ABREGANA For our culture to be of any lasting value to us it must nurture those abilities that contribute to our continuing survival and prosperity not only as individuals but as a nation. It is the premise of this CoreBook that cultural and artistic work and, indeed, any form of work that is to benefit the nation, be CONSCIOUSLY ALIGNED towards the cultivation of our capacity to survive and prosper. This capacity may be facilitated by teachers, artists, mga Mandiriwa - anyone engaged in the propagation of wisdom and learning for an ikot-paangat society. (I use the term ikot-paangat to mean evolution, the general purpose of education, consciousness and life. The word Mandiriwa is another coined term meaning artist, teacher, and wisdom-worker. Mandiriwa Ed Maranan suggests spirit-mover.) This CoreBook offers ideas from different sources to equip the Mandiriwa. Many of the ideas are indigenized for easier and more gut-level understanding. Mind map and concept web, for example, are referred to as salundiwa thought-, idea-, spirit-, or essence-catcher. To be particularly relevant to the current lesson-designing needs of our Department of Education frontline high school teachers, parallels to Understanding by Design1 ideas are indicated.

The PalayBigasKanin CoreBook is a process-oriented package that may be continually evolved and used for introducing creative and intellectually-challenging content to young people in enjoyable and exciting ways. The songs of PBK hope to be the melody line that pulls everything else through towards three culture-building objectives: Culture-Building Objectives SiningBayan2 is Social Artistry3 and integrated education using the arts not only as lesson content or subject matter but as tools for learning in areas not usually considered art. SiningBayan addresses the mandiriwas need to work with learners in a holistic way and to present an integrated worldview to balance the detail-heavy content of standard education.

1 Understanding by Design (UbD) is a framework for improving student achievement developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. UbD emphasizes the teacher's critical role as a designer of student learning. UbD works within the standards-driven curriculum to help teachers clarify learning goals, devise revealing assessments of student understanding, and craft effective and engaging learning activities. http://www.grantwiggins.org/ubd/ubd.lasso. 2 Coined by Joey Ayala, Siningbayan Art of Nation Building is published by the University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration and Governance, Bagong Lumad Artists Foundation Inc., and the United Nations Development Program. The book is downloadable at www.blafi.org. 3. Social Artistry is the art of enhancing human capacities in the light of social complexity. It seeks to bring new ways of thinking, being and doing to social challenges in the world.

http://www.jeanhouston.org/socialartistry-whatitis-new.cfm Also defined by community-builder Tony Meloto of Gawad Kalinga as art whose canvas is society.

Bayanihan is competent and harmonious group activity. PBK provides rich material for student-led and project-driven work, a phrase encountered in Control Theory (a.k.a Choice Theory) in the Classroom by Dr. William Glasser. Such work develops and drills the skills required for successful communal undertakings. SariLikha is native creativity, the grammar of experience as manifested in various ways. A spontaneously-hummed melody becomes a song, a play on words becomes a poem, a gesture leads to a dance, and a pencil doodle becomes a painting or a business plan. SariLikha is getting people to express, play and work with complex ideas without too many rules. Creativity needs exercise just like any muscle, and in a world changing at the speed of bytes creative muscle is a necessity. Culture: a working definition

School is one of the major reproductive organs of a nations culture. CoreBook Objective: Siningbayan, to build a participative and integrative culture

Lipunan - interaction between culture (civil society), polity (government) and

economics (business) How will your learners enrich our society, Lipunan?

CoreBook Objective: Bayanihan, to build a competent and harmonious society Tao - the individual who inhabits and co-creates society through learning

How can you engage your learners Kamalayan and fultill his Motivations through the Arts? CoreBook Objective: SariLikha to motivate native creativity in people

Ikot-Paangat - the general purpose of education building a culture of life-long skills that go into societys survival and prosperity at the highest possible level

Contemplacy/ Pagsaloob and Understanding Articulacy / Pagsalinaw and Other Evidence Operacy / Pagsaganap and Performance

Imagining a Better Reality

Understanding By Design Designing A Better Reality

Culture: a working definition4 School is one of the major reproductive organs of a nations culture. Culture is how we interact with everything and everyone around and among us in our

environment, using and producing technology, attitudes, ideas, words, music,

organizations, systems, etc. It is how we live and think and feel. It is such a huge

concept that we need a map to navigate our teaching-learning adventures through it.

A salundiwa is a thought-catcher.

Salundiwa 1: Kalinangan (Culture) is such a map:

Salundiwa 1: Kalinangan

The dotted line shows how Kapaligiran (or Kalikasan or Environment) is actually the

kitchen in which everything happens. The central icon is where Kalinangan is cooking, where Tao, Gamit (technology) and Kapaligiran interact.

CoreBook Objective: Siningbayan to build an integrated and participative culture integrated education using the arts as lesson content and tools for learning, holistically working with learners, presenting an integrated worldview

4 Learned from Hope for the Seeds by Fr. Vincent Busch, MSSC. Claretian Publications. The dotted oblong is my addition to the original figure.

= Kalinangan

Kapaligiran

Tao

Gamit

SININGBAYAN AS CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE

Big Idea: We create our culture as we interact with environment and technology.

Larundiwa 1 The time limit indicated is just a suggestion that dramatizes how little time is needed for this activity. You can stretch it out if you feel like it. Do this exercise before you try getting others to do it. Pencil & paper needed. Crayons and other coloring materials are desirable. Tony Buzan5recommends using at least three (3) colors.

1. Make a kalinangan map of your own and replace the central icon with your name and/or with an icon that symbolizes yourself. 1 minute, go.

2. Using single words or icons add to the appropriate spaces the people, technologies and environmental spaces, features or characteristics that are important to you. 2 minutes, go.

3. Contemplate your salundiwa. Linking and integrating thoughts will probably occur to you. Try to capture these thoughts on your map using linking lines and arrows to show connections between people, technology and environment in your salundiwa. Add single words and icons as needed to show connectivities. 2 minutes, go.

Facets of Understanding Understanding by Design suggests 6 signs that a student understands something. He can Explain, Interpret, Apply, Empathize, Shift Perspective, and acquires Self-Knowledge in relation to the lesson. These 6 key ideas make a great discussion guide. For example - Taking Larundiwa 1A as your lesson, experience each facet using your salundiwa as starting point. It is best that you actually do this before getting others to do it.

Explain something about your map. Interpret and express your salundiwa with vocal sounds or a hand gestures. Try to verbalize what the sound or gesture means. Apply your map by marking with stars 3 items you would consider as areas where you need improvement. Choose a priority area for actual work and make a salundiwa of your action plan-for-improvement. Act on this new map in the coming days. Empathize by imagining how the people in your map would be influenced if you suddenly stopped doing what you do for a living.

5 Author of The Mind Map Book and many other books that should become standard references for mandiriwa.

Shift perspective by making a map as if you were one of your students. Self-knowledge did the exercise reveal something of yourself to you?

