Cebu Technological University
Daanbantayan Campus
Agujo, Daanbantayan, Cebu
A CASE STUDY ON THE IMPLEMENTATION
OF MODULAR PRINTED METHOD OF
INSTRUCTION IN MATHEMATICS FOR THE
NATURAL LEARNING OF STUDENTS AT
HOME
By
MA. NIÑA C. PEPITO
MAVED-Major in TLE
Implementation of Modular Printed Method of Instruction In
Mathematics for the Natural Learning of Students at Home
Introduction
According to DepEd Order No. 018, S. of 2020 the Department of
Education(DepEd) issues the enclosed Policy Guidelines for the Provision of
Learning Resources in the Implementation of the Basic Education Learning
Continuity Plan(BE-LCP). The policy establishes guidelines that will enable
DepEd to provide learning resources in the implementation of the BE-LCP. It also
establishes the guidelines on the release, utilization, and liquidation of support
funds for printing and delivery of self-learning modules and other learning
resources to students’ home.
Under DepEd's printed modular learning system, students will be provided with
self-learning materials (SLMs). Teachers will be giving students SLMs per quarter.
That will mean students will be receiving 4 sets of SLMs for one whole academic
year.
Distribution. The SLMs will be distributed to parents before the opening of classes.
For students whose parents are not available to get these from schools, there will
be designated pick up points in their barangays. The distribution will be done at
least 4 times for the school year.
Aside from SLMs, workplans will also be distributed to students. But unlike SLMs,
this will be given to students weekly as this indicates the schedule of lessons and
activities the students will have to do every week. Again, parents or anyone who
will guide the students at home will be the ones to get this from teachers or in
designated pick-up points.
Homeschooling, the most dominant form of education throughout history, has
recently
been making a comeback as a revolutionary alternative to public schooling. The
practice of homeschooling (i.e., home education, home-based education, or homecentered education) has experienced tremendous growth in the past thirty years.
This increase is warranted as research shows homeschool students, on average,
score significantly higher on achievement tests (Ray, 2013;) and are more
successful in college than their public school counterparts (Ray 2010, 2013).
Parents, in the modern homeschool family, delivers instruction primarily from their
own
home to uniquely meet the needs of their child. Technology can be integrated into
the learning environment by accessing online instructional resources via virtual
academies, tutorials, or other digitized supplemental programs. One of the most
powerful tools of homeschooling, cooperatives or co-ops, consists of a group of
families who share social and academic resources (Topp, 2014).
Educational resources were shared and families communicated via forum postings
and blogs. Parents of younger elementary-age children preferred hands-on and
face-to-face instruction. Parents of older children found online learning more
appealing as it could potentially provide more resources for the sophisticated level
of curriculum of middle and high school aged students. Homeschooling, as a
legitimate practice, appears to offer parents an alternative to raising, educating,
and preparing their children to become successful citizens. The aim of this paper
is to measure distance education students’ satisfaction level and efficiency in
education quality. Modular courses have been widely implemented as part of the
competency-based training agenda. Particularly salient are the needs to ensure
adequate practice and the integration of modules if effective problem solving is a
desired objective. Stressed are the need for the teaching of ‘learning-to-learn’
strategies before modular courses are commenced and the importance of
assessment to integrate knowledge gained from modules.
These are (i) interaction between students and teacher, (ii) interaction among
students and (iii) interaction of students with content. This study is restricted to the
interaction of students with the instructional materials. The choice of the focus area
is motivated by the Bernard,Abrami, Lou, Borokhovski, Wade, Tamin & Bethel
(2009) meta-analysis, as highlighted by Gaskell and Mills, 2014), whose major
finding indicates that increasing student-content interaction had the greatest effect
compared to the other two typologies of Moore’s interactions. Modular teaching is
a new approach in classroom settings, for experience taking in encounters in
instruction also it has been getting much consideration. The system of taking in
modules has turned into a piece of all level of instructions. Teaching through
module is a self - taking in bundle managing one topic/ unit. It could be utilized
within any setting helpful to the learner and may be finished at the learner's own
pace. Sufficient hypotheses furthermore practices are accessible for the useful
requisition of secluded educating in our classrooms. Consequently, a study was
directed to check the adequacy of modular teaching. Moreover, the very essence
of modularization is that students are at center of the teaching–learning process.
