musings-of-a-teacher - Tumblr blog

[musings-of-a-teacher]

CAPES at its FINEST!

[musings-of-a-teacher]

CAPANGPANGAN: Home of Talino & Tapang

From it’s history, to present records of accomplishments, this progressing school would be of any home to every individual who wants to learn!

Around the year 1940s to 1950s, the first school in Capangpangan, Vigan City was established located at the lower grounds of the barangays near the Mestizo River. The school was one prefab building composing of three rooms for instructional purposes. Under the initiative of President Marcos, this little rooms became a training ground for Grades 1-4 and has named Capangpangan Primary School. On the year 1960s to 1970s under the leadership of Congresman Floro Crisologo, a second building was constructed, followed by a third building after years. And in these years, the former Capangpangan Primary School has become Capangpangan Elementary School, a home that caters a complete basic education. And since 1990 up today, the quality of education has not changed, evident from the different professionals in the field of journalism, teaching, business, legal services, medical front liners, fire protector and law enforcers across the town.

Amidst different crisis this school has gone through, such as typhoons, and today’s challenge on the COVID-19 virus, Capangpangan Elementary School retains its sole purpose: to mold individual. Despite the pandemic, my school never retreated to provide quality education to the young minds of Vigan City, thus, the educators find their ways and means to reach out learners: from the traditional pen and paper to blended mode of learning, which both caters virtual and modular modality. Educators have struggled learning these new techniques and strategies, but came back stronger and more equipped with various scheme to continue what the Capangpangan Elemenatry School has stated.

Prior to the opening of classes, CAPES force has drafted and implemented 2 major PPAs (Programs/Projects/Activities) for the SY 2021-2022. These PPAs are as follows: CARL (Call and Read to Lead) which is a reading program/intervention aims to reach out to learners thru phone calls to monitor and assist them in reading amidst the pandemic. This is also done to assess the learner’s reading levels and to plan the suitable reading remediation/intervention suited for them; CAPES (Care to Assist Pupils Education and Sustainability) aiming to provide school supplies to less fortunate learners per grade level. This program/project is done quarterly. Different beneficiaries are identified per quarter. Generous parent and other stakeholders are also tapped to adopt a beneficiary so that more learners will be given from each grade level.

Teaching force of CAPES was not being left behind when it comes to work and performance. Just recently, one teacher was recognized in the Regional Level for being one of the Editor of the Grade 10 Araling Panlipunan Self-Learning Modules. During the Division Teacher’s Day celebration, 3 teachers was awarded as Best LAS Developers in crafting their Learning Activity Sheets in different learning areas. These LASs are being utilized by the learners as modules. Teachers and learners are not only academically outstanding but also excelling when it comes to extra-curricular activities and competitions. One teacher is recognized and awarded for winning 3rd place in the Poster Slogan Making Contest during the celebration of the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management. The school has talented learners which recently proclaimed as 2nd Best TikTok Challenge Dancers during the celebration of the Children’s Month.

The school was very blessed to have generous parents, benefactors and other stakeholders who are one way the other has made our school ready for the conduct of the Expanded Face to Face Learning Modality which have started last April. They have shared financially; some have volunteered to help us in repairs and beautification of the physical grounds, some have donated equipment necessary for the conduct of classes during pandemic. The school were able to pass all the needed requirements and assessments to push thru with the much-awaited comeback of our dear learners.

A month had passed with the new set-up. Both learners and teachers are on the point of adjustment period but with greater hope that everything will get back to its normal flow.

With all the struggles CAPES has faced, the Talino at Tapang battle cry remains as teachers, parents, benefactors and learners of CAPES continue to create a better town of Vigan.

[musings-of-a-teacher]

Students mini-activity in the new normal way! My thinking classroom activities is working!

[musings-of-a-teacher]

HOTS Development: From Information to Application

Theories Related to Learning and Higher Order Thinking Skills (An excerpt from Higher Order Thinking Skills) / By F.J King, L. Goodson, and F. Rohani (1998) / A Reflection

Higher-order thinking refers to the mental processes of analysis, synthesis and evaluation, and is commonly used in activities such as problem solving, reasoning, thinking, assessing and concluding (Bloom, 1956). Educators and researchers (e.g., Fahim & Masouleh, 2012; Yang & Gamble, 2013) have emphasized the value of the teaching of thinking. In practice, higher-order thinking is an essential tool used to compete in the global job market.

Different theories in learning and developing higher order thinking skills has been widely discussed hence, being used to follow in the acquisition of knowledge, in example, Bloom’s Taxonomy as reference in the teaching-learning process.