Note that this exercise is a project you can decorate your map, make it more colourful, and hang it up where you can see it. It is physical evidence of thinking and understanding, and as a diagnostic tool will also show technical skills neatness, sense of beauty, symmetry, organization and prioritization of ideas, clarity of thought, etc. It is student-centered, not content-centered. What matters is that the learner brings things out, loob-palabas, and this is central to motivation, participation and engagement. It is open-ended in the sense that the salundiwa can keep on growing as insights deepen and as connections are made. You can use it as a starting point for other projects (such as the action plan) and assignments (such as writing an essay based on ones salundiwa). It is integrative in the sense that it provides a framework for organizing so many details into a manageable whole. Suggestions for related exercises using PBK in the classroom You can present Salundiwa 1 to your students and take them through the exercise you did when you think it is appropriate to the flow of your school-year. Adjust to the level of your learners. Salundiwa 1

1. Draw the three-circle map on the board.

2. Ask who eats rice to raise their hand, and choose a volunteer to draw a rice grain in the center space where all three circles overlap. Palakpakan!

3. Label each circle. (Tao-Gamit-Kapaligiran or People-Technology-Environment).

4. Ask who makes it possible for rice to get to their plate. Add the answers to the Tao space.

5. Ask what gamit are needed to get rice to the plate. Add the answers to the Gamit space.

6. Ask what in kapaligiran makes it possible to get rice to the plate. Add the answers to the

Kapaligiran space.

7. The class listens to one of the PBK songs while looking at the rice salundiwa. (Your choice of song will depend on where you want to lead the discussion.)

8. Elicit thought-sharing and group processing using UbDs 6 Facets of Understanding as a guide. For example:

Explain. How does eating rice link to each of the three circles: Tao6, Kalikasan7, and Gamit8. Interpret. Portray the technologies that bring rice to the table (for example- farming9, selling10, cooking11) using body movement in time to the song you used. What insights did you gain from acting out the technologies? Apply. What of the things we learn in school can also be learned on a rice farm12? Empathize. What do farmers have to do to grow the rice we need13. Shift Perspective. Ask: Why dont we eat something else? (For example- ask students to suggest staple foods other than rice.)14 Self-knowledge. Did you learn or discover anything about how you survive as a rice-eater? This is a systematic way of leading to the state of mind that the poet William Blake refers to as seeing the world in a grain of sand or, more appropriately, seeing the Philippines in a grain of rice. Exercises like this build an appreciation of Interconnectivity Oneness Systems. Enduring Understanding

Enduring Understanding is a UbD term that connotes some sort of conclusion, synthesis or generalization that will serve one well over time above and beyond the details of the lesson. Enduring Understandings abound in the world and many of them we take for granted, such as the one-to-one relationship between number names and the actual objects at hand, which is the basis for our ability to count. Or the Golden Rule do unto others as you would be done by, which is the basis for the concepts of fairness, justice, reciprocity, human rights, etc. Often such understandings are difficult to verbalize precisely because they can sound so simple while holding so much significance. One set of ready-made enduring understandings that is extremely useful and relevant is the Four Laws of Ecology as posited by physicist-ecologist Dr. Barry Commoner:

The Four Laws of Ecology 15

6 Refer to the articles by Dr. Balingit and Dr. Cueto-De Leon 7Refer to the story by Prof. Christine Bellen, Director Grace Pascua and Prof. Ruben De Jesus 8 Refer to the article by the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement 9Refer to the article by the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement 10 Refer to the article by Dr. Ramon Clarete 11 Refer to the article by Prof. Isabel Colendrino 12 Refer to the song Aking Paaralan ang Aking Palayan by Vim Nadera and Noel Cabangon 13 Refer to the song Dalit Kay Dalacdac by Vim Nadera and Popong Landero 14 Refer to the song Kahit Palay Bigas Kanin ay Kaunti by Vim Nadera and Cynthia Alexander. 15 There are many other formulations of these natural laws but Commoners 4 Laws seem to be the most succinct, and are consistent with the physical world as we know it.

Everything is interrelated.

Ang lahat ng bagay ay magkaugnay.

Everything goes somewhere. Ang lahat ay may pinatutunguhan.

Nature knows best.

Ang likas ang pinakamainam.

Nothing is free. Walang libre.

Applying the Four Laws of Ecology to the 6 Facets of Understanding helps put handles on the appreciation of interconnectivity oneness- systems. For example: Explain. How does eating rice link to the three circles? Enduring Understanding: Everything is interrelated. Ang lahat ng bagay ay magkaugnay.

Shift Perspective: Why dont we eat something else? Enduring Understanding: Nature knows best Ang likas ang pinakamainam. Interpret. What technologies are important in order for rice to be on the table? Empathize: What do people need to do to have the rice they need? Enduring Understanding: Nothing is free. Walang libre.

Apply : How do these technologies lead to demands of rice-eating on the environment? Self-knowledge: What is the effect of our rice-eating on the environment? Enduring Understanding: Everything goes somewhere Ang lahat ay may pinatutunguhan. Nothing is free. Walang libre. For convenience you can use these four laws as easy-to-remember handles for enduring understanding. You can expand your menu of such formulations. If you search you will find other such handy tags for enduring understandings in the Bible, in philosophy books, in science and math treatises, and, most preciously perhaps, in our own folk wisdom, poetry, songs, stories and myths, and the like.

Lipunan interaction between culture, polity and economics

How will your learners enrich our society, Lipunan? Lipunan is a complex system and we need a tool for thinking about it because Lipunan is where all the fruit of education will be savoured. Salundiwa 2 is a map of society as made up of three inter-acting realms and is referred to as Threefolding16 by Dr. Nicanor Perlas17.

Salundiwa 2: Lipunan

These are big words; the English words that Dr. Perlas uses are polity, culture and economics. You may find it easier to use Kalinangan, Pamamahala and Ikotnomics (a coined term that underscores the circulatory nature of healthy economics) or even just draw symbols for each realm (or kaharian).

CoreBook Objective: Bayanihan, a competent and harmonious society, work that develops and drills the skills required for successful communal undertakings Big Idea

We enrich Lipunan with our participation in the three realms. Larundiwa 2A The time limit indicated is just a suggestion that dramatizes how little time is needed for this activity. You can stretch it out if you feel like it. It is better if you actually do this exercise before you try getting others to do it.

16 From Shaping Globalization: Civil Society, Cultural Power, and Threefolding by Nicanor Perlas. 17 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicanor_Perlas

People and organizations that create Culture and embody Civil Society. NGOs, POs, social institutions, advocacy and activism groups, etc. Mission: to see to it that society is civil-ized (values, morals, identity).

People and organizations that do business. Corporations, companies, etc. Mission: to see to it that societys physical needs are met (circulation of energy, resources).

People and organizations that govern, create and enforce policy, etc. Government. Mission: to see to it that participation, justice and equity prevail (fair processes, limits, democratic methods).

Pamamahala

Kalinangan

Ikotnomics

Pencil & paper needed. Crayons and other coloring materials are desirable.

1. Make a Lipunan map of your own and place your name or an icon that symbolizes yourself in the center. 1 minute, go.

2. Using single words or icons add to the appropriate spaces the organizations, government offices and businesses that are part of your life. 2 minutes, go.

3. Contemplate your salundiwa. Linking and integrating thoughts will probably occur to you - try to capture these thoughts on your map using linking lines and arrows. Add single words and icons as needed. 2 minutes, go. Facets of Understanding Experience each of the 6 facets using Larundiwa 2. For example:

Explain why there are more items in one realm and less in another.