It calls for a classroom environment in which students are actively engaged in
knowledge construction process and a shift in the role of instructor from knowledge
transmitter to a facilitator of students’ learning. Not only that, modularization
requires continuous follow-up and assessment of students’ progress throughout
the module/course. The practice of effective continuous assessment allows
instructors making adjustments to teaching and learning in response to
assessment evidence. This also helps students receive feedback about their
learning with advice on what they can do to improve.
The purpose of this case study was to explore a variety of learning environments
and instructional partnerships that homeschool parents or tutors are effective in
utilizing printed modules to teach their children. Homeschool co-ops and charter
schools share activities, resources, and strategies with homeschool parents or
tutors that enrich the learnings of the students. The overall goal of the research
was to explore parent perspectives regarding optimal participation in, and practices
of, partnerships with homeschool co-ops and charter schools to cultivate academic
and social success for their children.
Natural Learning. Education must provide experiential data of its own that
conforms as much as possible to "real life learning experience." Or as the title of
one recent book declares: "We're born to learn" and thus must work on "using the
brain's natural learning process to create today's curriculum" (Smilkstein
2011). Finally, research suggests children are capable of self-organizing their
learning without being explicitly instructed by an adult (Elmore, 2011;Mitra, 2012).
Children are born learners (Smilkstein, 2011). They are motivated and are able to
learn on their own (Smilkstein, 2011). Children are born learners (Smilkstein,
2011). They are motivated and are able to learn on their own (Smilkstein, 2011).
They can learn from their peers through collaborative learning (Hamada,
2014;Hmelo-Silver, 2013).
Home-Tutor Partnership. Parents are vital partners in education. They influence
their children’s attitudes about learning, and support learning at home. They are a
vital link between home and school. And when they become involved in the life of
the school, they make our schools better places to learn, grow and thrive. Ontario’s
parent engagement policy recognizes that student achievement and success
increase when parents are welcomed and respected as partners and given the
support they need to contribute at home and at school. (Parents in Partnership,
Ministry of Education, 2010)
Additionally, research has shown that parent engagement and successful
parent-teacher partnerships result in improved educational outcomes for students
(Ministry of Education, 2010), and this is especially important for students with
learning disabilities (LDs). Home-school partnerships involve collaborative working
relationships between families and schools. They can support students in more
productive and consistent work and behavior, which in turn can improve students’
interest, motivation, and engagement in learning both at home and at school. In
effective partnerships, families, and schools recognize their shared interest in and
responsibility for children and collaborate to create shared goals, share
information, and enhance opportunities for children’s learning. They create
constructive connections between home and school settings that promote positive
educational and social outcomes. https://theeducationhub.org.nz/home-schoolpartnerships-what-the-research-says/
Using Modular Printed Instruction. According to Hornby, as cited in Yoseph and
Mekuwanint (2015) and Malik (2012), module is a unit of work in a course of
instruction that is virtually self-contained and a method of teaching that is based
on the building up of skills and knowledge in discrete units. Therefore, a module is
a course that together with other related courses can constitute a particular area
of specialization. Each unit or module is a measured part of an extended learning
experience leading to a specified qualification(s) “for which a designated number,
and normally sequence, of units or modules is required.” Moreover, French (2015)
and Kamakshi (2011) stated that in contrast to the linear degree program which
comprises a sequence of subjects, modularized degrees tend to be made up of
stand-alone, independent units that can be undertaken in different orders and
accumulated at different speeds. It is associated with the notion of delivering
knowledge in “bite-sized” pieces and, therefore, lends itself to time-shortened and
intensive modes of delivery (French, 2015). Modular approach to teaching enables
the learner to have control over his/her learning and accepts greater responsibility
for learning. It demands greater maturity on the part of the learner, the modules is
more appropriate for more mature students. In modular approach, all the
capabilities required to perform are closely related. Sets of tasks are grouped
together. A modular system of higher education curriculum, according to Ali, Ghazi,
Khan, Hussain, and Faitma (2010), is largely a response to the very growing
sectors of business, industry, and consumers’ choice in general. It emphasizes
more explicate outcomes in relation to each small part of the degree, rather than
the more broadly defined “course” in general. As opposed to most traditional
curriculum designs, modular design gives greater student autonomy in
constructing the programs and greater range of entry gates and exit points (Ali et
al., 2010). module as an interdisciplinary structure that accumulates topics or units
from different academic disciplines necessary for learning the same basic
educational program (Lopukhova & Yurina, 2017).
