A Review of Selected TEIs STP Model: Inputs to Relevant PNU-STP

Abstract

One of the many problems assailing Philippine Education, according to the Congressional Commission on education (EDCOM), is the progressive deterioration of basic education (EDCOM Report, 1993). It also notes that our elementary and secondary schools have failed to teach the expected competencies to the students, as much as it reveals that the teachers are the main culprits, one reason being that many teachers themselves do not posses at least the minimum teaching competence.

In 1997 the Filipino grade and high school students ranked 37^th and 38^th respectively in a test administered to 39 nations for the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. This is certainly one other instance that reflects the deplorable performance of most Filipino students. The 1993 EDCOM Reports again attributed such inadequacy to poor teacher preparation and training, as well as to the low quality of students enrolled in teacher training institution.

The same observation echoes in one Professional Regulation Commission report in 2006, where it revealed that in the last four years, the national rate of passing in the Licensure Examinations for Teachers has not indicated any improvement. To exemplify, it noted that in 2005, only 26% registered a passing rate, as compared with the 27%, 26%, and 35% of the 2004, 2003, and 2002 respective rates. This may be one reason why the then Department of Education Secretary Florencio Abad had said in an interview account in 2005 that, apparently, basic education could not as yet deliver quality education because of the failure of most teacher training institutions to provide the department with quality graduates.

The Presidential Commission for Educational Reform (PCER) must have been a bit prophetic when it found in a 2000 survey that some aspects of the educational system were either stagnating or deteriorating. It offered as evidence the perpetual shortfalls in classrooms, textbooks, and teachers; unsatisfactory achievement scores in Math, Science, and Language; increasing disparity among regions and between urban and rural areas; decline of private sector participation, and the recurring issue regarding language instruction. All these contributing factors, it further averred, took a heavy toll on overall teacher development, which, it claimed, as it cited the 1998 World Educational Report, has "in fact declined over the last 30 years and continues to decline in every region and most countries."

To address these problems, PCER has recommended the implementation of Project Teacher Empowerment to Achieve Competence and Humaneness (TEACH), which aimed at strengthening the competencies of both in-service and pre-service teachers. In the same view, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), in collaboration with the Teacher Education Council, developed the master plan for Teacher Education (CHED Report, 1997). This plan envisions to design programs for teacher education that will enhance the positive image of the teacher through a deliberate effort of improving the curriculum and the teachers' workplace. It also hopes to bring about a culture of excellence and world-class competitiveness, which will once more bring teachers at the helm of all professions.

In this light, one of its earlier tasks was to require teacher education institutions (TEIs) to review, and if need be, redesign their curricula and syllabi. It also set up centers of excellence for the different areas that TEIs must be concerned with, such as, for example on research, science and math instruction, and teacher education.

These various progressive initiatives done by the CHED to improve and uplift the teaching profession via the TEIs were largely made the basis for the crafting and eventual implementing of the CHED Memorandum Order No. 30 (CMO 30), series of 2004. This document on the "Revised Policies and Standards for Undergraduate Teacher Education Curriculum", seeks among other things, to define certain limits regarding the TEIs' education and other allied programs, competency standards, curriculum, and course specifications. Together with the Joint CHED-DepEd Memorandum, which was issued subsequently, certain guidelines for the implementation of the new teacher education curriculum were formulated for TEIs' compliance.

Such moves created additional, albeit necessary demands on many TEIs. The Philippine Normal University (PNU), for one, which is considered as the country's premier teacher training institution, has been tasked to play a crucial role in addressing major educational issues and concerns. Being a Center of Excellence in teacher education on a national level, it has been its mandate to pioneer in delivering efficient and effective, yet innovative, relevant, functional, and quality program in teacher education. It thus becomes incumbent upon PNU not only to consider possible alternative sources for educating the teachers, but also to conceptualize and experiment on a variety of programs.

While carrying out more vigorously its mandated objectives, functions, and responsibilities, the University embarked on a five-year modernization program which is predicated upon such a mission. Through this effort the Department of Student Teaching (DST) saw a rebirth of sort when the Board of Regents (BOR) approved its creation on January 12, 2003. Where it used to be for many years only a unit under the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, it is now an independent department.

