RP English Teachers to attend US convention
by Claudeth Mocon (Business Mirror, 4/18/2010)
Selected elementary and high school teachers will represent the Philippines in the prestigious International Reading Association to be held from April 25 to 28 in Chicago, Illinois, after winning a presentation slot for its "Mentoring the Mentors," an international model for effective English teaching.
The Department of Education said the selected teachers will present the Philippine model on English teaching during the 55th IRA Annual Convention in Chicago.
The delegation, which will be headed by Education Undersecretary Vilma Labrador, is composed of five elementary, five secondary and four consultants from the National English Proficiency Program (NEPP).
"This is another source of pride for us: That our best practices have gained notice in other parts of the world," said Education Secretary Mona Valisno.
The country has been chosen as presenter at the IRA convention due to the successful implementation of its "Mentoring the Mentors: The Philippine DepEd Model to Enhance Teaching and Learning," which has sufficiently shown effectiveness through increased English literacy in pilot areas.
The success of the mentoring program is attributed to its comprehensive one-on-one training of teachers so that they can train other teachers who can become excellent teachers of more nonnative English speaking Filipino pupils.
The complete mentoring program is implemented over three years. The first is on basic training on English communication skills. The second year is an enhancement of the first year program, and the third year is a further deepening of the skills or "broadening the horizon."
"This helps develop teachers' skills and self-confidence," Dr. Rosalina Villaneza, head of the NEPP.
The move to improve English teaching in public schools was supported by Executive Order 210, which gave birth to the NEPP.
The training tor mentors has three programs: Teachers as Learners, Teachers as Facilitators and Teachers as Mentors.
The program's target is to develop at least two mentors in elementary schools. One is a mentor for teachers in Grades 1 to 3, and the other mentor is for teachers in Grades 4 to 6. To be effective, each mentor trains a maximum of 10 teachers or mentees in a school-based mentoring program.
The DepEd piloted the mentoring program in Zamboanga Peninsula, Socsargen, and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and in the Ilocos region and Mimaropa for the national pilot. It subsequently found out that Grade 6 pupils who took the National Achievement Test in English subjects had improved performance after the mentoring program.
"We are looking forward to contributing to making a difference not only here, but internationally," Villaneza said.
From an average grade of only 54.05% in school year 2005-06, achievement scores rose to 60.78% in SY 2006-07, up to 61.62% in SY 2007-08 and to 61.81% in SY 2008-09.
Our approach here is school-based training or school-based management, because this is an effective way that delivers results," she said.
Perhaps, DepEd should consider going back to the basic method of teaching english subject starting elementary levels instead of adding another year for elementary and high school levels.
ReplyDeleteI recall how english subject was taught before wherein all parts of speech were properly discussed.
I was even amazed to learn that my 4th year HS daugther enrolled in a catholic/private school was not able to identify quickly the adverb in this phrase, "things to always remember". How ironic when in fact she ranked 3rd from 1st year to 3rd year among 35 students. Yet, her younger sister in Grade I was able to identify the noun and verb in this phrase.
My point is this, Deped authorities are trying to improve the quality of education through innovation of various methods without proper evaluation of its results.