The article discusses the different learning theories as proposed by the different philosophers. Piaget grounded his developmental learning theory in the individual learner and positioned children as active, intelligent, creative constructors of their own knowledge structures (p.170). By using Piaget’s theory in the classroom,teachers and students benefit in several ways.Teachers develop a better understanding of their students’ thinking. They can also align their teaching strategies with their students’ cognitive level (e.g. motivational set, modeling, and assignments).

Bruner, on the other hand, proposed new mental processes to have a better understanding of the link between behaviour and age, thus his cognitive development theory also emphasizes on learning by discovery. Although a disadvantage can be concluded to his theory because it cannot be observed directly, disregarding the individual differences of students too.

Bloom’s theory is commonly used in most of the aspect of developing higher order thinking skills because it follows a hierarchy and series of thinking skills, from the most basic (remembering) to the most complex skill (creating). These set of skills are beneficial to teachers in: 1) Setting clear and measurable classroom objectives (the taxonomy places its focus on observable behaviors that demonstrate student learning within a specific lesson, unit or curriculum as a whole), 2) Organizing standards within a curriculum (This framework helps outline the sequence of learning in curriculum maps, unit plans and lesson plans by identifying which standards align most closely with lower-level stages); 3) Designing appropriate assessments (teachers can better design assessments to reflect where students are and what they’re expected to be able to know and do); and 4) Bridging the knowledge gap (Knowing where students are in their learning journey, and where they need to be at the end of the lesson).

Similar with Bloom, Gagne has the same concept of hierarchy in developing higher order thinking skills. Gagné’s work (1985) focuses on intentional or purposeful learning, which is the type of learning that occurs in school or specific training programs. He believed that events in the environment influence the learning process. His theory identifies the general types of human capabilities that are learned. These capabilities are the behavioral changes (learning outcomes) in a learner that a learning theory must explain. Once the learning outcomes are identified, an analysis of the conditions that govern learning and remembering can occur (Gagné, 1985, p. 15).

Rooted on Bloom’s taxonomy, Marzano has developed another set of taxonomy to respond to the shortcomings of the widely used Bloom’s Taxonomy and the current environment of standards-based instruction, his model of thinking skills incorporates a wider range of factors that affect how learners think and provides a more research-based theory to help teachers improve their learners’ thinking.

On the other hand, Dr. Glaser was known for encouraging his students and other researchers to develop what he called “a unified theory of learning” — one that would measure student, teacher and curriculum, then use the findings to make each of them better (Vitello, 2012). The importance of dispositions like attitudes and habits of mind also come into play in steering the thinking process in the right direction or taking it off course through aberrations of analysis, selection, association, inference, generalization and language acquisition (pp. 26-29).

Vygotsky (1978) claimed that a core mechanism for individual cognitive development is social interaction. Learning occurs in a social context in which scaffolding is applied in the zone of proximal development. Social interaction can cause sociocognitive conflicts, which substantially contribute to cognitive development. During social interaction, various perceptions, ranging from simple differences in schemata to holding completely contradictory perspectives, are developed and readjusted. Students are required to externalize their thoughts, and thus explicitly express their ideas to themselves and others. Continual commenting, justifying, and arguing provides students with opportunities to discover and fill the gaps in their knowledge structures, correct misunderstandings, recognize and resolve discrepancies in information, and subsequently readjust conflicting opinions. The process of constructing new knowledge is facilitated by verbal interaction. When the target language is used as a tool for cognitive activity in a communicative context, this learning process facilitates the simultaneous development of language and intelligence (Chen, 2016).

Haladyna’s set of thinking skill acquisition is similar to the content to Gagne’s and Bloom’s Taxonomy which was classified into 4 levels of mental process: understanding, problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity.

On final theory, Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory can be used for curriculum development, planning instruction, selection of course activities, and related assessment strategies. Gardner points out that everyone has strengths and weaknesses in various intelligences, which is why educators should decide how best to present course material given the subject-matter and individual class of students. Indeed, instruction designed to help students learn material in multiple ways can trigger their confidence to develop areas in which they are not as strong. In the end, students’ learning is enhanced when instruction includes a range of meaningful and appropriate methods, activities, and assessments.

To summarize the significance of all these learning styles and cognitive theory, they serve as the springboard to proceed to a higher level of thinking. Specifically, the Bloom’s Taxonomy and Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence are two of the theories I consider significant because it highlights the hierarchy of knowledge acquisition whereas the multiple intelligence theory serves as a guide to cater the different needs and dynamic attitude and behavior of students in the teaching-learning process. Hence, these two theories are beneficial in the construction of learning materials, assessment, class strategies and the improvement of our educational curriculum in general.

