Changing Education Paradigms

New Curriculum

THE K-12 CURRICULUM

FOR SY 2012-2013 

As per DepEd directive, all public and private elementary and high schools are to implement the new K-12 Basic Education Program for SY 2012-2013. For your reference, here is a brief overview of the program:

• WHAT IS K-12? K-12 is a new curriculum that consists of Kindergarten and 12 years of Basic Education, which has three levels:
  • Primary or Elementary - Grade 1 to 6
  • Junior High School - Grade 7 to 10 (formerly HSI to HS IV)
  • Senior High School - Grade 11 and 12
• WHY K-12? The Philippines is the last country in Asia and one only 3 in the world that is using a 10-year basic education program, which is deemed as
  • congested
  • inadequate in preparing our high school graduates for the world of work, entrepreneurship or higher education
• WHAT ARE ITS FEATURES?
  • Decongested - there are less minimum learning competencies to cover per year, thus giving more time for mastery
  • Mother-Tongue Based (MTB) - use of the mother or local tongue/dialect for Grade 1 to 3.
  • Spiral Progression Approach - an approach wherein topics are introduced as a whole and then tackled in small portions
  • Community-Based - recognizes of the role of curricular activities and community service in the holistic development of the child
  • Aligned with CHED and TESDA programs - DepEd is coordinating with CHED (Commission on Higher Education) to reduce the number of years in college and university, and with TESDA (Technical Development and Skills Development Authority) to allign the K-12 curriculum with their technical and vocational courses.
  • Employment-ready graduates - will provide the Senior High School level with TLE (Technology and Livelihood Education) and elective subjects that help them obtain Certificates of Competency (COC) and National Certificates (NC) from TESDA as credentials for immediate employment after completing the K-12 program.
• WHAT ARE ITS STANDARDS?
  • Age - standard entry age for Grade 1 is 6 years old.
  • Duration - at least 1 year of Kindergarten
  • Curriculum - must follow the K-12 Basic Education Curriculum
• WHEN WILL K-12 BE IMPLEMENTED?
  • Universal Kindergarten started SY 2011-2012
  • K-12 Grade 1 and Grade 7 will begin this SY 2012-2013 and will progress onwards; thus, all incoming Grade 1 pupils and HS I students will enroll in these respective programs.
  • All other incoming grade (Grade 2-6) and year (HS II - HS IV) will not be affected by the new K-12 curriculum and will follow the 10-year program.
• WHEN ARE THE GRADUATES FOR K-12 EXPECTED?
  • Incoming K-12 Grade 1 will graduate K-12 Grade 6 in 2017-2018.
  • Incoming K-12 Grade 7 will graduate
    • K-12 Grade 10 in 2015-2016
    • K-12 Grade 12 in 2017-2018
• ARE PRIVATE SCHOOLS REQUIRED TO IMPLEMENT K-12? YES, since private schools are under the DepEd. Also, the DepEd has been developing the curriculum with the cooperation of private schools.
• WHAT IS THE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL ALL ABOUT?
  • Senior High School (Grade 11 & 12) will strengthen the core subjects (Math, Science, English)
  • DepEd is looking t provide specialization in skills for various areas such as agriculture, civic works, furniture design, welding, the performing arts, sports and more.
  • It will include "Contemporary Issues" subjects on work ethics, business ethics, etc.
  • It will provide training for entrepreneurship or immediate employment.
• HOW WILL SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS CHOOSE THEIR SPECIALIZATION? At Grade 9, students will undergo several assessments to determine their interests and strengths. These will include an aptitude test, career assessment examination and an occupational interest inventory.

Honoring Our Mothers

Happy Mother's Day!!!

How Children Learn Through Play

 As infants, children explore their physical and social world through their senses. Adults can facilitate learning through play by providing infants with opportunities to see, touch, taste, and smell a variety of phenomena. At this stage, give-and-take games such as peek-a-boo with loving, responsive adults help infants learn to interact socially.

