The 30th ASEAN COUNCIL OF TEACHERS CONVENTION

22-24 AUGUST 2014

ORCHARD HOTEL SINGAPORE

422 ORCHARD ROAD, SINGAPORE 238879

PHILIPPINE PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS ASSOCIATION

COUNTRY REPORT

PHILIPPINES TOPIC:

Balancing the Teaching Activities in the Classroom with Crucial Professional

Upgrading Activities for Teachers

Theme: “PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHERS IN ASEAN FOR

QUALITY EDUCATION”

DR. ARTURO B. BAYOCOT, CESO V PRESENTER

Balancing the Teaching Activities in the Classroom with Crucial Professional Upgrading Activities for Teachers

Introduction

To survive in a new, globally competitive world, today's children

will need creativity, problem-solving abilities, and a passion for

learning, a dedicated work ethic and lifelong learning opportunities.

Students can develop these abilities through instruction based on Best Practice teaching strategies. Thomas L. Friedman

Teachers have certain duties and responsibilities to perform that support the vision and mission of

the Department of Education. The main objectives of any educational system is to promote teaching-

learning process, therefore, the main responsibility of teachers is to facilitate learning process. They are

expected to act in a manner deserving of public trust. Teachers are honored because of their important

role in education. With learners at the center, teaching serves as the most important means of awakening

and nurturing the learners’ interest and learning potentials.

To be able to achieve effective teaching and productive learning, teachers should see themselves

as capable of achieving the dimensions of good teaching. Classroom teachers think about a balance

teaching activities in the classroom with crucial professional upgrading activities. They also think which

skills to teach, what teaching strategies to use, what enrichment activities and what learning experiences

to provide. Using the National Competency Based Teaching Standards (NCBTS) as a framework,

Filipino teachers should be able to see their strengths and ensure that such strengths be consistently

utilized in teaching practice. If weaknesses are identified, teachers can plan for various professional

Topic:

development activities which are essential for their growth and development. Professional development

is a formal in-service training to upgrade the content knowledge and pedagogical skills of teachers.

The teacher’s academic advancement and professional upgrading activities contribute to an

enjoyable and productive teaching. However, financial worries sometimes form part of the teacher’s

failure in doing their best in the teaching arena. In some instances, teachers struggle to get out of their

own way to perform better on their job and achieve the desired goal, but there are times when teacher’s

job performance can be affected by quite a lot of conflict in their profession and financial difficulties.

The Philippine Public School Teachers Association (PPSTA) takes an active role by providing

services for the professional development and financial security of public educators in the Philippines.

PPSTA: Teachers’ Service Provider

The Philippine Public School Teachers Association (PPSTA) is the biggest and foremost

professional association of public school teachers, a stronghold of more than 200,000 teacher-members all

over the archipelago. The members include administrators, supervisors, classroom teachers, non-teaching

support personnel, nurses, doctors and dentists, all under the employ of the Department of Education.

PPSTA provides: a) career and professional advancement opportunities through scholarship and

other competency-building program and b) Financial security through Mutual Aid System (Life Insurance

Protection to members); Mutual Retirement Benefit System Plus (Retirement Benefit to members); and

Sariling Sikap Loan (Financial Assistance to members).

The Wonderful World of Teaching

Important Components of Teaching

The teacher is the facilitator of learning. His/her job is to teach, inspire, and mold children to

become responsible citizens of our country.

Students/pupils

Teacher

Subject Matter

The students/pupils are active participants in education. They enjoy learning and focus on

sharpening their knowledge and skills and grow confidence each day.

The subject matter is an essential component of teacher knowledge. It is the most important

factor in delivering quality education.

The Roles of Teachers

As facilitator: The teacher designs instructional strategies that make learning process interesting.

He/she allows and encourages children to learn in different ways about different topics depending on their

own needs, interest, and learning styles.

As manager: Flexibility is the most important ingredient for teacher’s success as manager of a

learning environment. He/she provides rich and age-proportionate that meets children’s needs and caters

to their interest.

As observer: Teachers who are keen and careful observers are able to anticipate the needs of the

children and achieve a more complete understanding of the development of the whole child.

As instructor: The teacher chooses means and moments that are appropriate, demonstrating the

use of new materials, reading a story aloud to the class, sharing important information that is given more

effectively when done directly.

