Teachers selected by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) from all over the Philippines underwent a rigorous 17-day faculty training program offered at the University of San Carlos for them to mentor others in a new course called The Contemporary World (Ang Kasalukuyang Daigdig).
The course is one of a suit of subjects to be offered starting next year when the Revised General Education Curriculum (RGEC), or the New Gen Ed Curriculum, will be implemented following the graduation of the first-ever batch of Senior High School students in the country.
While some Grade 12 graduates may not opt to proceed to college, those who do will go through these courses in between or prior to their majors. The CHED has been busy selecting among the 21 higher education institutions (HEIs) that were granted Autonomous Status to train others to handle these courses as CHED Delivering Higher Education Institutions (DHEIs), a coveted distinction indicating the institution’s capacity to handle teacher training programs in one or more of the nine core New Gen Ed subjects.
USC was actually awarded DHEI twice, the first of which was the aforementioned subject in October 2016. Due to its satisfactory performance, USC was tasked by CHED to handle four more subjects, namely: Ethics, Life and Works of Rizal, Science, Technology, and Society, and once again The Contemporary World, all conducted in May 2017.
The initial training, referred to as First Generation Training Program, was a training for trainers, teachers who in turn were tasked to train teacher-participants in a Second Generation Training Program for teacher-applicants selected nationwide.
These Gen Ed training programs were aimed at orienting faculty-participants about the philosophy of liberal education away from the strictly disciplinal and remedial thrusts of current Gen Ed courses. They were also designed to enable the faculty-participants to teach interdisciplinary core courses using new materials while enabling qualified faculty members to serve as trainers of other faculty. Moreover, the programs were also intended for faculty participants to recognize, share, and disseminate best practices in general education.
In the first round, training was led by Dr. Lisandro Claudio of Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), the main author of the CHED-designed syllabus for The Contemporary World. Other resource persons included Dr. Elizabeth M. Remedio (USC), Dr. Corazon Anzano (USC), Mildred Estanda (Ateneo de Davao University, ADDU), Francisco Largo (USC), and Grace Magalzo-Bualat (USC).
The second round in May 2017 consisted of the following trainers: Dr. Ryan Urbano, Dr. Alvin Galeon, Jerry Pescadero, and Daryl Mendoza, all from USC, for Ethics; Dr. Resil Mojares, (USC), Dr. J. Eleazar R. Bersales (USC), Dr. Francis Gealogo (ADMU), Dr. Ambeth Ocampo (ADMU), Delilah Labajo (USC), and Nestor Pacana (USC) for the Life and Works of Rizal subject; Dr. Richard Parilla, Dr. Zona Hildegarde Amper, Estherlina Ginete, Ma. Ligaya Suico, and Daryl Mendoza from USC, and Engr. Marilou Yadao (University of San Jose-Recoletos, USJR) for Science, Technology, and Society; and Dr. Glenn Pajares (USJR), Dr. Remedio (USC), Mildred Estanda (ADDU), Magalzo-Bualat (USC), and Largo (USC) for The Contemporary World.
by Elizabeth M. Remedio, Ph.D. (Chair, Department of General Education and Mission)
Tags: General Education, Workshop