A GUIDE TO TEACHING FOR PROFESSIONALS

ESPERANZA P. LIBUNAO, Ph.D., CPA, O.P.

A GUIDE TO TEACHING FOR PROFESSIONALS From an Eagle’s Eye View

Second Edition

PHILIPPINES

A GUIDE TO TEACHING FOR PROFESSIONALS From an Eagle's Eye View Š 2017 Esperanza P. Libunao Published and distributed by Paulines Publishing House Daughters of St. Paul 2650 F.B. Harrison Street 1302 Pasay City, Philippines E-mail: edpph@paulines.ph Website: www.paulines.ph Cover design and photo: Ann Marie Nemenzo, FSP All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

1st Printing 2017 ISBN 978-971-590-831-3

at the service of the Gospel and culture

FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION If it is the hand of a mother that rocks the cradle of the world, then it is the mind of a teacher that rocks the cradle of development of the world. It is through the palm of a teacher’s hand that individuals are molded to become relevant, significant, and productive citizens of a nation. The education and training that they receive from teachers, will determine more purposely the direction of their lives in this world and hence, the impact that each will have in the over-all direction of a nation.

A teacher’s responsibility therefore, extends beyond the boundaries of the classroom. The student’s knowledge and training, his or her successes and failures in school will have long lasting effect on his or her personality and intellectual development that would somehow be the blueprints for his or her direction in life.

This book actually, has long been overdue in the closet of my consciousness. During the more than forty years of teaching, nineteen years of which were spent as dean in several colleges and universities at the college of commerce and accountancy, I have seen the need for a teaching guide for teachers in the professional fields.

The principles, procedures, and observations discussed in this book, came from personal experience, observations and associations with educators as well as from readings and research. Some principles were learned from my professors in Ph. D. in Development Education at the Camarines Sur State

Agricultural College now Central Bicol State University of Agriculture. Special thanks are due to Dr. Ophelia M. Dancel, Dr. Cely Binoya, Dr. Belen Relleno (R .I.P), and Dr. Luz Napoles.

Valuable suggestions were likewise received from Most Rev. Manolo A. delos Santos, D.D., Bishop of Virac, Catanduanes. I would like to thank them for the many beautiful thoughts and ideas that enriched this second edition of this book. I would like to thank as well my countless friends and colleagues who contributed much to my store of wisdom and knowledge on how to educate humans.

Also, I say my gratitude with prayers to our late President of Ateneo de Naga, Fr. Raul J. Bonoan, S.J., who was an epitomĂŠ of a dedicated and tireless champion of education for the Filipino, for having given me the opportunity to be trained in the tenets of Jesuit education. That summer training further motivated and strengthened my conviction and belief that to educate students totally, we must inspire them to excel and aim for nothing less than the highest standard of learning.

This book therefore is written that it may serve as a guide to professionals who are in education. The difficulty of adapting oneself to the teaching field is not an easy task, especially if one has no guiding principles to follow on how to conduct a class. I hope that they will find this book useful in becoming real teachers.

DR. E. P. LIBUNAO

FOREWORD TO THE FIRST EDITION This book is intended for teachers who view teaching not only as a noble profession, but a skill, a human art, and above all, a mission. It is written by one who has not only researched in the art, but has lived through the day to day struggles of imparting wisdom of the ages and the new discoveries of today’s world.

Esperanza P. Libunao has done teachers and students a great service by putting into writing the fruits of her long experience as a teacher. The book teaches how to teach.

I am happy that the author, a distinguished faculty member of the Ateneo de Naga, has undertaken this task. The long tradition of Jesuit education places importance on personal care of students, careful preparation, effective methodology, and proper classroom management. All these elements are treated by the author in her book.

The underlying assumption of the whole book is that what matters above all is not so much its content or form but the person of the teacher. We say in my school that the task of the teacher, whatever be the field of learning, is to form “men and women for others.” The individual teacher’s person and sense of values are critical in the complex and often unpredictable process of forming the young into such men and women. This book will undoubtedly help in this complex and often thankless task of the teacher in today’s Philippine classrooms.

REV FR. RAUL J. BONOAN, S.J.

