I survived!

It almost went over! I felt I can't finish it anymore.

This is my second semester for the PTC program at University of the Philippines- Open University. In this semester, I struggled a lot.

This is the first time that I was disappointed with myself as a student. I am always chill on making my preparations. There are a lot of problems that I encounter- family problems where I will almost be the breadwinner, work where we have no summer as we faced a lot of accreditations done by AACCUP for our department, and life where I struggled managing my time. All in all, it is like I had more than five submissions that I passed late including this article. I feel so dumb, mediocre, and giving everything up. However, with all these struggles, I still got a lot of things that I've learned.

Learning this course gives me good morale and boost my confidence in teaching. Learning theories of learning is an essential topic for an instructor to learn. As an educator, it gives me insights and understanding to the classroom setting with the use of behaviorism, constructivism, cognitivism and information- processing. These learning theories help me to craft learning activities as well as assessments for my students to give them the quality of education that they deserved.

With this, I observed that I am now more effective in imparting my knowledge to them using my knowledge in this PTC program. I am still looking forward to more journey for the last semester. I need to reorganize myself in order not to have late submissions in the next semester.

Currently, I feel relieved that this will be the last thing to do for this course. However, I am threatened not to pass this course. The struggle is real in my life. However, with God's grace and determination not to surrender. I will make this life keep going and seek to pass the licensure examination in the future.

All I can say right now is, I survived!


Theories of Learning

I am Constructivist!

How constructivist am I? How can I become a better constructivist?  Should I bother to try? How may I influence education practice to shift towards constructivist ideology and practice? Should I?

These are the questions that I ponder after understanding and reading our modules about constructivism. We studied and read modules about the four major theories of learning, these are behavioural, social, constructivist and cognitive. Of all the four major theories of learning, my way of handling the classroom, my perception of the learning process, and my methods of teaching my students are more likely in a constructivist approach. 

Constructivism is a student-centred approach where learners are the ones who will create and make their knowledge with the help of the teachers as facilitators. According to Jonassen (1991), this theory applied to the development of learning environments such as focusing approaches to solve real-life situations and problems. 

Until this very moment that I knew constructivism is a kind of approach that I want to have. As I evaluate my strategies and activities on how I impart my knowledge for the past three years, I learned that I have a lot of theory- approaches that I applied such as cognitive, social and constructivists. However, it more on the approach of constructivism. I only apply and create my own learning strategies out of my professors' style way back in college. Most of the time, I see to it that learning must be explored by the students and I will only be the facilitator of knowledge. In my class, before the start of the formal discussions in the first semester, I gave my students an outline of the topics or subjects that we will be discussing in the particular course. Students are highly encouraged to research and deliver their know-how of a certain topic in the class in an oral recitation so that other students can interact and give more inputs about it. Aside from this, I would always incorporate real-life situations and problems in my class. I know that the best knowledge that I could give to them are not the definitions and theories that they will memorize every now and then but to equip themselves and be prepared to the future endeavours in their life. 

Although I already classify myself as a constructivist, I also need some adjustments and eat more things to have a better approach. I need to align my learning activities to help the communities in our small province. Most of my activities are an eye-opener of the societal problems however outputs are just for submission and compliance. I can do better by dedicating it to the community and using the knowledge so that we can contribute something to the society as a whole such as conducting researches addressing the needs of the community and providing outputs that we could use as extension services. Our knowledge will just be nothing if we won't dedicate ourselves in serving the community. 

"Ang aklat ng isang tunay na mag-aaral ay ang lipunang kanyang kinabibilangan, ang kanyang guro ay ang mamamayan, at ang kanyang pagsusulit ay ang pagsasagawa ng mga mapaglayang pagkilos" -Jose Pepe Alcantara 

Improving our constructivist approaches is important in the teaching-learning process. It is necessary for me to be better with my constructivist type of strategies and activities. As what the former Department of Education secretary said that education is the solution to solve the cancer of society. It is important for me as an educator to dedicate my learnings for the development of our motherland and to influence my students to do the same. It is actually easy for us to memorize, to know and understand things, but it not easy for us to give attention and dedicate ourselves to serve the whole nation.

Based on the observation in our educational system, our education practice should be improved. Most of the teachers are still using the traditional cognitive approach. Enhancing cognitivism is not wrong especially for those programs which have board examinations, however, it is also important for us to empower our cognitivism ideology in order to give an active atmosphere and to have active learners in the classroom, to understand and know the real-life problems in our society and to help the society as the future of the nation to bring progress and development using the knowledge and their capabilities that they gained in the institution. 

Intelligence will be useless if we won't use it. Knowledge will be inefficacious if we won't apply it. Education will be nothing without serving the community.

Releasing Piaget and Vygotsky In Me

Jean Piaget’s works and Lev Vygotsky’s works grounded two major strands in Constructivist
Learning Theory. Both psychologists gave different constructivist views. The former had his
cognitive constructivist approach while the latter had his social cognitive approach. However,
as a learner and educator, what are the past experiences that I’ve failed to learn and facilitate
and how I cope with that right now?

