TEGr 103

Teaching Social Studies in the

Elementary Grades: Philippine History and Government

K to 12: Necessary or Not?

The K to 12 Basic Education Program covers Kindergarten and 12 years of

basic education (six years of primary education, four years of Junior High School,
and two years of Senior High School), this aims to provide the learners a sufficient
and enough time to master the concepts and skills and prepare them for tertiary
education for them to be ready and well-equipped individuals to join and compete in
the global context.

Way back when I was in my Junior High School Days specifically in Grade 7,
I’ve heard a lot of things about this K to 12 Program wherein instead of having 10
years of basic education, it will now become 12 years since there’s a 2 years added
on it. Upon hearing this, my mind was like no it can’t be because it would really take
much longer of time for me in schooling wherein fact, before, I see myself that when
I age 19, I already graduated from college and hopefully got a job in my 20’s but
these vision of mine was changed when it is added by 2 years. In addition, I was
thinking before this way, like hey 10 years of schooling is so exhausting how much
more if it is 12 years? But all of these mindset was turned out to a positive when I
reach grade 10, wherein we are properly oriented by various teachers and staffs
about this program. It seems like all of my questions are being answered and I got
the opportunity to ask about the pro’s and con’s of this program. So basically, I
better understand now the concept of this K to 12 Program and why our country is
adapting and implementing this kind of basic education despite of all the rants they
have received upon making this possible.

Furthermore, K to 12 have this 6 salient features that helps us to fully

understand and know the purpose of this program and one of these that has given
emphasis in the implementation and has the connection in teaching this subject,
Social Studies in the Elementary Grades are #2 Making the Curriculum Relevant to
Learners and #4 Ensuring Unified and Seamless Learning. These salient feature are
indeed important in my future profession especially that I am handling and molding
elementary learners by which early foundations are critical so as future teacher, I
would make sure to teach my future learners about certain things that has relevant
 TEGr 103
Teaching Social Studies in the
Elementary Grades: Philippine History and Government
to their grade levels and make it relatable to them for them not to find my class as a
boring, but an interesting one. However, I should considered my learner’s
capabilities every time I teach, so this means that I should start with the basics
before going to complex one so that my learners would not literally shocked and for
me not to create a gap in their learning because as what every teachers dream is to
have his/her learners a continuous learning and that’s all that matters.

According to Bhatia (1987) one of his objectives in his study is “Teachers

should study the relevance of the topic in the curriculum.” I will agree on this
because I have known some teachers way back when I was in high school wherein I
admired the most because upon entering the room, you can see that she was
prepared and she also studied her lesson because when she discussed, books are no
longer needed for she already mastered what she taught on that day and that
should every teacher should possess so that it would be easy for us, learners to
understand and grasp the lesson because we could be able to relate in her
discussion and with that we could be able to share something in the class.

According to the National Policy on Education (1986), they expect a lot from
teachers by putting tremendous effort and responsibility since it opine, “No people
can rise above the level of a teacher.” This means that teachers are expected to
share their expertise to his/her students because they are expected to be
knowledgeable in everything. Wherein fact I can still recall when I was in grade 4
wherein my teacher taught us about “Pananakop ng mga Espanyol sa Pilipinas” and
then I observed something when I was in Grade 5, it seems that this topic was back
again but this time it leveled up and was more complicated compared when I was in
my 4th grade. So there, I realized that the learnings of the students should be
continuous or spiral because that’s one of the aims of this program, thus teachers
also must teach their lessons in a spiral way or curriculum. For I believe that what
my teachers did before, wherein they started from the basic/easy to complicated
ones was for my own good, for me to connect my learnings as I go on with my
schooling because that is what spiral curriculum all about. With this, teachers can
ensure a unified and seamless learning of their learners and this one is a good
technique.
 TEGr 103
Teaching Social Studies in the
Elementary Grades: Philippine History and Government
In general, I would say that all the things I’ve been through during my
elementary and high school days helped me to become who I am today and I am
really glad to use this experience as my basis and guide for my future teaching to
my future learners for them to become ready and well-equipped individual not just
only here in our country but in the global context as well because that’s what this
basic education program aims for, for us to compete in the world-wide perspective
using these salient features.

References:

https://shodhnganga.inflibnet.ac.in

https://www.slideshare.net