What is PPST?
INTRODUCTION
Role of teachers
Teachers play a crucial role in nation-building. Through quality teachers, the Philippines can develop holistic learners who are steeped in values, equipped with 21st-century skills, and able to propel the country to development and progress. This aligns with the Department of Education's vision of producing: “Filipinos who passionately love their country and whose values and competencies enable them to realize their full potential and contribute meaningfully to building the nation” (DepED Order No. 36, s. 2013).
Evidence shows unequivocally that good teachers are vital to raising student achievement, i.e., quality learning is contingent upon quality teaching. Hence, enhancing teacher quality becomes of utmost importance for long-term and sustainable nation-building.
The changes brought about by various national and global frameworks such as the K to 12 Reform and the ASEAN integration, globalization, and the changing character of the 21st-century learners necessitate improvement and adaptability of education and a call for the rethinking of the current teacher standards.
Professional standards for teachers
The Philippine Government has consistently pursued teacher quality reforms through several initiatives. As a framework of teacher quality, the National Competency-Based Teacher Standards (NCBTS) was institutionalized through CHED Memorandum Order No. 52, s. 2007 and DepED Order No. 32, s. 2009. It emerged as part of the implementation of the Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda (BESRA) and was facilitated by drawing on the learning considerations of programs, such as the Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao (BEAM), the Strengthening Implementation of Visayas Education (STRIVE) project and the Third Elementary Education Project (TEEP).
The K to 12 Reform (R.A. 10533) in 2013 has changed the landscape of teacher quality requirements in the Philippines. The reform process warrants an equivalent supportive focus on teacher quality – high-quality teachers who are properly equipped and prepared to assume the roles and functions of a K to 12 teacher.
The Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers, which is built on NCBTS, complements the reform initiatives on teacher quality from pre-service education to in-service training. It articulates what constitutes teacher quality in the K to 12 Reform through well-defined domains, strands, and indicators that provide measures of professional learning, competent practice, and effective engagement. This set of standards makes explicit what teachers should know, be able to do, and value to achieve competence, improved student learning outcomes, and eventually quality education. It is founded on teaching philosophies of learner-centeredness, lifelong learning, and inclusivity/inclusiveness, among others. The professional standards, therefore, become a public statement of professional accountability that can help teachers reflect on and assess their own practices as they aspire for personal growth and professional development.
Teacher quality in the Philippines
The Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers defines teacher quality in the Philippines. The standards describe the expectations of teachers’ increasing levels of knowledge, practice, and professional engagement. At the same time, the standards allow for teachers’ growing understanding, applied with increasing sophistication across a broader and more complex range of teaching/learning situations.
The following describes the breadth of 7 Domains that are required by teachers to be effective in the 21st Century in the Philippines. Quality teachers in the Philippines need to possess the following characteristics:
- recognize the importance of mastery of content knowledge and its interconnectedness within and across curriculum areas, coupled with a sound and critical understanding of the application of theories and principles of teaching and learning. They apply developmentally appropriate and meaningful pedagogy grounded on content knowledge and current research. They display proficiency in Mother Tongue, Filipino, and English to facilitate the teaching and learning process, as well as exhibit the needed skills in the use of communication strategies, teaching strategies, and technologies to promote high-quality learning outcomes.
- provide learning environments that are safe, secure, fair, and supportive to promote learner responsibility and achievement. They create an environment that is learning-focused and they efficiently manage learner behavior in a physical and virtual space. They utilize a range of resources and provide intellectually challenging and stimulating activities to encourage constructive classroom interactions geared towards the attainment of high standards of learning.
- establish learning environments that are responsive to learner diversity. They respect learners’ diverse characteristics and experiences as inputs to the planning and design of learning opportunities. They encourage the celebration of diversity in the classroom and the need for teaching practices that are differentiated to encourage all learners to be successful citizens in a changing local and global environment.
