Cite concrete application of the
guiding principles in the teaching
of Araling Panlipunan
Effective teaching of Araling Panlipunan is
characterized as meaningful, integrative,
value-based, challenging and active. These
are the key words in the guiding principles for
Araling Panlipunan teaching. Let us explain
each of them.
It is meaningful when students see the relevance and connection of their
lesson to their lives because it has real-world application. Incorporating realworld examples makes lessons more meaningful to students because they will
be able to connect the learning to the bigger picture rather than just the
classroom.
• Araling Panlipunan teaching is meaningful when new information in Araling
Panlipunan lesson is connected to prior experiences of students. Meaning
must be made, and understanding must be earned. Students are more
likely to make meaning and gain understanding when they link new
information to prior knowledge, relate facts to "big ideas," explore essential
questions, and apply their learning in new contexts.
• The teaching of Araling Panlipunan becomes meaningful also
when students are challenged to use disciplined inquiry or use highorder thinking skills to construct meaning. An example is when
students interpret, analyze or manipulate information in order for them
-to gain a better understanding of the content.
• The teaching of Araling Panlipunan is meaningful When learming
is authentic. Authentic learning builds on the concept of "earning by
doing" to increase a student's engagement.
• To sum up, meaningful teaching and learning in Araling
Panlipunan means teaching in depth, avoiding the 'one-mile-inch-deep’
teaching. It is not just memorizing isolated events, names and dates for
the test. It is connecting lessons to the real life of students.
Araling Panlipunan as a subject is in itself an integration of several
interrelated disciplines - history, economics, geography, political
science, sociology, anthropology, archaeology and psychology. The
multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary nature of Araling Panlipunan as
a subject demands that Araling Panlipunan teaching should be
integrative.
The intended outcomes of Araling Panlipunan as a course/subject are
in the affective domain, the development of the mamayang
mapanagutan, makakalikasan. makabansa at makatao. It is no wonder
why a powerful Araling Panlipunan teaching is value-driven. In fact, it is
only when Araling Panlipunan teaching reaches the value level that
Araling Panlipunan teaching becomes truly meaningful, hence effective.
It is in the value level of teaching that facts and concepts get connected
to real life of students, (The 3-level teaching strategy includes the
teaching of facts (first level), concepts, (second level) and values (third
level). This is discussed in Chapter 3).
Araling Panlipunan teaching requires students to process
and think about what they are learning. There is a profound
difference between learning about the actions and
conclusions of others and reasoning one's way toward those
conclusions. Active learning is "hands-on-minds-on-hearts
on." In active learning, students work either individually or
collaboratively, using rich and varied sources, to reach
understandings, make decisions, discuss issues and solve
problems.
For Araling Panlipunan teaching and learning to be
challenging, learning task should neither be too easy to
bore the students nor too difficult to discourage them.
Learning tasks must depart from the usual tasks; if they
are the same learning tasks again and again, they
become so usual that they lose novelty and are no
longer challenging.