Pedagogical Contents

One book, one pen, one child and one teacher can change the world.

I started my class observation in week two. I had the opportunity to observe mathematics learning activities in two grades, those are grade 4 and grade 6, and also with two different teachers. mathematics in grade 4 is taught by Mrs. Kristine Pearl S. Alberca, and grade 6 is taught by Mrs. Grace M. Gleyo. They both have few different characteristics and ways of teaching, but overall, they all look the same.

Before they start to teach in the class, they prepare the lesson plan first. In TCES and also part of Department of Education regulation, time allotted per subject as well as the competencies is 50 minutes. It is mandated and stated as curriculum guideline. The topic that they will teach or the learning objective is based on the DepEd Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELCs). The topics that will be taught are also in the Teachers Manual as the reference source, also provided by DepEd. So, they have to prepare their lesson plan. Inside of the lesson plan, there are many activities that need teaching instruments and learning/instructional materials. Thus, they also have to prepare everything, those are teaching props, manila paper for group activity, rubrics, material, etc.

For the students (in elementary school, students are often called pupils), they also have their learning sources, whether Learning Modules by DepEd, or from other sources like 21st Century Mathematics Textbook.

Once all the instruments and learning materials for teaching are ready, teacher can teach in class.

Starting with opening activities, pupils greet the teacher and fellow friends, followed by praying together. I also got greeted because I'm a visitor that observed the class. After that, the teacher usually takes attendance one by one for pupils who are present or absent in class. Teacher also asks how the pupils are doing. To  encourage pupils' enthusiasm before starting lessons, teacher usually invites pupils to sing math songs together.

Teacher also recalls and activates pupils' prior knowledge using drill, props, flashcards, or showing something on the monitor. This aims to prepare pupils to learn new things that will be studied. In this opening activities section, teacher also engages the pupils and establishes a purpose for learning. The last thing in opening activities is teacher gives motivation to pupils to generate interest in the lesson topic. The opening activities is brief, and usually 15-20 minutes in length just for the "hook" used to entice pupils to dive deeper into the content.

After the opening activities, learning continues with the core activities. In this section, teacher usually starts by giving mathematics problems in the real world. They use a lot of contexts in the learning, so the pupils realize that the topic that they learn is important and useful in the real life situations. The contexts is important also and teachers put it in motivation, developmental activities, even in the questions and test. The problem given by the teacher will then be discussed how to solve it together with the pupils. The steps taken to solve this problem are the core of the learning topic, or, something that is being studied.

Some of teachers like Maam Grace are more comfortable or prefer to teach using traditional methods, whether in presenting material and questions, providing motivation, making teaching aids and props, or other learning material. Perhaps because they have been doing it for many years compared to technology that has only involved with education in TCES recently. So they just use technology to make lesson plan or to store administration archives, not to teach directly in class. However, all classes in TCES are equipped with monitor screens that can display anything. Thus, the rest of teachers like Maam Kristine prefer to utilize the technology by making teaching materials digitally, like PowerPoint Slideshow or learning video. But still, even though everything can be done with technology, Maam Kristine also maintains some traditional ways so that pupils can also learn directly from real objects.

After pupils understand the steps to solve problems related to the topic being studied, generalization will be carried out to summarize what has been explained and discussed. Starting with the teacher showing the steps just learned in one summary, then pupils are asked to answer several questions or problems in "fixing of skills" activity related to the topic being studied, and then teacher asks pupils to generalizing what they have learned in their own words. By doing this, teacher hopes that pupils will understand and memorize the topic.

After that, pupils will do group activity. This discussion method is the method that math teachers in TCES usually use. Beside from further maturing pupils' knowledge about concepts of the topic being studied, this group activity also aims to train pupils' cooperation, collaboration and activeness in a group, as well as train pupils' skills in presenting the results of their group work.

Before teacher gives the pupils their activities to work with, teacher shows standards in doing group activity and rubrics for participation in group activity. The reason why teacher shows these two things is to encourage pupils to actively participate in group activity, as well as remind pupils to be serious about working with their group because during the discussion and presentation process they will be observed and assessed directly by the teacher. After all pupils understand the rules for discussion and the rubrics, teacher can divide class into groups and gives them the activity.

During the group activity, teacher will go around to observe pupils and help them who have difficulty solving the problems given. So, the key here is the teacher as an organizer and facilitator in group activity, while learning is now centered on pupils who are more active (student-centered learning). After they finished their work, they will presenting their results. In the end of group activity, teacher shows each group's score.

Teacher also use a classroom reward system. This system is a method of celebrating pupil achievement and positive behavior. In the practical, this method involves consistent efforts to bring out the best in pupils and motivate them to perform their best. This system also encourages teachers to become more engaged in the classroom. Rewards given by teacher to the pupils can be various things, such as snacks, flowers, cute characters, or even just applause and various claps. Teacher gives this rewards when asking pupils to answer questions on the board, present the results of their work, or simply answer questions asked by the teacher. These activities can be in the review of the last topic, fixing of skills, group activities, and many more.

The last activity in core activities section is exercise. Teacher shows several questions related to the topic that have been learned to the pupils and they will be given time to answer all the questions. The results from this exercise are to see how much students understand the topic so teacher can consider whether today's lesson should be repeated the next math class or not. These results can also be used to grade/assess pupils.

The last section is closing activities. Here, teacher shows assignment for pupils to do at their home. This assignment will be graded in the next mathematics class. After that, continue with prayer together and pupils say thank you to the teacher and goodbyes to everyone.

That's how teachers at TCES teach for 50 minutes in class for one subject. Basically, in their practices in schools, they are guided by the rules and regulations of DepEd. Of course, they also have to develop the way they teach so that it is effective and enjoyable for pupils in achieving learning goals.