At the toddler stage, children begin to develop the ability to engage in early pretend play - imitating familiar events in their lives. Toddlers experience strong emotions which they are not yet able to fully understand. By acting out emotion-laden scenes in their play, such as reassuring a doll that mommy will return, toddlers learn to cope with fears and they gain the self-control that will propel them to the next stage of development.

As children enter the preschool and kindergarten years, they begin to explore the world through indirect experiences such as stories, pictures, and television programs. Information gained in this way becomes the basis for imaginative play which takes children beyond the here and now.

At this stage, play activities such as drawing, building with blocks, dance, music, and crafts help children expand their knowledge and understanding of the world while developing eye-hand coordination and other motor skills. Children also become increasingly focused on peers at this stage. They benefit from play activities, props, and toys that encourage them to interact with others and engage in 'dramatic' make-believe play.

As children move into the elementary school years, the focus shifts from dramatic or pretend play to 'games with rules' and organized sports which require strategy and skill. Games with rules include traditional board games, card, video, and computer games, as well as physical games such as tag and 'red rover.' Through these play experiences, children hone their ability to relate to others, their gross motor skills, and their eye-hand coordination.

At about age 9 to 12, team sports take on increasing importance, helping children refine their abilities to reason, think strategically, and interact with others. They also refine these skills through play activities such as crafts, advanced building sets, science projects, sophisticated jigsaw puzzles, and computer and video games.

In many cases, play activities at this age become the basis for life-long interests and hobbies. While children begin to play less in the traditional sense as they move into their teenage years, they begin to transform their interests and hobbies into the 'play of the adult.'

Learning - and learning through play - is a continuous and rewarding journey!

Source: www.childrensmuseums.org/programs/playingforkeeps.htm

How do Babies learn a language?

Experts say...

      Babies are smarter than you think! They can add before they can count. They can understand a hundred words before they can speak. And at three months, their powers of memory are far greater than we ever imagined.

 (Babies are smarter than you think - LIFE Magazine)

     The power to learn a language is so great in the young child... they can learn as many spoken languages as you can allow them to hear regularly!

(Dr. Susan Curtiss, Professor of Linguistics, UCLA)

      I think how babies learn language is common sense. All babies are born with an extraordinary ability to learn languages, pattern of sounds and associate them to the meaning attributed to them by their parents. As anyone who's heard a foreign language knows, the spaces between words are only obvious once you know the language. We do not "speak----like----this," but rather with a fluid stream of words. It seems to be a chicken-and-egg problem. You can't learn the language until you know the words. But you can't distinguish the words until you know the language.

     Distinguishing words is a necessary step to interpreting them, but it's not sufficient. As anybody who's learned a second language knows, words can be ambiguous. Clauses seem to play a crucial role from the start. Babies distinguish clauses by learning the melody of a language -- the rhythm of sounds and pauses, the varying pitch in the voice, the different pattern of loudness and softness. Only after an infant learns the basics of identifying words and learning clauses do words start to acquire meanings -- definitions. When the child begins talking at two words at a time, this is the first evidence that they understand something about grammar and language.

      Although English is extremely complicated -- at least for computers -- learning languages comes as naturally to infants "as barking to a dog".  This means most kids get enough stimulation to learn speech without any effort by the parents. Forget about advanced speaking classes for your two-year-old: "For the first three years, you can't go wrong, unless you lock them in a dark closet". Even the children of strong silent types learn to talk just fine.

     The only way to encourage development in babies is to spend time with them, talking to them and giving them time to respond too, even if it is through gestures or babbling. This method is known as ‘joint attention’ and no TV programs or videos can substitute it. It has been seen that children learn earlier with live speakers rather than recordings. Even, if parents are working, the time they spend with the babies in fun, warm and loving interaction in the evening is enough for the children to pick up words and language. If your child spends most of his or her time in a daycare, make sure that they have low caregiver-to-child ratio and that caregivers spend time talking and reading to children.

Source: http://www.whyfiles.org/058language/baby_talk.html

Classroom Management

Active Learning