Students Learning Abilities. Learning styles are seen as characteristic cognitive,
affective, and psychological behaviors that serve as relatively stable indicators of
how learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the learning environment. The
concept of learning styles has been applied to a wide variety of student attributes
and differences (Felder and Brent, 2005). Learning style refers to an individual’s
habitual and preferred way of absorbing, processing and retaining new information
and skills. According to Capretz (2006) each learning style has its own strengths
and weaknesses and therefore a person who sticks to one style is never going to
be an ideal learner (Moradkhan and Mirtaheri, 2011). earning styles can be
defined, classified, and identified in many different way. Generally, they are overall
patterns that provide direction to learning and teaching. Learning style can also
be described as a set of factors, behaviors, and attitudes that facilitate learning for
an individual in a given situation.
Styles influence how students learn, how teachers teach, and how the two
interact. Each person is born with certain tendencies toward particular styles, but
these biological or inherited characteristics are influenced by culture, personal
experiences, maturity level, and development. Style can be considered a
“contextual” variable or construct because what the learner brings to the learning
experience is as much a part of the context as are the important features of the
experience itself. Each learner has distinct and consistent preferred ways of
perception, organization and retention. These learning styles are characteristic
cognitive, affective, and physiological behaviors that serve as pretty good
indicators of how learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the learning
environment. A learning style is the way that different students learn. A style of
learning refers to an individual’s preferred way to absorb, process, comprehend
and retain information. The four key learning styles are: visual, auditory, tactile and
kinesthetic. https://tophat.com/glossary/l/learning-style/
Summary of the Topic
Nepomuceno as cited by Balderas (2016) described the modules in the
following on a distinctive, identifiable skills or set of skills or outcomes other
than skills. It is fairly short so as to make students use their study
time efficiently. It is essentially self-teaching, even though it may encourage group
work. It blends theory and practice, and combines doing with reading and
reflecting. It provides a list of further readings or sources related to the skill
being promoted. It provides suggestions to students for participating in the
design of their own projects, explanatory activities, and evaluation criteria. It is
reality-oriented in the sense that it involves the students in real situation if not
possible, tried to use stimulation technique. It provides feedback for
improvement and redesigning. With these characteristics, he cited the
following reasons why modules are needed in teaching. The first is to develop
learning autonomy, ensure satisfactory minimum standards, provide remedial
16 units, provide basic education, upgrade content, enhance competencies
of
teachers, integrate theory and practice, cater for individual differences
in
learning, cater for different groups within the one course, consolidate critical
points in a course, facilitate industrial certification, provide resources for
distance education, encourage mastery and encourage a changed role for the
teachers. He also define module as the one that provides opportunity for
organizing numerous sequences of experience to reflect special interests of
the teacher or student. Self-instructional units allow the teacher to focus on
student deficiencies in subject matter that must be corrected and also serve to
eliminate the necessity of covering subject already known to the student. It
provides a way of assessing students’ progress in learning. It reduces the
routine aspects of instruction learning. The teacher is free to engage
in
personal contact with the student. The independent nature of selfinstructional units facilitated the updating of study materials without major
revisions. It serves as model for teachers who wish to develop their
own
materials and insert their own personality.
It was also found that students were not provided with feedback on their quizzes,
assignments, and/or tests. Instructors have justified that large class size is the
hindering factor. Students also underlined that instructors are reluctant in marking
group assignments and provide timely feedback. This result is in agreement with
Hernandez (2012) who reported that large class size and the approach i.e.,
modularization by itself as barriers for providing feedback to students. They
stressed that modular instruction requires instructors to check students’ learning
progress regularly with feedbacks. They have to provide the student with
immediate and continuing feedback. They further underlined that the purpose of
assessment in modularized program includes assessment of prerequisite skills,
the diagnosis of difficulties, and a confirmation of mastery. Moreover, it should
consider individual difference by providing flexibility with respect to the pacing,
format, and contents of the instruction (Hernandez, 2012).
The result also revealed that students are not aware of assessment criteria
for group and/or individual assessments. For this reason, instructors simply mark
group assignments with a maximum of one or two marks differences among
groups and/or individual students to avoid possible complaints from students.
