The training of a multi-grade teacher

BESRA (Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda) is the major school reform of the Department of Education. Two major items in the BESRA is to make the Basic Education curriculum relevant to the 21st century, as well as the transformation of the teacher training course. A particular problem is the case of multi-grade schools.

The little schoolhouse in the prairie

For years Michael Landon’s television series, Little House on the Prairie, delighted a worldwide audience of family viewers who watched how early Americans, represented by Michael’s family, pioneered life in the wilderness of a new country. Life centered in the little schoolhouse where the children of the pioneers, whose ages ranged from six to 16, learned together under one teacher. The school in the prairie is a multi-grade school.

In the Philippine archipelago there are thousands of small villages far from the cities with small populations. Their communities are found in fishing villages by the coastlines and islands. There are also farm villages in the highlands and numerous mountain ranges crossing Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Since electricity is not available in many of these places, the widespread Knowledge Channel of ABS-CBN is not likely to reach them.

Using a multi-grade school, they need specially trained teachers and a “continuum curriculum per subject.” The conventional education system of the Philippines is entirely dependent on textbooks usually containing abstract ideas which conventional teachers make students memorize. These facts and figures cannot relate to our knowledge society since these areas are far from the culture-oriented towns or municipalities. The parents seldom leave the villages during their whole lifetime and, therefore, not exposed to the realities of modern civilization.

What the children need are tangible learning materials and apparata like puzzle maps of the world, Asia and the Philippines, as well as Math rods, beads and number cards that they can easily manipulate and comprehend.

SEA CLLSD to the rescue

The purpose of the Southeast Asian Center for Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development (a Philippine bid to UNESCO) is to assist DepEd, TESDA and CHED in re-engineering traditional curriculum. These would require a transformation of the curriculum and practice in the teacher training colleges and universities to make lifelong learning from infancy, childhood to adulthood sustainable and relevant to modern needs.

As early as 1966, after training at the Centro Montessori Internazionale in Perugia and Bergamo, Italy, I personally trained multi-grade teachers using the scientific Montessori system and its corresponding materials. From preschool to grade school to high school, all the subjects are systematically organized following a “continuum curriculum”. Today, there is a total of eight teacher trainors for the theoretical lecture and 15 for the practical training.

What are its principles and practices? With special apparata, teachers could “gradate the difficulties” of reading, writing, grammar, math and geometry, including the sciences (physical, natural, and social science). It requires the complete tools of work (not play) in a “prepared environment”. This special environment conditions the learners to love work and acquire an orderly system of day to day life. This is the missing factor in the traditional school.

The universally tested materials cleverly “isolates each lesson” to enable the students to concentrate. All items have a “control of error” built-in to enable the student to correct any error by himself. Thus, the trained teacher is more relaxed and can attend to individual pupils who may be too shy, hyperactive, or very intelligent. Each material has a box, tray or basket that enables the student to finish the “cycle of work”. The “cycle” refers to the individual student’s ability to choose and decide which material to use, work on it repeatedly, then return it to its rightful place.

A special feature is the training of movement with precision in work. Practical Life activities including personal grooming, housekeeping, care of the environment and livelihood skills balance the academic training. Stanford University labels it “engineering of movement.”

The LLSD multi-grade curriculum

Let me lay out the culture-loaded “cosmic curriculum” and its corresponding materials, which can enrich the DepEd Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) for Philippine preschools, grade schools and high schools. The “Prepared Environment” is a smorgasbord of scientific, universally tested apparata, which satisfies the inner developmental needs common to all children of the world regardless of social status, race or religion.

English and Pilipino lessons include sounds and phonograms, gradated reading from nouns, verbs, phrases to full sentences making use of sandpaper letters, kartilya cards, and reading baskets. First reading booklets or Primers in English and Pilipino are gradated in difficulty. Grammar is introduced with a farm house with plastic toy pigs, chicken, cows, etc. Noun reading cards identify the animals followed by adjective cards (black pig, yellow chicks, etc.). Conjunction cards link them together. Preposition cards direct the child to “place the black pig inside the barn… the fat hen in front of the barn…”. Reading and writing skills are acquired as early as preschool.

For Math Arts and Geometry: lessons in numeration of 1 to 10 make use of Number Rods, and Spindle Box, which introduces “zero”. The advanced lesson on odd and even numbers are clearly shown with the Counter Box. To give the large framework of numbers, the Decimal Golden beads (has cheaper wooden version like the Cusiniare rods) provide the concepts of units, tens, hundreds and thousands.

Social studies vs. cultural arts

The subject of science in a multi-grade classroom should cover physical science (geography), natural science (botany, zoology), as well as social and human science. These are the elements of culture.

The puzzle maps of the world, of Asia, and the Philippines can provide geography lessons from preschool to high school. Even their parents, who are usually illiterate, can have sessions using this. Being fishermen and farmers, both Botany and Zoology picture nomenclature cards will be valuable. Teacher training courses in the Philippines focus only on Biology and do not include Botany and Zoology as European schools do.

A general history of the world that embraces the Philippines should be introduced using the lesson of the River Civilization. This will make mixed-age group students understand the broad story of how the Philippine culture acquired its European and American heritage over and above its Asian legacy.

The current BEC Social Studies curriculum simply focuses on the family and community in the primary grades. History, given in the intermediate grades, is memory exercises on names of provinces, their heroes, heritage sites, if any, and its products, including the name of presidents from past to the present.

The interdependence of men

The various “community helpers”: street sweepers, vendors, policemen, doctors, carpenters, farmers, etc. are usually memorized by children in a traditional classroom. It can be enriched if the whole class discusses the various workers who help provide the rice on their table. A lively discussion would bring out the chain of activities of the farmers, haulers, drivers, millers, rice packers, truck drivers, sea cargo carrier, more drivers, including market, grocery and sari-sari store keepers. Each child can be led to narrate the occupation of their parents. Eventually, discovering that each of them are not just producers of basic needs, but also consumers. They would conclude that we need each other, the valuable lesson that mankind survives because of the “interdependence of men.”

The LLSD curriculum is a harmonized study of the Basic Needs of Man both material and spiritual. People’s food, clothing and shelter are derived from the Animal Kingdom (Zoology), Plant Kingdom (Botany), and the Mineral Kingdom. It helps the child understand that the land, water and air enveloping planet Earth is filled with life that provides the needs of people. Thus, UNESCO refers to this as “Man and the Biosphere”. This major project emphasizes man’s responsibility to conserve the biodiversity of planet Earth in order to survive.

The History Time Line marked 20 centuries B.C. and 20 centuries A.D. traces the discovery of food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. It educates the students in all levels on how men in the past sacrificed to provide modern 21st century society with the best in life.

How the multi grade teacher adapts ESD to each age group

The multi grade teacher has to be trained with a “prepared environment” complete with functional apparata earlier mentioned. Each has several exercises adaptable to all levels. Applied math for older children may be included while preparing affordable snacks or small meals. Students may bring ingredients from their backyard as they are taught applied Botany and Zoology.

The theoretical lessons consist of understanding the built-in sustainability of three age groups of 3 to 6, 6 to 12, and 12 to 18. Nature provides them with ease in Learning to Be, Learning to Learn, and Learning to Work - UNESCO’s Pillars of 21st Century Education. Standard LLSD materials for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) for Life are in open shelves classified as Practical Life, Language, Math and Cultural Arts.

This “new teacher” must live up to the title of “keeper of the flame”. The flame within the child is God’s flame. One day, it will light the destiny of the nation.

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