Cognitivist Learning Theory is a learner-centred approach where people learn through their
experiences in the learning environment and teachers acted a role of a guide and facilitator of
learning. Knowing the works of both psychologists benefit my understanding of how to learn
and how to impart my knowledge at the same time. This theory is similar to what we have
practising right now in our institution- the Outcomes-based education. Dr. Carlo Magno from
De La Salle University introduced OBE in our institution as relatively similar to this theory.

As a teacher with no background in education studies, I also failed a couple of times in
facilitating learning for others. I used to spoon feed my students with the lessons and in fact
with the information in their activities. Scaffolding as a method is ineffective this time. In fact,
one scenario when we competed in the documentary competition, instead of guiding my
students to do documentaries, I ended up doing the whole production for them and they end
up doing nothing. This failure gives me guilt upon learning in this module. 

I learned in the module that CLT has two major principles- learning shall be an active process
and learning must be meaningful.  As an educator, I now understand that my approach made
my students passive in a learning environment. I need to fully implement OBE this time and
not to spoon feed the lessons in my class. My role as an educator is the facilitator of learning.
Students and learners must also do their job in the learning process. It is not all about teachers
giving everything to their students but on how students give themselves and make themselves
productive in the learning environment. 

It is always been a challenge for a teacher on how to teach his/her students. This coming semester,
I will be releasing all my knowledge in this course. I will be applying all theories and will make
learning activities and strategies that will make my students easily understand our lessons. I will
release the psychologists in me. . . their theories, works, and learnings. 

Learn to Improve!

One of the reasons why I enrolled and studied my education units in this distance learning university is to enhance my teaching strategies and develop myself as a mentor of the college students in our beloved university.

Enrolling in this course while working is not an easy task to have. Every week is a struggle for me to finish my assignments at the same time, finish my work. However, I see it as a positive response to build myself as I continue the legacy of my parents, relatives, and grandfather as a teacher.

In this module, I learned a lot of Cognitive Learning Theories, particularly in the information processing approach. I learned the three theories which are information processing theory- gives an idea that the human mind is like a computer in the learning process, dual coding theory- assumes that cognition is with verbal associations and visual representations, and cognitive load theory- the load should not exceed to the capacity of the learner.

These theories give me a head on how to put up my learning strategies, assessments, and discussions of my class this coming August. It gives me an understanding that I did not experience for the long three years in the academe. With this knowledge, I already know the various areas that I need to improve in my teaching strategies so that students can have attention, memory, and understand the lessons that I will impart to them easily.

In my previous classes, I usually emphasize the middle part of my class which is according to the primary- recency effect, it is not efficient. It explains that the first and last part is the most important part of the discussions since this is the time that students can easily remember. It also helps me to change the mindset of purely verbal associations in presenting the lessons in the class. According to dual coding theory, we need to equally bought in visual representations and verbal associations. And lastly, as a teacher, I now understood that the load of the activities, assignments and information that I need to give to my students must just be enough for them to restore. Overload means they cannot grasp the whole lesson and could forget it at the end of the day.

These theories help me to improve. I am so excited to apply this learning in the class.

Grand Salute!

People argued that their own undergraduate studies are harder and more complicated than anyone else. We do have different perceptions of what is the most complicated degree program in the world. However, we must try to appreciate one another knowing what the uniqueness of our capabilities is.

There are so many degree programs in our educational system- all are essential in society. There are so many jobs to be with in order to serve the community. There are so many struggles that a student may face in their whole student career.

As a Mass Communication graduate and a teacher, I cannot foresee myself doing the stuff as a nursing student. Honestly, I dreamed to become a doctor someday and promised myself to treat the people for free when I was still a kid. That promise was gone when I fell in love with journalism and media studies. Knowing my abilities and evaluating myself as a student, I find a hard time memorizing and getting standardised tests every now and then. This stuff is an example of a nursing student's work in order to survive four years in college, not to mention the sleepless nights and the duty hours that they spent at the hospitals.

"Nursing is the glue that holds a patient’s health care journey together. Across the entire patient experience, and wherever there is someone in need of care, nurses work tirelessly to identify and protect the needs of the individual." -NursingWorld.org

I met a special friend who takes up BS Nursing in one of the famous private universities in the region. As I observed, she was really busy. I also observed some of our students in the College of Arts and Sciences where they got so many demands. I interviewed some of them and it is like a hell for them every single day.

I cannot simply imagine myself to become a nursing student. I cannot survive what they tend to have and accomplish. I cannot understand the struggles that they have been less appreciated in the community.

We may have different arguments on who will be the best student, what will be the most complicated degree programs, or what profession will be the greatest for the community, however, I will continue to believe that choosing to nurse, taking nursing, passing the board examination, and being a nurse is one of the most fulfilling and must be appreciated in the community.