President, Ateneo de Naga University 1989-1999 (1935-1999)

TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One

Spirituality in the Workplace Chapter Two

Learning to Teach Chapter Three

Teacher’s Philosophy of Education

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6 10

Chapter Four

Psychology of Learning in the Classroom

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Chapter Five

Management of the Classroom in a Nutshell Chapter Six

Teaching Strategies Chapter Seven

Conducting Recitations Chapter Eight

The Art of Questioning Chapter Nine

Testing and Evaluation of Results Chapter Ten

Problem Solving in the Classroom Chapter Eleven

Research in Teaching Chapter Twelve

Qualities Expected of a Teacher Chapter Thirteen

Ethics in the Teaching Profession Chapter Fourteen

The Vocation to Teaching

23 34 72 88 96 118 123 128 145 153

Chapter two

Learning to Teach On Becoming a Teacher For the professional, who did not take an education course, but who finally decided to teach, much learning has to be done in order to become an effective and real teacher. Perhaps, one may not have the necessary academic background to prepare him or her for the teaching profession, but for possessing the academic and professional license of one's profession, he or she qualifies to teach. The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) requires that professional courses be taught by professionals related to those courses. For instance, only Doctors of Medicine can teach medicine, only Certified Public Accountants can teach accounting and taxation subjects, only Lawyers can teach law, and so on. Indeed, they are not well versed in the rudiments of teaching but they have the deep desire and willingness to help prepare the young for a career and for life.

Becoming a teacher could be a personal choice or it could be by design or maybe by accident. However if one becomes a teacher, one should take the responsibility to be able to exert effort to become an effective and real teacher. One should research or learn better methods than how one was taught by his or her teachers. Time is dynamic, it is constantly moving towards change and that change should be for the better or for development.

The Qualities of a Good Teacher Basic to becoming a good teacher, is first, to build upon qualities that one already possesses. Foremost of which are 6

one’s intellectual qualities. Most teaching activities involve intellectual exercises. Intellectual qualities are part of the make-up of a teacher.1 Another desirable quality is social competence. Teachers must be able to have the confidence to speak before the class, to answer students' queries or respond to them positively, to lead them to academic discussions, and also to adapt to them.

Most of their teaching time involves activities of interacting with students inside the classroom.

Versatility is another quality required of teachers. Good teachers must be able to shift comfortably from one activity to another as the situation demands. For instance, they may shift from listening to talking to the class; talking with can groups; performing administrative functions; designing classroom activities; evaluating and grading students; meeting a parent; guiding students; and such other varied activities expected of teachers in school. There are many and diverse roles indeed that a teacher has to play.

Teachers must be able to make their lessons most interesting and their class a time for which their students would be looking forward to attending not a period that they would rather be absent and avoid. Creativity on the part of teachers would make their classes really interesting. They should think of new ways of presenting their lessons every time. Every lesson should be that even old ideas are taught like fresh ideas. They should experiment with new techniques and new methods. They should however, be spontaneous and relaxed in their creativity.

Most often, teachers are expected to be adaptable and be able to manage unpleasant schoolroom situations and turn them to pleasant times by their tact, charm, and refined manners.

1. Thoughts and Reflections for Teachers, De La Salle College, 1962.

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CHAPTER six

Teaching Strategies

Excellence in Teaching and Learning The ultimate aim of all teaching is the facilitation of student learning—more specifically: • To help the student to achieve the learning objectives of the particular course; • To develop critical thinking and sound judgment; • To acquire skills for performance in the workplace.

Teachers must make their teaching fun, if they want to make their students appreciate their subject. Learning is much more effective when students enjoy the way teachers teach and where the classroom climate make them learn better.

Self–fulfillment for teachers mean they are able to reach each students in the class in the most positive and effective way. Reaching out to students with different personalities is a challenge to be handled with calm disposition and positive intervention.

There are many options open to creative teachers. Much researches and teaching designs have been developed by educational scientists through the years. Most of these strategies were found to be effective and interesting. It is up for the teachers to adopt the most appropriate technique to suit their subject. A combination of many methods would be interesting for both the teachers and the students.

Students' Learning Style Foremost among the basic principles in understanding students is to know the students' learning style. Learning 34

styles means the preferred ways of understanding, thinking, and processing information by the learner.

The learning process is divided into: visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic modes of input and response.1 Many factors affect the learning process and these are: environmental, emotional, psychological, and relationships.

Students can also learn either actively or reflectively. They learn actively through dynamic discussions and debates.

Some students learn reflectively by simply listening with some participation after thorough analysis and deep thinking.

