Field Experience Research Question Philippines

What are math education standards at all levels, and

how do they go about meeting those standards?
As I primarily focus on math instruction, I was very curious to see how math
is taught in the Philippines. Because math is generally such a concrete
subject, I wondered how much variation there would be in another country.
Also, you hear about Asian math powerhouses--Singapore, Japan, etc.-so I
wondered if the Philippines would be more like those Asian countries or the
U.S.
My first discovery during my field trip was how difficult it would be to
discover how they teach math. Our field experience at our host schools
occurred during the first week of school. As all educators know, a lot of the
first week is spent in orientation, setting expectations, and establishing
routines. Not a lot of actual instruction occurs during those days.
Adding to the confusion was the implementation of the K-12 Initiative, adding
grade 11 to the school system for the first time. Our host school was in a lot
of turmoil, because of a lack of classrooms, teachers, and resources. For
example, because of the lack of classrooms, the school was shifting.
Grades 7 and 10 met from 6:30 AM to 12:15 PM. Grades 8 and 9 met from
12:45 to 7 PM. Teachers were assigned to one class and subject on Tuesday
and switched to another class and subject by Thursday.
Therefore, I actually saw very little math instruction. I was able to examine
the DepEd curriculum standards; look through a teachers manual and
student workbooks; and talk to teachers. One of the biggest surprises for me
was the complete centralization of everything that has to do with curriculum.
The Philippines has a national curriculum, and it is spelled out in detail. If you
pull up the DepEd math curriculum materials, you will see a list of every skill
that students must learn in each marking period and the reference to the
exact lesson (including page numbers) in the standard textbooks and
learning materials.
As an elementary teacher, Im most familiar with elementary math
standards. It appears that the Filipino curriculum is more accelerated than
the current Common Core standards. For example, in Common Core/PA Core,
students learn multiplication in third grade. In the Philippines, they learn it in
second grade. In third grade, they are already doing measurement
conversions.

In the upper grades, it appears that students continue to take Math, not
separate courses in Algebra, Geometry, Statistics. In grades 7 through 10,
the curriculum standards keep a mix of algebra, geometry, and
statistics/probability. Students get all aspects of math every year.
In the schools I visited, all but one or two of the classes are heterogeneously
mixed. At the end of the year, the schools evaluate the test scores of all their
students in a grade and create a number 1 class (and sometimes a couple of
more classes like this.) This star class presumably contains all the top
students in a grade. Usually, it has far fewer students30, as compared to
48. After watching a math lesson with a Grade 4 star class, I talked to the
teacher about teaching star classes compared to regular classes. She does
do the same lessons with every class. However, she said she needs to do a
lot more repetition in her regular classes. She also cant do as much of the
lesson with the bigger, more heterogeneous classes. The lesson I observed
included a hands-on portion with manipulatives. The class had the materials
in a large desk, and they had lots of room to move around. My guess is that
the hands-on portion is the part that is often jettisoned for the regular
classes, as those students didnt have the room or materials. In addition, I
wonder how much of the hands-on work was happening in my host school,
where students were jammed into classrooms with tiny desks with all their
materials in their back packs.
I wonder too, about how this grouping affects math instruction in the upper
grades. In the U.S., we begin to separate our students in middle school.
Some students go to the faster-track math, that might culminate in Calculus
the junior or senior year. The others go through the math specialties more
slowly. With the primarily heterogeneous grouping, I wonder how students
who are middle upper or lower ability cope with being in completely mixed
group. In addition, our host teacher, Cheryl, teaches Calculus at a local
college. Since public school has ended at grade 10 before this year, no
student at a public school will learn calculus. It will be interesting to see if
this will be changed with the new K-12 Initiative.
The teacher manuals that I looked at would seem very familiar to U.S.
teachers. The lessons usually included small group work, hands-on work, and
independent work by the students. Students are supposed to share their
thinking and work with the classroom. The centralized materials include a lot
of things that are considered best practices in the U.S. I do wonder how
many of the teachers actually follow those elements of the lessons. They
dont have the resources or materials in their rooms. Students did seem
familiar with small group work, and clearly enjoyed it when they were doing
it. In general, they were terrible at listening to each other sharing their work.

(This was something that drove me crazy!) Of course, when you have so
many students in a classroom, sharing becomes more of a chore.
The textbooks did an excellent job of making problems applicable to Filipinos.
On one page I looked at, the problems referred to Rosa earning PHP 150,000
a year, the distance between two towns being 420 km, and baskets of
dalandan fruit. I felt that students would feel at home with the topics
included in their problem-solving.
Once of my biggest question involves language. In K-3, students are taught
in the native dialect. Beginning in Grade 4, English becomes the language of
instruction for math and many other subjects. My experience showed that
many students are not very fluent in English. Teachers told me they
frequently switch to the native dialect when explaining math concepts to
help the students understand. I am torn about whether teaching math in
English is beneficial (to improve global competitiveness) or a detriment (not
comprehending math concepts because of language deficiencies.)