Philippine School Curriculum

PCK105 |THE TEACHER AND THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM Lesson 1: The Teacher and the School Curriculum In our current Philippine educational system, different schools are established in different educational levels...

PCK105 |THE TEACHER AND THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM Lesson 1: The Teacher and the School Curriculum In our current Philippine educational system, different schools are established in different educational levels which have corresponding recommended curricula. The educational levels are: 1. Basic Education. This level includes Kindergarten, Grade 1 to Grade 6 for elementary; and for secondary, Grade 7 to Grade 10, for the Junior High School and Grade 11 and 12 and for the Senior High School. Each of the levels has its specific recommended curriculum. The new basic education levels are provided in the K to 12 Enhanced Curriculum of 2013 of the Department of Education. 2. Technical Vocational Education. This is post-secondary technical vocational educational and training taken care of Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). For the TechVoc track in SHS of DepEd, DepEd and TESDA work in close coordination. 3. Higher Education. This includes the Baccalaureate or Bachelor Degrees and the Graduate Degrees (Master's and Doctorate) which are under the regulation of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). In whatever levels of schooling and in various types of learning environment, several curricula exist. Let us find out how Allan Glatthorn (2000) as mentioned in Bilbao, et al (2008) classified these: Types of Curricula Simultaneously Operating in the Schools 1. Recommended Curriculum. Almost all curricula found in our schools are recommended. For Basic Education, these are recommended by the Department of Education (DepEd), for Higher Education, by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and for vocational education by TESDA. These three government agencies oversee and regulate Philippine education. The recommendations come in the form of memoranda or policies, standards and guidelines. Other professional organizations or international bodies like UNESCO also recommend curricula in schools. 2. Written Curriculum. This includes documents based on the recommended curriculum. They come in the form of course of study, syllabi, modules, books or instructional guides among others. A packet of this written curriculum is the teacher's lesson plan. The most recent written curriculum is the K to 12 for Philippine Basic Education. 3. Taught Curriculum. From what has been written or planned, the curriculum has to be implemented or taught. The teacher and the learners will put life to the written curriculum. The skill of the teacher to facilitate learning based on the written curriculum with the aid of instructional materials and facilities will be necessary. The taught curriculum will depend largely on the teaching style of the teacher and the learning style of the learners. 4. Supported Curriculum. This is described as support materials that the teacher needs to make learning and teaching meaningful. These include print materials like books, charts, posters, worksheets, or non-print materials like Power Point presentation, movies, slides, models, realias, mock-ups and other electronic illustrations. Supported curriculum also includes facilities where learning occurs outside or inside the four-walled building. These include the playground, science laboratory, audio-visual rooms, zoo, museum, market or the plaza. These are the places where authentic learning through direct experiences occur.  PCK105 |THE TEACHER AND THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM 5. Assessed Curriculum. Taught and supported curricula have to be evaluated to find out if the teacher has succeeded or not in facilitating learning. In the process of teaching and at the end of every lesson or teaching episode, an assessment is made. It can either be assessment for learning, assessment as learning or assessment of learning. If the process is to find the progress of learning, then the assessed curriculum is for learning, but if it is to find out how much has been learned or mastered, then it is assessment of learning. Either way, such curriculum is the assessed curriculum. 6. Learned Curriculum. How do we know if the student has learned? We always believe that if a student changed behavior, he/she has learned. For example, from a non-reader to a reader or from not knowing to knowing or from being disobedient to being obedient. The positive outcome of teaching is an indicator of learning. These are measured by tools in assessment, which can indicate the cognitive, affective and psychomotor outcomes. Learned curriculum will also demonstrate higher order and critical thinking and lifelong skills. 