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: Science Track-Facilitating Change through Action Research

Minutes of the Workshop Transcribed. Speaker Dr. Maricar Prudente

KATHA 2014 Batch 2: Day 10

Science Track: Facilitating Change through Action Research

Dr. Maricar Prudente

Science Education Department

De La Salle University-Manila

October 4, 2014

Minutes of the Workshop

1. Introduction. The speaker first introduced the importance of action research not just for the sake of doing it but for the sake of making a difference in their students’ learning. She also emphasized about facilitating change that leads to new knowledge, which will also eventually lead to change in teaching the course for the students. It is a research that attempts to embed action and change in the actual research process.

 

2. Action Research. Research generates knowledge to 1) build broader knowledge, which entails a basic or pure research 2) pave way for change through applied or evaluative research 3) action change within a system 4) emancipate through action and 5) expose and change the dominate system through critical or radical ethnography. The speaker also discussed about the credibility of one’s work of action research which should be change oriented. She further explained that action research paves way for change and is often linked to policy or program development, which includes studies that 1) investigate a problem situation 2) assess potential interventions and 3) evaluate change initiatives. Action research is not limited to teaching, rather to other professions because it is a practical approach that is of particular relevance. It covers a variety of strategies that is dedicated to integrated production of knowledge. It is also cyclical where the teacher should not stop in one action, but rather keep abreast of the changes in the environment and with the influx of new information for learning. Action research should be the essential tool for basic education, the speaker added. She also said that action research is to improve a teacher’s practice of teaching and reflecting on their current methods. The teacher’s concern should be on teaching practices and the student’s learning processes. The ultimate goal for action research of the teacher is the student’s learning, where high scores in NAT, greater participation of students and mastery of the skills would eventually follow. This entails good teaching, the speaker emphasized. She said that the teachers themselves know best the nature of their students if they are effective and good teachers. This entails that the teachers would change their techniques and create new approaches that would engage their students to learning.

3. How does this qualify to Research. Action research requires the same rigor, systematic research process, and reflects a professional development. This also qualifies as a research because it is an act that would make the teachers understand their methods of teaching better. It is also the act of finding the teachers’ solution makes them understand their practice better. Practice in this case means the way the teachers teach and carry out their professional action. It is an avenue to the teachers’ reflection with their own practices and professional actions to improve student learning. The speaker then asked the teachers to reflect on their own teaching practices if they have improved on their professional actions and emphasized that it should be a way of looking at their role in the world that would drive them to do better in their profession.

4. Professional Knowledge Makers. The speaker also discussed that teachers, through action research enhance their professional development, where they understand their own practice, how to make them better, how to accommodate outside change in their practice and how to change the outside to make their practice better that would affect their students’ learning. It is about enacting a practice that the teacher should understand based on their students’ needs. She emphasized that the teacher should not follow the cookbook style of teaching lessons to students but rather catering to the students’ learning needs.

5. Action Research at Work. Action research involves four acts: 1) observe 2) reflect 3) plan and 4) act. It can also be worked out through the following process: 1) identifying a classroom problem 2) developing and implementing an action research plan by conducting a strategy to address the classroom problem 3) collecting and analyzing data and while conducting the strategy 4) using and sharing the results, where dissemination is an essential part of the research. The speaker gave a specific example of an action research plan about how a science teacher changes her strategy to engage her students more to ask questions and explore on the lesson in the classroom.

6. Limitations of Action Research. The speaker asked the teachers what may be the problems that would arise with the use of action research. One teacher raised that the consistency of the action research may be a problem but the speaker said constant examination of the strategy should be required. Another teacher raised the familiarity and the knowledge of action research. The problem is that superintendents don’t exactly know how to do action research and so do not encourage such action plan to their teachers. She emphasized that action research is classroom-based and encouraged the teachers to do action research and pointed out that the teachers often do not go out of their comfort zone of teaching and not changing their strategies in teaching to engage their students more. They should focus more on how to teach and how to make their students learn. A teacher shared his problem on discussing the most difficult topic in his subject and the speaker suggested a process of action research that would make the students more engaging on the topic. The teacher should conduct the action plan and document it so that they can see the development of their action research.

7. Individual or Collaborative Work. Use of different strategies through individual or collaborative works may be used, more on collaborative strategies, the speaker emphasized, so that there would be sharing of results and discussions to formulate conclusions based on their data. Collaborative work also leads to the teachers’ reflection and comparison of their own work with other teachers’ works. Factors that may help collaboration include the teachers’ professional desire to improve on their teaching strategies instead of competing with other teachers. However time management may also be a problem but this may be given a solution if the teachers know what to do, the speaker added.