References:

https://www.schoolnet.org.za/teach10/resources/dep/thinking_frameworks/marzano_new_taxonomy.htm

[musings-of-a-teacher]

WEARING IT BLUE: Cool and in Control

Develop Critical and Creative Thinking Skills: Put on Six Thinking Hats / By Franny F. McAleer (2006) / A Reflection

Having the six hats during group discussion and brainstorming as well as individual mind-gaming is an essential tool for more organized and effective approach in thinking. Based on the reading the six hats can be summarized in the following aspect: the white hat represents LOGIC, red covers our EMOTION, the black hat connotes CAUTION, the yellow symbolizes OPTIMISM, green is for CREATIVITY, and the blue holds CONTROL. In a particular team, each person takes on the role of a hat, ensuring that all viewpoints and styles are covered. After all, the six thinking hats is a tool to boost the productivity of creative thinking by dividing up the different styles of thinking.

As an educator, it is always implied that in our daily experiences with our students, we should use the 6 hats, depending on the situation we are into. Taking the 6 hats into classroom setting the 6 hats are essential tool for students, teachers, and educational leaders as these hats activate the brain with color, and create a delightful and meaningful experience for those who use them. Colors are fun, and as an elementary teacher I have a favorite hat to wear.

I always wear with me the color blue. Apart from being an organized person, I like to plan everything before a particular event, this is to avoid any disruptions hence creating an alternative solution and action in cases of unavoidable circumstances that may occur during the process. I always wear blue, most especially during discussions and meetings with authorities, because the blue hats allow us to FORM (Rump, 2019):

Focus (specify the) the discussion

Outline and design the program

Results (summarize) and draw conclusions

Monitor and control the discussion

Hence, the blue hat can be of great advantage not only in team planning but during classroom discussion too! This can be beneficial to upgrade he higher thinking skills of our students. We can use 6 thinking hats as a thinking tool to aid your students’ learning in the classroom -- may it be within group activity, peer-tutoring, reporting, role playing and individual output. This provides students with a framework to engage in group discussion from all perspective and a great way to ensure each student contributes to the group activity and explore different opinions.

The Six Thinking Hats approach can be used to address almost any problem-solving activity you might encounter in the classroom. Assigning each thinking style a color serves as a visual cue to help students recognize the thinking skill they are using. The six different hats students might wear, and the kinds of thinking they represent, are briefly described below (Dyck, 2004):

White Hat. Discuss the facts and other objective information about the problem.

Red Hat. Share feelings and emotions about the issue.

Black Hat. Present negative aspects, or worst case scenarios, regarding the situation.

Yellow Hat. Consider positives, or advantages, of the situation.

Green Hat. Consider creative ideas that come from looking at the problem in a new way.

Blue Hat. Sum up all that is learned.

Regardless of the situation we may encounter everyday, I believe that the blue hat is an overview to everything. The Blue Hat controls the discussion, summarizes, and make us redirect our attention to the relevant points. To highlight, we can conclude that the Blue Hat is associated to a director’s hat, because of its incomparable function: it directs the thinking, defines the questions we are asking and the methods we chose to answer them and it summarizes the totality of our thinking ideas to come up with a productive output.

[musings-of-a-teacher]

The Magic 30: The Better Learning Key

30 Strategies for Enhancing Higher Order Thinking Skills / By Alice Thomas / A Reflection

Upon reading the 30 strategies written by Alice Thomas, I found out new techniques and at the same time found our that most of the schemes presented are used in my classroom setting. I view that the following strategies should not be seen as teaching higher order thinking skills techniques to be exhaustive, but rather as a place to begin. The number technique is basically telling us educators to take the mystery away. Well, it is true that most of our students find most of our lessons boring and routinary, most especially to the concepts they really find difficult to comprehend. As a teacher of elementary students, before I start a new topic or proceed to a new discussion, I really see to it that my students are hooked up with the topic, hence taking away their negative impression of  the topic being “difficult” by engaging them in a classroom interactions, thus giving them a very good motivation and activities in class. Teaching students higher order thinking skills is helping them understand their own strengths and weaknesses. Educator, therefore, should see higher order thinking skills in to a whole new level, not just by merely memorizing key concepts but also application of these ideas in real life situation. In order to attain Bloom’s highest chunk of the pyramid, students should have to understand the facts, infer them, and connect them to other concepts.