Interpret your map by giving it title with your name coming first. (For example- Helen: Dakilang Ina ng Bayan.) Apply your map by marking with a star the area where you think you should be more active. Make a salundiwa of your plan-for-more-action. Act on this new map in the coming days.

Empathize by imagining what it might be like to work in the realms you are not so active in. For example - Whats it like to be a businessperson? Whats it like to be a clerk in a barangay hall? Shift Perspective by making a Lipunan map as if you were a person (A mall owner? The President of the Philippines? A magbobote?) in a realm you are not so active in. Self-Assess your participation in society. If you gave yourself a grade as a citizen, what would it be?

Self-knowledge did the exercise reveal something of yourself to you?

Enduring Understanding

Healthy society requires a balanced partnership between people, institutions and

organizations working in the realms of Pamamahala, Kalinangan and Ikotnomics.

Suggestions for related exercises using PBK in the classroom You can present Salundiwa 2 to your students and take them through the exercise you did when you think it is appropriate to the flow of your school-year. Adjust to the level of your learners.

Here is a specific example for using Salundiwa 2 and Larundiwa 2. It presupposes that you are familiar with the songs and articles in PBK so you can select the relevant portions that will be shared with learners. Larundiwa 2

1. Draw the three-circle map on the board.

2. Ask who lives in the Philippines to raise their hand, and choose a volunteer to draw a Philippine flag or a sun in center space where all three circles overlap. Palakpakan!

3. Label each circle with icons representing Pamahalaan (a flag) Kalinangan (a sun)

Ikotnomics (a peso sign).

4. Ask what government entities touch their lives. Add the answers to the pamamahala space.

5. Ask what groups of people they are part of. Add the answers to the kalinangan space.

6. Ask what businesses they own. Add the answers to the ikotnomics space. Ask what businesses they buy things from. Add the answers on lines radiating from the ikotnomics space.

7. The class listens to one of the PBK songs18 while looking at the Lipunan salundiwa. (Your choice of song will depend on where you want to lead the discussion.)

8. Elicit thought-sharing and group processing using UbDs 6 Facets of Understanding as a guide. For example:

Explain how being a student links to each of the three realms. Interpret the salundiwa by giving it a title that describes the class. Put a date to it. You can make another salundiwa at the end of the grading period, semester or year, and compare it to this one. Apply by choosing a realm where the class or learning groups will create an impact. Get them started on organizing and drawing up salundiwa action plans. These plans should be doable over the grading period, semester or year. You can display them as reminders. It would an interesting larundiwa to get the teachers of different subjects to fit their lessons into the class or groups plans. Team-teaching will probably save teachers and students a lot of time and the subjects will make more sense when approached from the viewpoint of an active project. Math, for example, can link to the projects budget and bookkeeping. Science can lead-in from the materials the project will

18 Try Magtanim ay di Biro with rapper OG Sacred.

involve. Language and reading can lead-in from the documents and forms the students might encounter in the course of the project, or from the project proposal you can ask them to present there is a format19 you can use in PBK and you will encounter it later on. Empathize by acting out characters from different realms a nurse, a teacher, a delivery boy, a mayor, a haciendero, an overseas contract worker, etc. Shift Perspective by making a Lipunan map as if you were the character you acted out. Self-knowledge. Did you learn or discover anything about what it is to be a Filipino?

Applying this Siningbayan list to the 6 Facets of Understanding helps direct our appreciation of the nature of Lipunan. For example:

Explain how being a student links to each of the three realms. Enduring Understanding: I have an effect on Lipunan, and vice-versa. Interpret the salundiwa by giving it a title that describes the class. Enduring Understanding: I am part of a larger body. Apply by choosing a realm where the class or learning groups will create an impact. Enduring Understanding: I can help improve Lipunan. Empathize by acting out characters from different realms a nurse, a teacher, a delivery boy, a mayor, a haciendero, an overseas contract worker, etc. Enduring Understanding: I am better off than some and perhaps worse off than others. It is best to do the best we can do regardless of circumstances. Shift Perspective by making a Lipunan map as if you were the character you acted out. Enduring Understanding: Other people add value to Lipunan and to my life. Self-knowledge. Did you learn or discover anything about what it is to be a Filipino? Enduring Understanding: Citizenship is about getting involved, teamwork and organization, respecting rules, respecting each other, being fair, etc.

19 VMOKraPi-SPATRes.

Tao - the individual who inhabits and co-creates society

CoreBook Objective: Sarilikha manifesting expressions of native creativity, grammar of experience in various ways

How can you engage your learners Kamalayan through the Arts? To complement our Big Picture explorations lets talk about the Inner Picture, the individual who inhabits and co-creates society. What is Man? Ano ang To? One of our major teachers challenges is to know our students, our learners. How can we teach if we have no idea who our client is? The teachers appreciation of individual talents, quirks, aspirations, handicaps, likes and dislikes, etc., is a daunting task, made even more difficult by overwhelming student-to-teacher ratios and factory-style school schedules. There are many existing frameworks that may help you understand your student and people in general. Your basic teacher training will have included such frameworks and a refresher-course summary follows this CoreBooks Abregana20.

Your Learners Dimensions Kamalayan The following is NOT in your standard BS Ed course and is NOT developmental-age-specific, but it is simple, universal and useful. Jean Houston21, who coined the term Social Artistry, offers a framework of four dimensions of the human being. These dimensions may be seen as 4 na Kamalayan: Table 1: 4 na Kamalayan & Lesson Design 4 Dimensions of Man 4 na Kamalayan Related to lesson design

Sensory Physical

Pandam at Katawn

Does my lesson use and appeal to the senses?22

Does it have a practical survival value?

Historical-Psychological

Karanasn at Kaloban

Does my lesson dignify my students experience and native wisdom? Does it help ease or bring to the light any negative associations that my students may have with regard to the lesson?

Symbolic- Mythical

Kahulugn at Kapangyarhan

Do my students come away with a shared sense of improvement and of getting closer to a goal? Do they experience themselves as beings with power and importance? Is there an exercise of freedom, choice and independence?

Unitive Spiritual

Kabuon at Kasalukyan

Does my lesson add to a sense of self-awareness, self-understanding, wholeness and inner peace? Does it add to the enjoyment of Living and Being?

20 A Big Picture of How, Why, What Children and Adolescents Learn, by Pauline Salvaa-Bautista. 21 Jean Houston has written extensively on education and evolution of consciousness. Google her! 22 Refer to Bambi Maosas article.

These concepts relate more to the manner with which one engages students rather than with the actual lesson content which, if treated the usual way, may be boring or seemingly irrelevant. This brings us to the issue of motivation. What makes people do what they do? Your Learners Motivations Control Theory23 (better-known now as Choice Theory, developed by Dr. William Glasser24) suggests that people are moved not by external stimuli but by need. People act from the inside, loob-palabas, moving outwards in order to satisfy at least one of the following 5 Needs: Table 2: 5ng Pangangailangan 5 Needs 5ng Pangangailangan

To survive. Mabuhay, manatili, umiral, magtagumpay.

To belong and be loved. Maging bahagi, mahalin, ibigin.

To have power and importance. Maging makapangyarihan, mabigyang-halaga.

To have freedom and independence. Maging malaya.