As planner: To fulfill the roles of facilitator, manager and supervisor of independent learning,

and evaluator, the teacher must invest in planning that is knowledgeable, efficient, comprehensive and

well-orchestrated.

As evaluator: Evaluation is necessary to find out if and how children have learned what they are

supposed to learn.

Getting a Balance Teaching Activities

In the classroom, the teacher carries a big responsibility. A wide range and balanced teaching

activities inside the classroom promote active and meaningful learning.

For the sake of maintaining student attention, and facilitating meaningful learning, it can be very

helpful if the teacher employ varied teaching and learning activities in the classroom. Some students

Evaluator Planner Instructor Observer Manager Facilitator

enjoy in individual activities, some involve groups, and some learn more from large group to individual,

while others might progress from individual to group activity.

To balance the teacher’s plan in the classroom, he/she needs to choose activities not just on their

content (vocabulary, grammar, etc.), but also three other factors: Skills (listening, reading, speaking and

writing); Interaction patterns (the number of others that each student interacting with). They can be split

into the following general patterns: individual work, pair work, small group work, large group work and

whole class; and interpersonal relationship (using the social dynamics of the students in the class can

make or break a class, all other things being equal).

As stated by Spegiel (1998), balance is a decision making approach through which the teacher

makes thoughtful choices each day about the best way to help each child become a better reader and

writer. He further stressed that balance involve the teacher-initiated activities with student-initiated

activities. On the other hand, Frey, et al (2005) pointed out that balance literacy is a philosophical

orientation that assumes that reading and writing achievement are developed through instruction and

support and child control.

According to Cunninghan and Allington (2011), balance literacy is an instructional approach that

allows teachers to provide all of the important ingredients that go into creating thoughtful, avid readers,

and writers.

Keeping a Balance on Grammar Activities

Before planning the organization of our teaching, we need to have clear in our minds exactly what

our subject matter is. Listening, speaking, reading and writing are the aspects of the teaching-learning

process (Ur, 2007).

Form Meaning

Listening Perceptions and recognition of the

spoken form of the structure

Comprehension of what the spoken structure

means in context

Speaking Production of well-formed examples

in speech

Use of the structure to convey meaning in speech

Reading Perceptions and recognition of the

written form

Comprehension of what the written structure

means in context

Writing Production of well-formed examples

in writing

Use of the structure to convey meanings in writing

Some teachers have a tendency to concentrate on some of these and neglect others: they may

spend a lot of time in getting the forms right and neglect to give practice in using the structure to convey

meanings or they may focus on written exercises and fail to cover the oral aspects satisfactorily. It is

important to keep a balance, taking into account, of course, the needs of the particular class being taught.

Teacher’s Varied Instructional Strategies

The fundamental importance of teaching strategies is to make it easier to implement a

variety of teaching methods and techniques.

Developmentally appropriate practice encourages the use of varied instructional strategies to meet

the learning needs of children. Such approaches may include process writing, skill instruction, guided

reading, modeled writing, cooperative learning, independent learning activities, peer coaching and

tutoring, teacher-led instruction, thematic instruction, projects, learning center approach, integrative,

problem-based learning, and literature-based instruction (Privett,1996; Stone,1995; AASA1992).

The National Competency-Based Teaching Standards (NCBTS) - Philippines

NCBTS is a professional development guide for Filipino teachers. It is an integrated

theoretical framework that defines the different dimensions of effective teaching, where effective teaching

means being able to help all types of students learn the different learning goals in the curriculum.

The NCBTS provides a single framework that shall define effective teaching in all aspects of a

teacher’s professional life and in all phases of teacher development. The use of a single framework should

minimize confusion about what effective teaching is. The single framework should also provide a better

guide for all teacher development programs and projects from the school-level up to the national level.

Basically, competency-based means that the standards or criteria for characterizing good teaching

are defined in terms of what the teacher is competent to do. Good teaching is being defined in terms of

those practices that help students learn better. So the NCBTS is concerned with whether teachers are

competent in helping students learn.

What are expected of the teacher in the classroom and in the community are spelled out in the

NCBTS. This contains seven integrated domains for effective teaching: 1) Social Regard for learning; 2)

Learning Environment; 3) Diversity of Learners ; 4) Curriculum; 5) Curriculum; 6) Community

Linkages; and 7) Professional Growth and Professional Development.