To all aspiring nurses and to my special friend who graduated today, Congratulations in surviving the whole four years as a student, God bless to your review and future endeavours and Remember to serve the people always. I am so proud of you!

This is my GRAND SALUTE!

My Experiences: Not A Theory

Bandura's Social Learning Theory gave us explanations of the real-life situations that
happened to us in acquiring learning. One of the core concepts of the theory is self- efficacy.
It is the belief of a person's capabilities and abilities to succeed in a certain situation that
they do.

Self- efficacy is an essential ingredient to learn. Our beliefs motivate us to learn and unlearn
things in this life. When I was still a college student, I have this low self-efficacy in dealing
speaking in front of a wider audience in a straight English language. I know that I am not an
English speaker. With this, it greatly affects my motivation to learn such as declining the
opportunities as college debater and wasting the opportunity to experience extemporaneous
speaking during the said days.

Personally, believing in yourself is important to achieve your goals and in order to succeed in
life. Based on my experience, your one and only self will not rely on someone but just with
yourself. Don't waste the opportunities in life just because you have this low self-efficacy that
you cannot do anything. Every one of us can make a difference. And you just need to believe
with yourself that you can do it.

Observational learning gave me a glimpse of how I acquired my learning on particular things.
There are a lot of behaviours that I got because of observation. One of the things that I have
is the way I speak words. I pronounce the way people exactly pronounce words. I even got
their style of speaking and writing. Secondly, the way I deliver my broadcast. This is when I
observe my idols in the media industry. I tried to imitate them and it did a great way. Lastly,
the values that I had. Based on the observations, I gained values that should be proud of.

We can also use social learning by giving a model to the future generation the appreciation of
preserving traditions. As we preserve and give value to our traditions, our cultural sites, and
our culture as a whole, the youth will observe and recognize it and they will also do the same.

Social learning had a great impact on socio-cultural transitions. As we observed, culture per
culture, we can imitate and get their culture and adopt it as our own. This happened during
colonization days. We adopted some of the cultures of our colonizers and that also create our
new tradition and culture on the things in our society.

In today's generation of media and technology, we need to use these platforms in a good
context f social learning. We need to post real information and fight for misinformation &
disinformation in society. With these, people will adopt the behaviour of knowing what is fake
or not. We will also use it as a call to help others, to protect our environment, and appreciate
things that our world have right now. We need to influence the society especially the younger
generation to make a stand and fight for what is right in this society. Media and technology
is so powerful and we need to safeguard its power in order not to use by anyone in bad actions.

importance of social learning, in generation of media and technology, ways to use

Models and Mentors in Life

A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself. Someone who will say, "Let's go do it", not "You go do it"

Life is not easy. It is too hard that some of the people gave up, most of us want to give up.  It is like facing a giant in a battle every single day. However, these challenges, failures and problems in our lives gave beauty in our everyday journey. With these struggles, we can appreciate more the life that God gave us. In our everyday struggle, we do have models and inspirations that we look up to in order to be inspired and motivated in our endeavours. In this entry, I will reflect and share to you the people who inspire me and keep me going in this journey. I know I cannot spit everything and everyone in here. These are some of my models and their contribution to my life thus far: 

My Models and Mentors

1. My Mother - She is my foundation and my inspiration in my 24 years of existence in this world. I do not know if what I will be doing without her.

• She encourages me every single moment in my life.
• She was there in all of my failures.
• She taught me the values in life.
• She is the reason why I keep going in my struggles in work and studies.
• She is there to understand and guide me always.

2. My Mommy Chu- Unlike my other aunts and uncles, she is so consistent with the help that she gave to me. From my financial difficulties studying college and master's degree to the inspiration, care and guidance that she gave me. She inspires me to help your family members even if you are also in a struggle. 

3. Dr. John Anthony Romagos- He is my uncle and my boss right now as the Dean of the College of Arts in Sciences. He was my mentor in journalism way back in elementary. My experiences in journalism career in my student life were the reason why I took up Ba Mass Communications and why I wanted to become a journalist. He also has given me inspirations on how life is hard and on how to defeat the giants in my life.

4. Dick Guiller Delfin- He is a colleague but more on a brother to me. He is my mentor in my debate career. He was the reason why I fell in love with debate. And I guess, he will also mentor me in my law career in the future, hopefully.

5. To ALL Filipinos who sacrifice their lives for the country. They are my models and inspiration whenever I got tired in serving the people. My life purpose is not for fame but on what will be the legacy that I could bring to society. They are the ones who motivated me to keep going.

The type of role model I want to be for others.

1. Motivation. As their role model and mentor, I want myself to have a big impact on their lives. One of the good things to have a good impact on one's life is to motivate themselves. A motivator that even if what big and many struggles that life may bring, we can overcome it. A motivator that encourages them not to stop, just rest. A motivator that will be stuck in their mind that life is full of beauty and we just need to appreciate it. A motivator that we need to seek for God's guidance and we need to serve the people.

2. Inspiration. Personally, you cannot be a good motivator if you will not be an inspiration. I want them to inspire not just by words but also by deeds. An inspiration that lookup by the people that are humble, committed, and serving without counting any costs.

3. Teacher. As a model and mentor, I wanted to look me as one of the greatest teachers they ever had. A teacher who will teach them values in life, hard work, and determination. A teacher who always there for them whenever they need especially to the needed days in their life. 

How I will incorporate models and mentors in my profession? (as an educator)

In our broadcasting class, I incorporated models and mentors by having a broadcasting activity on how to deliver your piece or how to read a piece in radio broadcasting. First, I advised my students to look for their idols in Philippine Broadcasting and imitate or observe how they broadcast news story. After, they broadcast their pieces in the class. This motivation of looking for their idols helped them to easily deliver the pieces in the class.

Who will be my education mentor? What would my ideal education mentor be like?

Honestly, in my three years of teaching, I do not have an education mentor. What would be my ideal mentor be like? Well, it is a standard that I've written above when I see myself as a model or mentor soon. I would like to be a motivator, inspiration and a teacher.

12 Commandments of Teaching Professionalism

Teachers are one of the best people in the world. They are the builders of the future generation where they impart their own knowledge to future individuals in society. Teaching is a noble profession. However, what might be the essential things that teachers must possess in order to teach their students effectively? 

As an instructor, I listed twelve of the hundreds of characteristics that a teacher must have. These are the following: 

1. Passion. Based on my observation, not ALL teachers are passionate about what they are doing. Even my colleagues will talk about just the income and the benefits that they will gain in order to be successful in life. The main focus of a good and effective teacher is a passion that leads to the commitment to what we do. This is a kind of teacher that every student needs. 

2. Parent to Students. It is not only that we love what we do. However, it is also important to be the second parent of the students. It means loving them and looking forward to making everything for the good of their welfare. 

3. Mastery of Subject/ Course. As the person who will deliver another mind, ideas, and perceptions to the students, the teacher must be knowledgeable of what they discussed. In higher education, one of the adversary cultures that institutions practice is that some of the instructors will teach courses that they are not familiar with or experts with. Teachers must know the lessons and should have mastery on it in order to craft effective strategies, techniques and assessments to the students. 

4. Understand the Purpose. I find it necessary for us to know our purpose as teachers. Teaching is not a profession, but a vocation to those people who are willing to sacrifice time, effort, and even money just to deliver good quality education to the students. Understanding our purpose is focusing on our end goal every academic year. With this, we can have mindsets of protecting the welfare of our students. 

5. Willingness to Change. As what the famous statement goes, we need to unlearn ourselves in order to learn. As instructors, we are not as perfect as we portray ourselves to be with our students. With this, we may have a lot of downfalls, disappointments, and failures as an instructor, however, we need to change for the better. This not only ends with this, but we also need to change to be suitable for our working environment- a much mature environment.

6. Don’t Quit! As an instructor, my experience doesn’t end in teaching or instruction only. I am also a job order in our office, a janitor during Brigada, a dancer or singer in some events, master of ceremonies or host on certain occasions, extensionist, researcher, and organizers. In other words, there are so much to work in the academe. Your works will not end, in fact, there are a lot of conflicting works and schedules plus your preparation for your class. With this, we should never quit even if we are overwork and even if our salary could not define our work. We shall never quit. And focus on your end goal that this is a vocation of sacrificing to serve the people. 

7. See Yourself! As the necessity to evaluate our daily life, teachers must also evaluate themselves in their everyday class performances. Reflect on the good and bad things that you’ve done at the end of the day and try to cope up and do better. 

8. Organize things. It is actually a given fact that teachers have a lot of documents in their office tables. Organize these documents well. Organize your instructional materials. And Organize your works because it doesn’t end up with instruction. 

9. Struggle to Improve. This is actually a constant struggle of a teacher. Every day is a struggle to be better. The best thing that we have is that our work is not boring. It is not an everyday cycle. There are actually a lot of unexpected challenges that we need to face every single day. And we just need to make that struggle a challenge to be better. 

10.  Enough ego. Teachers must have enough ego to survive on the hard days. There are also times that you are feeling humiliated with your boss. There are times that you will have disrespectful students. Be strong enough to face them. Face them with high value with yourself. 

11.  Humility. It may be shocking to have all the number of tens in our career in teaching. Too much of it will actually destroy ourselves. As a teacher, learn and always be humble. Be humble with your knowledge, your educational attainment, and your skills. Remember that humility is next to Godliness. 

12. Collab! Collab! Collab! No man is an island. So does in the academe. You need to work collaboratively with your colleagues such as doing researches, extensions, productions, and crafting assessments or strategies in your different courses. It doesn’t end there, you need to do collaborative works with your students in order for them to know your work ethics and to see you as their role model. 

