MANILA, Philippines - In the field of education, standards evolve rapidly as new information are made available. Educators need to be up to date in their understanding of these new information — they need to stay abreast of the latest developments so that they are prepared to teach more effectively.
Early next month, leading publishing company Rex Book Store Inc. (RBSI), will once again bring together hundreds of top educators in the Philippines in its Annual Educators’ Congress, to learn and discuss the current trends in curriculum design and teaching with the theme “Understanding by Design + Differentiated Instruction” (UbD+DI),
One of the highlights of the Rex Annual Educators’ Congress is the presence of foreign experts who will frontline the two-day sessions. Jay McTighe, a renowned curriculum developer, who together with Dr. Grant Wiggins created and introduced UbD, and Carol Ann Tomlinson, a University of Virginia professor and author of over 250 books and educational materials, notably on the subject of Differentiated Instruction, will be facilitating sessions via live video patch. Dr. Nanci Smith, a proponent of and international consultant in DI for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), and Janie Ray Smith, a member of the ASCD UbD and Leadership Cadres who specializes in supporting schools through UbD workshops, will be sharing their extensive experience and knowledge with the conference participants in person.
The key topic of RBSI’s congress — Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction — are currently the subject of many educational conversations, both here and abroad. The high level of interest in these two approaches to curriculum and teaching comes as no surprise, given their logical and practical appeal.
“Our educators need a framework that will help them develop the ability of young learners to acquire, process, and understand information. At the same time, because teachers have to deal with the diversity of learners in their classrooms, they also need a structure that helps them bridge and address varied learning rates of their students, so they can teach more effectively. Through the Rex Educators’ Congress, we hope to share new ideas and methodologies that will address these needs of our partners in education”, said Don Timothy Buhain, chief operating officer of RBSI.