On the other hand, I find the article beneficial because it helps a particular educator work on the strengths and weaknesses of his/her classroom set-up, most especially if the higher order thingking skills (HOTS) is not seemingly applied on his classroom engagement. Every mentor should know the importance of HOTS; it distinguishes critical thinking skills from low order learning outcomes. Knowing how to apply these strategies would give the class a more fun environment and inquisitive mind of students.

The strategies are not new to me, because for my 24 years in the teaching career, most of the time, the 30 strategies stated are applied. There are five (5) of them that I commonly used in my class: 1) Take the misery away -- I always see to it that in before my class would dive-in to a new body of knowledge, I see to it that the new concepts and ideas introduced are light and not a “difficult” impression. I always start with my motivation and consistent interaction in my activities; 2) Tell and show -- after an introduction to a particular concepts, I always removed the abstractness of it by telling and showing the students concrete example, this is to further enhance the idea of the concepts presented; 3) Connect concepts -- after I set concrete examples, I see to it that the students are able to connect these concepts to real life situations, example, when I discuss about food nutrition, I will set “pinakbet” as our sample food, how to prepare it and expand further the benefits of eating vegetable as an essential part of our nutrition; 4) Encourage questioning -- before I proceed to further discussion, I always allow my students to raise any questions or queries he/she did not understand throughout the discussion, this is to further clarify the absurdities of the ideas presented and ; 5) Use cooperative learning often -- I always believe in the multiple intelligences of my students, in my class of 30, there will always be 30 unique answers and 30 different ideas… so as part of the enhancement of their HOTS, I make it a point to use cooperative learning through group presentations and collaborative output, this is to let the students showcase and present their ideas to the other members of the group.

It is quite hard to choose among the 30 strategies the methods I always used because more often, these techniques are implied during my classroom interactions. Choosing among the 30 the least strategy I used fall under number 27 -- Teach components of the learning process; I usually do not apply this technique most of the time because I have also alternate ways to identify if the students have reached the lesson plan objcetives, apart from the assessment I gave to them.

In summary, these strategies are beneficial to my fellow mentors and educators because these serve are springboard to taking the higher order thinking skills of your students in to a new level of thinking and building future.

[musings-of-a-teacher]

Developing the HOTS: Purposeful Thinking Hacks

Developing Higher Level Thinking / By Barbara Limbach and Wendy Waugh (2010) / A Reflection

Arguably, student-assessment is considered to be the centerpiece of the teaching-learning process, and must therefore, aligned with the target competencies and objectives. Assessment is a vital tool used to measure an effectiveness of a particular learning area in order to proceed to the next steps in educational process. It can be direct or indirect which varies according to the learner’s needs, aligned with the subject competency and objective. In the process of acquiring learning always remember the pyramid of alignment: Learning Outcomes, Teaching-Learning Activities  and Assessment (Biggs & Tang, 2011; Maki, 2010). A particular assessment tool is considered “matched” when this is in anchored on the Bloom’s Taxonomy, side by side with these alignment should be creative methods and pedagogies to ensure the development of higher order thinking skills, after all, assessment does not end during examinations but moves toward during recitations, performance tasks and other related real-life activities.

Significantly, this study presents the Process for the Development of Higher Level Thinking Skills that can be implemented in virtually any teaching or training setting to create a more active learning environment and to move learners toward higher level thinking. The process are summarized into 5 ways: 1) Determine learning objectives - which means setting the goals of the lesson, hence a well-written lesson plan should have specific goals and objectives; 2) teach through questioning -- specifically, the feedback and responses of the students after the discussion and art of questioning, may reveal how they understood the topic and might suggest the next step in the teaching-learning process. Their insights and reflections are also considered learning outcomes -- their responses, how they construct their ideas during recitations and even their silence and activeness would connote something from the discussion. By analyzing students’ performance through questioning, instructors help students to “understand their strengths and weaknesses and to reflect on how they need to improve over the course of their remaining studies” (Maki, 2002, p. 11); 3) Practice before assessment -- active learning should be encouraged, thus, teachers must use primary and secondary sources in stating opinion, during argument or debate and critiquing. Practice is necessary to master any skill students must have the opportunity to practice the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors that will be evaluated; 4) Refine, review and Improve -- not all teaching-learning process are perfect, collecting feedback from students about what they have, or have not learned, may present the need to offer opportunities for re-learning and expose areas in need of improvement and; 5) provide feedback and assessment of learning -- feedback matters, the feedback from the former assessment you implemented, helps every educator identify the points for improvement (during discussion) and the strengths of you teaching style.Teachers should provide good feedback through frequent opportunities to practice whatever they are expected to do at assessment time.

