SU faculty members gear up for the ‘next normal’
Faculty members from the Silliman University (SU) Senior High School Department, Teacher Education Department, and Physics Department completed an online training program on flexible learning by the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) and Commission on Higher Education (CHED).
Aloha Marie C. Albina, Kristin Faith C. Cataylo, Florence Annette C. Labis, David B. Ragudo, Kim Frances Carmille C. Ramos, Rhea Fe G. Sinajon, Joshua S. Soldivillo, and Deo Mar E. Suasin underwent the ten-week training program called “Gearing up for the Next Normal: Training of Teachers on Flexible Learning.”
Myla June T. Patron, SU College of Education (COE) associate dean and Elementary School principal, said the faculty members who attended the training were recommended by the COE dean and Senior High School (SHS) principal as “qualified recipients” of the program.
“They will be implementing their re-entry plan to help the SHS and COE faculty keep abreast with the latest trends in ODL and use of technology in the classroom,” said Patron.
The program involved a series of training and upskilling workshops from July to October 2021 done through UPOU’s Massive Online Distance eLearning MOOC platform.
The program included 10 modules on the following topics: an overview of flexible learning, backward course design, materials and module writing, curriculum development, assessment in flexible learning, course delivery, teaching-learning technologies, quality assurance measures, e-classroom leadership, and management, and emerging trends in education.
Trainees also learned from experts who delivered webinars for each module.
Re-entry Action Project
At the end of the program, trainees had to accomplish and submit a Re-entry Action Project (REAP), which required them to implement a teacher-training program in their respective institutions.
The REAP will be monitored and reported to UPOU.
So far, the SU faculty who completed the program facilitated the 2021 SHS in-service training for teachers, where Soldivillo conducted a lecture and seminar-workshop on formulating one-sentence lesson plans, feedforwarding, and establishing learner’s agency in the new normal. The other completers from SU facilitated the “webishops” (webinar workshops) that followed right after.
The SU faculty members who completed the UPOU-CHED training are currently developing a more comprehensive REAP to create a complete teacher-training program that can achieve the objective of UPOU in producing more trainers to upskill and equip more educators in facing the new normal in education.
The SU faculty members attended the training with other teachers and educational administrators from all over the country.
UPOU is one of the constituent universities of the UP system. It is an autonomous university that offers undergraduate and graduate programs. As the pioneer institution to provide distance education in the Philippines, UPOU has been delivering quality higher education before and during the pandemic.
(With reports from Deo Mar E. Suasin, SU faculty member)
