1. Will you consider your principal an instructional leader or not? Support your answer.
The role of principal is observed as torn between his or her desired role as
instructional leader and his or her role as administrator and manager. We can liken this
role in the two faces of the coin where in both faces are needed to completely define a
coin. Thus, I would say that my school principal is also an instructional leader despite his
other responsibility as an administrator of the institution. We all know the fact that
instructional leadership is generally defined as the management of curriculum and
instruction by a school principal. They advocates for effective teaching by providing clarity
and support for teachers as well as procuring the necessary resources to maximize
teaching effectiveness. The conduct of Learning Action Cells (LAC), finding linkages for
Radio-Based instruction, establishing of the schools own radio station, providing school
wide internet connection, allotting a space for online classes and purchasing of eight
whiteboards for senior high school math teachers are some of the supports extended by
our principal. Without a doubt, in as much as our principal can, he is truly an instructional
leader.
4. How would you propose for change in the K to 12 curriculum especially in the field of
mathematics?
We are all informed by the fact that the K to 12 curriculum in the Philippines is a
spiral curriculum. In mathematics, we often return to the same content over and over
again but add complexity each time. For example, teacher may first cover simple
fractions, then more complex fractions, and then start getting you to add and subtract
fractions. Rather than focusing on fractions for an entire year, the present curriculum
spread fraction classes out over a course of many years. Each time student return to
fractions, the teacher will assess how well the students retained previous information, and
then help them build upon that prior knowledge. While it is widely accepted as an
appropriate approach for long-term school curriculum design, its limitations include the
risk that the curriculum becomes too rigid and crowded, and that educators will have to
focus on re-teaching content that wasn’t taught well enough (or was forgotten) the last
time the topic was taught.
To make a changes in the present K to 12 curriculum especially in mathematics, I
would see if there are other option that can be taken to get out of the rat race on reteaching by considering the so called “Strand Curriculum” as explained by Snider (2004).
The ‘strand’ curriculum, aims to integrate multiple topics into every lesson, every day, in
order to slowly but consistently work on topics of a long period of time. This may prevent
memory loss and loss of momentum that occurs when topics are left alone entirely for
period of time. Thus, to consider this changes I would have it a research to see whether
this may improve the present situations in mathematics.
Advantages and disadvantages of spiral curriculum.
Advantages
Developmentally Appropriate Learning: Often times, we will challenge a student to the
furthest extent of their current abilities. Once we’ve gone as far as we can go, we might
have to wait a few months or even a year until their mind has developed some more and
they are more capable of grappling with the topic. When you return to the topic, the
student may be at a developmentally appropriate level to understand the topic even more.
This advantage relies on the cognitive constructivist premise that brains develop as we
age, often in distinct stages.
Prior Knowledge is Central to Learning: This approach necessarily employs the notion of
‘prior knowledge’. This concept acknowledges that students enter a classroom with a
history of learning and knowing that can be employed in classroom practice. By assessing
prior knowledge and using it in the classroom, we can move toward a student-centered
teaching style.
Spaced Repetition Occurs: Spaced repetition is a concept from the behaviorist theory of
learning. It explains how committing knowledge to memory occurs best when you space
out practice of a task over time. Each time you re-engage with the concept, you have to
recall it from your memory. Like exercising a muscle, the more you exercise that little
packet of memory, the stronger it gets and the less likely you will be to forget it.
Teachers Focus on structuring work to follow Logical Progression: When developing this
type of curriculum, educators and curriculum designers need to pause and reflect on what
‘prior knowledge’ is required in order to learn something. This explicit reflection on
progression of understanding puts continual growth at the center of the student’s learning
experience.
Integration and Collaboration: Educators collaborate to ensure a holistic and coherent
learning sequence is provided over time.
Disadvantages
Time Consuming for Designers: Curriculum designers need to collaborate and coordinate
for this model to work. Designers and educators need to come together over several
meetings to agree on what will be taught, when, and by whom, so that the whole
curriculum is cohesive and does not miss anything or contain redundancies.
Curriculum Crowding: If educators have a lot to teach, and then re-teach, the curriculum
can get too crowded. Educators might lightly touch on a concept then move on from it
with the belief that “we will return to it”. A better alternative may be mastery teaching,
where a student does not move on until they have mastered the topic.
Irrelevant for Short Courses: Short courses can return to the content in single lessons,
but long-term reinforcement is impossible if a course is only taught over a short period of
time.
Risk of becoming Teacher Centered: When the curriculum is designed in a longitudinal
fashion with a long horizon, the teachers make guesses about a student’s competency
level at certain times into the future. A flexible curriculum needs to be differentiated to a
student’s learning stages and speeds, which may be unachievable if the curriculum is
designed too far in advance.
Gap Filling: Often, a teacher will find that instead of building on prior knowledge, they are
re-teaching information that was forgotten, taught poorly previously, the facts have
changed, or entails many misconceptions.
“NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND”
“All, regardless of race or class or economic status, are entitled to a fair chance and to the tools
for developing their individual powers of mind and spirit to the utmost. This promise means that
all children by virtue of their own efforts, competently guided, can hope to attain the mature
and informed judgement needed to secure gainful employment, and to manage their own lives,
thereby serving not only their own interests but also the progress of society itself.”
– A Nation at Risk, 1983