Last October 20, nearly 60 administrators and master teachers from Jesuit schools all over the country congregated at the Mirador Jesuit Villa for the first JBEC IPP Trainers’ Training Workshop based on LEARNING BY REFRACTION.
Fr. Ari Dy SJ, the Chair of the Philippine Jesuit Basic Education Commission, welcomed the participants on the first day, giving them a background on the publication of LEARNING BY REFRACTION: A PRACTITIONER’S GUIDE TO 21st-CENTURY IGNATIAN PEDAGOGY. The book is published jointly by JBEC and the Ateneo de Manila University Press.
The facilitators for the workshop were the authors of the book–namely, Fr. Johnny Go SJ and Ms. Rita Jacinto Atienza. Fr. Go began by recounting the origins of the project when ten years ago, at a JBEC meeting held in Davao, the School Heads, Principals, and administrators agreed to reflect on their practice of Ignatian Pedagogy. This move had been prompted by observations from a La Salle brother friend of Fr. Go, a veteran PAASCU accreditor, that the IPP seemed to be understood and implemented differently in our different schools.
After ten years of consultation with both specialists and practitioners, the book Learning by Refraction was born, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the publication of the seminal Ignatian Pedagogy: A Practical Approach. This four-day trainers’ training workshop was the first of many steps that JBEC will take to the deepen our educators’ understanding of the IPP and improve its practice in basic education.
The workshop was designed especially to equip the participants with both the understanding and the skills to train their colleagues in their respective schools. In fact, the participants had been handpicked precisely for this purpose.
And it showed.
The participants’ eagerness to learn, coupled with their years of experience as IPP practitioners, was evident in the workshop discussions and the outputs. Both Fr. Go and Ms. Atienza were impressed not only by the experience of the participants, but also their openness to explore new ideas in order to improve our practice of Ignatian Pedagogy.
The workshop provided an overview of the book and offered tips on how it can be used as a menu of resources and exercises for IPP workshops for novice as well as experienced teachers.
What truly distinguished the learning experience at the workshop was its contextual approach. The participants learned more about Ignatian Pedagogy not primarily through the inputs, but more crucially, through their reflection on their own practice. Indeed the very approach of the workshop can best be described as an experience–and modelling–of the IPP.
The workshop focused on the two defining elements of Ignatian Pedagogy: Reflection and–just as essential, but often neglected–Action. The participants went through the exercise of articulating possible overarching insights for their subject areas. The insights proposed by the group were very impressive, a testament to the disciplinary expertise of the participants.
The second portion of the workshop challenged the participants to design authentic assessments that had real-world contexts for learners to apply their learnings.
Asked about their main takeaways from the workshop, the trainers shared the following observations:
- “The IPP is grounded on the relationships between the teacher, the learner, and the world (the content).”
- “It is in the student’s engagement in Reflection and Action that true learning will happen.”
- “Everything–including Academics–is formation. Both our academic and formation teams should work together to form persons for others.”
- “Ignatian Pedagogy is the manifestation of our call to be contemplatives-in-action.”
The 58 participants came from all our basic education schools–with representatives from Ateneo de Manila, Xavier School, Ateneo de Naga, Ateneo de Cebu – Sacred Heart Jesuit School, Ateneo de Iloilo – Sta. Maria Catholic School, Loyola College in Culion, Palawan, Ateneo Xavier in Cagayan de Oro, Ateneo de Davao, and Ateneo de Zamboanga. Indeed this very diversity of the participants’ background enriched the sharing and learnings.
Having undergone this intensive four-day training, the participants are now ready to conduct their own trainings in their respective schools. They were encouraged to take their initiative to consult their principals regarding teh best ways forward, as well as to find their own style as they share their knowledge, even while they were cautioned about the inevitable constraints they will encounter back in their schools. But every single baby step–and every small difference it makes–will matter!
Special thanks to Jude Liao, Fr. Ari’s assistant for JBEC, for pulling off all the logistical support before and during the workshop. Already, we are planning for another IPP Trainers’ Training next year for JBEC, this time focused on its use for formation.
Next year’s workshop will be held from October 18 – 23, 2020 at Mirador Jesuit Villa. See you there!
