Crowded classroom? Be creative
MANILA, Philippines — Keeping up with modern times is no longer enough, even for the academic community. Schools today are expected to innovate and introduce breakthroughs in teaching to be able to produce competitive and competent graduates, particularly in the fields of science and mathematics.
The Science Education Institute (SEI) of the Department of Science and Technology seeks to address this challenge through a campaign that encourages schools to come up with innovative and effective practices in teaching science and mathematics.
Need for innovation
“Large classes are a trend now especially in public high schools due to the big student population and shortage in teachers and classrooms. But innovative classroom practices should provide opportunities for meaningful learning in children despite and is spite of a crowded classroom,” says Dr. Leticia Catris, DoST-SEI officer-in-charge.
The nationwide Search for Innovative Practices in Managing Large Classes is open to all public and private high schools with large and extra-large science or math classes. A large class has 51 to 70 students while an extra large class has 71 and above.
Interested schools may submit a proposal containing innovations in teaching, management interventions, its milestones shown in Gantt chart and the budget needed to implement the innovations and chart. A proposal must be able to meet the criteria on innovativeness, doability and replicability, sustainability and impact, resource utilization and cost effectiveness.The deadline for submission of proposals is on March 15.
“DoST-SEI is looking for innovations in the management of large classes that can lead to better teaching and learning of science and mathematics. We have seen some innovations done in pedagogical approaches, however, we are excited to see what the schools have to offer given their respective uniqueness in terms of available resources, existing support, cooperation, leadership capabilities and challenges,” she explains.
Ten schools with the best proposals for large and extra-large classes will each receive a grant of P100,000.00 that will be used to implement their proposed innovations from the period of June 2011 to February 2012.
Dr. Catris says the students belonging to these classes will be given a pretest and post test evaluation in science and math to measure their performance.
“At the end of implementation period, each innovation will be assessed based on the effectiveness of intervention on students’ performance, the appropriateness of methodology, teacher competence on the strategy, extent of plan implementation, innovativeness, doability, sustainability and the external resource generation,” she adds.
Only two schools though with the best innovative practices will be given a P100,000.00 cash prize and the opportunity to present their work in a forum during the National Science and Technology Week in July 2012.
While the contest is only for mathematics and science classes, Dr. Catris says teachers of other subjects are also urged to learn and apply these best practices for their own classes.
“Our goal is for these innovations to be adopted by all schools so that they can improve the quality of teaching and learning science and mathematics,” she points out.
The search for innovative classrooms is part of DoST-SEI’s efforts to produce a critical mass of scientists and engineers who are envisioned to help strengthen the country’s research and development sector
Article source: Read More
Related posts:
- Some Project Suggestions for Behavioral Science
- PH commits to safe schools, hospitals
- Romancing the pole
- Steps in gender empowerment cited
- Reviewing Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences
