Grace Glend R. Gabisay
MS Philosophy of Teaching
1. An ideal STEM educator is someone whose experiences revolves around any discipline
where its practices steams around a thorough understanding and practical application of
the theories and principles of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics. S/he
can make an impact in his/her community through his/her involvement in the community
services or activities from his/her research experiences which s/he can extend. With the
above description, I can assess myself to be ready to venture on the MS Philosophy of
Teaching as a STEM educator because I have been practicing the principles of science,
math, technology and simple engineering through conducting research, the highest thinking
order skills of generating new knowledge and ideas that filled in the gap in the body of
knowledge, conducted locally but can be extended in the perspective of the results of other
studies that is wider in scope. Any research that one has been conducted (ranging from
efficacy test of fertilizer across many crops, in many locations and culture of growing like
hydroponics and soil grown) has the potential to still contribute and be used as a baseline
for extending a concept in another application. This days of digital age, an educator should
use his/her faculties to liberate and explore new ideas of doing things to help alleviate and
improve learning and teaching practice or to develop a new technology, which makes
people life easy and comfortable. And, its potential application should help the poor and
marginalize because that is the only way to push forward into the direction of national
growth. If we want the trail to go to progress, we have to put on efforts that can pull the
trail into the direction of positive growth. And I am into that, I am a believer that anything
taught inside the classroom as long as it involves even the simplest of science, math,
technology and engineering concept can be remembered by the students, and they can draw
logical conclusions from it. These, they can extend in their life beyond the classroom
because they can rationalize from the experience. S/he should be a progressivist and
experimental.
2. My experiences in Content Knowledge & Pedagogy in relation as a STEM educator is that
Agriculture is wide in scope, dynamic and evolving. It has 6 areas mainly crop science,
animal science, crop protection, agricultural communication and extension, agricultural
economics, and soil science. Pedagogically, the teaching and learning process has shifted
to be learner centred and competency based or outcome base or performance base. The
Agriculture way of doing it, has always been on growth. And I cannot overly exemplify
this because it had been the way it is, it is deep and evolving to cater to the changing time.
But the foundational concept is still there, only that there is a shift the way business is being
done these days. We were taught with learning objectives and that serves as guide as to
what is the learning expectations at the end of any session. Learning environment, the
students should be safe, and they can openly ask questions, they are being motivated by
the facilitator. And the environment is clean, and conducive for learning. Diversity of
learners, I demonstrated this because I look at each learner as potential genius with diverse
learning experience, background, ambitions. I act upon their psychological needs as
adolescent or depending on their stage in life. I am validating them because it is a very
important motivating factors for students to love learning. Sometimes, for disturb students,
I treat my learning content with a spice of care so that students will attend to what I am
about to teach. Community Linkages and Professional Engagement, I always hunger
for new knowledge that has application in Agriculture, because I knew that this is
something I love so I had widen my network and continue to do so, and with vast
knowledge it can continue to grow deeper and wider. Personal Growth and
Development, I demonstrated this because early in my career I was exposed in research so
I really hunger for new way of doing things, and of new knowledge, I attended learning
and development sessions that interests me, so that I can sharpen my saw. And given ample
time I can acquire new tools, knowledge or programs that will make me more efficient.
And provide data for the policy maker. The link to the evidences are:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l63jPPd6DG4&t=1s
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO7K88KcVnE.
3. This experience impacted my view of students to be viable recipient of new ideas or even
generator of new knowledge. STEM teaching and learning is collaborative. STEM
education in the country is being pushed, advocated, with ambassadress such as Ms.
International the advocates for Department of Science and Technology.