To have fun. Mag-enjoy.

Theoretically, if you do not touch at least one of these basic needs you will not be engaging students at all. The more needs an activity meets, the more motivated and engaged the learners become. Re-read the third column in Table 1 and notice how these five needs are addressed in relation to 4 na Kamalayan. Another way to look at motivation is to consider Happiness.

23 http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Control_theory 24 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Glasser

Happiness: a working definition Why do we do what we do? A simple answer in order to be happy. And what is happiness? Oxford University did some research25 and suggests that there are three qualities of Kaligayhan: Pleasure, Meaning, and Challenge (or Engagement). Masarap, Makahulugan, May Hmon. If we put them in a tatlhan salundiwa we get Salundiwa 3: Kaligayhan:

Salundiwa 4: Kaligayhan Now that we have some theoretical ideas of what makes people tick we can appreciate how the exercise of SariLikha - native creativity - in its various art or articulation forms is practically a guarantee of engagement. If you can get people to bring something, practically anything, from the inside to the outside, then you have just facilitated another step towards your students self-realization. Loob-Palabas, Ikot-Paangat.

25 Michael Argyle and Peter Hills, psychologists.

Pleasurable relationships and activities.

Relationships and activities that make sense.

Challenging or engaging relationships and activities.

May Hmon

Masarap

Makahulugan

= Tunay o Malalim na Kaligayhan.

CoreBook Objective: SariLikha to stimulate native creativity

Big Idea

Doing art engages the total person and gives deep kaligayahan

Engaging Your Learners Kamalayan through SariLikha All art processes engage the 4 na Kamalayan:

Table 3: 4 na Kamalayn & SariLikha

4 Dimensions of Man 4 na Kamalayan Related to SariLikha

Sensory Physical

Pandam at Katawn

How does my artwork appeal to the senses? Do my ideas and feelings survive in the artwork? How is my artwork an extension or expansion of my Self?

Historical-Psychological

Karanasn at Kaloban

How does my art contain what I know and what I aspire to Be, Do and Have?

Symbolic- Mythical

Kahulugn at Kapangyarhan

What powers did I use to do create my artwork? What decisions did I make? What does it mean to me and to others? How does it feel for ones artwork to be appreciated and/or criticized by others? What did I do alone and what did I do with other peoples help?

Unitive Spiritual

Kabuon at Kasalukyan

Did I enjoy the process of creativity? What do I learn and gain from being fully-engaged in an activity? Am I satisfied? Is my discontent, if any, creative or destructive? What made me focus? What distracted me or hampered my work?

All art processes can contain the three qualities of Kaligayahan:

Table 4: Kaligayhan & SariLikha Happiness Kaligayhan SariLikha

Pleasure Masarap Work feels like play: drawing, dancing, singing, etc.

Challenge May Hmon There is always room for improvement in art.

Meaning Makahulugan Art depicts personal and societal meanings.

The more all three qualities are in an activity, the higher the motivation your students will have to learn what needs learning and to do what needs doing.

All art processes can satisfy the 5 Needs: Table 5: 5 Needs & SariLikha 5 Needs How SariLikha answers each need

To survive. Ideas and personality survive in ones artwork.

To belong and be loved by others. Group work and an audiences appreciation answer this need.

To have power and importance. The manipulation of art materials is an exercise in power. Exhibition and performance give the work importance.

To have freedom and independence. Artwork requires a minimum of external supervision and control.

To have fun. Artwork is engaging, it puts people in a state of flow.

All art processes feed UbDs 6 Facets of Understanding:

Table 6: 6 Facets of Understanding & SariLikha 6 Facets of Understanding SariLikha as experience

Explain One can explain an artwork if needed. Oftentimes the artwork is self-explanatory it IS the explanation, even though it may be non-verbal.

Interpret One can interpret anothers work by reading his own meanings into it. One can also use artwork to inspire another artwork.

Apply One uses a whole bundle of skills in sarilikha.

Empathize One can feel what another feels by contemplating the others artwork.

Shift Perspective One can assume other points-of-view through an art process.

Self-knowledge Artwork is a form of progress report - it acts as a snapshot of ones inner state and level of technical control.

Salundiwa, a particularly useful tool

The salundiwa style of note-taking is a particularly useful tool for SariLikha. It allows people to express and handle complex ideas without too much fuss over correct language use and spelling. It is perfectly suited to us archipelagons who grow up struggling with the co-existence of at least two to four languages at home, plus the abbreviated language we use for texting, plus the bombardment of languages and slangs we get over radio, television, internet, movies, magazines, etc. Larundiwa 3

Following are instructions for making a basic salundiwa. The time limit indicated is just a suggestion that dramatizes how little time is needed for this activity. You can stretch it out if you feel like it. It is better if you actually do this exercise before you try getting others to do it. Pencil & paper needed. Crayons and other coloring materials are desirable.

1. Draw an oblong in the center of your paper. Attach 5 legs, more-or-less horizontal, to each side of the oblong. The result should look something like a 10-legged spider.

2. Write the word Ako inside the oblong.

3. Using only single words or icons write or draw the first ten (10) things that come to your mind sparked by the word Ako, one word or icon resting on top of each of the ten legs. 1 minute, go.

4. Contemplate your salundiwa and how it makes you feel. (In a classroom setting you can get students to share their work in an efficient way by breaking up into groups and passing salundiwa around in a circle until everyone has seen everyone elses work. You can also get volunteers to stand and read or describe what they did.)

5. Confirm the ikot-paangat value of your salundiwa by reviewing Tables 3 to 6 with your salundiwa in front of you. This will give you more ideas for use in your classes.

6. Contemplate your salundiwa. Branching, linking and integrating thoughts will probably occur to you - try to capture these thoughts on your salundiwa using linking lines and arrows. Add color and more legs, and single words and icons as needed. Take your time with this part. Turn your salundiwa into a work of art.

7. Drill! The more salundiwa you do before you introduce it to your learners, the better. Buzan recommends you do at least 100 mind maps before teaching the concept to others. For more detailed instructions, get on the web and Google mind maps. Explore the wealth of material waiting there for you.

Below are two examples of salundiwa with sub-branching. Each one took about 5 minutes to do, and each expresses complex ideas and relationships. Allow your imagination to show you more ways to use salundiwa in the classroom.

Figure 1. Sample salundiwa: Tao

Here is a specific script for salundiwa in the classroom. You can use this as a model for running your own salundiwa sessions.

1. Warm learners up. Say something like this - Im going to say a word and I want you to

shout back to me the first word that comes to your mind when you hear the word. Understood? Wait for acknowledgement -they may shout Yes mam! or Opo!. Demand acknowledgement if there is no response or if response is weak. Repeat instructions as needed until everyone responds with gusto. This is your sign that they are engaged.

2. Say a word, any word will do, as long as you are sure they know what it means. Use something common like bato or aso or gatas or nanay. Listen to their replies and let their responses lead you to the next word. Go through a series of, say, 10 words or until everyone has responded with confidence to 3 or 4 consecutive words from you.

3. If responses remain weak, disarm them. Say something like this O! Bakit walang imik

yung iba? Siguro may naiisip kayo pero ayaw niyo lang sabihin ano? Ano kaya yun? Engage them in banter and laughter. When they start to laugh then you can say something like this - O sige. Walang tama o mali dito okey? Ulit tayo.