Domain 1. Social Regard for Learning (SRFL)

This domain focuses on the ideal that teachers serve as positive and powerful role models

of the value in the pursuit of different efforts to learn. The teacher’s action, statements, and

different types of social interactions with students exemplify this ideal.

Domain 2. Learning Environment (LE)

This domain focuses on importance of providing a social, psychological and physical

environment within which all students, regardless of their individual differences in learning, can

engage in the different learning activities and work towards attaining high standards of learning.

Domain 3. Diversity of Learners (DOL)

The DOL domain emphasizes the ideal that teachers can facilitate the learning process

even with diverse learners, by recognizing and respecting individual differences and by using

knowledge about their differences to design diverse sets of learning activities to ensure that all

learners can attain the desired learning goals.

Domain 4. Curriculum (Curr.)

The curriculum domain refers to all elements of the teaching-learning process that work in

convergence to help students understand the curricular goals and objectives, and to attain high

standards of learning defined in the curriculum. These elements include the teacher’s knowledge

of subject matter and the learning process, teaching-learning approaches and activities,

instructional materials and learning resources.

Domain 5. Planning, Assessing & Reporting (PAR)

This domain refers to the alignment of assessment and planning activities. In particular, the

PAR focuses on the (1) use of assessment data to plan and revise teaching-learning plans; (2)

integration of assessment procedures in the plan and implementation of teaching-learning

activities, and (3) reporting of the learners’ actual achievement and behavior.

Domain 6. Community Linkages (CL)

The CL domain refers to the ideal that classroom activities are meaningfully linked to the

experiences and aspirations of the learners in their homes and communities. Thus, this domain

focuses on teachers’ efforts directed at strengthening the links between schools and communities

to help in the attainment of the curricular goals.

Domain 7. Personal Growth & Professional Development (PGPD)

The PGPD domain emphasizes the ideal that teachers value having a high personal regard

for the teaching profession, concern for professional development, and continuous improvement as

teachers.

The Continuing Professional Teacher Development

Professional development is defined as activities that develop an individual’s skills,

knowledge, expertise and other characteristics as a teacher. Professional development can be

influenced by the types of development activities that teachers engage in.

The types of professional development activities of teachers include the following

courses/workshops (e.g. on subject matter or methods and/or other education-related topics);

education conferences or seminars (at which teachers and/or researchers present their research

results and discuss education problems); qualification programme (e.g. a degree programme);

observation visits to other schools; participation in a network of teachers formed specifically for

the professional development of teachers; individual or collaborative research on a topic of

professional interest; and mentoring and/or peer observation and coaching, as part of a formal

school arrangement; reading professional literature (e.g. journals, evidence-based papers, thesis

papers); and engaging in informal dialogue with peers on how to improve teaching.

The professional development activities are grouped into three categories:

1) Teacher priority activities-These are the activities chosen by teachers themselves for

their own growth and improvement. Examples: self-study in a subject area; a classroom-based

action research project focused on the improvement of teaching; peer group support through a

teacher network.

2) School priority activities- These are the activities undertaken by the school that focus on

school development for the improvement of the students’ academic learning. Example is School

Improvement Plan. 3) Profession priority activities - These have directly to do with enhancing the

professional status, practices and commitments of teachers in areas of greatest need.

References:

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CPTD Task Team Department of Education South African Council for Educators. The

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Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Environments: First Results from TALIS 2009

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Experiential Learning Courses Handbook, (2009).

Educa Education is the key to success in life,

and teachers make a lasting impact

in the lives of their students

-Solomon Cruz-

A teacher who is attempting to

teach without inspiring the pupil

with a desire to learn is

hammering on cold iron.

-Horace Mann-

Frey, Bruce et al, Balance Literacy in an Urban School District, The

JournalofEducationalResearch.Volume 98,issue 5, 2005.

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to Literacy Instruction https://www.inkling.com/read/teaching-language-arts-dobler-1st/chapter-5/5-4-a-

balanced-comprehensive

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http://www.education.com/reference/article/components-balanced-literacy/. 1998, 2013

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“Types of Professional Development” (2009). The Professional Development of Teachers.

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Weller, David. Balancing Your Lesson Plan. Retrieved 2014. http://www.barefootteflteacher.com/teaching-techniques/lesson-planning/balancing-lesson-plan/