“Coherence, Focus and Rigor” (Part 1 of 2)

The Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMSS) Tests are held every four years by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). It is part of several activities conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics in the United States to answer one fundamental question: “How does the achievement of American students compare with that of other countries?”

The TIMSS rankings that the Philippines has been turning in since the time it took part in this study have been, for lack of a kinder word, abysmal. Both education reform advocates and local chief executives with education reform agendas have used TIMSS data to underscore the overall weakness of our basic education system. Quite a few  senators and congressmen have elevated our dismal performance into a cause for national shame.

It would be better however if we look at TIMSS the way it was intended to be seen. The NCES supported it because of two things: first,  they were already painfully aware that American schools were facing a crisis of learning and second, a scholarly inquiry like TIMSS provides a very good opportunity for every participating country to share their best practices as well as learn from the best among them.

Singapore has consistently occupied the top spot in the the TIMSS tests, especially in Math. If memory serves, some local chief executives here even organized special educational visits to Singapore for their public school teachers, ostensibly so they could observe how schools and classes are run in that island nation. Back here, we have privately-run “Singapore Math” enrichment classes that are carefully designed to strengthen our student’s competencies using Singapore’s textbooks and teaching methods.

In their analytical piece entitled “Beyond Singapore’s Mathematics Textbooks”, noted educators Patsy-Wang Iverson, Prof. Perla Myers and Edmund Lim W.K. reveal that in the TIMSS in-depth analysis of mathematics curricula of participating countries, those of Singapore, Korea Japan, Belgium, Hong Kong and the Czech Republic – top performers all – stood out because of their coherence, focus and rigor”.

To get an idea what this means, lets look first at the Revised Basic Education Curriculum for Philippine public schools, which enumerates the following Math learning goals:

1) At the end of Grade I – an understanding of basic concepts and skills on whole numbers up to one hundred including money and measurement, addition and subtraction of 1 to 3-digit numbers; and apply the concepts learned to solve problems. 2) At the end of Grade II – an understanding of concepts and skills on whole numbers up to one thousand including basics of geometry; perform addition and subtraction of 3 to 4-digit numbers, understand basic facts of multiplication and division; and apply the concepts learned to solve problems. 3) At the end of Grade III – an understanding of concepts and skills on whole numbers up to one hundred thousand, fractions, measurement and graphs; perform the four fundamental operations of whole numbers and measurement; and apply the concepts learned in solving problems. 4) At the end of Grade IV – an understanding of concepts and perform skills of whole numbers up to millions and billions including money, decimals, fractions, geometry, graphs and scales; exact and estimated computation on the four fundamental operations; and apply the concepts learned to solve problems.  5) At the end of Grade V,  – mastery (emphasis supplied) of the concepts and operations of whole numbers; demonstrate understanding of concepts and perform skills on fractions, decimals including money, ratio, percent, geometry, measurement and graphs; exact and estimated computation of the four fundamental operations on rational numbers including money and measurement and apply the concepts learned in solving problems. 6) At the end of Grade VI – mastery (emphasis supplied) of the concepts and operations of whole numbers; demonstrate understanding of concepts and perform skills on decimals, fractions, ratio and proportion, percent, integers, simple probability, geometry, measurement, and graphs; integers; exact and estimated computation of the four fundamental operations involving decimals, money, fractions and measurement; and apply the concepts learned in solving problems.

As you can see, our RBEC starts slowly and builds on more complex concepts as the student progresses. Mastery of concepts are expected later, at Grades V and VI. Singapore’s curriculum on the other hand is designed around what Wang-Iverson, Myers and Lim W.K. call “the pentagonal framework – five interrelated components that are all essential to students’ ability to solve problems (including non-routine, open-ended and real world problems.”  A detailed syllabus guides teachers in planning, preparing and implementing math programs in their schools. Wang-Iverson, Myers and Lim W.K. point out that “teachers are encouraged to be flexible and creative in implementing the syllabus in the classroom, but they must be careful to maintain its scope and sequence so as to prepare students for high-stakes national exams at the end of the primary (grades 1- 6) and secondary (grades 7 -10) school.” (Singapore has a 12-year basic education cycle. The final two years – grades 11 and 12 – are post-secondary school.)