4. Repeat your instructions (step 1) and proceed with your series of words. This warm-up period should take about 3 minutes or so. Maybe 5 minutes for exceedingly shy or traumatized people. Learners who are already in high spirits will be ready to start salundiwa in much less time. End your word series with 2 or 3 taboo words like kili-kili or kulangot just to prove that you are not going to punish anyone for a wrong answer.

5. Take out a sheet of paper and a pencil.

6. Copy this. Draw an oblong in the center of your blackboard. Attach 5 legs, more-or-less horizontal, to each side of the oblong. The result should look something like a 10-legged spider.

7. Write the word kanin inside the oblong. Tell your students to write the same word in their

oblong and to add a little icon signifying kanin- a grain, a plateful of rice, a rice-stalk, etc.

8. Ngayon makikinig muna tayo, kaya, pikit muna. Makinig nang mabuti ha? Play a PBK song and get your students to listen.

9. After the song, get them to open their eyes. Say something like When I say Go! isulat o i-drowing ang unang sampung bagay o gawain na maiisip niyo na may kinalaman sa salitang kanin. Isang salita o drowing lang sa ibabaw ng bawat linya. Okey? Malinaw? Any questions?

10. Clarify instructions to those that need it. If others go ahead and start on their own, let them.

11. Okey? Naintindihan ng lahat? Okey, 1 minute lang, and, go!

12. Okey! Times up!

13. Get them to share their work via individual recitation to the whole class and/or by passing around their work in groups. Many will have less than 10 items, a few maybe more, it

doesnt really matter at this point. Whats important is that they do the exercise and participate.

14. Use UbDs 6 Facets of Understanding as a discussion guide.

15. Create a salundiwa exhibit on your classroom walls.

For further development

You can design any number of larundiwa using any of the songs in PBK plus your imagination.

For example: for lessons dealing with fractions, start with the song Kakanin, make a salundiwa of a kakanin recipe refer to the work of Prof. Colendrino and work out the fractions involved in the process. For example: for lessons dealing with history, start with the song Dasal sa Ghazal, make a salundiwa of the journey of rice as detailed in the song, and relate this to the migration of people to our archipelago.

You can raise salundiwa skills by getting learners to map the ideas found in one of the PBK essays, or the ideas in any other piece of writing the learners have to read as a requirement.

You can use a PBK article as basis for a lecture and ask students to salundiwa your thoughts as you speak. This is a form of shorthand that actually improves student attention and retention of content. You can use salundiwa for just about anything making a lesson plan, a thesis, a shopping list, etc. The more you use the skill, the better you get, and the more applications you will discover.

.

Ikot-Paangat - the general purpose of education, and of life in general, is to rise to an optimal, sustainable level of survival and prosperity What kind of person succeeds in life and is an asset to the community? Is this the sort of person we want our learners to grow up to be? Is this the design we are seeking to understand? It is obvious that school grades are no indicator of future success: Google successful dropouts and you will find more than half a million web postings containing lists of names and essays related to debunking the myth that schooling = success.

Author William B. Williams26 suggests that the following abilities are what make individuals and nations succeed (to quote and paraphrase): Table 7: 4 Critical Abilities 4 Critical Abilities

The ability to think in the future efficiently.

Marunong mangarap.

The ability to invent a series of future actions, to plan efficiently. Marunong magplano.

The social organization necessary to implement the plan efficiently. Marunong makitungo.

The ability to sacrifice to carry out the plan efficiently. Marunong kumilos.

The first two items are pretty much internal processes that have to do with imagination and clarity. The third has to do with loob-palabas and pakikitungo sa kapwa. The fourth has to do with strategic action.

3 Abilities27 I came up with the following abilities that lead to the development of positive indigenous traits28:

26 Future Perfect Present Empowerment: A Road Map for Survival into the 21st Century. 27 From Siningbayan Art of Nation Building downloadable from www.blafi.org 28 See Siningbayan Art of Nation Building Fieldbook Part 1- Pagsaloob, p. 5, Part 2- Pagsalinaw, p 96,

4 Critical Abilities

Contemplacy/PagsaLob - the ability to be still, to look within, to assess reality and imagine better versions of it, to imagine the steps needed to make those better realities come true, to assess the results of ones work imagine improvements. This leads to the trait kagandahang-lob.

Articulacy/PagsaLnaw - the ability to capture thoughts, order them, and articulate them clearly using a variety of communication forms. This leads to the trait pakikipag-kpwa. Operacy / PagsaGawa - the ability to act and make things happen, to organize and operate with a clear end in mind. This leads to the trait pagkuksa.

Reprinted from the Siningbayan Art of Nation Building Field Book

These abilities whether you look at the four or my list of three are life-long skills that go into our survival and prosperity at the highest possible level REGARDLESS of religion, morality, politics and sense of beauty. Ito na yung pinaka-bare bones, bottom-line practical outcome ng pagtuturo at pagtututo kung nais nating umangat pa bilang indibiduwal, bilang kapatiran, at bilang isang bayan. Check the contribution of your content and pedagogy to the development of these abilities in your learners. Visioning Planning Organizing Doing. (Check out the section on

kakanin preparation29 for concrete proof of how these abilities can be exercised even with special learners.)

These abilities are a kind of enduring understandings. Contemplacy/PagsaLob the ability to look within and imagine Articulacy/PagsaLnaw the ability to think and communicate clearly Operacy/PagsaGaw the ability to act and to make things happen

CONTEMPLACY AND UNDERSTANDING RAESMA30 RAESMA stands for the steps in the experiential process31. Much of an educators work entails introducing new things to learners. This is a guide to designing an experiential path from introducing something new such as an art material or a skill or a machine or an object, etc. to getting the new thing understood and actually used effectively by the learner. Release / Laruin Awareness / Pansinin Exploration / Halukayin Selection / Piliin Mastery / Sanayin Application / Gamitin

Table 8. Experience Checklist Using RAESMA and 6 Facets of Understanding RAESMA Pinilipino Guide to Attitude 6 Facets of

Understanding Effect of Experience

Release Laruin Lets play with this new thing! Lets try it! Lets enjoy it!

Explain

Kaya kong magpaliwanag.

Awareness Pansinin What did we do? Share, laugh (its good to do this!), name elements; remove fear of incorrectness/ridicule/criticism/judgement.

Empathize Kaya kong makiramdam at makipag-kapwa.

Exploration Halukayin Lets play with greater attention and intention. What else can we do? Lets try to do this with it

Shift Perspective Malawak at mapanuri ang aking pananaw.

29 See the Article by Prof. Isabel Colendrino 30 Learned from the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA). 31 Cabangon, Ma. Gloriosa. Promoting Good Citizenship: PETAs Creative Empowerment Through Theater, p 45 in in Abueva, Jose, Ayala, Joey, et al, Siningbayan Art of Nation Building, co. 2009, UPNCPAG, UNDP and BLAFI. www.blafi.org

RAESMA Pinilipino Guide to Attitude 6 Facets of Understanding

Effect of Experience

Selection Piliin What elements of what we did are useful or valuable?

Interpret Kaya kong magbigay ng sariling pananaw na may saysay.

