RP educators share insights at Bangkok confab

BANGKOK, Thailand — Education is a vocation that has no borders and Filipino teachers have joined hands with their colleagues from all over the world to share insights and ways of turning the concept of the 21st century classroom into a reality.

Under the global Partners in Learning (PIL) initiative, teachers, school and education department officials and training specialists from Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam met in this city for an intensive seminar that aims to make teachers more effective through teamwork, integration of information and communication technology (ICT) into the curriculum and broad-spectrum support from governments, the private sector and parents.

The Philippine delegation to the Bangkok conference of PIL was, by far, the largest, with 30 educators from various public schools and the Department of Education (DepEd) learning the fine points of peer coaching and leadership among educators and policymakers to improve teacher skills.

These Filipino public school teachers were sent to the conference from the National Capital Region (NCR), Makati City, Mandaue City, Cebu City, Agusan del Sur, Biliran, Davao del Sur and Tawi-Tawi to work on peer coaching and policy-formulation strategies to open classrooms to the world using computer technology as a teaching and community-building tool from Aug. 29 to Sept. 1.

PIL research and evaluation head for Asia and the Pacific Vincent Quah calls the five-year PIL initiative an "investment in the future." The PIL initiative has been supporting teacher training and technology integration in teaching for the last two years and Quah told The STAR that it is designed to "really customize" the training of mentors "to the (educational) needs of each country."

Peer coaching is a system by which teachers are trained by their colleagues — whether in the same school, other schools in the same country or by their peers in other countries — using the Internet and other ICT tools.

Under the PIL system, teachers are taught to use ICT to provide greater depth and scope, as well as detail, to their classroom lessons. To a certain degree, PIL also provides training opportunities for teachers, as well as computers and moral and technical support to teachers listed in the PIL roster of members.

It also provides educators with an active and helpful community from which they may draw teaching resources and encouragement and through which they may tap the expertise of ICT-savvy colleagues.

Under the PIL program, peer coaches are charged with the task of helping their co-teachers learn how to use ICT to conceptualize lesson plans, compute and record students’ grades and enhance classroom and laboratory lessons.

PIL provides a training framework for harnessing technology, as well as faculty cooperation and support from policymakers, to open their classrooms to the world and provide students with a better quality of education. Training in the use of this basic framework has been provided for PIL members over the last two years and their customization of the PIL framework in their native lands is documented and shared through international conferences like the partner-training seminar.

Over the five-day seminar conducted by facilitators from the Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology, the PIL delegates exchanged views, problems, experiences and advice regarding peer coaching and policy support for the PIL initiative as they worked on common roadblocks in the workshop and discussion sessions.

The conference also provided its participants with a opportunity to network with each other and to learn how to be peer coaching facilitators hands-on.

Bonds of friendship and professional respect grew out of this initiative and the latest conference, a continuation of a previous set of training sessions in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia earlier this year.

Fr. Jomar Legaspi of the Learn.ph Foundation said the Philippine experience under the PIL program initiated by Microsoft and its partners has been very productive, with Filipino teachers being the first PIL group to conduct "outreach" activities by sharing their expertise and experiences with Vietnamese teachers.

In the Philippines, the PIL program has received strong support from the education sector — including the DepEd and its officials and teachers, Legaspi said. He also said several private sector groups, non-government organizations (NGOs) and individuals are active participants in the PIL program in the Philippines, though more support would help accelerate the process of improving the country’s education system.

"We will accept help from those who want to give it," Legaspi said. "We need to be willing to make that investment in education if we hope for a better life for our children. We need to be willing to change the system for the better and we need to be ready to stick to our decisions."

"There is so much we can do if we put our heads together," he added. "We will welcome partnerships with people who are committed to creating a better teaching and learning environment for our students and their teachers."

While there are many positive aspects to the PIL initiative worldwide, many problems hamper the blossoming of this program. "It is often difficult to get education officials to buy into the PIL program," one delegate from Australia said. "Sometimes they prefer to focus on politics rather than on what must be done."

Quah said some problems may be force majeure: "There is a school in India that sits on the outskirts of a town where the electricity is only available for one hour each day. With no electricity, the computers won’t run, but the teachers there are finding creative ways of solving the problem."

In the Philippines, the problem is often one of lack, Legaspi said. "There are schools that cannot afford computers, or, if they can, the computers they can afford may be old. Even then, there may not be enough machines for these schools."

"We cannot provide everything," Quah said, "but we are providing as much as we can. Others must come in and join in this effort to improve education."

In many countries where it is implemented, PIL lacks active support from school officials. In countries like the Philippines, financial constraints are a roadblock.

Training facilitator Shelee King George of the Puget Sound Center said the five-day training all boiled down to the realization that improving educators’ skills is "all about heart."

According to George, the teamwork and cooperation shown by the educators who took part in the PIL conference showed that "it is good for teachers to come out of their classrooms and work and learn as a team. They realize that it is okay to seek help and advice from their (colleagues), that working together helps them become better teachers."

Quah said the PIL program has the potential to create "great changes" in the way students are taught, beginning with the integration of ICT in school curricula and teaching methods.

"We are looking at a geometric growth in terms of how the PIL initiative will improve teaching," he added. "Just imagine how much progress will be made once five teachers learn peer coaching and ICT integration (in the classroom), just imagine it: Five teachers who learn to be (peer coaching) facilitators will train five more teachers each and these teachers will, in turn become peer coaches in their schools. That will have a ripple effect."

The bottom line, he said, "is that teachers are empowered and given the tools and support they need to make lessons more real and more relevant to their students." To learn more about the PIL initiative in the Philippines, visit www.pil.ph.