- interact with the national and local curriculum requirements. They translate curriculum content into learning activities that are relevant to learners and based on the principles of effective teaching and learning. They apply their professional knowledge to plan and design, individually or in collaboration with colleagues, well-structured and sequenced lessons that are contextually relevant, responsive to learners’ needs, and incorporate a range of teaching and learning resources. They communicate learning goals to support learner participation, understanding, and achievement.
- apply a variety of assessment tools and strategies in monitoring, evaluating, documenting, and reporting learners’ needs, progress, and achievement. They use assessment data in a variety of ways to inform and enhance the teaching and learning process and programs. They provide learners with the necessary feedback about learning outcomes that informs the reporting cycle and enables teachers to select, organize, and use sound assessment processes.
- establish school-community partnerships aimed at enriching the learning environment, as well as the community’s engagement in the educative process. They identify and respond to opportunities that link teaching and learning in the classroom to the experiences, interests, and aspirations of the wider school community and other key stakeholders. They understand and fulfill their obligations in upholding professional ethics, accountability, and transparency to promote professional and harmonious relationships with learners, parents, schools, and the wider community.
- value personal growth and professional development and exhibit high personal regard for the profession by maintaining qualities that uphold the dignity of teaching such as caring attitude, respect, and integrity. They value personal and professional reflection and learning to improve their practice. They assume responsibility for personal growth and professional development for lifelong learning.
The 7 Domains collectively comprise 37 strands that refer to more specific dimensions of teacher practices.
Domain 1, Content Knowledge and Pedagogy, is composed of seven strands:
- Content knowledge and its application within and across curriculum areas
- Research-based knowledge and principles of teaching and learning
- Positive use of ICT
- Strategies for promoting literacy and numeracy
- Strategies for developing critical and creative thinking, as well as other higher-order thinking skills
- Mother Tongue, Filipino, and English in teaching and learning
- Classroom communication strategies
Domain 2, Learning Environment, consists of six strands:
- Learner safety and security
- Fair learning environment
- Management of classroom structure and activities
- Support for learner participation
- Promotion of purposive learning
- Management of learner behavior
Domain 3, Diversity of Learners, consists of five strands:
- Learners’ gender, needs, strengths, interests and experiences
- Learners’ linguistic, cultural, socio-economic, and religious backgrounds
- Learners with disabilities, giftedness, and talents
- Learners in difficult circumstances
- Learners from Indigenous groups
Domain 4, Curriculum and Planning, includes five strands:
- Planning and management of the teaching and learning process
- Learning outcomes aligned with learning competencies
- Relevance and responsiveness of learning programs
- Professional collaboration to enrich teaching practice
- Teaching and learning resources including ICT
Domain 5, Assessment and Reporting, is composed of five strands:
- Design, selection, organization, and utilization of assessment strategies
- Monitoring and evaluation of learner progress and achievement
- Feedback to improve learning
- Communication of learner needs, progress, and achievement to key stakeholders
- Use of assessment data to enhance teaching and learning practices and programs
Domain 6, Community Linkages and Professional Engagement consists of four strands:
- Establishment of learning environments that are responsive to community contexts
- Engagement of parents and the wider school community in the educative process
- Professional ethics
- School policies and procedures
Domain 7, Personal Growth and Professional Development, contains five strands:
- Philosophy of teaching
- Dignity of teaching as a profession
- Professional links with colleagues
- Professional reflection and learning to improve practice
- Professional development goals
Career stages
Teacher professional development happens in a continuum from beginning to exemplary practice. Anchored on the principle of lifelong learning, the set of professional standards for teachers recognizes the significance of a standards framework that articulates developmental progression as teachers develop, refine their practice, and respond to the complexities of educational reforms.
The following statements, which define the work of teachers at different career stages, make explicit the elements of high-quality teaching for the 21st century. They comprise descriptors that have been informed by teachers’ understandings of what is required at each of the four Career Stages. The descriptors represent a continuum of development within the profession by providing a basis for attracting, preparing, developing, and supporting teachers.
