Philippine Basic Education

This is the same title of an article that came out in The Atlantic  early this month. It was written by University of Virginia psychology professor Daniel Willingham. The article was in fact a response to another piece entitled " The Writing Revolution " by Peg Tyre in The Atlantic that talked about a school in Staten Island called New Dorp: For years, nothing seemed capable  of turning around New Dorp High School’s dismal performance—not firing bad teachers, not flashy education technology, not after-school programs. So, faced with closure, the school’s principal went all-in on a very specific curriculum reform, placing an overwhelming focus on teaching the basics of analytic writing, every day, in virtually every class. What followed was an extraordinary blossoming of student potential, across nearly every subject—one that has made New Dorp a model for educational reform. Willingham then writes: The history of education is littered with flavor-of-the-month interventio...

Formulating a vision for public education can be as easy as forming an opinion. There are anecdotes which seem prolific enough for everyone to grab just to advance an agenda. In medicine, evidence-based research is important before new therapies are introduced. In education, so much more is still desired. Reforms in education can not be taken as sound simply because these have been put forward by so-called expert educators. For instance, here is a recent description by Rep. Angara of DepEd's K to 12 curriculum (Source: Manila Bulletin ): This new curriculum is an innovation in how lessons are taught to each learner. It’s a combined result of decades of DepEd experience, years of painstaking research, and surveys of best practices in the region adapted to the local scenario. In the United States, there is the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  Its mission is as follows: The mission of the National Education Policy Center is to produce an...

Here are some of the recent tweets from ACT_Teachers : And here is the press release from the Alliance of Concerned Teachers: Teachers’ solon slams railroaded OK of K-12 bill on 2nd reading 18 OCTOBER 2012 PRESS RELEASE Reference: ACT Teachers Party-List Antonio Tinio (09209220817) http://www.act-teachers.com/teachers%E2%80%99-solon-slams-railroaded-ok-of-k-12-bill-on-2nd-reading/ ACT Teachers Representative Antonio Tinio lambasted the approval on second reading, without amendments, by the Lower House of HB 6643, the Revised Basic Education Reform Act of 2012, over objections on the lack of preparation for and commitment to fully fund the K to 12 program. Tinio revealed that during committee and plenary deliberations, the bill’s proponents failed to prove that the Department of Education (DepEd) is ready to effectively implement the entire program.  He scored in particular the perennial problems on teacher, classroom, textbook, and other resource shortages wh...

It seems a simple question. Yet, addressing it can clearly illustrate the difference between ideology and research. Answering this question adequately pushes the right approach to education reform. Where do we begin? The president of France recently announced his plan to ban homework. An article in the Wall Street Journal states: François Hollande has a bold new plan to tackle social injustice and inequality in France: ban homework. Introducing his proposals for education reform last week at the Sorbonne, the French president declared that work "must be done in the [school] facility rather than in the home if we want to support the children and re-establish equality."  The rest of the article did not have kind words to describe the above plan: Here we begin to wonder: Are the French losing their mind? Fortunately not. More than two-thirds of the country would oppose the ban, according to an Ifop poll, so there's hope that even in the land of égalité there's som...

http://kabataanpartylist.com/blog/railroaded-passage-of-k-12-bill-on-2nd-reading-bodes-ill-for-students-youth-solon/ Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raymond Palatino decried the “railroaded” passage of House Bill No. 6643 or the K-12 Bill on second reading, saying that the rushed bill contains provisions “not grounded on solid evidence.” “There is a consensus to reform the basic education curriculum. But the solution is not to legislate K-12 immediately, without us even waiting for an evaluation, an assessment of K-12’s effectivity,” Palatino said. Palatino was one of the last legislators who interpellated on HB 6643 during the plenary deliberation this afternoon. While on the floor, the youth solon raised several issues on the K-12 Bill, particularly on the underlying principles of adding two years to the country’s basic education cycle, including the aim to “decongest” the curriculum and provide employment opportunities for the youth. “Curricular reforms are not enough to resolve...

Students in Finland do not have to take standardized exams. During the first years of education, students normally receive verbal assessments and not numerical or letter grades. The decision when to start handing out numerical grades rests on each school. Children do not grow up counting points as measures of their achievement. It then becomes clear that the main purpose of going to school is to learn and not to earn high marks. This difference can have a dramatic impact on the not just on the attitude of the students but more importantly, on the true learning accomplishments of the students. Placing emphasis on exams and grades can shape how a student manages his or her time and attention. A focus on scores places certain dates throughout the school year as more important than the rest. Reviewing for exams can become more important than being actively engaged in each and every lecture and classroom activity. The same holds true for projects and reports. Without paying attention to s...

The idea that additional years in high school could help better prepare students for higher education might look advantageous at first. Having the introductory courses in college covered in the senior years may reduce the number of courses a student must take in college. This can translate into savings since college is more costly than high school. In an ideal setting, this may be true. Under real circumstances, however, there are serious questions that need to be asked: (1) Are there qualified teachers who could teach these advanced courses in high school? (2) With a lack of uniformity across schools in the Philippines, would the two additional years further increase gaps and competitive disadvantages. In the United States, high school students often take Advanced Placement courses during the final years of K-12. Several studies that evaluate these programs have been published. There is one book, for example, from Harvard Education press, that compiles the results of a conference...