Calo, Grezza Marla D.

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Understanding UbD Friday, 03 June 2011 06:29 Written by Louie C. Montemar Less projected than the K+12 reform thrust of DepEd is another educational approach that is making some of my teacher friends raise their eyebrows and groan: Ano na naman ito? Its called Understanding by Design or simply, UbD. This approach was first introduced in the US 1998 by educators Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, and published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Reports claim that it has since been successfully implemented across thousands of educational institutions around the world. So here we are again, just like in the case of K+12, copying international practice and thus putatively help ensure our global competitiveness, being gaya-gaya... puto maya. Hordes of our teachers have undergone initial trainings on this approach which the inventors themselves, Wiggins and McTighe, clarify and caution as not a prescriptive program, nor a philosophy of education, and that it does not require a belief in any single pedagogical system or approach." Reading more about the approach, as even we in La Salle-Manila are now being introduced to it, I appreciate the concern of this approach for understanding as a central learning outcome. The emphasis of UbD is on making sure that students learn and to learn here isas the case in real educational experience should benot merely about undergoing the process of teaching, but about understanding. As the UbD proponents point out, their book is "built upon the conditional premise: IF you wish to develop greater in-depth understanding in your students, then the ideas and processes of Understanding by Design apply."

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But what is understanding? When do we say that a student has understood? When do ours teacherswhen do Filipino public school teachers in particularsay that their students have learned? To my mind, understanding is not just about passing an exam for that can merely, for instance, reflect a capacity to read, listen and memorize. If my concern as a social science teacher is to teach citizenship, when will I say that a student has understood citizenship? Can this mean that I can encourage her to start certain advocacies? Go to rallies even? When can I say that she has understood the notion of the state as a repressive apparatus, if she has choked on the fumes from smoke bombs and tear gas canisters thrown by the police to defend the Palace, and when she has thus wept along the River Pasig? Assuming an understanding of understanding, UbD proposes "backward design" or the practice of looking at the outcomes in order to design curriculum units, performance assessments, and classroom instruction. A key point in UbD is to make sure that lessons objectives, outcomes, activities, and assessment techniques are all aligned. But then, is that so novel an idea? One blogger and teacher of mathematics has this interesting online piece entitled (Mis)Understanding by Design which raises some questions too about the UbD. He writes: In my part of the globe, there is a national curriculum which is a collection of SMART objectives. These learning objectives have always been stated in terms of outcomes. Werent they called competencies? Arent these competencies tell what to assess? The trouble is, our list of competencies consist of factual and procedural knowledge and very little on problem solving and reasoning which never really get taught because they are all found at the end of each chapter! According to Wiggins, The potential of UbD for curricular improvement has struck a chord in American education. Over 250,000 educators own the book. Over 30,000

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Handbooks are in use. More than 150 University education classes use the book as a

That explains everything. Everybody is hooked on the book that no one found time to do research if it works or not. Of course, on this part of the world where I come from I could not possibly have full access to current studies in educational planning and curriculum conducted elsewhere. Im pretty sure though that we dont have a study here yet. This is actually my issue. Were jumping on a bandwagon created elsewhere without checking first if it will run on our roads. Hmm... do we really need this? It has to be pointed out that Understanding by Design is a registered trademark owned by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development of the US. Someone had to spend for all these workshops and attendant new learning materials. My friends have paid muchtoo much, they opineto be able to attend these DepEd recommended workshops on UbD. They have paid much to know what they already know by training and experience. Ika nga noong isa, May kumita lang diyan. Last night I watched this feature on the K+12 initiative of DepEd and the show clarified that K+12 does not really address the problem of the quality of education in this country. It is but a program that promises to make our students more marketable in the global market. I was thus reminded of this UbD thing. I say the problem of this countrys educational system is not in its choice of pedagogical approaches. Its not in our lack of supposedly novel foreign models to copy and foreigners with Harvard degrees to listen to. I say its in the lack of competent teachers as the K+12 debate only highlights. We need K+12+, not just K+12. Perhaps we can even do with just 12+ if only we werent so keen on having our people migrate for precious dollars. Oh, can you understand this formulaic proposition? Understanding by Design will fall meaningless and useless with heads that can only see, listen, and speak, but cannot understand.

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DepEd Understanding By Design Staged The Department of Educations (DepEd) National Conference entitled Understanding by Design: Getting into the Core of the 2010 Secondary Education Curriculum will be held this February 2010 at two venues, to accommodate participants from all over the Philippines. Previously scheduled last November 5-7, 2009, the conference will still be held at the Manila Hotel, Roxas Blvd., Manila, on February 4-6, 2010, for Metro Manila and Luzon participants. For Visayas and Mindanao participants, it will be at the Waterfront Hotel, Lahug, Cebu City, on February 8-10, 2009. A registration fee of Php 8,500.00 (inclusive of lunch and two snacks per day, a conference kit, and 3 ASCD books) will be charged per participant. The conference aims to orient school heads and teachers on Understanding by Design (UbD), a worldwide teaching for understanding model that links curriculum, instruction and assessment to improve learning outcomes. UbD was introduced in 1998 by Jay McTighe and Grant P. Wiggins, and it adopts the process of backward design in the development of a school curriculum. Backward design aims at eliminating two common flaws in the traditional method: coverage-focused teaching and activity-focused teaching. In coverage-focused teaching, educators try to cover all topics as specified by a textbook for the whole school year, but end up with students who do not understand why they are being taught this much information. In activity-focused teaching, educators come up with all sorts of activities that students participate in and enjoy, but again, students do not completely understand why. This is what backward design aims to resolve: to make students understand and gain a deeper insight into why they are being taught information or made to participate in activities.

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Internationally-renowned speakers Everett Kline and Jeanne H. Purcell from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) in the United States are invited to conduct the conference. Presented by DepEd in cooperation with Fund for Assistance to Private Education (FAPE), the conference shall be conducted in support of the implementation of the 2010 Secondary Education Curriculum in public and private secondary schools.

FAPE was established in 1968 to promote the development of private education in the Philippines. It pursues this mission by helping private schools in their quest for academic excellence, managerial competence and financial viability, through the extension of logistic and technical support. Over the last three decades of its existence, FAPE has already become an institution in the Philippine educational system. Source: http://webphilippines.blogspot.com/2010/01/deped-understanding-by-design-taged.html

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You see, understanding by design is just a design. My point is, how do we use a design? What do we need to put this design into work? These are only two of my curiosity about this UbD. As I can see, the design is brilliant but how can we make this design work if our own selves refuse to believe in this design. We always negate things out as what we are seeing is that our government especially the DepEd cannot surpass this kind of SUGGESTION because of the lack of everything that it needs. WE WANT ASSURANCE. For example, if you are going to cook something you need to prepare everything that you will need. We are going to make sure that it is clean and wellprepared and also the equipments are all set. Relating this to the UbD, we need to prepare everything, not just only the heads of education in each part of the island but all of us, the population of the Philippines because why do we need to approve something that we didnt know, that we didnt understand. We are ignorant of it thats why we are negating it we need someone to explain why is that like that, or why do wee need that.. Thats the most crucial thing for me. Ignorance of this UbD makes this hard for it to work. And also it is not wrong for us to adopt others design; its the count that matters. They are teaching us this because they want us to have the success that it had given to them. But the governing should also adjust to our present situation before (PNOY) approved such kind of design. I think that he pursued this UbD though we lack other concerns because iniisip niya na makukuha niya ang lahat sa paspasan kahit magkanda sala sala dahil sa huli mahahabol at masosolusyonan ang lahat. Yun ang iniisip ko. -Eza