8. Methods in Action Research. There is a need to employ triangulation in action research, which includes 1) observation of interactions of the students’ work in the classroom 2) analysis of children’s work and 3) interview with the children. The question now is how to employ these action plan, where considerations include questions such as 1) does the method give a form of data which relates to my question? 2) is it feasible in the available time? 3) have the teacher made himself aware of its strengths and limitations of the methodology? 4) will it be an acceptable method for the other people involved? and 5) will it disrupt normal routines?

Barret and Whitehead (1985) proposed six questions on the methods of action research, which includes 1) what is the teacher’s concern? 2) why is he concerned? 3) what does he think he could do about it? 4) what kind of evidence could he collect to help him make some judgment about what is happening? 5) how does he collect such evidence? and 6) how would he check that his judgment about what has happened is reasonable, fair and accurate?

 

9. Beginning of Action Research Process. The speaker gave the teachers an activity about investigating and identifying classroom concerns, their method of collecting information and sources of data and how to focus their instruction method in teaching. The speaker emphasized that the teacher should focus only a classroom problem and should be feasible and should not disrupt normal routines. The speaker called on three volunteers to discuss their answers and their co-participants and the speaker commented on their works. One teacher shared that one of his classroom concerns is how to motivate his students to ask questions. The speaker said that the teacher’s problem is on student inquiry and suggested action plan solutions for his dilemma. Another shared the low and passive participation of the students in his class. Effective strategies that should be employed include identifying indicators on how students participate in class, the speaker suggested. Finally another teacher shared a similar concern on the active participation of her students in the classroom. The speaker suggested classroom observation and making a checklist, a corresponding tool for evaluating strategies on how to make the students more active in participating in class.

10. Identifying the Classroom Problem. The teachers must first observe their class and identify their problem statement. The speaker then gave a second activity on identifying classroom problem by specifically describing who is affected, supported causes of the problem, the goal for improvement and what might be done about the problem.

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. 

MONA LISA SMILE: Teachers of solicitude and apathy

Ask yourself: just how many teachers scold you to shut up and try to learn something from his/her class?



Or, just how many of them treat you like a son/daughter, as they would occasionally ask how are you holding up at school or at your chaotic home?



Have we ever asked ourselves, why EXACTLY, are my teachers (annoyingly like my mother) always have that long criticizing speech that spoils the rest of my adolescent life?



We have obviously forgotten that technically school is our orphanage home (in an educational way of course) and teachers are our stepmothers/fathers. That should mean they also want what's best for us students, and I do believe they would care less and quit scolding us and ruining their days if they don't actually care.

I have encountered many teachers always reprimanding me for not attending my classes and scolding me for irresponsibly catching up with missed activities (I was a member of the Extra Curricular Activities AWOL group). I should have felt really bad, but thankfully I was refined by my journalism teacher Ms. Josephine Bonsol to simply think the other way around, saying I should be grateful enough for such teachers because in the least they cared about my academics and even my future. If they didn't, they would've simply not cared.



I've also been aware of the two classifications of teachers, especially in public schools: the first group who ardently teach and hone and scold students to make them better citizens of the country, and the other one simply trying to show they teach, objectively because it's their job, period.



With this perspective in mind, I've learned to appreciate and idolize our so-called "verbal-abusing" but unquestionably virtuous teachers, thinking they are simply concerned about me, and any one of us for that matter. One teacher once said to me: "Boy, am I glad you're back in classes. Next time try not to miss activities just so to do something good for the school. Do something for yourselves and for your future." And that's just how lucky I am enough to have a lot of surrogate moms in school.



But then these days this youth generation tends to worship the culture of misunderstanding everything including teachers. The case of a student stabbing a teacher to death (who was simply scolding him to get a proper haircut) already proved it. I've also read first year hs students commenting they salute the boy and might have done the same thing.

Maybe it's because we students don't want to be dictated and be outsmarted by other people. We feel superior as if we know everything where in fact we always waste time gossiping about completely senseless topics on whereabouts of others, including teachers. It is but true of Padre Fernandez's notion of students backstabbing teachers; of course we can't say it out loud. (He was the good pastor in Rizal's El Filibusterismo)



Bad words? Insults? Embarrassing affronts like "Ang bobo mo!" or "Mag-drop-out ka na lang!" replaying in our ears, I was told, are meant for us students to be challenged, and to some extent, to fairly hate our teachers while we promise ourselves we will prove to them our worth.



Thinking they're bringing us down or making our high school days the worst in our lives simply makes us the ONES who drag ourselves down. I've been taught that life is what we make it, and if we put optimistic perspectives in everything we see and encounter everyday, we will definitely make ourselves a big favor.



For all the teachers who adopted me and scolded me for always going AWOL in class, THANK YOU!