Mastery Sanayin Lets play-practice these elements.

Self-Assess

Malawak at mapanuri ang aking pananaw.

Application Gamitin Lets use the elements we practiced in a project.

Apply Marunong akong dumiskarte.

Gamit: Use this as a checklist to assure thoroughness of the steps of the activities you design.

Table 8 A. RAESMA-6 Facets Checklist applied to the understanding of measuring space RAESMA Pinilipino Applied to Measuring Space Effect of Experience

Release Laruin Measure the classroom using your handspans/dangkal.

I can explain the concept of measurement from my own experience

Awareness Pansinin What did you come up with? Bakit iba-iba ang sagot?

I can empathize with different measures from others experience

Exploration Halukayin Lets do it again using a ruler.

I can shift from my own perspective of measurement

Selection Piliin Now what are the results? Compare ruler results with the dangkal results.

I can interpret meaning from various experiences

Mastery Sanayin Now lets measure the whole room using a ruler.

I can assess reality using an objective standard

Application Gamitin Lets make an accurate sketch of the room using the results.

I can re-create reality accurately using an objective experience

Table 8 B. RAESMA-6 Facets Checklist Applied to the understanding of drawing sound RAESMA Pinilipino Applied to Drawing Sound Effect of Experience

Release Laruin Fill up a piece of paper with lines while listening to some music kung walang music, just tap out a rhythm on the table or floor and hum or sing a rhythmic melody for all to hear. Let the class use lines to interpret what you they are hearing.

I can explain what I hear using lines

Awareness Pansinin Share the results. What kinds of lines were used? Notice how lines and textures can express feelings, moods, rhythm, melody, etc.

I can empathize with how others explain what they hear

Exploration Halukayin Explore the different line compositions your classmates have drawn. Fold a piece of bond paper into 8 sections. Fill each section with one kind of line or shape. Copy 8 compositions

I can accommodate other peoples perspectives to explain what they hear

Selection Piliin Now what are the results? Compare with previous results. Choose the three or four kinds of lines that are most similar to from the ones you used in the exploration exercise.

I can interpret meaning from various experiences

Mastery Sanayin Draw a staff on the board and plot the pitches I can assess what I hear using a

RAESMA Pinilipino Applied to Drawing Sound Effect of Experience

of the melody you hummed. Drill the lines or shapes your students chose on another sheet of paper on which four staffs have been drawn. Experiment with different ways of drawing the same line or shape.

standard measure

Application Gamitin Hum a melody to yourself and follow it with a line on the staff. Now, choose a partner and draw her each others hummed melody face using only the Compare the kinds of lines or shapes you selected. Share and enjoy.

I can re-create reality accurately using an objective experience

Challenge: Design at least one activity for each of the basic subjects you handle using this process guide. Test what you design with your learners. The ultimate challenge would be to get your learners to design activities they would like to do in order to learn something. The student-led, project-driven education style pays off big-time. Students have fun, learn how to learn, and hone their community skills.

ARTICULACY AND OTHER EVIDENCE Tatlong Wika32

There are three basic languages or points-of-view to anything.

Table 9: Ang Tatlong Wika Language Content Example

I Individual-Subjective: personal feelings, opinions, perceptions, biases, etc

I dont like rice; I prefer corn or brown rice.

We Collective-Subjective: group feelings, opinions, perceptions, etc. Cultural or commonly-held ideas, standards, values, mores, and the like.

We are used to eating white rice and therefore white rice is better than brown rice or corn.

It Objective: atoms, molecules, objects, machines, structures, science, facts.

Brown rice is more nutritious than white rice.

This is a lensing tool. It makes you aware of the lens through which a particular topic or issue is being looked at and discussed. You can use this in two general ways:

1) As a listening tool to help learners distinguish points-of-view, and 2) To make people think and discuss in specific ways without getting confused. Challenge: The biggest challenge with this and most other thinking tools is to be able to use it on yourself and in your own life so that you will be able to relate it to your learners from personal experience. Example: What for you is the greatest truth of all? Is it an I, a We, or an It?

32 Learned from A Brief History of Everything and The Integrative Vision by Ken Wilber.

Another example: You can use this for talking about ambiguous situations: a child is starving, his jobless father steals rice and is caught and placed in prison. Discuss the I-We-It of the situation. (You can also just let your learners talk while you take notes and later share with them which of what they said was an I, a We, or an It.)

6 Hats33 You might want to try the Six Hats thinking tool, a lensing tool more refined than I-We-It. The Six Hats thinking tool helps decision-makers make better decisions. Each hat represents one aspect of a particular decision that needs to be made. For example: Decision question: Should we go to the Science Museum for our annual field trip? White Hat (Facts): There is a P400 entrance fee. On a school day, it takes 30 minutes up to an hour to get there from school, traveling by bus. The bus company will charge P1400 for renting one bus per day. Red Hat (Emotions): Some students dont seem to enjoy the idea because theyre not interested in science. Teachers like the idea because they want to promote science and museums are quiet and peaceful. The bus company owner likes the idea. Parents dont like the idea of spending more money on a field trip. Yellow Hat (Optimism): Maybe the students will become more interested in science because of the field trip. The students might get higher grades in science. Parents might become supportive when they see the potential results. Black Hat (Caution) The students might become even less interested in science because the museum doesnt have anything that interests them. Parents might get angry. We need to worry about the weather (rainy season). Green Hat (Alternatives) Dont leave the school; instead of going out, invite scientists to come in and share their experiences. Hold a science fair. Have a vote and let the parents decide what to do. Blue Hat (Decision) Having considered all the other Hats, what should we do now?

33 Learned from Six Hats by Edward de Bono. Summarized and contributed by Jaku Ayala.

Notes: In a real-world setting, for example, you can take item 5b (Hold a science fair) and then turn this into a decision question: When should we hold the science fair? This question can then in turn be analyzed using the Six Hats method. The hat metaphor comes from the way we associate hats with jobs or roles. The engineers hat has a distinctive look, and so does a chefs. In cultures where the metaphor is unfamiliar, you can use suitable words or drawings. Dugtungan34 I learned this from my English teacher in second year high school. The instructions are simple: Take out a piece of paper. Start writing a story. When I say pass, pass your paper to the person next to or in front of you (The stories should now rotate among the students.) Read the paper you just received and continue the story. You can adapt this to practically any theme. You can make the students choose the topic or you can suggest a topic. If you have time, you can have students read the stories that they came up with. You can discuss the content, tone, and structure of the stories. You can also have the students pick their favorite story and act it out.

