FACULTY TRAINING. The second in-service training draws together the faculty members of Xavier University Senior High School on August 3. Supplied photo.
By Ma Isabela AC Agawin
Xavier University successfully conducted its second in-service training (InSet) for its senior high school faculty on Wednesday, August 3 at the XU Nursing Amphitheater.
“The whole Philippines is changing the educational paradigm for basic education and actually higher education — education in general. We are in the middle of education reform and many of the pedagogical aspects of the reform are not very well known to the teachers,” said XU vice-president for basic education Dr Dulce Dawang.
“Especially at Xavier University, our teachers are mostly college teachers and paradigm of teaching in college is very different in teaching in basic education. So there are a lot of things to learn in order to teach the basic education curriculum effectively,” she added.
The Standards-based Curriculum Seminar Workshop was well attended by faculty members from all SHS departments to discuss the K to 12 Basic Education Program and its grading system.
The resource speakers for InSet 2 were XU Junior HS assistant principal for academics Dr Pamela Pajente and Tulong-Dunong Program coordinator and XUJHS Private Education Assistance Committee national trainer Sophia Tagud. Both speakers shed light on the new standards-based curriculum, comparing and differentiating between the previous grading system and the new grading system mandated by the Department of Education (DepEd).
The seminar-workshop included three major lessons for the SHS teachers: (1) Unpacking the Acquisition Learning Goal from the Competencies, (3) Unpacking the Meaning Making Learning Goal from the Standards, and (3) Unpacking the Transfer Learning Goal from the Standards.
“This [InSet 2] is more on the day-to-day requirements such as designing the assessment, how do we assess students now that we have a different approach. Now, we are trying to implement the DepEd orders in terms of assessments, many of the teachers do not know what the DepEd orders are, they have to be explained and they have to understand how to go about implementing them successfully,” explained Dawang.
The event also highlighted the weight of a subject’s performance task to a student’s learning. The performance task shows how a student absorbs and applies the lessons in the classroom, especially the students who have multiple intelligences.
The K to 12 curriculum’s grading system has separate metrics for Grades 1 to 10 and senior high school (Grades 11 to 12). However, both have similar components, namely, written work (WW), performance tasks (PTs), and quarterly assessment (QA). DepEd labels the new grading system as "standards-based and competency-based."
“We are doing a lot of adjustments. Our students are adjusting to our faculty; our faculty are adjusting to our students. Our faculty are adjusting to the new teaching paradigm, teaching style, and the assessment requirements,” said Dawang. “It’s a different grading system, it’s a different code of conduct.”
The third installment of the in-service training for Xavier SHS faculty will be held on September 7. ∎