Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region IX, Zamboanga Peninsula
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR
TUKURAN TECHNICAL-VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
Tukuran, Zamboanga del Sur

REFLECTION / JOURNAL ENTRY THAT HIGHLIGHTS THE APPLICATION

OF A LEARNER-CENTERED TEACHING PHILOSOPHY IN THE LESSON PLAN OR
COMMUNITY WORK

Teaching is a passion. If you don’t have that passion, you are in the wrong field. Being a teacher is not easy.
There is a lot of pressure and demands coming from students, parents, and school officials which can be
overwhelming. But when a teacher has that wholesome desire to teach, it can overcome all the other baggage that
comes with the profession. Teaching is not only a career but a tool to help others succeed. Its very essence is what
pushes a teacher to go above and beyond the expectations of an educator. That passionate teacher is the type of
teacher I am. Education doesn’t end when a certain concept, idea, or topic is taught but it’s an on going process in
which students are consistently building upon. As a teacher, it needs to be understood that not all students learn
equally. Some students learn at a different pace and different formats of lesson have different effects on students;
some lessons might spark something in the student that other lessons might not. As a teacher, it’s important to find
creative ways to engage students and challenge them so that continue to pursue an education systematically. It
should become part of their lives and to a certain degree, their identity because education never ends.
What makes a good teacher? There are many factors that determined the answers to this question. The
most dominant factor is the teaching philosophy. It plays a significant role in the teaching career because it
determines what the teacher will teach and how he/she will teach.
The teaching should emphasis on students’ individual needs and their own characters. Everyone is different,
such as learning styles. Thus, the traditional format of teaching won’t work out for the whole student body. The
teaching methods should be variable and fit into individual needs. Also, the size of the classroom should be
considerably small. Thus, the teacher could pay enough attention to each one of the students in the classroom.
Being a teacher at Tukuran Technical-Vocational High School, I prefer the Constructivism Philosophy. It is a
theory that is based on scientific study and observation on how people learn. It is an approach to learning that states
that people construct their knowledge and understanding of the world by experiencing events and reflecting
on those events (McLeod, 2019). This is by deriving meaning from those events, something that is
influenced by and reconciled with previous experiences and ideas.
Constructivism is characterized by several major principles that include the following:

Learning is an active process.

Unlike in the traditional passive view of teaching and learning where the student was a blank slate ready to
be filled with knowledge, in constructivism, learners have to construct their own understanding by being engaged
actively with the world around them through real -world problem solving and experiments (McLeod, 2019).
For learners to understand, they have to make meaningful connections between past knowledge, prior
knowledge and the entire learning process from information received either actively or passively.

Knowledge is actively constructed

The central idea behind constructivism is that learning is actively constructed and individuals learn by
building knowledge from and onto already pre-existing knowledge. This prior knowledge forms the foundation of
newly learned experiences (McLeod, 2019). It dismisses the idea that knowledge can be innately or passively
received.
All knowledge is socially constructed This principle states that teaching and learning involve sharing and
bargaining socially created knowledge (McLeod, 2019). Learning is something that is done together through
interactions. It encourages active collaboration in the pursuit of learning.
Knowledge is personal
This principle negates the view that knowledge is socially constructed by stating that every learner has their
own unique perspective based on prior value, ideas and knowledge (McLeod, 2019). This means that different
learners taking the same lesson or going through a similar experience will ultimately learn differently according to
their own specific interpretations.
Learning exists in the mind
Learners constantly develop their unique mental perceptions of the real world from their own view of
that world. Constructivism states that knowledge is only existent in the mind and does not fit any reality in the real
world. Learners continually modify their own mental perceptions to mirror new information and subsequently make
their own apprehension of reality.
There are three main forms of constructivism which are; social constructivism that is based on the work of Lev
Vygotsky, radical constructivism, and cognitive constructivism based on Jean Piaget’s (1896-1980) work. According
to the GSI Teaching and Resource Centre (2015), cognitive constructivism states that learning is relative to the stage
of a learner’s cognitive development as knowledge is actively constructed on the cognitive structures that are in
existence. A teacher who values students’ participation will uphold constructivism by conducting experiments,
creating discussion groups, organizing excursions, handing out periodical questionnaires, assigning individual
and group projects, holding debate sessions, ensuring that all students participate in class and emphasizing on
journaling by and suggestions from the students.

Prepared by:

QUINEE R. ILLUSTRACION
Teacher III