Career Stage 1 or Beginning Teachers have gained the qualifications recognized for entry into the teaching profession. They have a strong understanding of the subjects/areas in which they are trained in terms of content knowledge and pedagogy. They possess the requisite knowledge, skills, and values that support the teaching and learning process. They manage learning programs and have strategies that promote learning based on the learning needs of their students. They seek advice from experienced colleagues to consolidate their teaching practice.
Career Stage 2 or Proficient Teachers are professionally independent in the application of skills vital to the teaching and learning process. They provide focused teaching programs that meet curriculum and assessment requirements. They display skills in planning, implementing, and managing learning programs. They actively engage in collaborative learning with the professional community and other stakeholders for mutual growth and advancement. They are reflective practitioners who continually consolidate the knowledge, skills, and practices of Career Stage 1 teachers.
Career Stage 3 or Highly Proficient Teachers consistently display a high level of performance in their teaching practice. They manifest an in-depth and sophisticated understanding of the teaching and learning process. They have high education-focused situation cognition, are more adept in problem-solving, and optimize opportunities gained from experience. Career Stage 3 Teachers work collaboratively with colleagues and provide them support and mentoring to enhance their learning and practice. They continually seek to develop their professional knowledge and practice by reflecting on their own needs, and those of their colleagues and students.
Career Stage 4 or Distinguished Teachers embody the highest standard for teaching grounded in global best practices. They exhibit exceptional capacity to improve their own teaching practice and that of others. They are recognized as leaders in education contributors to the profession, and initiators of collaborations and partnerships. They create lifelong impact in the lives of colleagues, students, and others. They consistently seek professional advancement and relevance in pursuit of teaching quality and excellence. They exhibit a commitment to inspire the education community and stakeholders for the improvement of education provision in the Philippines.
Domains/ Strands/ Indicators for Different Career Stages
Domain 1. Content Knowledge and Pedagogy
Domain 1 recognizes the importance of teachers’ mastery of content knowledge and its interconnectedness within and across curriculum areas, coupled with a sound and critical understanding of the application of theories and principles of teaching and learning. This Domain encompasses teachers’ ability to apply developmentally appropriate and meaningful pedagogy grounded on content knowledge and current research. It takes into account teachers’ proficiency in Mother Tongue, Filipino, and English in the teaching and learning process, as well as needed skills in the use of communication strategies, teaching strategies, and technologies to promote high-quality learning outcomes.
Domain 2. Learning Environment
Domain 2 highlights the role of teachers to provide learning environments that are safe, secure, fair, and supportive to promote learner responsibility and achievement. This Domain centers on creating a learning-focused environment and in which teachers efficiently manage learner behavior in a physical and virtual space. It highlights the need for teachers to utilize a range of resources and provide intellectually challenging and stimulating activities to encourage constructive classroom interactions geared towards the attainment of high standards of learning.
Domain 3. Diversity of Learners
Domain 3 emphasizes the central role of teachers in establishing learning environments that are responsive to learner diversity. This Domain underscores the importance of teachers’ knowledge and understanding of, as well as respect for, learners’ diverse characteristics and experiences as inputs to the planning and design of learning opportunities. It encourages the celebration of diversity in the classrooms and the need for teaching practices that are differentiated to encourage all learners to be successful citizens in a changing local and global environment.
Domain 4. Curriculum and Planning
Domain 4 addresses teachers’ knowledge of and interaction with the national and local curriculum requirements. This Domain encompasses their ability to translate curriculum content into learning activities that are relevant to learners and based on the principles of effective teaching and learning. It expects teachers to apply their professional knowledge to plan and design, individually or in collaboration with colleagues, well-structured and sequenced lessons. These lesson sequences and associated learning programs should be contextually relevant, responsive to learners’ needs and incorporate a range of teaching and learning resources. The Domain expects teachers to communicate learning goals to support learner participation, understanding and achievement.
