/language-math-without-numbers-systems-building-without-lego-pieces#ixzz3AnCJHGL0

Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook