The newly established Gokongwei Brothers School of Education and Learning Design partnered with the Madaris Volunteer Program to develop and deliver online training in Science and Math for teachers in Muslim Mindanao. Through its Ateneo Teacher Center, GBSEALD delivered the 2021 Midyear Enhancement Capability Training Program (MECT), an annual training program for teachers from the madaris partner schools. The Madaris Volunteer Program is an initiative of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) and is implemented by the Ateneo de Davao University.
This year’s MCET was funded by the Global Community for Engagement and Resilience Fund.
Students are now learning on their own, from their homes, without the teacher and their classmates constantly there to help them. It’s a learning environment that is not at all conducive to learning. It is no wonder that educators have started to think about how they might develop agency in students. The 2ndEdukampyon Webinar Series, through a partnership between Rex Education, Ateneo Teacher Center, and Ateneo SALT, addressed this pressing concern.
The Edukampyon webinar series ran on Saturday mornings from February 15 to May 15, 2021.
The 12-webinar series was an offering under Edukampyon, Rex Education’s ongoing initiative which hopes to “engage and empower education duty bearers that they may better respect, protect, and fulfill every Filipino learner’s right to quality education.” The 2nd Edukampyon webinar series on Learner agency was designed to build capacities for making our learners champions of their own learning.
The series was streamed live every Saturday morning on the Rex Education FB page and the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) FB page to a very participative audience of educators from way up north like Narvacan, Ilocos Sur and down south like Sto. Nino, South Cotabato…and viewers from as far away as the Middle East, US, and Canada.
The webinar series defined learner agency as having the power to act. Our learner agency framework has 3 components – believing that they CAN achieve their full potential, setting goals and having the WILL and intention to pursue these dreams and goals, and being equipped with the skills to pursue these goals including hurdling the bumps along the way.
Veteran educators known for their expertise in these different components shared their best practices and research findings:
I CAN ACHIEVE!
Dr. Cara Fernandez (Growth Mindset and Learner Agency)
Mrs. Jeraldine Ching (Meeting the Students’ Relatedness Needs)
I HAVE THE WILL AND INTENTION!
Dr. Isabel Martin (Learner Agency: Issues in Higher Education)
Mr. Ryan Bulosan (Building Lifelong Learners through Personal and Academic Goal Setting)
Dr. Margarita Ladrido (The Role of Beliefs in Student Agency)
I AM EQUIPPED TO REACH MY GOALS!
Mrs. Kara Decloedt (Rubrics and Feedback: Do you use them as power tools in your teaching?)
Mrs. Theresa Ladrido (Inquiry Tasks and PBL to Nurture Learner Agency)
Mrs. Rita Atienza (Gradually Letting Go until They Can Stand on Their Own)
Mrs. Rita Atienza (Language that Builds Learner Agency)
Mr. Galvin Ngo (Motivating Learners to Act with Technology)
Mr. Ryan Bulosan (Developing the New Literacies)
Many participants commented that the sessions were informative and useful. And there was indeed much to take away!
Dr. Fernandez pointed out that it is easier to finish a big task if teachers and students celebrate the small wins along the way! Mrs. Decloedt recounted how students in their school now ask for the rubric at the beginning of every unit, track these rubrics as the unit progresses, self-assess with the rubrics and are often stricter on themselves than teachers are! Mrs. Nubla-Lee emphasized how receiving scholarships is just the beginning of a scholar’s journey – they must be prepared for the experience, and assisted and mentored during the experience, and even beyond! This is the scaffolding to succeed in the real world that our scholars–and all other students–need. Mr. Bulosan spoke about the need for students to be information- and media-literate if they are to be able to achieve their goals in this data-rich, technology-driven world.
The PRC has accredited the webinar-series for 15 CPD points for those participants who completed the 12-webinar series and the accompanying evaluation tools.
Interested to listen to the webinars yourself? You can watch the recordings here in the Rex Education FB Page.
The Ateneo de Manila University just opened a new school.
In a memo released on the 23rd of May 2021, University President, Fr. Roberto Yap SJ, announced the establishment of the Gokongwei Brothers School of Education and Learning Design. GBSEALD will be the fifth Loyola School on the Ateneo de Manila campus.
30 webinars. 45 hours. 70 resource speakers. 20 Jesuit schools and universities. 7 countries including Australia, the United States, Mexico, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Italy.
Hundreds of Ignatian educators participating every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in this series of professional conversations on topics ranging from online learning in the different disciplines, digital formation and ministry to well-being and cura personalisin this time of the pandemic–including a special Ignatian recollection in celebration of the Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola last 30 July.
For students, a sudden shift to online learning can be quite confusing. In a physical school environment, structures and routines like class schedules, designated venues, etc. are in place to allow learners to organize their days and weeks, leading to a certain rhythm of life throughout a semester.
With the recent onslaught of online learning, all these familiar structures suddenly disappear, morphing into a list of links, platforms and tasks. Faced with many of these moving parts, students might fall for the temptation of #TMDD (Too much! Didn’t do)!
Here’s a simple tool to help you organize your new online learning life:
So, you suddenly get the announcement that classes are suspended, BUT classes will continue ONLINE! 😕Here are a few things that might help your transition to becoming an online student:
Set your time.
