UNIT 1:

Nature of Teaching and

Teacher Roles
Challenges in
Teaching
 Multicultural education/classrooms
✗ Multicultural education is an interesting and important topic for
teachers. At its heart is a deep concern about equity, respect for
diversity, cultural literacy, and fair treatment for everyone in school.
✗ Multicultural education does not only concern itself with cultural
minority groups and indigenous people. Multicultural education is
for every learner in school. Given the growing diversity of the
contemporary society, it is critical for teachers to become culturally
literate and instructionally effective in teaching a culturally diverse
class.

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 Multicultural education/classrooms
✗ Learners are in different terms of language, religion, ethnicity, belief,
nationality, and culture. This holds true in the Philippines where there are more
than 107 ethno-linguistic groups. Each learner in the class may be a member
of a different cultural group, attends a different church, speaks a different
language, or behaves differently.
✗ Another big issue and challenge in multicultural settings is language.
Language plays an important role in the teaching and learning process.
Language has been recognized as an important tool in the production of
knowledge and the development of culture because of its power to epitomize
reality.
✗ It is also believed that learners create and construct meaning based on their
experiences and use their first language in understanding and processing ideas.
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 Learner-centered teaching
✗ In many teaching and learning documents in both private and public
schools, teachers are always called to pay attention to the demands of
learner-centered education and constructivist teaching. Learner-
centered education is one of the promising products of the
progressive movement in education.
✗ Learner-centered education refers to a kind of education that
considers the knowledge, skills, abilities, attitude, interests, and belief
that learners bring into the classroom. It pays attention to the needs,
concerns, and expectations of the learner, and also includes curricular
and instructional practices that are developmentally appropriate for
learners.
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 Learner-centered teaching
✗ In learner-centered education, providing the learner’s social and emotional
development is an equally important aspect in planning the curriculum.
Ladson (1995) includes teaching practices and pedagogy that are
“culturally relevant,” “culturally responsive,” “culturally
appropriate,” and “culturally compatible” in the definition of a learner-
centered education.
✗ It recognizes the importance of building on the conceptual and cultural
knowledge that learners bring to the school. It reiterates the importance of
developing a curriculum that is based on the interests, needs,
developmental level, and culture, which includes indigenous knowledge of
the learners. It empowers the learners as active participants and leaders of
the learning process.
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 Multi-grade class
✗ Multi-grade teaching involves the teaching of students from different grade levels in
one classroom. This requires teachers to develop a skill in handling different
students’ behavior and in addressing their needs and interest.
✗ Such situation necessitates teachers to employ effective instructional methods and
strategies and apply an efficient system for classroom management. It also requires
teachers’ versatility to design an instructional plan that will cover all topics and
activities for all students from varying grade levels.
✗ The teacher in multi-grade class should perform multiple tasks for all the grade
levels in classroom, no matter what subject is being learned. The teachers are expert
facilitators of the learning process. They bring the magic of learning in their classes;
they plan effective lessons for their students, monitor students’ progress, and
motivate students to learn. They are resourceful, creative, patient, wise and
innovative.
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 Ict integration
✗ The computer’s entry into schools changed the landscape of
education radically. With computers came educational programs
in DVD, VCD, CD and other forms. Microsoft, Apple, and
other companies have developed different kinds of software that
we currently use in education.
✗ It is also the success of the computer that gave birth to the
Internet, to which computer networks, search engines, and
electronic mails are connected. These innovations removed the
geographical distance between and among students, teachers,
schools, and other professional and institution.
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 Ict integration
✗ At the instructional level, the use of ICT in teaching and learning has
brought many positive developments in the way teachers teach and
how students learn. Computer software have enhanced teachers’ and
students’ presentations, reports, and lectures. Through ICT integration
in education, valuable information in all different areas of life and
academic disciplines is made accessible to learners and teachers.
✗ The students and teachers became active researchers engages in a
virtual world of ideas. They search the web for whatever information
they need. They experience interacting with other scholars, students,
and individuals through emails, blogs, chat, social networking, and
teleconferencing.
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 Brain-based education
✗ Another significant challenge to teachers is to understand and apply
the principles of brain-based education, which was brought by
research in neuroscience. Significant neuroscience studies provided
several ideas on how the human brain functions and people learn.
✗ Caine and Caine (1997) considers curriculum and instruction
from brain-based approach. The brain-based education is useful for
teachers in organizing curriculum and instruction. It encourages
teachers to think and reflect on the way they teach their subjects to
students and challenges them to reorganize instruction to
implement these brain-based education practices.

