Philippine Basic Education

There is a growing enthusiasm for social emotional learning (SEL). It does make sense to focus not just on the academic side of education. Education must be holistic. The academic, social and emotional needs of a child must be met. Unfortunately, a greater recognition for the importance of SEL sometimes misses the fact that unlike academic goals, SEL is often caught and not taught. How a teacher treats his or her students dramatically affects the social and emotional well-being of a child. This beats any formal teaching of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. It is more about what we actually do and not what we say. Mashi Liyanage, a seventeen year old, writes in a blog an experience she always remembers from her 7th grade, "In my school life, there are many things that scare me. Getting punished for not doing homework, going late to the school, getting low marks on my exams and many more. But there is one thing ...

A study in Texas shows that Teach for America  (TFA) is making a significant difference in the learning outcomes of students in basic education. Beth Hawkins of T74 reports that students taught by TFA members perform significantly better in eight subjects that include math, science and English. The only subject in which no positive impact is observed is reading. The comparison is made against students taught by teachers who were not affiliated with TFA. Presumably, these are teachers who went through the traditional route of training and education. Above copied from The 74 Although TFA lists the following minimum requirements: In order to be considered for admission to the TFA corps, you must have a   bachelor’s degree with a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.50 and U.S. citizenship, national/legal resident status, or be a DACA recipient.  One can assume that TFA places a premium on academic excellence. One simply has to look at the tips the TFA website provide...

When something involves several factors, we need to be careful in drawing conclusions. In the physical sciences, experiments are designed to focus on one factor at a time while controlling others when the object of the investigation is multivariate. Basic education is an example of a complex system. For this reason, before we declare that we have found a silver bullet, we need to pay attention to details. Megha Satyanarayana wrote recently an article in the Chemical and Engineering News  that shared an apparent successful innovation in chemistry undergraduate education at the Michigan State University. In " Stop. Draw. Discuss: How high school approaches are helping fix undergraduate chemistry ", the following comments from a 20-year old student are highlighted: “It was interactive. We could talk to the people sitting next to us. It’s not like learning facts. It’s more like common sense, or reasoning,” Above copied from C&EN Helping students to become more engaged...

Teachers in public schools in the Philippines are scheduled to receive raises this year. Without seeing the actual numbers, this sounds like good news. With the actual numbers, the news is not necessarily good. It is actually bad. Novice teachers are about to see a 3-4 percent increase in their pay while master teachers are set to gain 6-8 percent. Percentages, however, only tell part of the story. Since novice teachers' base salaries are lower than those of master teachers, the absolute amount in pesos for the raise of a master teacher could be as high as seven times that of a novice teacher. Such arrangement is not only unjust, but also detrimental to basic education. Above copied from Manila Bulletin Research shows that providing higher salary raises for teachers early in their career benefits education. Grissom and Strunk write in a study published in the journal Educational Policy , "We find that frontloaded compensation schemes—those that allocate greater salary r...

The quality of education or lack of it is often equated to inadequate resources. Lack of materials, a poor curriculum, being underprivileged are among the factors frequently cited as obstacles to good basic education. There is one factor, however, inside the classroom that can still make a significant difference even amidst dire conditions. It is the teacher. For this reason, numerous efforts have been made to design ways by which a teacher can be evaluated and then hopefully supported. Unfortunately, there is not much solid evidence of teaching evaluations that actually work. The National Council on Teacher Quality in the United States has recently released a report that cites six places that appear to have teaching eveluation systems that benefit both student learning, and teacher retention and effectiveness. One of the six places is the state of New Mexico. Its teacher evaluation system especially caught my attention because it is definitely a system in which teacher evaluations ...

A headline of a recent news article on the Philippine Daily   Inquirer  caught my attention this morning. The secretary of education, Briones, was reported to had drawn attention to the "unprofessional" correlation made by certain individuals or groups that connect heavy workloads to suicide incidents among teachers. It is true that the specific driving force behind a suicide is complex. It is often a combination of impulsiveness and a variety of external factors and circumstances. However, there is no uncertainty regarding the relationship between heavy workloads and stress. More importantly, heavy workloads are obviously not good for an effective basic education. A heavy workload, regardless of whether it is the primary cause of suicide or not, should be addressed for the well being of teachers and their students. Above copied from the Inquirer Therefore, it is not proper for the Department of Education to brush aside concerns regarding heavy workload simply because ...

For the first time since 1969 when Phi Delta Kappan (PDK) started polling the opinion of Americans on public school education, a majority now would not want their child to become a teacher in a public school . Here in Fairfax county, Virginia, it is the first school day. Hearing that most parents now desire their children not to choose the teaching profession as a career is disheartening. On September 5, the National Teachers' Month will begin in the Philippines. Sure to dampen this celebration is the recent death of a newly hired kindergarten teacher, Shannen Espino. The death is a suicide. According to the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, "Espino teaches two classes from 7am–4pm, even her lunch breaks are usually spent in the Office of the Principal doing tasks especially assigned to her; she prepares different logs, multiple lesson plans per day, worksheets which she herself must provide; she underwent 3–4 observations since her start last June which is brought about by the ...

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, ...