Being given the flexibility of time doesn’t mean you have all the time in the world to do the online tasks assigned to you. Time will continue to move even if you don’t. What often helps is to create a schedule for yourself and to allot specific time periods to do specific tasks. You can even schedule your break times as well! Creating space for brain breaks between learning tasks is as important as engaging in the tasks themselves. If you’re shifting to online studying for a long period of time, you may even want to come up with a weekly schedule.
If it’s your first time to study online, then you might be excited to finally get a chance to take classes in your bed, or while your tv is on and your smartphone within reach for any notification—or worse, while binging on Netflix!
Can you really pay full attention to your learning while doing all of the above? Recent studies show that multitasking is a myth! If you really want to study, you have to set up your space for it. Where in your house are you able to focus the most? What is a place that you find comfortable enough, but not distracting? Once you find that space, feel free to customize it. How can you make your space more conducive for learning? What can you add or remove from the space so that you can really focus on your task more?
We have different answers to these questions, so go figure this out on your own: What is the right space for you? When you do find it, use it! In as much as classrooms are built a certain way to make them conducive for learning, there’s probably something in your space that makes it conducive for you.
For students accustomed to a face-to-face classroom environment, you are probably used to having your teachers control the pace and path of your learning. Now that you’re more on your own, it’s important to know that learning doesn’t happen by chance, but by design! There’s actually a science and art to learning.
Since self-paced learning is “teaching yourself,” here are some things we know about learning that you can consider:
Retrieving beats reviewing. If you want to master something, the best way to do so is to remember it, to explain it, and to use what you have learned. So, let’s say there is a text that you’ve been asked to read. Instead of reading it over and over again, come up with questions to test yourself and try to answer them without the text (ex. coming up with flash cards might help). Or imagine explaining it to someone or using it in a situation.
Concrete examples clarify. If you’re studying something quite abstract like a mathematical operation or a theoretical framework, you might want to connect that to examples that you’ve encountered or that you’re familiar with. Examples help us remember and understand concepts more deeply. Share these examples with your online classmates! Listening to one another’s examples can help further clarify concepts.
Draw and discuss. One way to help you understand things better is not just to rehearse explaining something, but also to visualize what you are studying. It doesn’t need to look like a work of art. Doodles and diagrams will do. Mixing doodles with words and using them to discuss concepts tap into our ability to “dual code”: to learn through words and visuals.
We all know that school is not just about studies. It’s very much about being around friends too! One idea is to set-up virtual dates with friends or just keep each other updated in class or block messenger groups. It can also be a venue to exchange notes about your experience.
Set your time. Find your space. Pave your path.
These are some things you may want to consider as you begin your journey as an online learner. Happy learning!
Here’s a nifty infographic you can pass on 🏃🏽🏃♀️🏃🏾♂️🧂
If you’re a teacher who’s new to online learning and want to–or have to!–try it out , we have the perfect guide for you!
No need to be high-tech or trained professionally. As long as you’re willing to learn–especially in these times!–you can transform yourself to some kind of online learning designer. Nothing like necessity to mother your self-reinvention!
We will suggest several tools and strategies here, but no pressure to use all of them! Think of this as a menu or a go-to guide when you are planning your online lessons.
The key idea is NOT just to upload all your slides and required readings online (even if that’s the easiest thing to do). Rather, make an effort to DESIGN an engaging online learning experience for your learners. You can do it!
The Loyola Schools of Ateneo de Manila uses Moodle, so if you know how to use that, that’s great! Moodle has many useful features that will surely come in handy in these times.
But there are other learning management systems that are available online for free–like Schoology, Edmodo, Google Classroom, Canvas, Brightspace, Neo, etc. Some teachers also prefer to use social media or messaging applications like Facebook Groups, Slack, Viber, FB Messenger, etc.
We will focus on two of these alternative LMS: Schoology and Facebook Groups. We think that they’re the easiest to learn and are also accessible to most teachers and students.
To begin, just make sure that both the teacher and students have:
their device (preferably, with speakers!), and
a reliable Internet connection.
All set? Let’s begin!
Where would you like to set up your Virtual Classroom?
This article is authored by Ms. Jennie Hickey, the Executive Officer of Jesuit Education Australia.
The Key Leaders of Learning and the Ignatian Coordinators from Jesuit and Companion Schools Australia were engaged in a four-day workshop entitled “Learning by Refraction: A Practitioner’s Guide to 21st Century Ignatian Pedagogy.” The workshop was held at St. Peter Canisius House, Pymble, Australia from the 23rd to the 27th of February 2020.
A total of 32 participants attended the workshop, representing Australia’s ten Jesuit and Companion Schools.Continue reading “LEARNING BY REFRACTION GOES TO AUSTRALIA”
On February 3rd to 6th, 2020, over 30 educators from nine European countries attended a four-day Conference on “Learning by Refraction,” a 21st-century approach to Ignatian Pedagogy proposed in a book of the same title by Fr. Johnny Go SJ and Ms. Rita Atienza of the Ateneo SALT Institute.
Just recently launched was the Virtual Colloquium for Jesuit schools around the world. The Virtual Colloquium is the prelude to the international gathering of school heads and leaders that will take place in Jogjakarta, Indonesia from June 29 to July 4, 2020.