7. Hidden/Implicit Curriculum. This curriculum is not deliberately planned, but has a great impact on the behavior of the learner. Peer influence, school environment, media, parental pressures, societal changes, cultural practices, natural calamities, are some factors that create the hidden curriculum. Teachers should be sensitive and aware of this hidden curriculum. Teachers must have good foresight to include these in the written curriculum, in order to bring to the surface what are hidden. However, in every teacher's classroom, not all these curricula may be present at one-time. Many of them are deliberately planned, like the recommended, written, taught, supported, assessed, and learned curricula. However, a hidden curriculum is implied, and a teacher may or may not be able to predict its influence on learning. All of these have significant role on the life of the teacher as a facilitator of learning and have direct implication to the life of the learners. The Teacher as a Curricularist 1. Knows the curriculum. Learning begins with knowing. The teacher as a learner starts with knowing about the curriculum, the subject matter or the content. As a teacher, one has to master what are included in the curriculum. It is acquiring academic knowledge both formal (disciplines, logic) or informal (derived from experiences, vicarious, and unintended). It is the mastery of the subject matter. (KNOWER) 2. Writes the curriculum. A classroom teacher takes record of knowledge concepts, subject matter or content. These need to be written or preserved. The teacher writes books, modules, laboratory manuals, instructional guides, and reference materials in paper or electronic media as a curriculum writer or reviewer. (WRITER) 3. Plans the curriculum. A good curriculum has to be planned. It is the role of the teacher to make a yearly, monthly or daily plan of the curriculum. This will serve as a guide in the implementation of the curriculum. The teacher takes into consideration several factors in planning a curriculum. These factors include the learners, the support material, time, subject matter or content, the desired outcomes, the context of the learners among others. By doing this, the teacher becomes a curriculum planner. (PLANNER) 4. Initiates the curriculum. In cases where the curriculum is recommended to the schools from DepEd, CHED, TESDA, UNESCO, UNICEF or other educational agencies for improvement of quality education, the teacher is obliged to implement it. Implementation of a new curriculum requires the open mindedness of the teacher, and the full belief that the curriculum will enhance learning. There will be many constraints and difficulties in doing things first or leading, however, a transformative teacher will never hesitate to try something novel and relevant. (INITIATOR)  PCK105 |THE TEACHER AND THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM 5. Innovates the curriculum. Creativity and innovation are hallmarks of an excellent teacher. A curriculum is always dynamic; hence it keeps on changing. From the content, strategies, ways of doing, blocks of time, ways of evaluating, kinds of students and skills of teachers, one cannot find a single eternal curriculum that would perpetually fit. A good teacher, therefore, innovates the curriculum and thus becomes a curriculum innovator. (INNOVATOR) 6. Implements the curriculum. The curriculum that remains recommended or written will never serve its purpose. Somebody has to implement it. As mentioned previously, at the heart of schooling is the curriculum. It is this role where the teacher becomes the curriculum implementer. An implementer gives life to the curriculum plan. The teacher is at the height of an engagement with the learners, with support materials in order to achieve the desired outcome. It is where teaching, guiding, facilitating skills of the teacher are expected to the highest level. It is here where teaching as a science and as an art will be observed. It is here, where all the elements of the curriculum will come into play. The success of a recommended, well written and planned curriculum depends on the implementation. (IMPLEMENTOR) 7. Evaluates the curriculum. How can one determine if the desired learning outcomes have been achieved? Is the curriculum working? Does it bring the desired results? What do outcomes reveal? Are the learners achieving? Are there some practices that should be modified? Should the curriculum be modified, terminated or continued? These are some few questions that need the help of a curriculum evaluator. That person is the teacher. (EVALUATOR) The seven different roles are those which a responsible teacher does in the classroom every day. Doing these multi-faceted work qualifies a teacher to be a curricularist. To be a teacher is to be a curricularist even if a teacher may not equal the likes of John Dewey, Ralph Tyler, Hilda Taba, or Franklin Bobbit. As a curricularist, a teacher will be knowing, writing, implementing, innovating, initiating and evaluating the curriculum in the school and classrooms just like the role models and advocates in curriculum and curriculum development who have shown the way. References: Bilbao, P. P. (2020). The Teacher and the School Curriculum. Lorimar Publishing Inc. Wilson, L. (2024). Types of curriculum. https://thesecondprinciple.com/instructional-design/types-of-curriculum/