Nearly two thirds of educators surveyed by the American Federation of Teachers in the United States report poor mental health for seven or more of the past thirty days. Nearly half say they experience stress on a daily basis according to researchers from Pennsylvania State University . Stress of course negatively impacts the health, sleep, and quality of life of teachers. But research is also unequivocal  on one more important aspect of teacher stress: "Teachers in the high stress, high burnout, and low coping class were associated with the poorest student outcomes." Although we are often bombarded by fake news on social media, there is nothing fake about the series of rants we are now seeing from teachers in the Philippines. In less than 24 hours, an open letter written by a retired teacher has already garnered 10000 comments and has been shared more than 50000 times on Facebook. Above copied from NPR Teachers' stress is a problem for all of us. It is a real cris...

I am currently a professor in a university in the United States and I am originally from the Philippines. Although I finished my basic education and bachelor of science degree in the Philippines, I did spend eight years as a doctoral and postdoctoral student in Illinois. I know of other Filipinos who have chosen the same career path as I have. Filipinos are likewise found in K-12 classrooms across the US. In the past years, schools in the US have been increasingly hiring teachers from other countries to fill shortages that are often in high poverty and more challenging districts. In the Clark County district alone, eighty one teachers have been recently hired from the Philippines to solve the county's special education teacher shortage. Above copied from Fox News Public schools are able to recruit these teachers based on a "culture exchange" program. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the largest teachers' union in the US, regar...

The non-governmental organization Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) has been calling our attention to the fact that teacher aspirants are not doing well in the licensure exams. Last year's exam has been especially disturbing with the passing rate for elementary teachers at 11%, and for high school instructors at 26%. The dismal passing rate is obviously a serious problem so it is good that an organization is taking note of these results. Being aware of the problem, however, is only the first step. Understanding the problem is a necessary next step. Otherwise, we will propose solutions that do not make sense. When it comes to solutions, PBEd does not really have a good record for it is one of the advocates of DepEd's K to 12. With teacher problems, PBEd likewise proposes the wrong solutions: Make the contents of the exam public and change it so that more teachers can pass. Citing the problem Proposing solutions Above images copied from PBEd Facebook  page P...

While there is no doubt that direct instruction is most effective in education, improving its effectiveness remains an important area for research. Another question in education is the usefulness of homework. Although this has already been settled in research in some cases, one still wonders how and why homework is useful in higher education. Learning, as opposed to teaching, does occur inside the mind of a student. Thus, work done individually by a student must still have an effect on learning. One promising avenue that tackles both areas involves "problem solving before instruction" or PSI. Loibl and coworkers have summarized research on PSI and have suggested a "productive failure" mechanism that includes prior knowledge activation, awareness of knowledge gaps, and recognition of deep features. Doing a quantitative research on how well PSI works is of course extremely challenging. The topic or subject could easily be a factor. Obviously, the teacher is also im...

Showing a special handshake for each of her 20 students, Mueller Elementary school teacher, Ms. Jerusha Willenborg, finds herself in a viral video . Making that connection especially for a white teacher with minority students can indeed bring positive emotions from any viewer of the video. We all remember those teachers we had in grade school that made us comfortable, safe and confident. These teachers provide a climate in which we can regard the classroom as a second home. Research is clear on how important a teacher-student relationship is to a child's social and emotional development. The effect on academic outcomes is less clear but there is no doubt regarding the impact of a teacher on how we begin to view ourselves and school. How a young child copes with the social challenges inside a classroom is definitely linked to the quality of the relationship that child has with his or her teacher. Above copied from KWCH12 In a recent study , Rucinski and coworkers find that ...

Values and character are indeed caught and not taught. Teachers as models inside the classroom influence how students view themselves. Students feel supported when the teacher shows tolerance, energy and care. Students can also feel positive about themselves when they receive compassion, acceptance and confidence. Teachers are humans. Each one has a personality. We remember teachers who are kind and caring. Teachers who are strict are equally memorable. Derrick Meador at ThoughtCo.  lists the following traits as helpful for teachers and students: adaptability, conscientious, creativeness, determination, empathy, forgiving, genuineness, graciousness, gregarious, grit, independence, intuitiveness, kindness, obedience,passionate, patience, reflective, resourceful, respectful, and responsible. How the personality of a teacher affects students is an important question in basic education. Recent research shows that the personality of a teacher correlates with how we view ourselves but n...

A centralized system heavily relies on the competence of the few, fully ignores diversity, and often fails in cultivating local innovation. In the Philippines, the offices in Manila frequently make decisions for the rest of the country. One clear demonstration is its highly centralized and micromanaged education system. As a result, errors which are always likely to happen can easily spread and infect the entire nation. The obsession to control every part of basic education is, for instance, quite evident in the Department's prescribed curriculum in high school chemistry. A row in the curriculum on distinguishing between homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures lists "Laser Pointer, dual-function, with dry cells" as science equipment. Someone must be trying to sell as many laser pointers to schools in the Philippines. Indeed, a centralized system is either an effective way of spreading ignorance or favoring some "business transactions". Above copied from the D...

The statistics are widely known, a child growing up in a poor family has heard tens of million words less than a privileged child. This advantage translates to a poor child working his brain a lot harder just to keep up with his or her more fortunate classmates. The inequity sadly does not cease at the beginning of formal schooling. Children from poor families tend to enroll in the same school with income segregation of neighborhoods. Lacking resources and facing mounting challenges, schools that serve low income families are often unable to provide what these children desperately need to thrive in their classrooms. In addition, due to mounting pressure to perform well in standardized tests in reading and math, equally important subjects such as music, arts and physical education are often sacrificed. Such policy actually goes against what we now know from research in neuroscience. For example, " Music lessons may boost poor kids' brainpower, study suggests " by Linda Car...