Kahler classified the learners into six types, with each type having distinct characteristics when it comes to learning styles. According to him, the reactor, is a graphic organizer, loves storytelling, peer teaching, likes to see activities posted in bulletin boards, and enjoys discussion groups. The workaholic is good in paraphrasing, also a graphic organizer, likes mnemonics, generates questions to initiate discussions, loves to make outlines, and analyzes events through timelines. The persister also loves to paraphrase, likes mnemonics, debates, asking questions, and participates actively in discussion groups. The dreamer is described as a graphic organizer, loves summarizing topics, making outlines, and using colors to highlight projects or assignments. Another personality type is the rebel who loves mnemonics, role-playing, placing announcements on bulletin boards, designing and making costumes, using colors in projects, active in promoting events, loves music and games, and drama. Finally, the promoter is a student who loves to conduct peer teaching, constructs student-generated questions, and also loves role playing, debates, dynamic activities, games, drama, and storytelling.

Knowing the characteristics of each personality type will help teachers to design classroom activities that will tap the talent of each personality type. In so doing, they will have a 1. Bandler and Grinder, 1988, “Here’s How to Reach Me.�

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very dynamic class where all types of students participate in the Teaching-learning process.

Figure 1 shows an assessment matrix of preferred instruction style and motivation of each personality type.2

Internal

Involved

One-to-one or alone Auditory*

Promoter

Persister

Alone Tactile* Dreamer

Rebel

External Directable*extrinsically motivated*other-oriented

Figure 1. Preferred instruction style and motivation.

2. Kahler, T. 1979, “Personality Types�

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Task-oriented*responsible*introverted

Workaholic

Reactor

Withdrawn

Extroverted*responsive*group-oriented

Initiating * intrinsically motivated * self-oriented

In summary, Figure 23 below shows the learning activities suited to each personality type of students.

TYPE

LEARNING ACTIVITY

Reactor

Graphic organizers, storytelling, peer teaching, bulletin boards, costumes, discussion groups.

Workaholic

Paraphrasing, graphic organizers, mnemonics, student-generated questions, debates, discussion groups.

Persister

Paraphrasing, mnemonics, peer teaching, student-generated questions, debates, discussion groups.

Dreamer

Graphic organizers, summarizing, outlining, color coding

Rebel

Mnemonics, role-playing, bulletin boards, costumes, color- coding, movement, music, games, reenactments

Promoter

Peer teaching, student-generated questions, roleplaying, debates, movements, games, reenactments, storytelling

Figure 2. Classroom learning activities suited for each personality type.

3. Kahler, T. 1979, “Personality Types�

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CHAPTER ELEVEN

Research in Teaching

What Is Research?

Research is operationally defined as a scientific or scholarly investigation or inquiry. Or it could also be taken in the context of the process of a continuing search for knowledge, based on experiments or from what has been compiled from past studies of scholars as they relate to the development, problem, or issues of the present.

A certain writer said: “If you borrowed ideas from one or two persons, you are a plagiarist; if you borrowed ideas from three to ten persons, you are a researcher; but if you borrowed ideas from more than a hundred persons, you are a scholar.�

Teachers are expected to be scholarly in their teachings to students. Therefore, knowledge of principles, concepts, and applications of those concepts, should not only come from one point of view. Teachers should be able to present the different angles or aspects of a theory or principle to the student. This method would instill into the students: appreciation for analysis of contrast, relationships of variables, and integration of factors that get into the process of proving the validity of a concept or principle.

Where would teachers source the different points of view, if not from research? Referring to different scholarly works in a particular field or discipline is a sign of intellectual humility and intellectual curiosity. By looking into and citing the researches done by different authors or writers, teachers would be able to make their own evaluations, analyses, or even contribute to the improvement of the subject or principle 123

through their own researches or experiments, findings and conclusions.

There is such a thing as the “universality of the human mind.” Somehow, the credit for originality is given to the person who first spoke and documented the result of his or her researches or experiments. But it does not mean that other people in other parts of the world did not have the idea or thought.

Research and Evaluation In education, teachers evaluate academic achievement, aptitude, interest, and ability. Or shall we ask: Do teachers really evaluate these elements that affect the learning of students? Perhaps, for teachers who are degree holders in an Education Course, they do evaluate aptitude, interest, and even abilities of students, through tests that are standardized to achieve the desired results. But for professional teachers, these tests other than the academic achievement tests are alien matters. The question is: Is there a need for professional teachers to be able to somehow evaluate their students’ aptitude, interest, and ability in relation to their subject or course of study? Will knowing how to evaluate these matters affect the validity of their evaluation of the students’ academic achievement? Educational psychologists have argued that indeed, there is a need to evaluate students’ aptitude, interest, and ability (as these are manifested in their behavior), for without evaluating these in some way, teachers will not sufficiently be able to know if they have accomplished their teaching goals and objectives.

Now, the next question is—how shall evaluation be made to become meaningful and relevant?

