:: Volume 10 No.1

(Special Issue of the 2007 CEM Educators’ Conference)

CONTENTS:
           
Keynote Address:
Curriculum Improvement: Perspectives from Design and Assessment
RAMONCLARO G. MENDEZ, O.P.

Elementary Education Curriculum: Its Development and Implementation
YOLANDA S. QUIJANO, PhD

Identifying Patterns of Skills Acquisition in Elementary Mathematics among a Cohort Group of Pupils: Implications to Teaching and Learning
JESUS E. SEVILLA, JR.
KATHRYN M. TAN

Redesigning the CEM Mathematics Diagnostic Tests as Developmental Assessment Instruments
MA. ANGELES A. SAMPANG
JASON V. MOSEROS

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VOLUME 10 No. 1 ABSTRACTS:
(Note: no abstract for the keynote address)

Elementary Education Curriculum: Its Development and Implementation

Dr. Yolanda S. Quijano
Director III, Bureau of Elementary Education
Department of Education

The Elementary Education Curriculum (EEC), as a major component of the Basic Education Curriculum (BEC), was first implemented in 2002. Its rationale is anchored on the belief that an ideal Filipino learner in a rapidly changing world should be empowered for lifelong learning, competent in learning how to learn, equipped with life skills, and a self-developed person who is makabayan (patriotic), makatao (mindful of humanity), makakalikasan (respectful of nature), and maka-Diyos (godly).
           
A curriculum committee composed of specialists from DepED, teacher education institutions, and other government agencies directly involved in education prepared the first draft. Consultations and dialogues with internal and external stakeholders were conducted to review the curriculum. Furthermore, the curriculum was validated in organized fora for practitioners in the different learning areas at various levels: region, division, district, and school.

The curriculum design includes objectives, features, framework, standards, content, structure, delivery, learning areas, and assessment. Its implementation guidelines were contained in Department Order No. 43, s. 2002. Trainings were conducted at the different levels to provide implementers with working knowledge on the curriculum. Other mechanisms for support and quality control include the provision of the revised Philippine Elementary Learning Competencies (PELC) and textbooks, continuous training on the different teaching strategies, monitoring, evaluation, and provision of technical assistance undertaken by the division, region, and the Bureau of Elementary Education (BEE).

After the fourth year of implementation, the BEE commissioned the Philippine Normal University (PNU) to evaluate the progress of its implementation. Results showed that there were more problems than strengths in the implementation of the curriculum. Recommendations of the evaluators focus on areas that include (1) the BEC program: content, competencies, support materials, assessment, monitoring and research activity; (2) teacher preparation and upgrading; (3) administrative support; and (4) parent-community-business support.

Among the projects being undertaken by the BEE to implement the recommendations are: revisions of the learning competencies in different learning areas and development of prototype lessons; formulation of professional standards, design and modules for training of elementary teachers; and preparation of sector monitoring framework and design with corresponding tools and instruments.

Identifying Patterns of Skills Acquisition in Elementary Mathematics among a Cohort Group of Pupils: Implications to Teaching and Learning

Jesus E. Sevilla, Jr.
Kathryn M. Tan
Center for Educational Measurement, Inc.

This study explores the use of test performance to identify patterns of skills acquisition that differentiate good and poor performers in elementary mathematics. Good and poor performers in mathematics were identified through their cumulative raw score on six achievement tests in grade 1 to grade 6 mathematics. These tests were administered consecutively for six school years to an intact cohort group of 1,347 pupils towards the end of each school year. Discrimination and difficulty indices of all test items were computed to identify “critical” skills that highly discriminate the good performers from the low performers. The connection between the critical as well as non-critical skills in doing fractions and the patterns of acquiring these skills from one grade level to the next were then described and illustrated.

The results showed that majority of the critical items are more difficult than the non-critical items. The pattern of difficulty and discrimination indices of items on fractions indicated that both good and poor performers acquire the ability to identify fraction concepts from illustrations and perform addition and subtraction on similar fractions. Both groups, however, need to extend their conceptual understanding of fractions. The competencies of good and poor performers diverge at the point when they are required to compare fractions and execute basic operations on dissimilar and/or mixed form fractions. The results also showed how proficiency may be demonstrated with procedural knowledge without necessarily implying a good grasp of underlying concepts.

Redesigning the CEM Mathematics Diagnostic Tests as Developmental Assessment Instruments

Ma. Angeles A. Sampang
Jason V. Moseros
Center for Educational Measurement, Inc.

Current efforts of the Center for Educational Measurment, Inc. to redesign its diagnostic tests in mathematics across six grade levels are guided by the developmental approach to assessment adopted by the Australian Council for Educational Research. This approach generates progress maps which place a learner’s skills and knowledge along a typical sequence of development as the learner moves within one grade level and on to the next level. Progress is measured in terms of degree of mastery of content and subsequent attainment of higher levels of performance. This is based on the notion that one’s competence in an area of learning improves over time.

The progress map described in this paper is drawn from a synthesis of logical connections among the contents and skills found in the various learning areas covered by the CEM mathematics diagnostic tests. The map is the result of a series of consultations between CEM test developers and subject area experts. The competencies measured by the tests are specified by a national core curriculum—the 2002 Basic Education Curriculum—with the inclusion of some topics not part of the core but found to be commonly taken up by a surveyed sample of private schools. This paper also explores the impact of progress maps on (1) measuring a learner’s growth, and (2) aligning assessments to development across the curriculum.

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