(Watch for Part 2: A closer look at the Pentagonal Framework)

 

Will the teacher become obsolete?

Dr. Onofre Pagsanghan, the quintessential teacher, once said that he knew of no other profession, other than teaching, where so much is asked and so little is given.
In their manifesto which now languishes in what probably is the quintessential dustbin of history, our public school teachers once said that “it is a sad commentary of our times that our low compensation and low morale have forced us to work even as domestic helpers in other countries, which can provide us with higher salaries and benefits to feed our families and to keep up with the rising cost of living. We [who] comprise almost half of all government workers remain to be one of the lowest paid and most overworked in the country today. Our salaries are lower than our counterparts in the military and police, many of whom do not possess the college degree, qualifications and eligibilities required of us.”
At the time this manifesto was made public in April 2009, the big teachers groups like the Philippine Public School Teachers Association took issue with the fact that a private in the Armed Forces of the Philippines makes more than a Teacher I.
I suppose that the meager compensation is one of the reasons why teaching is not a prime career choice for our best and brightest graduates. This partly explains why the few who do make it into our education system tend to seriously consider working abroad. The working and living conditions overseas might be tough, but for these intrepid souls, the pay makes the sacrifice worthwhile.
Still, many are wondering whether the iconic image of the teacher standing in front of the classroom might turn into a relic from the 20th century.
The unprecedented technological advances that today’s generation has been witness to have led quite a few education professionals to contemplate a scenario of impending obsolescence of the teaching traditions that our education systems have lived by for as long as we can remember.
In her analytical piece entitled “The Most Daring Education Reform of All”, Diana Senechal begs to differ. Ms. Senechal spent four years teaching English in New York City Public Schools. She is also an education reform advocate who truly understands digital technology. She writes that “Reformers of different stripes often malign the ‘traditional’ style of teaching, claiming that it has failed our children, that it has worked in the past but it no longer works [today]. But what is traditional teaching? Critics often say that in the old days, the teacher stood in front of the classroom and lectured, and the students took notes silently. Children, they say were treated as ‘empty vessels’ to be filled, not as thinking human beings.”
Senechal contends that listening requires “the exercise of knowledge and reasoning.”
Many experienced educators that I’ve had to pleasure of talking with have told me the same thing: the lecture method unlocks and enhances the student’s ability to listen and absorb material, which they can then rely on to formulate their own thoughts and ideas. Senechal explains that “Forms of instruction deemed traditional have much to offer us still. To participate in class or group discussions, students need to learn to listen. Student collaboration is important, but it requires that students also work alone, so that they may bring something to each other. And students become active learners not only by talking and doing, but by sitting still with their thoughts. A student who cannot listen to others is trapped in his or her own limited perspective.”
This ability – also known as critical thinking – is in fact most sought after in schools and in the real world.
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to ask parents of public school pupils what they wished their children were taught in class. Almost all of them answered “sana yung mag-computer.” Believe it or not, the existing public school curriculum has a fairly well-conceived learning module on digital concepts. However, many teachers find it difficult to make meaningful connections to how the world today actually uses digital technology because the teaching tools at their disposal are so far removed from the digital content, delivered by platforms like Facebook, Twitter or even texting, that their students or pupils consume on a daily basis. Many teachers I’ve met have expressed trepidation that their students have far more knowledge about digital processes – like how to create and upload a YouTube video – than they could ever hope to learn in their lifetime.
These teachers should not lose heart. Senechal says that “the ability to make a YouTube video or podcast will mean little in the long run [as] these technologies may be obsolete in another few years, but literature, science, languages, mathematics, history,music, art and drama will stay. Our schools are in need of repair but we will not improve them by scorning tradition or succumbing to the claims of the present.”
For as long as the passion for learning and imparting knowledge burns brightly in them, teachers will always have a place in whatever world we have.

Published as a Commentary in the Opinion Page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer on October 22, 2011

Postscript to World Teachers Day

In his article entitled “Elevating the Teaching Profession” –  published in the Winter 2009 issue of The American Educator –  US Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that people remember their favorite teachers decades later because “they light a lifelong curiosity, teaching students to solve problems like a scientist, write like a novelist, listen like a poet, see like an artist, observe like a journalist.”