These are the commandments that a teacher must possess to become effective in the vocation of teaching. What are yours?

Efficiency and Commitment

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires."

This is the famous statement that could inspire each one of us in the field of academics and students who are aspiring to become the moulder of our society.

This module talks about effective teaching. How can we be effective with our teaching? Do our strategies and techniques of imparting knowledge works? What are the necessary things to be reminded to give good quality education?

This reading by Smitte (2003) gives me personal insights. Based on my observation, most of our students in BA Communications are unprepared. It is always been a struggle for me for the past three years in adjusting how can I deliver the lessons in a most effective way for our students. I am also not that effective in crafting strategies in teaching because I am not an education graduate. However, doing my best to have it. This module is the answer to my problem. 

I realized that effective faculty is one of the most important factors in having successful programs. According to Boylan & Borham (1998), eight out of 20 identified factors is in connection with teaching pedagogy. As an instructor, we should not be limited with our learnings and we need to read books or study post-graduate studies in order to mould ourselves and we could impart more knowledge to our students. 

Moreover, we also need to create activities and teach our students independent. I actually agree based on my experience that encouragement is not enough and frequent feedback to our students is essential. You need to be creative in making your classroom a good learning environment.

As an instructor, it all started to us. We are the compass to the direction of our students. We need to be passionate enough with our work. We need to motivate them. It will boost their self-esteem. However, for our beloved students, please be reminded that we don't need to rely on everything to our teachers. This learning process is a team process that everyone must work into. No teacher can motivate a student when the latter won't participate in the effort.

At the end of the day, we will all be successful if we will be committed. A commitment that we shall dedicate for our community as a whole. For my colleagues, we can just be a GREAT teacher if we will use the principles of teaching. 

Apply not just theorize

Our knowledge will be useless if we will not use it.

This is how I justify my knowledge on the Behavioral Theories that I’ve learned in this module.
Personally, I hated psychology nor I believe that there is an essence of this thing in society.
However, with the understanding of this psychology topic, I can now give additional inputs on
how I will deliver this knowledge in imparting knowledge with my students.

This module gives me insights that understanding behaviourism is essential in the teaching-
learning process. I still remember last semester in our Life and Works of Rizal, a certain group of
students reported our lesson in a mediocre style- they just laugh as if they are just joking around,
not good presentation, and most of the time read their notes without understanding fully the
lesson. With this kind of behaviour, I gave them punishments by giving hardline questions,
giving them words that could challenge them, and giving them the whole one and half hours
standing in front of the class while having a shotgun recitation. After that day, I realized that these
students are not the same as active as before. I realized, maybe I acted too harsh for them.
However, for me, there is no reason for them to be mad at me because I’m just doing my best.

The understanding of behaviourism as I will apply this in my teaching these upcoming days of
classes could help me craft techniques and strategies for my students to have fun at the same
time, gain more knowledge with interactions. This module taught me that we need to understand
the behaviour of our students and could give modification techniques such as reward, proper feedback, praise, non- punitive discipline and positive reinforcements.

Behaviourism does not end in the school, we could also use this understanding to our community
especially to our family. As a professional youth, we need to be role models for the kids.
Behaviourism tells us that if the way kids saw our attitudes, emotions, and how we handle different
situations, they could probably adapt it. According to Heyman & Slep (2002), children who witness
their abusive and violent parents are likely will become just like them.

This knowledge of behaviourism is important to acknowledge the things that we need to solve and
try to understand these circumstances. My point here is, learning these theories won’t just end by
reading these stuff, understanding these stuff, making articles for compliance, but it must end with
an application to create a better atmosphere and more effective environment. So don’t just theorize,
apply it!

Different Minds: Same Thoughts

We may all have different minds- producing different words, expressions, feelings but in context, we did the same.

This is my reflection in our first assignment in Theories of Learning course. When I read some of the answers of my classmates, we all have the same context of what is intelligence and learning mean to us.

Learning is an unending process. We use intelligence in every moment of our lives. For me, intelligence won't matter on the cognitive abilities but on how you will use these abilities in serving society. This notion has been with my mind since high school, thus, creating my own Sabonsolin's Social Responsibility Theory.

This theory was commended by one of my classmates and also even though not stated but the same context to the answer of one of my classmates. She actually emphasized that it is the right of the state to use this intelligence to strengthen and solve concerns especially in basic social services.

For some scholars and theorists, and even to my fellow classmates, we all have our definition of intelligence. We do have our own perception of learning. We do have different paths to take and envision to go.

However, think of this question, why do you really want to learn? to whom do you want to dedicate it? and will you consider yourself successful without serving and contributing to society?

Let's all take this as a challenge. A step of using our intelligence for the betterment of our society, not for your selfish ambitions.

Always, Serve The People!

Intelligence of Intelligent

This is my first journal for my second semester of having my PTC course. I learned a lot of things about our introductory topic- Intelligence. I would like to highlight three things that I learned most in this course- definition of intelligence, nature vs nurture, and IQ testing.

Intelligence is a mental ability to solve the problem, to understand things in society, and on how you behave in an unexpected circumstance that comes in your life. 

There are so many great psychologists and scholars who actually argued and defined intelligence. However, I was struck to the words of Robert Sternberg when I read over the modules. Sternberg actually describes intelligence with three aspects, these are: analytical, practical, and creative. Before I read the module, this is also my notion of having intelligence by the different individuals. Personally, I won't be amazed by the cognitive aspects of individuals. When I am also a student, I also hate standardised tests (see my post in Assessment). However, I will be starstruck by those people who can analyze situations and could solve problems directly, creative with their works, and practical enough for new environments. 

There are also existing debates on nature vs nurture of intelligence. Nature means the biological factors and inheritance meanwhile, nurture talks about the influence of the environment. My stand on this is a mixed nature and nurture. Both factors could help an individual to develop and improve someone's intelligence.  

Lastly is the IQ or intelligent quotient. When I was still a kid until I become an Instructor, I actually associated IQ test results as something achievement that could define myself to become successful in life or not. However, in this module, I've learned that this is just a myth. 

IQ test results won't define ourselves. It might foresee your success in academics but not in life. Strive as hard as to how you want to be. And Serve the People always in your endeavours in life. We may have different perceptions, conceptions and notions about intelligence, it is still intelligence of the intelligents (intelligent people). 

Just Spell It.

L-E-A-R-N-I-N-G

This is a familiar word for all of us. Since the pre-elementary grades, our parents want us to learn. This word always reminds me to spare time for myself to gain knowledge about the lessons in school. However, it broadens my understanding of learning after I read the first module of our course "Theories of Learning".

I defined learning as an unending process and product in acquiring knowledge of certain things through experiences. I believe that this process of moulding ourselves through soliciting thoughts, ideas, and perceptions in life won't end. Every moment of our lives and every second of our experiences are in the process of learning different things in life.

I also learned that it is not just a process but it is also a product. A product created through the learning process can also be called learning.

There are actually a lot of ways on how people learn. In an online article, Cherry (2018)  (Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-learning-2795332 ) shares her insights into the learning environment that could be classical conditioning where we learn through our associations, operant conditioning where we learn through reinforcements and punishments, and observation where we can learn without being conditioned, reinforced and punished.

Lastly, I learned the importance of theories in the learning process. As an educator and researcher, I really thought beforehand that theories are just conceptions of the different scholars in the world. However, I learned this time that it is an essential thing in the learning environment. Theories serve as a guide in understanding and analyzing the things. I now fully understand why we need to find theories in our research studies and why we need to have a theoretical framework. Indeed, to understand learning, we need to understand first the theories and what are those about.

Because we cannot spell the first word of this article without understanding theories.

Open Letter to the Filipino Youth

(NOTE: I challenge my students to write a letter addressed to their fellow Filipino youth as what they have learned in our Life and Works of Rizal's class. This is a combination of their insights.)

by: 
Vicente Mendoza Jr.
Naomi Tadifa
Sherrimee Joy Morilla
Mary Joy Mari
Rose Palapar


A pen is mightier than a sword. Do you till remember the day when your grade one teacher introduced Gat Jose Rizal in the class for the first time? Do you still remember the time when your teacher mentioned him as the national hero? Or can you still remember the moment when you idolized and challenged yourself to be a hero like him? Because we, we can still remember.

I believe that without him, we'll never achieve and celebrate our Independence. His written works mark a boundless influence in our Philippine History. Two of his novels "Noli Me Tangere" (Touch Me Not) and "El Filibusterismo" (The Reign of the Greed) had exposed the cruelties of the Spanish friars in the Philippines, the defects of the Spanish administration and the vices of the clergy, in which these books expressed the oppression of the Spanish colonial rule. It made him a marked man to the Spanish friars and the start of the revolutionary acts of the Katipunan. An impeccable illustration, indeed a single piece of a pen can dominate and is mightier than a sword.

It has been a century since we achieved independence as smile and laughter are to be found in the eyes of our motherland. We didn't even recognized how time flies so fast. However, the saddening part is the same as time, everything in our society changes so fast. It's getting worse and it's getting scary every day. What happened?

"Youth is the hope of tomorrow". I know we have heard this so many times and it is already a pain in the ears. But what have we done to make this statement possible? Are we really the hope or the destroyer of tomorrow?

Youths are the storm and stress in today's generation for they are more likely to become perpetrators. The dream of our national hero for the youth had failed over the decades. Not to discriminate but youth nowadays are drastically destroying our future. They are into drugs, alcohol, cigarettes or any substances. Girls at a young age get pregnant. Some are not giving any value to education. And some are committing suicide because of depression from heartbreaks or any other reasons. Is this really the society we wanted to live in the future? Is this really the attitudes that we are going to inherit to the future generations?