OPERACY AND PERFORMANCE TASKS OAO35 How do we know if we are getting better? We judge by looking at what we have done and comparing it to what we did before. This the most basic form of assessment. The better we are at assessing, the faster and more efficiently we improve-evolve. Ikot-Paangat. OAO is a framework36, a guide to ASSESSING practically anything an essay, a speech, a play, a song, a meal, a science project, a set of clothes, a movie, a production process, etc. OAO stands for: Orientation / Laman-Loob Aesthetics / Kagandahan Organization / Pagkabuo

34 Contributed by Jaku Ayala. 35 Learned from the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA). 36 Cabangon, Ma. Gloriosa. Promoting Good Citizenship: PETAs Creative Empowerment Through Theater, p 45 in in Abueva, Jose, Ayala, Joey, et al, Siningbayan Art of Nation Building, co. 2009, UPNCPAG, UNDP and BLAFI. www.blafi.org

This is one way to both extract and articulate lessons and to diagnose levels of understanding by looking at the results of what we and our learners do and figuring out how to do better next time. We look at our effect to improve our cause. This is how we evolve, which I indigenize as ikot-paangat the rising spiral of action - awareness - assessment that leads to better or more efficient and effective action the next time around. Challenge: Use this tool! Many of the things we do in school that are called extra-curricular contain more lessons than we think IF we assess them and bring to our awareness those lessons. Make it a habit to assess and your learners will follow suit. Youll get them to talk, discuss, have opinions, criticize constructively, listen to and learn from criticism, etc. All nice skills to have!

Table 10. OAO Experience OAO Some essential questions

Orientation / Laman What was said? What was the message? Do I agree? Why or why not? What was not said but was implied? How could the message be made clearer?

Aesthetics / Kagandahan Did I enjoy it or like it? Why or why not? Which parts stood out? How could it be improved?

Organization / Pagka-Buo Was it done efficiently? Who did what? What resources were used? Was it well-managed? Were the participants happy or did they disagree among themselves? How were conflicts fixed? Any suggestions for improvement?

Imagining an Improved Reality LOOKING FORWARD On a futuristic note, this project design can serve as a template for the development of teachers own, culture-specific sets of material, possibly in co-authorship with their students. It may inspire the development of region-specific and sector-specific workbooks. On the conservative side this design may be used for introducing National Artists works and other never-heard but high-value cultural heritage into the popular culture. At the very least, the empowerment and excitement of an experiential approach to the integration of Arts and Sciences is bound to rub off, from teacher to student.

PalayBigasKanin is actually the first of a series of similar knowledge products I generically refer to as CoreBooks, an art-based integrated-disciplines approach to education. The concept for CoreBooks arose in answer to this challenge to artists and culture builders: In an analysis of world history from the scientifically-validated Big Bang through the development of organisms, species and nations, author William B. Williams (Future Perfect) avers it is inconsequential to the survival of a given society what sorts of babble the pre-adolescents choose to call music. It is also inconsequential what painters paint, or what sculptors sculpt it is also inconsequential to the survival of a society what internal patterns of morality are adopted, as long as the Four Critical Abilities are followed: the ability to think in the future efficiently; the ability to invent a series of future actions, to plan efficiently; the ability to muster the social organization necessary to implement the plan efficiently; and the ability to sacrifice to carry out the plan efficiently. Species, nations, and cultures survive (or go extinct) and prosper (or decay) not for any presence or lack of muscle or talent or goodness of purpose and nobility, but for the presence or lack of the ability to adapt to, master and influence change efficiently, as a unit. No amount of telling people to be good or be proud youre a Filipino is effective unless the energy manifests as efficiency in the larger social units and institutions. Values and beauty are useless if they do not add to a peoples capacity to survive and prosper. CoreBooks, therefore, are an attempt to consciously install art and culture in our national education style not as content and informatiion but as process, language, and platform for drilling in visioning, planning, social organization, and operacy. Why arts and culture? Ours is a kinesthetic nation. We sing, dance and dramatize our way through life. The arts are our native language, our grammar of experience.. We naturally think and communicate

in sound and movement. We prefer to talk rather than write (our celphone texting reflects speech rather than writing!), to watch and listen rather than read, to do rather than plan. This program presumes that kinesthetic artistic language combinations of music, imagery and movement is extremely appropriate as a language for education in the Philippine context. This program is about using the arts as an educational platform, and using art activity for education in areas not usually asscociated with the arts (management, science, governance, values, accounting, etc.). This programs mission is: To demonstrate the use of arts for integrated education leading to a culture of communal efficiency.

PaK-PiPaK37 Pinagandang Pananaw sa Kaganapan This is a simple lensing tool that is INSTALLED in the mind. It acts like a computer program or mental switch. The way I usually do it:

1. First, clap the pattern ( | PaK Pi | Pak -- | Pak Pi | Pak --| ).

2. Ask learners to repeat, do it together at a relaxed but lively tempo.

3. Pag nakuha na- about 15-20 seconds of consistent clapping - add the syllables ( | Pak-Pi |

Pak | Pak-Pi | Pak | ).

4. Ask them if they will remember that. Ask them to do just the syllables without the clapping.

5. Then I ask how much time does it take from PaK to PiPaK. (Sandali lang, Split

second, and Saglit are typical answers.)

6. Then I explain:

PaK stands for Pananaw sa Kaganapan, ones habitual or normal view of Reality. I use the word Kaganapan because it implies a process of unfolding (nagaganap) rather than a fixed state that the word Reality tends to suggest. Some learners suggest Katotohanan but I feel this word implies a value judgement, Truth, that may just get in the way of spontaneity. PiPak stands for Pinagandang Pananaw sa Kaganapan, an improved view of Reality. When you look at a situation as normal or usual, thats your Pak. When you catch yourself with a PaK thought or experience, immediately go to PiPaK. It takes less than a second to switch from accepting normalcy to going for something better the time between Pak and Pipak.

7. I give examples of PaK and follow each Pak with a Pipak see the table below. Make up

examples your learners can relate to. Get them to share examples of their own.

37 Adapted from Software for the Brain by.

Table 12. PakPiPak Experiences Examples

PaK PiPaK Note:

Magulong silid. Underwear under the bed. An unwashed pair of pants standing in the corner, sprouting mushrooms.

Malinis na silid. I put laundry in the right place. I clean the room.

Much of our habitual thinking comes from what other people say and from experiences that we come to accept as normal and true. Following Pak with PiPak helps to break the chains of our psycho-logical history and starts us on an upward spiral ikot-paangat of improvement no matter how simple or small the starting point.

Ang pangit ko. My skin is too dark. My sister has fairer skin.

Exotic ang beauty ko. I look like I have a permanent sun tan!

Mahirap lang ako. What a beautiful dress. But that must be expensive and I cant afford it.

Kaya ko yan. If I save up for that dress I can buy it.

Bobo ako. My grades are so low Matututunan ko rin yan!

8. Review the clapping and the syllables and ask your learners if they can remember the

sequence. Congratulate them for the successful installation of a program for their

necktop computer. This metaphor of the mind as a computer is also a good lead-in to

teaching the principles of computers even if you dont have a computer!

9. Use the word PiPak as a verb, as in PiPaKin natin ang classroom, or mag-PiPaK tayo as a

signal to straighten up the learning space, including the mental one, you are in. You can

also use the clapping and chanting as a waker-upper activity when needed.

Understanding by Design The basic idea of UbD seems simple, universal, and ancient: If you know what you want, then you can work out how to get it. This is the design-oriented approach where the Destination determines the Journey of Education: what do I want/need to teach-learn for living a good/successful life? Essential Questions A few essential questions pertaining to understanding education and designing education: Understanding Education Who needs to understand? Is it just the student? What about teachers, administrators, parents, government people, business people, and the community-at-large? What needs to be understood?

UbD

Is it just the curriculum that needs to be understood? What about integration and basic unity of all things? What about relevance of school products to local community? What about food security? What about how teaching methods impart essential understandings that last longer than the specific curriculum content? What about how education is more of leading out understanding than filling up students with skills and information?