Sec. Duncan argues that because they exert such a profound impact on student growth, “teachers should be amply compensated, fairly evaluated and supported by topnotch professional development. Yet teachers today are not accorded the respect they deserve – and teaching is still not treated as a profession on par with other highly skilled professions.”

If this sounds like something we’ve all heard before, that’s because we have. The call to restore the dignity of the teaching profession has been repeatedly sounded by numerous entities from various sectors for the past five decades. For example, in the late 1950s when he was still a senator, John F. Kennedy made an impassioned plea to make the teaching profession a field of endeavor where “real opportunities for advancement await those whose contribution is of the highest caliber.”

The call has been consistently resonant, especially here in the Philippines, where the decline in the overall quality of education has been increasingly significant and proven extremely difficult to arrest. Education Reform advocates both here and abroad may hold divergent views on priority areas, but the consensus remains that the road to a high performing education system is a long and unforgiving one.

Mrs. Eggie Apostol herself felt as much when she spearheaded the launch of  the Education Revolution in 2002. Dr. Maria Lim Ayuyao, president of the Eggie Apostol Foundation, has time and again called on all citizens to help bring back the glory and prestige that our communities used to accord to the “maestra”.

The Education Revolution draws a lot of impetus from the experiences in teacher formation that Ms. Chinit Rufino shared with us back then. Chinit found it quite heartbreaking that many Filipino families believe teaching is a poor career choice. Dr. Evelyn Mejillano and Dr. Celia Adriano, both esteemed education professionals from the University of the Philippines, describe the situation with the patently condescending phrase: “Mag-titser ka na lang”. (Today, Ms. Chinit Rufino is the program director of Mentoring the Mentors (MMP), an experiential and highly interactive teacher formation program that she developed for the Eggie Apostol Foundation together with Drs. Mejillano and Adriano and Ms. Lirio Ongpin Mapa. Mentoring the Mentors is presently being managed by the Marie Eugenie Institute. )

Education reform is a complex issue and there are so many approaches available.

Fortunately though, it is now relatively easier to learn from the best.

Singapore for instance offers a wealth of information with regard to achieving and sustaining a high-performing education system. Year after year, Singapore has consistently occupied the top spot in the Trends in Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMSS) tests. The US ranks somewhere in the middle at around 15th place. Since it started participating in TIMSS, the Philippines has languished in the cellar.

What is Singapore’s secret? To be blunt about it, they don’t have any.

In their very detailed exposition entitled “Beyond Singapore’s Mathematics Textbooks” published in the Winter 2009 edition of The American Educator, authors Patsy Wang-Iverson, Perla Myers and Edmund Lim W.K. cite that “Singapore’s academic strength lies in its national commitment to quality education and the overall coherence of its educational system.” The authors point out that “Singapore’s commitment to education begins with a first-class curriculum and  the nurturing of educators at all levels.”

Singapore has a very fascinating national curriculum and educational structure, and we’ll talk about this in greater detail later. For now, let me focus on what Singapore does to make teaching an eminently viable career opportunity. First, a single entity – the National Institute of Education (NIE) – is the sole provider of teacher education. There are many viable options for individuals contemplating a teaching career, but the NIE has very stringent criteria. For instance, to be a candidate for one of several teacher education programs, one must belong to the top one-third of the graduating class at university. The NIE and the Ministry of Education then interviews candidates “to determine their suitability to work with children and youth.”

If the candidate successfully goes through this qualification process, then the real work begins with a pre-service program that Iverson, Myers and Lim W.K. describe as designed to “help individuals begin their journey to become reflective teachers with an evidence-based practice.” Becoming a teacher in Singapore is indeed a long and rigorous process, but the rewards far outweigh the sacrifice.

We cannot overemphasize the fact that our students can only be as good as the teachers who taught them. Sec. Duncan says that “students cannot afford to wait another decade, while adults tinker with issues of teacher quality. It is time to stop tweaking the system. It’s time, once and for all, to make teaching the revered profession it should be.”

This I submit, is how we should thank our teachers.

Published as a Commentary in the  Opinion Page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer on October 8, 2011.