If only someone has an enormous power to awaken their blinded eyes that today is not the day to be in the wrong path then it might gratify the hero's soul. It may be alarming that youth nowadays had made a radical change. But it is not yet the end of everything, and we can still do to change this adversary culture. Through technological advancement, we have the capacity to do more, reach more people, and act more. However, the caveat is we must use these resources responsibly.

To our Filipino Youth, let's revisit the life of Gat Jose Rizal and let's try to see the world without his works. Let's imagine if there will be a realisation of what we have right now without him. Let's reconsider the fact that what he offered for us is more than we can give to this country. Let's appreciate his works, labour and his love for the country. Above all, let us be inspired to do the same thing- to be Rizal in the world full of ME. We have to think about the welfare of our nation and not only for our own happiness. By doing so, we will live in a society where peace and harmony do exist.

A Challenge To Take

Since day one, it is actually new for me to have this online course from one of the prestigious universities in
the country, University of the Philippines Open University. It is a new step to take knowing the degree of
difficulties in having a new atmosphere, a new way of learning, and a new field to have on.

This course gave me a lot of realizations, knowledge, and motivation for me as a teacher. Knowing the
importance and essence of the assessment process in achieving quality good education for our students
means a lot for me. As an educator, our goal and objectives are to give enough knowledge, improve their
capabilities, and enhance their skills for their future endeavours in life.

There are so many learnings that I got during the one-semester stay for this one course. I realized that as
an educator, assessment plays a vital role in the teaching-learning process. Your goal to give education to
your students will fail if you also failed to deliver the exact, proper and correct way of handling and facilitating
assessments. I also got guilt when I knew that final examinations are not just for compliance to have grades
at the end of the semester but to have an effective assessment, that is used to improve the students in a
specific topic. Most of our teachers and even the mindset of students see assessments are just the method
to have grades. And I learned it is not. Formative, Summative, Rubrics and Table of Specifications are not
known to me already. However, this course gave me additional inputs with these topics. Effective
assessment will also be nothing without feedbacks. Feedbacking is a useful tool of giving information to your
students on what to do in the next activities, what they should not do, and what are the things that they need
to improve.

Assessment is crucial in my life being a teacher. This is not just giving information or input to improve our
students but it is also a tool for improving my teaching strategies to aim my goal in giving my students a good
education that they deserved. Hopefully, students will also realize that they are in school every single day
because they need to have a glimpse of reality, to garner knowledge, to enjoy the activities of building
themselves and not just for the merit and grades. Having a mindset of doing their best is not bad. However,
the point here is they should not be afraid to fail, to have zeroes, and to commit mistakes. These failures are
also an effective assessment for me because, with these experiences, we could empower, motivate and
inspire ourselves to be better in our future endeavours.

With all things said, having knowledge in this course is not just simple information that I acquired but on how to
make these things and use these things in my class. To put everything that I’ve learned in reality. This is a
challenge that as a teacher, I can overcome my misconceptions, malpractices, and misunderstanding of what
assessment truly means.

Let's do Finland!

This module about Reporting and Feedback helps me a lot in understanding what is rubrics, feedback, and grading is all about. It helps me understand the importance of those three essential things in the assessment process. However, this blog entry will not focus on my learnings about the module but a continuation of my insights about the failure of the educational system in our country- and I know we have this model same as in the United States. (because we get the culture of education during American colonization)

In all the readings that I've read, (although I already know this fact) this fact struck me most-  Finland, as considered to have the best educational system in the world, appreciated and dreamt by the US Professors, particularly in the famous Harvard University, to benchmark the same system and junk the culture of their standardised- grade valued system in the US.

The system in Finland focuses on the experiences and learnings of their beloved students, not particular with the standardised test nor the grades. This kind of system helps students understood the essence of life and prepare them in the reality that they will be facing in the future. It moulds the skills of every individual and creates an atmosphere of learning not relying on their teachers but explore the learning through their experiences in the classroom activities prepared by their teachers.

Our current system tells us to value much of the grades than our knowledge. Evident most of our students and even me when I am still a student that we are so afraid of failing, having mistakes, and getting zeroes in our quizzes.

According to the study of Younge et al (1996), most of the educational failures lead to suicide. This culture of grade-minded must be stopped. It is okay to fail. It is okay to commit mistakes. It is okay to get zeroes in our examinations. Nobody is perfect and we are not living in a utopian world.

However, it is important to establish an educational system close to being perfect similar to Finland. As an educator, it is not possible to do the same thing. Aside from not having standardised tests and focusing on the skills and experiences of the students, they also have FREE education to all.

Yes! it is possible for some countries to have this kind of system. It is possible to debunk the current system and change it to a more effective and comfortable one. Indeed nothing is impossible.

