Will Philippines Update its Curriculum to prepare Next Generation of Teachers?

To begin the process of updating the curriculum to prepare the Next Generation of Teachers, the Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) organized a “Consultative Meeting on the Information Communication Technology (ICT) Related Courses in the Current Teacher Education Curriculum” last 1 July 2010. This took place at CHED’s Auditorium in Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.

The consultative meeting gathered 75 participants representing experts in the fields of education and ICT. Deans and administrators of public and private universities and colleges throughout the Philippines also attended. It was a rare opportunity to share experiences and issues how the current ICT-related courses in the teacher education curriculum are being implemented.

At present, the national government, through CHED Memorandum Order No. 30, mandates all public and private teacher education institutions to deliver six ICT-related courses, namely:

i.    Computer 1
ii.   Educational  Technology 1
iii.  Educational Technology 2
iv.  Field Study 3
v.   Technology in Pre-School Education
vi.  Assistive Technology in Special Education

Teacher education institutions (TEIs) apparently have varied capacities. A few good institutions were able to comply with the nationally mandated courses and in some cases were offering more courses on top of the minimum requirements to make their students competitive. However, there were also indications that there are still institutions struggling to implement the nationally mandated courses due to lack of infrastructure and untrained faculty.

However, there are also shining examples in the country. During the last five years, many TEIs decided to strengthen their institutions through intensive faculty development and equipment upgrading. One path, exemplified by De La Salle University, is to hire experts to ensure ICT integration in all faculties. The other path, exemplified by Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, is to join the Intel Teach program.

 

The last curriculum update was made in 2004. According to CHED, this is the right time to review and update the courses in order to make teacher education in the Philippines comparable to other countries. UNESCO Bangkok and Intel, which has an on-going partnership to assist teacher education institutions in integrating ICT, will provide technical and financial support to CHED. 

Developing 21st Century Teacher Education Curriculum in Vietnam

Hanoi National University of Education (HNUE) along with ten other universities and three teacher training colleges in Vietnam participated in the UNESCO Bangkok Curriculum Development Workshop. Thirty-six participants, mostly senior faculty members, received intensive training for five days. They reviewed and updated ICT-related courses in the existing teacher education curriculum.

After the workshop, the participants said they learned the “principles, models and steps to build an ICT-integrated curriculum” and the “relationship of technical skills, content and pedagogy in the curriculum development process”. For others, they have found the “roads to integrate ICT into the curriculum” or “how to develop the next generation curriculum”. Everyone agreed it was a useful workshop and met most of their expectations.

The Curriculum Development Workshop was held last 14-18 June 2010 at the HNUE Campus in Hanoi, Vietnam. UNESCO Bangkok and Hanoi offices in cooperation with HNUE officials made this workshop possible. VVOB Vietnam, an international NGO working in the areas of ICT and teacher education, sponsored the participation of additional participants including translators. Intel Vietnam and the Ministry of Education and Training gave interesting presentations to update the participants on existing initiatives on ICT in teacher training.

This is just the first step to develop the next generation of teachers in Vietnam. The institutions present in the workshops needs to make a decision whether to update their curriculum or not. Faculty also needs more training to better deliver the ICT-related courses. UNESCO, VVOB and Intel will continue to assist these institutions to achieve this objective.