Scholars in the field of education (e.g., Broadfoot & Black, 2004; Hernandez, 2012;
Mcdonald, 2006; Norton, 2004) insist that instructors should develop and share
assessment criteria (usually rubrics) with learners. This promotes, according to
these scholars, learning. They further argue that the assessment criteria should be
clear and students should be informed about it before they generate the work for
a given task. It is therefore vital that all learners in a group understand what they
are trying to achieve in a given task and why they are doing it.
On the other hand, the study has found out that the time allotted for block
course is inadequate and mostly wasted for different reasons. A week or more is
usually wasted in the transition between courses. Moreover, they both have
complained that the time allocated for a course is usually wasted because of late
opening and early closing of the academic year for different national and
institutional reasons. On the other hand, instructors have complained that the time
is inadequate to deliver the course with active participation of students in the
instructional process. The study found out that because of the inadequacy of time,
the instructors are obliged to depend on objective paper and pencil tests than
subjective assessment types like essay, projects, etc.
Conclusion and implication
Considering the participants’ views on the implementation of modularization, it
would be fair to conclude that though the modularized program emphasized the
utilization of student-centered pedagogies and continuous assessment methods,
currently these curricular reforms appear to have been undermined by the
dominance of traditional lecture-based instruction and continuous testing.
It is obvious that for effective implementation of any new perspective,
positive attitude to the issue, and sound knowledge and skills in the area are very
important. Particularly, instructors and students should clearly understand the
underlying ideas, concepts, merits, and demerits of the new approach. Thus, the
application of active learning approach largely depends on the perception that
instructors and students adhere. In addition, instructors may often be scared of
trying new ways of teaching, hence resorting to the traditional teacher-centered
teaching approach. Such fear could simply be fear of the unknown. Instructors
should really be innovative and be willing to try out new teaching strategies in an
attempt to improve their professional practice in general and enhance students’
learning.
On the other hand, instructor thought that it is impossible to engage
students actively in the teaching–learning process using lecture method. However,
the lecture method shall be transformed from the traditional thrust where the
instructor was the dominant and all-knowing figure in the teaching–learning
process with students viewed as passive listeners. The incorporation of active
learning strategies becomes imperative in the transformation of the lecture method
of instruction.
Instructor’s competency, concern for students, energy level, speaking
ability, organization, and clarity are the factors that matter most in helping students
learn in large class sizes. For instance, Maphosa and Kalenga (2012), while stating
how to modify the traditional lecture method, contend that pausing for two or three
times during teacher’s presentation and inserting a brief demonstration or short
ungraded writing exercises followed by class discussion help students to involve
in the teaching leaning process. Similarly, Maphosa (2013) explained that when
beginning a new topic, for instance, instructors may start with a participatory
lecture by asking students brainstorming questions.
Such transformation, however, is only possible if lecturers are aware of what
constitutes proper learning and have an adequate understanding of how learners
learn. Therefore, armed with skills and expertise in pedagogy and andragogy,
instructors shall be in a position to incorporate active learning techniques in their
teaching. In other words, large lecture-hall classes need not be barriers in
providing the kind of interactive, engaging, and investigative experiences that
enhance student learning. Finally, instructors should not be misled: planning and
structuring active learning in large classes takes time and energy.
It is evident that continuous assessment has the potential to support student
learning through feedback and to increase students’ motivation for learning.
Despite some apparent differences, which relate class size, in the provision of
feedback from academics in the different institutions, the results of this study
indicate that this practice of assessment often seems to fail in supporting
“assessment for learning,” irrespective of the great effort that academics put into
it. Moreover, in order for the continuous assessment system fulfill its objective as
a support for improved learning, it is not enough to train instructors about what and
how of continuous assessment rather it needs continuous dialogue and discussion
among instructors, on day-to-day teaching practice and share and complement
each other. For feedback to support students’ learning, a move toward a learningoriented approach to assessment, as argued by Carless (2007), is suggested. This
approach advocates (a) the design of assessment tasks as learning tasks, (b) the
provision of feedback that aims at supporting students throughout the process of
learning, instead of focusing on offering feedback on the completed task (i.e., when
they receive the grade), and (c) the engagement of students in managing and
monitoring their learning.
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https://tophat.com/glossary/l/learning-style/