The first reading deals about the constraints in teaching thinking skills, while this Reading #2 are suggested process of the Development of Higher Level Thinking Skills. Knowing the constraints, requires solution so that the teaching-learning process, regardless of the dilemma, may not be interrupted. Although some practices from the process are tough to implement, example, the art of questioning, most of the time, student tend to be a passive learner. Moreover, the art of questioning may be least appreciated and answered because of the fear that students may yield a wrong answer (this is again rooted to memory-based learning), hence, most of the students may be uncomfortable to recite or answer.

The suggested process of the Development of Higher Level Thinking Skills are beneficial and is a student-centered way which can significantly contribute to the learners purposeful thinking skills that he may use not only inside the classroom but during his daily living.

[musings-of-a-teacher]

Reorientation: Road to Better Teaching Thinking Skills

Teaching Thinking Skills: Redesigning Classroom Practices / Abdullah Mohd Noor (2005) / A Reflection

Critical thinking is basically the ability to objectively think, analyze and evaluate an idea to form an informed & factual opinion. As students progress with their grade level, it is expected that their higher order thinking skills follow.

When students learn the art of critical thinking, they do not get drive easily by the crowrd, but rather make up their own informed opinions with solid evidence and arguments to support an idea; thus engage in reflective and independent thinking.

Enhancing a student’s critical thinking skills is particularly essential in a liberal education model, which believes in teaching students how to think and not what to think (https://saiuniversity.edu.in/why-critical-thinking-is-crucial-for-students-of-today/).

The reading which focuses on redesigning classroom practices in teaching skills (Noor, 2005) shows that there are challenges that teachers are facing nowadays in teaching such skills hence, students’ ability to think are being influenced primarily with the culture they belong.

Apart from differences of culture, the study shows that developing thinking skills inside the classroom can be affected by 1) memory-based learning, this means that the idea needed is exclusive rooted on a particular topic, hence, the need of other ideas may be introduced;  2) teacher-centered as opposed to student centered learning - this may imply that there might be a fear from the students to think more, because the idea is limited only to what the teacher might have discussed during the class; 3) formal classroom setting Graetz (1992) emphasized that  learning appears to be affected adversely by inadequate light, extreme temperatures, and loud noises—variables maintained within acceptable ranges in most college classrooms. Other results, however, reflect the often complex, subtle, and surprising interplay between the learner and the learning environment; the impact of environmental variables on human thoughts, feelings, and behaviors indicate that other variables often moderate the effects of environmental variables; 4) passive students may less likely to engage in classroom discussion because they tend to not internalize nor reflect on the ideas being feed; and 5) surface thinking as opposed to deep-thinking activities can be active when it is too formal and deep thinking activities are not possible.

“Student’s traditional thoughts, can influence their learning practices” but they were willing, to some extent, to give their own opinions in their classes. It is natural for students to give their opinions when the teacher is not highly authoritarian (Dhindsa and Shanmuganathan, 2002). Knowing these constraints are significantly essential because it is an eye-opener to every educator’s weakness, hence, a gateway for improvement.

Teaching thinking skills can be both fun and sometimes tough due to factors various indicated. Thus, this skill whether challenging to teach, educators have to be creative and developed “new culture sensitive pedagogies” for teaching (Noor, 2005), so that students may be encouraged to think more and do more during classroom discussion. Reorientation of teaching methodologies, proper cultural emplacement and correct mind setting of students should be integrated in teaching thinking skills. Developing effective thinking skills comes with time. But, learning these thinking skills enable our students to process information, recall facts and apply knowledge to various situations. At a higher degree, this can involve problem-solving and analysis, which are both useful in education and in every student’s daily life.

As I was reading the research, I have come to a conclusion that, some times, my classroom is not a thinking classroom because of the rigid imposition of discipline and by-the-book discussion. I realized that, if I am going to assess my classroom, I usually enforce memory-based learning, probably because of the fact that I am a basic education teacher and that I stick to the fundamental knowledge needed by the students to learn before proceeding to higher ideas; and formal-classroom setting is often times observed in my class due to strict discipline implementation.

Realizing that these two factors affect my teaching of thinking skills, it has come to my senses that, I should be reorganizing my classroom rules as well as revise my teaching strategies when it comes to memory-based learning. After all, there is no perfect class but there can be alternative ways to make it fun.