Table 13A: Essential Questions for Understanding Education Towards an Improved Reality Who needs to Understand?

What needs to be Understood?

Educators Education beyond curriculum content. The way we handle curriculum content (methods, processes, teaching style) impacts a students character, values, principles and culture. Curriculum content may be forgotten or become obsolete but character, habits, worldviews, biases, attitudes these remain with the student until she graduates from her lifetime and determine HOW she uses her education.

Education as a leading-out process.

Education as a reproductive organ of culture. If we use a predominantly top-down, authority-oriented system, what sort of culture are we propagating through our students?

DO WE KNOW WHAT WE WANT TO ACHIEVE? Do we understand what sort of person we want to graduate?

Do we know Curriculum Content well enough to link it to students present understanding, experience and passion? Can we teach one thing using another thing as a starting point? (In this CoreBook we start with Palay Bigas Kanin and try to connect to whole a range of curriculum content and human abilities.)

Curriculum content aside, what do we teach knowingly?

What do we teach unknowingly?

How do we influence students behaviour, thinking, feeling and decision-making? Administrators Can we help our teachers learn new things?

Do we give them leeway to absorb, assimilate, integrate, and gain confidence in the guidance of their own direct experience, observation, and passion?

How do we improve the quality of educators-to-be? Parents Are we part of our childrens education? What attitudes do we have that help or

hinder my childs development?

Do we know what we are paying for? What do we expect from school?

Is school a guarantee of stability and success? Students Do we know why we need to learn?

Can we teach what we learn?

Can we use what we learn?

What value are we to our families and community?

What pleasure-meaning-challenge does learning hold for us? Government How do we best serve our evolving citizenry?

What do our actions teach our young people?

Are we part of their education? Business How do we best strengthen our evolving market and workforce?

What do our actions teach our young people?

Are we part of their education?

Designing Education What is being designed? Schooling for human beings capable of surviving and prospering at the highest possible levels? Schooling to produce competent employees? Schooling to meet the demand for skilled labour? Schooling to serve the interests of the country? Schooling that is as integrated as the rest of reality? Who is designing? Do they know who your students are, and what they want-need? Do they know what specifics exist in your locality that can boost your teaching-learning efforts? Table 13 B. Essential Questions for Designing Education Towards An Improved Reality Who needs to Design? What needs to be Designed? Everybody-in-general What do we want To Be? To Have? To Do? Specific to educators What is our ideal graduate like?

What life-long skills, abilities and characteristics does she possess?

What are her values, principles, habits, and unconscious competencies?

What curriculum content, processes and methods are necessary and appropriate to this design and to the reality and specificity of our students?

Table 13C. Other Things That May Need Designing Towards an Improved Reality Who We Are What may need designing

Educators An enjoyable, personal teaching and self-management style that fits our specific needs for pleasure-meaning-challenge and serves as a model to students. This balance gives us the renewable, sustainable energy that teaching requires.

A way of knowing many people in a short time, well enough to have a sense of their specific needs and present abilities, capabilities and desires.

HomeWork that helps the home work a way of linking with the home and the community-at-large as our students laboratory and testing ground.

Ways of meeting official curricular requirements in partnership with our students and, simultaneously, using character- and value-formation processes.

Ways of using the real world as part of enjoyable-and-disciplined learning gardening, farming, the marketplace, the home, television, movies, radio, internet, computers, celphones, cameras, etc.

Ways of giving students more power to work together, teach each other, drill skills, make decisions, be responsible, own what they learn, set goals, manage ones self and ones time, strategize, analyze, question, converse, criticize, play, experiment, have constructive fun (pleasure-meaning-challenge) LarunDiwa.

Administrators A more flexible, horizontal and radial form of organization and administrative culture.

Parents A way of recognizing and improving our participation in our childrens education; a way of influencing what and how our children learn in the course of our daily affairs.

Students A way to own and practice the skills and abilities we learn. A way to perceive and

articulate big-picture complexities and to see how we fit in or make things fit.

Government A more participative, partner-oriented, enabling governance culture. Business A more circulatory (Ikotnomics) symbiosis with our market and workforce.

UbDs 6 Facets of Understanding UbD suggests 6 Facets of Understanding as a basis for checking on students real understanding of lessons. What Ive read on UbD uses the third person. E.g. The student can explain, can interpret, etc. Here I use the first person collective just as a reminder that we cannot teach what we ourselves do not understand. I also tried adapting the ideas into Pilipino to get that gut understanding of the concepts.

Table 14. Gut Understanding of UbDs Facets of Understanding

How do we know we have Understood?38 Paano masasabing Naintindihan ko?

We can explain by providing thorough and justifiable accounts of phenomena, facts and data;

Kaya kong magpaliwanag.

We can interpret by offering our own insights to ideas and events;

Kaya kong magbigay ng sariling pananaw na may saysay.

We can apply and use our learning in diverse contexts; Marunong akong dumiskarte.

We have perspective and can see things in the context of the big picture and apply critical thought;

Malawak at mapanuri ang aking pananaw.

We can empathize and find value in what others may find implausible, basing a sensitive perception on prior direct experience;

Kaya kong makiramdam at makipag-kapwa.

We have a self-knowledge or self-awareness that enables us to see what shapes and impedes our own understanding.

Gising ako sa pamumukadkad at pag-angat ng aking diwat isipan, ng aking pagkatao.

Check your Understanding: Try seeing through these 6 Facets from various points-of-view, starting with your own e.g., can you explain, interpret, apply, have perspective, empathize, and have self-knowledge in relation to your curriculum content, methods and students?

Note: Educators may know whether they are effective or defective by testing their students.

38 Paraphrased from Wikipedia.

A Big Picture of How, Why, What Children and Adolescents Learn As we plan teaching-learning to ensure that every classroom experience is relevant to life and clearly part of a big-picture of life-long learning, we share this a useful framework that appropriates the classic Theories of Development as a guide for effectively and holistically engaging and enriching students.

Stages of Development

Cognitive Stages by Piaget

Stages of Morality by Kohlberg

Stages of Psycho-social Development by Erickson

Stages of Learning Virtues by Isaacs

Infancy

Toddlerhood

Early Childhood

Middle Childhood

Late Childhood

Adolescence

Adulthood

Learns through sensory experiences

Perceives things from own viewpoint. Comprehends concrete ideas.

Becomes aware of other perspectives through concrete experiences

Complies with rules to avoid punishments and get rewards

Conforms to rules to gain approval by authority, to feel accepted by society

Needs personal reasons for obeying rules; seeks better alternatives, lives according to principles

0-2 A sense of optimism 2-3 A sense of self-control 3-6 A sense of individual purpose and direction 6-12 A sense of competence 12-18 An integrated sense of self

18-35 A sense of openness to others

35-65 A sincere concern for others

65- a sense of fulfilment and satisfaction with ones life

1-7 Obedience Sincerity Order 8-12 Fortitude, Perseverance, Industriousness, Patience, Responsibility, Justice, Generosity

13-18 Modesty, Moderation, Simplicity, Sociability, Friendship, Respect, Patriotism

Pauline Salvaa-Bautista, MA Values Ed, BSHE