We must challenge our system. Challenge our government as the forefront of the policies of the state to organize and benchmark the system to Finland. Challenge our education agencies such as the Department of Education, and the Commission on Higher Education. And lastly, a challenge for all of us in the academe especially my fellow educators. We can change the system slowly and in our own little way in the classroom. Providing a system of assessment and learning process that doesn't value grades but learning, a system that seeks for justice that education is our right and not privilege, and a system that focus on the reality than memorizing the things out of fantasy.

If Finland can do it, why can't we?

Don't Chose, Compliment!

Over the years, I am exposed to different assessments of the different professors in the different universities as I become a continuing student after I graduated my college degree. I've learned in this course that assessment is not just about the grades that we need as students but it is learning to improve ourselves and to the strategies of our teachers as well.

This course also made me realized that there a lot of categories of assessment. I can now understand why my professors did that in our classes. Sometimes, as a student, we always fear assessments. We always see assessment as a hell time because it is like a quiz and activity for us to work into for our grades.

I prefer assessments in a non-traditional approach. I am exposed to the traditional way of assessment during my elementary and high school days. However, during college, I appreciate the value of non- traditional assessment in one of the premier universities in Cebu City. As a Mass Communication student, we are assessed through our experiences in the field. There is some traditional way however, it was lessened because our learning focused on the actual experiences on and off the field. We often assess ourselves, have portfolios to document our work, and explain our insights in the classroom. With this non-traditional assessment, I enjoy while learning. I took a break from professors who make fun of having paper and pencil assessments such as quizzes and periodical examinations.

Honestly, the most threatening part of the assessment is in the traditional approach. I am threatened with it because as a student, I am much in critical thinking than memorizing things that I cannot use in the future. I hate memorizing the lessons, take assessments just for grades and after, I can just forget all the lessons in my life. While with non-traditional assessment, you can reflect and discern with yourself. You can be an expert of your own understanding of your learning process.

As an educator, I honestly do associate traditional learning to my students. However, it is a lesson and it is more on non-traditional learning. With this strategy, students can value the lessons in the class. They will not be bored in always memorizing the lessons and they can create an enjoyable atmosphere. I will not use all non-traditional assessment also in the class because it could waste more time to do so. I value the two assessment as important to each other. You don't need to choose. You just need to compliment each other to achieve your goals and objectives in the class in the direction of good quality education for your students.

Alignment: Challenge Accepted!

My perceptions of assessments changed a lot when I read and learned the true purpose of assessment in the learning process. As a learner before, I always value assessments as the evil period in the classroom setting. "Quiz na naman!" with fear of failing the examinations either it is written or oral examination. With the culture of our education system as a grade-centric and matters credentials most rather than focusing on the true education, it is a normal thing for a learner to have bad perception towards the assessment methods that were given by the teachers.

However, these perceptions changed when I learned the purpose of the assessment. It is a crucial step in teaching and learning process. The assessment determines the teaching method of our teachers as well as learning the needs of students in the process. 

Without assessment, I can't reflect the rooms of improvement, the pieces to fill up, the fields to take as a learner. I internalize more the essence of assessment upon knowing its purposes and alignment. There are a lot of methods and strategies in assessment. As a learner, assessment really contemplates your understanding of the lesson- what is the lacking part, what is the fulfilling part, and how can you improve more.

But this understanding in this module is essential for me as a teacher. It is a challenge for us, teachers to really align our assessment to the goals and objectives that we need to do with our students. If it is not aligned, there will be a big possibility that we cannot meet our objectives for a certain course. Alignment is important to be able to know the exact assessment needs in the teaching-learning process.

Challenge to Assess the Real Assess

I really learned a lot to the second module that in my Principles and Methods of Assessment course. First is to the assessment cycle down to the cyclical and linear learning. Assessment is not just a simple checking of papers, grading outputs, and evaluating reports, it is a process and there is a cycle to make.

It is also observed that most of the educators do not have a clear understanding of some of the terminologies and cycle of assessment. It is quite troublesome to have this kind of findings based on my observation because assessment is a crucial step in the educational process.

I develop beliefs that educators must have know-how about assessments. They must value assessment as also a room for improvement. It is given that educators file up the evidence such as direct and indirect evidence (eg. test results and interviews), however, not use it for assessing the whole process of teaching and understanding.

With this knowledge that I have in this module, I can now change some of the processes of assessments that I've used to have because it is culturally practiced in our school like an example of the finals examination. In this module, I only understood it's very essence. To be honest, I am one of those educators that do not have a mind over matter about final exams. It is just like compliance for us. However, with this set of understanding, I can now evaluate those final exams is part of the assessment in evaluating yourself with your strategies and evaluating your students with their knowledge. The process did not stop there. The assessment cycle still operates. And it just needs one's mind to value it for the development of the educational process.

Polices of oneself in teaching and developing certain beliefs must be taken in action as I will also vow to influence my colleagues the true essence of assessment.