Philippine Basic Education

Similar to constructing a house that starts with a foundation, the mathematical skills and knowledge of a sixth grader are influenced by what this sixth grader knew or learned during preschool and the early elementary years. Grade six pupils in the Philippines average less than 35% in the 2017 National Achievement Test. With this poor performance, it is useful to examine the relationship, if there is one, between early math knowledge in kindergarten and first grade, and later math achievement at the end of elementary school. Such a relationship, called a "math trajectory", can be useful in pinpointing which items in early math are highly predictive of math performance in sixth grade. Bethany Rittle-Johnson and coworkers have recently mapped a "math trajectory" for low-income children by following the progress in math of over 500 children in Tennessee from ages 4 to 11. Since these children come from a disadvantaged background, their path in math is likely to be sim...

While some activists are bickering about the removal of Filipino subjects as required courses from higher education and the secretary of education Leonor Briones says "While were picking up on Science and Technology, we should not forget sports, culture, and history", we are totally missing the fact that basic education in the Philippines has recently taken a nosedive because of DepEd's K to 12 curriculum. National Achievement Test scores especially in mathematics and science have dropped drastically to 37.30% and 30.94%, respectively. These scores are not even half the passing score in these tests. The Grade 6 scores should be alarming especially when compared to years prior to the new curriculum. The dramatic drop occurs across all subjects, with marked deterioration in mathematics and science. This shows that the spiral curriculum is not working. When students do not reach grade level in these subjects, the spiral only becomes a "broken spiral". It...

It has been six years since I started commenting on basic education in the Philippines. In that first piece I wrote in the Philippine Star , "First things first: A commentary on K+12", I highlighted the serious challenge introduced by a spiral curriculum in the sciences: " A spiral curriculum in high school will require teachers with knowledge in all these areas at a sufficient level. These required teachers are not going to be available in numbers so this program will be poorly implemented." Fast forward to 2018, we are now hearing from Chemistry teachers in the Philippines. An article recently published in the Australian Journal of Teacher Education  reports, "... teachers revealed their disappointment as they narrated their participation in the spiral progression of chemistry instruction in the K-12 framework that it is not concentrated, extensive, and challenges instruction. Most of the respondents of this study reported how the curriculum does not spiral, ...

Although factors outside the classroom greatly influence basic education, inside the classroom, the teacher still plays a major role. Improving basic education therefore entails better teacher preparation. Asking the question what makes a better teacher is therefore important in addressing the present challenges schools face. With this in mind, the following quote posted in MindShift  and the Hechinger Report  from Yoon Jeon Kim, a research scientist at the MIT Teaching Systems Lab, deserves our attention. At the heart of the Teaching Systems Lab is the Woodrow Wilson Academy of Teaching and Learning where scientists and engineers are trained to become educators in their field. The academy clearly works on the principle that excellence in teaching comes from content knowledge, as stated in of its web pages . Your STEM content knowledge is what will make you an excellent teacher   The WW Academy only focuses on the preparation of STEM teachers. We recognize the ...

In the United States Senate, the committee on education has unanimously approved a rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Emma Brown of the Washington Post  writes "Senate’s effort to rewrite NCLB sparks cautious optimism". At the heart of the bill is the role of the federal government in basic education. Mercedes Schneider at the Huffington Post   highlights the following key phrases in the bill: "The Secretary shall not have the authority to require a State..." "Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to permit the Secretary to establish any criterion that specifies, defines, or prescribes..." " The Secretary shall be prohibited from requiring or coercing a State to enter into a voluntary partnership..." The following paragraph is also important to note: Nothing in this title shall be construed to authorize an officer or employee of the Federal Government to mandate, direct, or control a State, local educational ...

A public school science teacher in the Philippines wrote me an email a couple of months ago asking for advice regarding her planned master thesis. She wishes to evaluate the spiral science curriculum of the new DepEd K+12 curriculum. To do this empirically, one has to take into account the period of the program. The Philippines DepEd K+12 curriculum prescribes the teaching of the sciences in the following manner: Grades 7 through 10 students spend a quarter of every year on each of the following disciplines: Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Earth Science. Thus, it requires at least four years to even find students who have already gone through the complete program. This aspect actually highlights what is wrong in the DepEd's K+12 curriculum. It totally misses what a spiral progression should entail. DepEd advertises the above schedule as a spiral curriculum. " Concepts and skills in Life Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, and Earth Sciences are presented with increasing levels o...

The previous posts on this blog have been emphasizing the role of teachers and resources in student learning. These are the avenues through which learning in schools can be improved. The curriculum is viewed simply as a wish list. Without proper implementation, it simply remains a wish list. Although a curriculum can not be expected to solve problems in basic education, a badly designed curriculum can exacerbate problems. A long standing debate in education is content versus skills. This dichotomy is actually untrue for deep learning involves acquisition of both content and skills. An editorial in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching   recently revisited what defines "meaningful learning". It starts by presenting the following figure (originally from Ege, Coppola, & Lawton,  Journal of Chemical Education , 74, 74–83): Above copied from  Journal of Research in Science Teaching Volume 51, Issue 6, pages 679-693, 12 JUL 2014 DOI: 10.1002/tea.21165 C...

Recognizing coherence and progression as important factors in effective education combined with the philosophy of taking into account where the students currently stand, it is quite tempting to suggest that teachers should be assigned to a class and stay with that group of students for a period of years. The practice of placing the same group of students with one teacher for more than one year is referred to in education as looping. I experienced this when I was in grade school. My teacher in Grade 5 also taught me in Grade 6. The entire class plus the teacher was therefore identical for two years. It was like a family, at least for two years. I liked the teacher so I had a positive experience with looping and obviously with two years in a row, that teacher knew a lot about us. Recently, at Georgetown, I had the rare opportunity of teaching one class of chemistry majors three of the eight semesters they spent in college. I taught these students General Chemistry and Physical Chemi...