At its inchoate stage, the DST, saddled with such challenges as are brought about by university-wide changes and development, already finds it difficult to provide quality experience to its clientele, the student teachers (STs). For one, there is now a mismatch between the growing number of STs and the present condition and circumstances prevailing in the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) where they hold their campus teaching practicum. There is, for example, only one class in certain grade/year level at the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) that can accommodate only a few STs at a time. With the total number of STs per term ranging between 600 to 700, accommodation problems definitely boggle the mind. Given also the substandard classrooms in terms of size and facilities, most STs have to stay outside while the class is going on. This situation somehow deprives them of the learning they otherwise would have gained from observing the supervising instructors (SIs) or their peers teach the class have they been inside the classroom all throughout the session.

For another reason, especially in the high school level, there are majorship areas that lack corresponding SIs. Records show that in recent years, CTL high school teachers' specialization is only in such areas as English, Mathematics, Filipino, and Biology. The STs whose major fields of concentration are in General Science, Chemistry, Physics, and Values Education are, therefore, not given proper placement.

Considering that STs stay only for a quarter of a term in either the campus or off-campus internship program (which runs for only about 12 weeks of exposure for observation and actual instruction), the special Wednesday policy at the CTL, following the university practice, may seem to be a bit ruinous on quality, even adequacy, of learning that the STs should otherwise be gaining.

Moreover, although the co-and extra-curricular activities are important part of the student teaching experiences, the instructional skills that can be developed from actual classroom work may again be put to task, if too many such activities are held within the 6-week period of internship (e.g. boy/girl scout investitures, Sportfest and field demonstrations, which could eat a lot of time from STs for student rehearsals).

All these confirm the findings of the 1999 CHED-PNU Collaborative Research on Laboratory Schools (CORELS) to the effect that greater participation and actual classroom teaching are more apparent in off-campus than on-campus teaching experience; and that a significant number of TEIs have neither been giving adequate exposure nor have accomplished many activities that develop the pre-service teacher competencies to a greater extent.

There is, however, one other thing to consider should a revision of the STP become a necessary option. This concerns the Joint CHED and DepEd Memorandum Order, which has been issued under DepEd order no. 39, s. 2005. With its premise that says that student teaching being one of the most important and crucial phases in Teacher Education and that all TEIs and public and private schools involved "shall ensure that students teachers are well prepared for their eventual assumption as teachers," it further requires that TEIs and DepEd schools concerned "shall forge a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the TEIs which should stipulate the administrative and financial arrangements effective SY 2005-2006." It has, thus, set some collaborative guidelines regarding deployment of Preservice teachers for their Field Study and Practice Teaching courses and the specific roles and functions that CHED, DepEd, and TEIs are expected to perform. With this new concern emerging, most TEIs, especially SUCs whose budget has been slashed down, face another challenge insofar as implementing their STPs are concerned.

Because of these challenges and concerns, the DST deems it necessary to rethink the structures as well as the overall system involved in the STP that it presently implements, especially since some of the practices it has observed through the years virtually bear little relevance to the existing demands, concerns, and recent developments in student teaching. New modalities, therefore, need to be resorted to in order to fully address these concerns and challenges.

As the UNESCO International Commission on Education for the 21^st Century Report has so aptly stated, "...the profound changes required on teacher education (and for that matter, on student teaching), call not for more of the same - more time, more subject, more courses - but rather for a transformation of the conventional teacher education model." These words may well be taken as a solid anchor in DST's search for new program models of student teaching, which is the primary reason for this study. It thus ventures on revisiting its current STP vis-a-vis those of the other TEIs, as it tries to provide an empirical basis for proposing a new STP model that takes into account the needs of the new breed of student teachers.

This study, therefore, purposely reviews the student teacher programs of several TEIs to find out how they relate with the demands of the PNU prospective teachers in particular, and its student teaching program in general. With the review results as basis, a new and relevant STP may have to be proposed.

The study specifically aimed at 1) identifying the nature of the STPs utilized by selected TEIs; 2) identifying the components and/or mechanisms that TEIs have established and implemented to ensure the effectiveness of the programs, and, 3) determining the procedures, policies, and incentive system that have been set up and used to guarantee that stakeholders (cooperating school personnel) stay in the program.