Domain 5. Assessment and Reporting
Domain 5 relates to processes associated with a variety of assessment tools and strategies used by teachers in monitoring, evaluating, documenting and reporting learners’ needs, progress and achievement. This Domain concerns the use of assessment data in a variety of ways to inform and enhance the teaching and learning process and programs. It concerns teachers providing learners with the necessary feedback about learning outcomes. This feedback informs the reporting cycle and enables teachers to select, organize and use sound assessment processes.
Domain 6. Community Linkages and Professional Engagement
Domain 6 affirms the role of teachers in establishing school-community partnerships aimed at enriching the learning environment, as well as the community’s engagement in the educative process. This Domain expects teachers to identify and respond to opportunities that link teaching and learning in the classroom to the experiences, interests and aspirations of the wider school community and other key stakeholders. It concerns the importance of teachers’ understanding and fulfilling their obligations in upholding professional ethics, accountability and transparency to promote professional and harmonious relationships with learners, parents, schools and the wider community.
Domain 7. Personal Growth and Professional Development
Domain 7 focuses on teachers’ personal growth and professional development. It accentuates teachers’ proper and high personal regard for the profession by maintaining qualities that uphold the dignity of teaching such as a caring attitude, respect and integrity. This Domain values personal and professional reflection and learning to improve practice. It recognizes the importance of teachers’ assuming responsibility for personal growth and professional development for lifelong learning.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Assessment Data | Learner data obtained from diagnostic, formative and/or summative assessment practices |
---|---|
Classroom Structure | The physical set-up of the learning environment which generally includes the arrangement of chairs, tables, and other equipment in the classroom designed to maximize learning |
Content Knowledge | Competencies that teachers are expected to master for them to teach efficiently and effectively |
Culturally-appropriate teaching strategies | Teaching strategies that respect cultural differences between and among students and teachers |
Curriculum Areas | Different learning/subject areas taught and learned in the basic education curriculum |
Creative thinking skills | Involve exploring ideas, generating possibilities and looking for many right answers rather than just one. |
Critical thinking skills | It refers to the many kinds of intellectual skills that (in its most basic expression) occur when students are analyzing, evaluating, interpreting, or synthesizing information and applying creative thought to form an argument, solve a problem, or reach a conclusion. |
Developmentally Appropriate Learning Experience | Teaching and learning activities and tasks suited to the needs, abilities, skills, and developmental level of learners |
Diagnostic Assessment | Assesses what the learner already knows before instruction. It also analyzes the nature of difficulties and misconceptions that the learner might have, which, if undiagnosed, might affect their learning of newer concepts. Based on DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015, there are only two types of classroom assessment, namely, formative and summative. Formative assessment already covers diagnostic assessment. |
Differentiated Teaching | Teaching-learning processes involving a wide variety of texts, tasks, processes and products suited to the various learning needs of diverse students |
Domain | Broad conceptual sphere of teaching and learning practices defined by specific strands in the set of professional standards for teachers |
Formative Assessment | Refers to a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course. Formative assessment help teachers identify concepts that students are struggling to understand, skills they are having difficulty acquiring, or learning standards they have not yet achieved so that adjustments can be made to lessons, instructional techniques, and academic support. (Please also refer to DepED Order No. 8, s. 2015, p. 2 on its 3-paragraph definition.) |
Higher Order Thinking Skills | Complex thinking processes which include logical and critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis thinking enable individuals to reflect, solve problems and create products/solutions |
Indicators | Concrete, observable, and measurable teacher behaviors/practices covered in every strand in the set of professional standards for teachers |
Indigenous groups | People who have, under claims of ownership since time immemorial, occupied, possessed and utilized ancestral territories, shared common bonds of language, customs, traditions, and other unique cultural traits (RA 8371: IPRA) |
Learner Attainment Data | Evidence of learning, progress or achievement in learner performance is reflected in various assessment results, portfolios, class records and report cards |
Learner interests | Pertain to student's personal preferences, likes or dislikes, which must be considered in the teaching-learning process. The first step to differentiate for interests is to find out what learners care about and like to do. |
