Teaching the Filipino language should be innovative, especially that in this second decade of the twenty-first century, classrooms are full with culturally and linguistically varied students. Every school is different, and we may find distinct perspectives and traits of young individuals ready and able to learn in each room, and educating diverse children is always a difficult task for any educator. It is critical for teachers to be aware of how students learn best in order to meet the demands of a diverse group of students. Teaching pupils with individually different characteristics and a diversity of learning styles is a significant duty that teachers must acquire and improve towards quality teaching and learning.
Educators should have high regards to individual differences. They should take into account students’ academic peculiarities in order to assist them in integrating curricular information into their daily lives and modifying the difficulty of instruction so that all students achieve learning success, making learning meaningful and engaging to them. Having a varied classroom and educating various learners will help teachers discover the many benefits and learning possibilities available to them. Hence, producing globally competitive individuals.
The difficulty of dealing with varied learning preferences and styles in a diverse classroom with diverse pupils is not new in Philippine education, and it is always a problem. In the Philippines, most teachers engage in traditional education, in which one session is planned to fulfill the needs of all students, and many teachers mistakenly believe they are employing differentiation when they are not. Because the variety of pupils was not addressed, Filipino studies, like other academic disciplines, suffered greatly. Because learning preferences and styles were ignored, learning became tough and dull.
On a lighter side, despite of “differences,” the basic purpose of Philippine education is “Education For All.” The Philippine Education For All (EFA) 2015 vision and comprehensive reform program intends to improve the quality of basic education for all Filipinos by 2015. The Philippine government is committed to increasing education quality at all levels as a result of this (Philippine Education for All, 2015). Teachers are challenged to address the diversity of Filipino pupils and to accommodate these characteristics while motivating children to learn in a mixed manner, as the pandemic has had a significant impact on schooling this year. Differentiated instruction would be the strategy in the learning environment in the Philippine classroom that includes 40-50 kids or more, in response to the diverse levels and needs of the children amidst the epidemic, so no one will be left behind.
Teachers teaching Filipino subjects thought they were using differentiated instruction because they used group work and activities in the classroom, online, and in modular, but this was not the case because they designed one lesson for all students, and as teachers, we believe that “one size does not fit all,” so the students’ learning preferences and styles were not met. Knowing the different learning styles of the students will help the teacher plan and design the appropriate lessons for them. Conducting a learning style inventory before the school year begins is very important because knowing the different learning styles of the students will help the teacher plan and design the appropriate lessons for them.
For instance teaching our own language to various students with different learning styles has never been easy, but with the use of differentiated instructions and conducting learning style inventory have helped a lot. These actions primarily increased the possibilities of bring quality education for all amidst pandemic or any circumstances.
A call to action to all the teachers to be always passionate in the delivery of the best education towards a culture of excellence.
By: Lhannie L. Ubungen|Master Teacher I| Regional Science High School|Olongapo City