Bringing back to mind the concept of teaching by objective as discussed in Chapter 2, it is pointed out that the teacher should lead the students into appreciating the learning objectives or goals of a lesson or topic in order to effect or 124

cause learning. That is, to cause desirable behavioral change in the learner or student. Therefore, proper evaluation of instructional programs or modules and of students’ learning can determine whether the learning objectives have been met. A teacher must understand that planning teaching and learning objectives and planning a teaching program or module are integral parts of the same process and these are accomplished most efficiently through research.

Teachers can be confident in their evaluation of the students’ performance, if they have the working knowledge of being able to determine quite objectively, the academic achievement of the students in relation to their desired behavioral change. A behavior can be seen and measured.

Objectives should involve behavior. They should not involve absence of behaviors or not-behaviors. Evaluation also provides feedback as to whether goals are attained or not.

Professional teachers should do research to widen their knowledge in knowing how to measure changes in behavior as they relate to the planned teaching and learning objectives.

Research and Teaching-Learning for Mastery Teachers would make their teaching psychologically conducive to the learner if they have the initial assumption that students have the capability to learn what is expected of them.

The teachers, however, also recognize the fact that there is a need for them to guide the students through different learning stages to reach the same behavioral objectives. Teachers then must know each student in the same way they know their subject matter.

If teachers aim to teach with mastery, they have to reinforce their knowledge from the writings of many scholars. If they want their students to master what they are teaching them, then they must constantly evaluate and involve the students in using feedback to determine their weaknesses to correct or 125

strengthen such weaknesses; and to highlight their strengths and achieve mastery.

Research will elevate students’ esteem for their teachers. A scholarly teacher should not teach only from the textbook. His or her explanations and discussion must be supplemented by other readings from the same or related fields. A research-oriented teacher can easily induce students to do research as well.

Research as a Function of Education In most Philippine colleges and universities, college teachers use western material in their teaching. Most often, these materials are totally adopted, when they should be adapted to suit local needs, requirements, and conditions. This reliance on imported knowledge is primarily due to absence of available materials from local research or it could be in the total absence of local research. Developing local research in our Philippine colleges and universities would greatly enrich instruction with course contents that are relevant, applicable, and familiar to the students. Teachers should embark on doing research works, not only as supplements of knowledge, but also as improvements or discoveries of new knowledge.

Many colleges and universities encourage and support researches of teachers. With the lack of textbooks especially in specialized fields in the local market, teachers should write books. Foreign books more often than not are too expensive for students to afford. With the very high cost of tuition fees, locally written books adapted to local environments will greatly enhance the learning process of the students, aside from lessening the cost of their education to affordable levels.

Many studies have shown that the teaching effectiveness of teachers is enhanced when they do research works. Their ability to organize materials aids in better planning and teaching strategies.

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The Commission on Higher Education of the Philippines (CHED), has included research as a function of education, together with teaching, community service or extension work, and productivity for the public colleges and universities.

Oliver P. Kolstoe wrote: “If you can’t teach, do good research; and if you can’t do good research, teach good.” However a teacher interprets this, the essence is, research indeed is a teacher’s beacon light to becoming knowledgeable and effective.

If teachers want to benefit from the research program of the school, then they must familiarize themselves with the requirements or rules of the institution on how to make research proposals, especially for those researches that would need funding, either from the institution or from outside funding agencies.

“Teach a child the way he or she should go, he or she will not stray from it while he or she lives.”

Proverbs 22:6

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CHAPTER TWELVE

Qualities Expected of a Teacher

The Teachers from the Eyes of the Students Teachers have a very grave responsibility, by the very nature of their work. They mold and develop the mind, character, and physical self of students to make them positively different persons in preparation for their future. In the teachers' hands lie the direction the world will take in the near future.

Tomorrow’s glory will depend on how our young people of today are educated and trained to manage themselves so that they can manage the world of tomorrow. Teachers are active participants in this process of shaping the minds of the future.

Because of too complicated activities of making a living in this modern world, the task of shaping the minds and hearts of the youth has been relegated by parents to the school, to the teachers.

Students look up to their teachers from early childhood as models of virtue, professional maturity, and refinement. As virtuous persons they are in the eyes of a young person, full of wisdom, who know just how to draw the pattern and shape of their lives. Students may not learn too much of academics from their teachers, but from their virtues. They are an abiding reflection of all the worth-while things for which humankind live.1 Such virtues of meekness, humility, piety, prudence, patience, zeal, vigilance, reserve, and generosity are what students look for in teachers. Maybe a teacher may not have all 1. De la Salle College, “Thoughts and Reflections for Teachers,” 1962.

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