Republic Act 10533 of the Philippines, otherwise known as the " Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 ", not only adds two years to basic education and reiterates universal kindergarten, but also prescribes the standards and guidelines the Department of Education must follow in developing curriculum. One item under this prescription is: " The curriculum shall use the spiral progression approach to ensure mastery of knowledge and skills after each level." The following is an example taken from a presentation given by Merle Tan , illustrating how chemistry is integrated into the new DepEd K+12 curriculum: In the same presentation, it is also mentioned that "Science curriculum framework of high performing countries (Australia, Brunei, England, Finland, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, New Zealand, USA (3 states)) follow a spiral progression and integrated approach at least up to G9". The presentation, however, fails to cite that in Singapore,...

Education reform requires research for its direction. Oftentimes, changes in education are purely sparked by an advocacy that is considered good in itself. Take, for example, "education for all". No one would really argue against that. When education reform takes the objective of "better learning", then guidance from research as well as proper assessment are both required. Various education reforms come and go, boldly promising dramatic improvements in learning, but in the end, yielding very little in uplifting basic education. These reforms are not free, some are very costly. Thus, in the end, only enterprises correctly positioned to help implement these reforms gain financially. Having a public school system try products regularly can be quite lucrative. Research, unfortunately, is also expensive and time-consuming. When a proposed change seems promising, why should one wait for more rigorous and well-designed studies? Each year of waiting translates to a class ...

School districts in the state of Missouri are changing their science curriculum for Grades 6 to 8. The reform primarily changes science instruction from a spiral approach to a field-focus curriculum. The Philippines, on the other hand, with DepEd's K to 12 goes in the opposite direction. Without debating which direction is the correct one to take, both need to face the challenge of a major transition. Poor implementation of an education reform leads to failure even if the change is the correct prescription. A major part of the implementation is the transition stage, which is crucial for the success of the reform. It is therefore necessary to pay close attention to the transition process as this stage can easily lead to failure if not implemented correctly. Missouri's efforts are assisted by institutions of higher learning within the state. One is Lindenwood University. The Spellman Clock Tower of Lindenwood University reflecting its view on education One dissertation fro...

DepEd's K to 12 employs the spiral curriculum in teaching sciences in high school. For example, in grade 8, the first quarter is assigned to chemistry topics which include the particle nature of matter, atomic structure, and the periodic table. The second quarter is mostly biology dealing with a wide spectrum of topics; the digestive system, cell division, biodiversity, and ecosystems. Physics is studied during the third quarter and in this year, the areas discussed are the laws of motion, work, power, and the different forms of energy. The fourth quarter is on earth sciences which include earthquakes, typhoons and the solar system. Looking back at Grade 7, one may then evaluate what the sequence of topics is and ask whether the various disciplines maybe influencing each other. In chemistry, Grade 7 talks about solutions, acids and bases, elements and compounds, and metals and nonmetals. Biology in Grade 7 seems to prepare students for Grade 8 biology as it covers parts and functio...

There is a movement regarding science education in high school in the United States that has been increasing in popularity. Spearheaded by a Nobel laureate in physics, Leon Lederman, "Physics First" makes the claim that the proper sequence for teaching the sciences in high school should be physics, followed by chemistry, and then biology. The project " American Renaissance in Science Education " summarizes this order in the following flow chart: Figure downloaded from  http://ed.fnal.gov/arise/arise_lml/arise_science.html The University of Missouri currently has a program that helps train teachers in implementing the above course sequence. It is briefly described in a brochure  with the following brief rationale: Downloaded from  http://www.physicsfirstmo.org/files/Brochure%20Aug09B.pdf   Bottom line: Unlike the spiral curriculum that DepEd's K to 12 promotes, "Physics First" is a response to our improved understanding of how the brain l...

Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. , has been providing research and data collection to guide public policies. One of its ongoing efforts is to evaluate Mathematics curricula in the early grades. In the United States, there are several curricula and in this specific study, Mathematica chose to examine four: (1) Investigations in Number, Data and Space, (2) Math Expressions, (3) Saxon Math, and (4) Scott Foresman - Addison Wesley Mathematics. A summary describing each of these curricula can be obtained from this link: http://www.mathcurriculastudy.com/Curricula%20Summaries.pdf The following are links to the websites of these four curricula: (1)  Investigations in Number, Data and Space (2) Math Expressions (3) Saxon Math (4)  Scott Foresman - Addison Wesley Mathematics Results of the study have been released to the public. These are described in the following link: http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/Newsroom/Releases/2010/MathStudyYr2_11_10.asp  and the forma...

Browsing through DepEd's curriculum guide for science, one can pick from the grade level standards elements that are related to chemistry: Grade 3:  Students will learn that things may be solid, liquid or gas while others may  give off light, heat and sound.     Grade 4:  After investigating, learners will identify materials that do not decay and use this knowledge to help minimize waste at home, school, and  in the community. They will also investigate changes in the properties of materials when these are subjected to different conditions.   Grade 5:  After investigating, learners will decide whether materials are safe and useful based on their properties. They will also infer that new  materials may form when there are changes in properties.  Learners will recognize that different materials react differently with heat, light, and sound. They will relate these abilities of materials to  their specific uses.   Grade 6...