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 Multiple intelligence
✗ The idea of learners having multiple intelligences came from the research of
renowned Harvard University professor, Howard Gardner. In 1983,
Gardner published his book Frames of Mind, which presented the concept
of multiple intelligences.
✗ The Multiple Intelligence theory became a powerful force that pushed many
educators and schools to change the educational system radically. It led
teachers and schools to design curriculum and instruction that develop these
multiple intelligences.
✗ It has become a strong advocacy in education to provide opportunities to
develop the talents, skills, and gifted potentials of the learners. Multiple
Intelligence has become the guiding framework to design the curriculum in
preschool and in some private elementary schools.
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 Children with special needs
✗ Special Education is an area in education that seeks to understand
the nature and needs of different learners with special needs. As a
field of study, it trains teachers and other professional to respond to
the needs of special learners in terms of pedagogy, curriculum, and
other forms of educational interventions.
✗ In a regular classroom, we can only observe students with learning
difficulties, physical disabilities, behavioral problems, and who are
gifted. With the help of scholars and practitioners in the field of
special education, we have come to realize and learn that special
learners can be classified in different ways.

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 Children with special needs
✗ It is inevitable for teachers to encounter learners with special
needs in their classes. This possess an immerse challenge not
only in classroom management but also in curriculum and
instruction. Consequently, teachers need to modify the
curriculum and use instructional approaches that are relevant
and responsive to the needs of these special learners.
✗ A special education teacher needs to have deep devotion,
commitment, and passion to teach special learners. They need to
work closely with co-teachers, parents, and other professionals
to understand the nature, behavior, and needs of learners.
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4 pillars of
education
- UNESCO
 Learning to know
✗ This pillar goes beyond learning facts and emphasizes on how a person
learn. Mastering one's ability to gain knowledge in a smart way.
✗ We must realize that learning is a "life-long process, as individual our
main goal is to realize our potentials and make use of these to be a
better member of the community.
✗ Teachers should help the students on how to process the information
that is readily available today like selecting to process the kind of
information that we really need and also developing in them the
instruments they can use to master how their own selves learn.
✗ Therefore, learning to know is not simply acquiring knowledge, it is a
process of continuously learning to develop your instruments to learn.
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 Learning to do
✗ Mastering their own way of learning will prepare them to apply what they learn
which is the focus in this pillar. Our knowledge will be more useful if we apply it
to our daily life. Teachers are expected to develop the skills of the students that
will be use to further unlock their own potentials.
✗ As society changes, the demands for skills and competencies also change.
Teachers must be updated with the necessary teaching medium to cater these
changes in the society. As for students, different opportunities will arise,
therefore, they should not limit themselves with what is presented to them.
Continue seeking knowledge to develop your potentials. And one way to develop
your potentials is by offering your service to the society. Opportunity is where
the demand is.
✗ "To learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not
to know" -
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 Learning to live together
✗ What is the purpose of learning? Why do we need to develop skills?
Why there is a need to make these skills be useful to our community?
✗ This pillar focuses on developing values for the learners to be a better
member of the community. We are social animals, right after we were
born, we already had a community that we belong which is our family.
As a responsible member, it’s our main concern to maintain the peace
in the society and contribute for a better community.
✗ Understanding ourselves first before understanding others is a crucial
process to take into consideration to fully realized this pillar. Accepting
that there are diversities and knowing how these diversities can work
together should be emphasized.
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 Learning to be
✗ This pillar focuses on the total development of a human person. Achieving
one’s highest potential by developing in all aspects like moral. social,
spiritual, physical and intellectual.
✗ There are different kinds of learners and each of their skill has an equal
opportunity to be developed as part of a complete development which this
pillar aims.
✗ With the evolution of technology and information, it may be hard
sometimes to deal with information overload. Becoming fully aware of
one’s personality and the society will help the students to select the kind of
information that they believe will be valuable to them personally. Other
pillars greatly contribute to what kind person you are. So, in our
curriculum every subject should help us in all aspects of development.
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 Learning to transform oneself and society
✗ Additional Pillar of Education based from UNESCO’s
Education for Sustainable Development Initiative (2012)
presented a conceptual framework for ongoing, lifelong learning.
✗ Learning to TRANSFORM ONESELF AND SOCIETY
means when individuals and groups gain knowledge, develop
skills and acquire new values as a result of learning, they are
equipped with tools and mindsets for creating lasting change in
organizations, communities and societies.

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