HS Faculty receives LC Paradigm training

The entire faculty of the High School Department of St. Paul College of Bocaue were the recipients of a 3-Module Learner-Centered Paradigm Seminar-Workshop Series from March 2014 to May 2014 which Dr. Nenita V. Habulan, a technology and learning specialist from De La Salle University, personally conducted.

As early as March, she personally observed classes of all the HS Faculty, together with the HS Academic Chair, Mr. Ernesto U. Guillermo, Jr., to assess the state of instruction in the High School Department. After every class observation, she conducted one-on-one post conference with the teachers which highlighted both high and low points of their instructional delivery. From the validation observations, she came up with the customized 3-Module Learner-Centered Paradigm Seminar-Workshop Series as intervention.

The series consisted of the modules Understanding the Learner-Centered Paradigm, Stages Active Learning and Facilitating Learning, and Integrating Technology for Meaningful Learning.

Dr. Habulan emphasized that the LC Paradigm focuses on the students and they should be made active in all the facets of instruction. She let the faculty realize that instruction should be designed in such a way that there will be more of student-to-content and student-to-student interactions, rather than teacher-to-student occasions. This can only be done if teachers design their lessons with engaging and meaningful activities for them to realize the essential understanding and big ideas of the lessons. This is consistent with the vision of ASEAN Integration 2015, she said.

Being an instructional technology specialist of DLSU, she exhorted the teachers to maximize the use of the existing technology installations of the school such as the network infrastructure with Internet access. Digital tablets should not just be used as storage of eBooks, she stressed, but their connectivity should be maximized. There are a lot of educational applications that teachers can use for technology integration in instruction, she declared.

Dr. Habulan also guided the teachers in the design of PowerPoint presentations to make them more professional-looking. Presentations should not function like a book, she said, instead only salient points of the lessons should be in the slides. She presented the principles of design including color and contrast, use of appropriate graphics, use of space, font sizes, and suitable template.

The modules were conducted as early as February 26-27, then on March 10-11, April 7-8, April 10-11, April 22-23, April 24-25, April 28-29, May 5-6, May 12-13, and May 14-15 with different batches of teachers composed of a maximum of 10 teachers at a time.

During the culminating activity, Dr. Habulan expressed hope that there will be a big change in instructional delivery beginning SY 2014-2015.

All the teachers were asked to demonstrate teaching keeping in mind the principles of the LC Paradigm and all the other concepts that the 3 modules contained.

 Sr. Bernadette Racadio, SPC, the then school Directress and HS Principal, also expressed her gratitude to Dr. Habulan for having patiently paid attention to the further improvement of each faculty member and wished that Dr. Habulan could conduct validating observations during the school year in preparation for accreditation.