Learner needs | Refer to an observable gap between the learner's present knowledge or competence and the curriculum standards identified as necessary for the grade level. |
Learner strengths | Refer to the learner's present knowledge or competence that helps him/her in meeting the standards identified. |
Learning experiences | Refer to any interaction, course, program, or other involvement in which learning takes place, whether it occurs in traditional academic settings (schools, classrooms) or nontraditional settings (outside-of-school locations, outdoor environments), or whether it includes traditional educational interactions (students learning from teachers and professors) or nontraditional interactions (students learning through games and interactive software applications). |
Learning-Focused | Instructional and assessment strategies that target meaningful learning |
Learning goals | Reflect on long-term objectives to learn new skills, master new tasks, or understand new things. They refer to specific knowledge, skills, attitudes and values stated as curriculum competencies that children must develop as a result of the teaching-learning process |
Learning Outcomes | Products and performance targets through which students demonstrate the knowledge, skills and attitudes they have learned |
Learning Programs | Organized and sequenced set of strategies, activities and tasks that affect learning |
Learning/Teaching Contexts | Teaching/learning situations and all the circumstances in which learners learn from instruction |
Local curriculum | Educational curriculum content that is informed by and responsive to the "cultural and socioeconomic realities" (UNESCO, 2012; 31) of local populations to engage students in the learning process |
Mother tongue | The native language or the first language the learner learns as a child |
National curriculum | Subjects or topics taught in schools as prescribed by the Department of Education |
Non-verbal communication strategies | Communication that does not involve the use of words, e.g., facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice |
Non-violent discipline | A form of discipline that avoids the use of punishment such as spanking, verbal abuse and humiliation (see Positive discipline) |
Numeracy and literacy skills | Reading, writing, and mathematical skills needed to cope with everyday life |
Philosophy of teaching | Teachers' views, understandings and conceptualization of teaching and learning |
Physical space/physical learning environment | Any area conducive to learning which usually includes a safe classroom with appropriate devices for teaching and learning |
Positive discipline | Non-violent, respectful and diplomatic means of disciplining a learner or managing learner behavior through dialogue and counseling instead of punishment (see Non-violent discipline) |
Positive use of ICT | Responsible, ethical or appropriate use of ICT to achieve and reinforce learning |
Professional collaboration | Teachers working together with colleagues and other stakeholders to enrich the teaching-learning practice |
Professional learning | Something most teachers and educators do every day, as they reflect on their professional practice, work together and share ideas, and strive to improve learner outcomes. |
Professional network | Refers to the connected community of educators, which may also be an online community like LinkedIn among others. This is a vibrant, ever-changing group of connections to which teachers go to share and learn. These groups reflect their values, passions, and areas of expertise. |
Professional reflection | Refers to the teacher's capacity to reflect in action (while teaching) and on action (after teaching), which is an important feature of the professional development program for teachers. |
Professional standards for teachers | Public document that defines teacher quality through well-defined domains, strands, and indicators that provide measures of professional learning, competent practice, and effective engagement |
Purposive learning | Knowledge and skills acquisition are designed with a clear purpose, goal or objective in mind |
Research-based knowledge | Information, knowledge or data acquired through systematic investigation and logical study |
School/learning/community context | See learning context |
Strand | More specific dimensions of teacher practice under every domain in the set of professional standards for teachers |
Summative Assessment | Used to evaluate student learning, skill acquisition, and academic achievement after a defined instructional periodtypically at the end of a project, unit, quarter, semester, program, or school year. (Please also refer to DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015, pp. 2-3 for additional description of summative assessment.) |
Teaching and learning resources | Teaching aids and other materials that teachers use not only to enhance teaching and learning but also to assist learners in meeting the expectations for learning as defined by the curriculum. |
Verbal communication strategies | Oral or spoken means of transmitting information and meaning |
Virtual space | The online environment like social media where people can interact |
Wider school community | Refers to both internal and external stakeholders |
PPST Resource Package Module 1-24
0 Comments