Changing Education Paradigms: Educator’s Views and Perspectives

By Ronin Research Scholar Christopher H. Punzalan

There are a series of continuous developments in the field of education which are found to be essential in order to obtain the prescribed growth of learners. In recent times, most of the educators tend to discover innovative teaching strategies that will be able to cope with the current demand of the educational system. Based on Ken Robinson’s TED Talk on Changing Education Paradigms, education strives to concentrate on the economic and cultural well-being of the current educational system that enlightens the issues and problems needed to be overcome by the modern teachers and learners. These two factors can be considered as a basement to support the dynamic improvement of the education system. As for me, economics is a great value for a single or group of states for them to foresee developments through innovative-thinking that will help build a better future while cultural aspect is the basis or heritage that a country can showcase to others in order to discover developing trends and issues. These two perspectives I think can be a better foundation to meet our desired goals in educational advancement by providing every learner the capacity to individually respond to the changes of the environments and life satisfactions.

What we should do according to Robinson’s TED talk is promote intellectual culture of enlightenment as this goal would create originality or identification. In the context of the Philippines, this approach would promote the Philippine heritage to come up with a more advanced but different type of educational system from other nations. Also, it is a task for us teachers to create a space for the students to view economic circumstances so that they may be able to build strategic ways to help the Philippines become sustainable. These two things are too significant for us educators since they view realizations of the world and we can integrate these tips in our teaching strategies. As an integrated science teacher, it is a challenge for me to incorporate lessons from different interests and how to land on a specific goal where my students can easily adapt the learning requirement. It is my part to develop inventive thinkers and problem solver individuals according to the current program implemented in the Philippines. I know it is a challenging task for now but I know through continuous self-improvement I can be able to impart better learning and significant knowledge to my students. The current situation of our educational paradigm is that it is modeled in industrialization. This condition is difficult to be achieved by the learners and workforce of the future so for them to meet this objective we educators must realize to act according to it first before we teach our students about it. We should become good models of sustainable development and progress to promote good understanding for each learner we have in our class. 

What are the helpful techniques that can create an avenue whereas students can be able to become creative? Divergent thinking is one way to advance the essential capacity of learners and widen their opportunities in different fields instead of adopting convergent ways of thinking.

Another thing is the standardization of the education paradigm and I, as a graduate of the previous educational curriculum in the Philippines, could really agree with this connotation. We teachers should develop our pattern in imparting knowledge and executing our jobs by allowing our students to discover their capacities on how they will interact with our given tasks or assignments. The reason why differentiated classroom strategies became a contemporary approach to teaching the K to 12 Curriculum was because it supported the capabilities or strengths of individual differences among learners. The question now is how do we square that circle? What are the helpful techniques that can create an avenue whereas students can be able to become creative? Divergent thinking is one way to advance the essential capacity of learners and widen their opportunities in different fields instead of adopting convergent ways of thinking. This motivation is a tool for us modern teachers to elevate the collaborative outcomes and engage our learners, who are inventive-thinkers and future developers, to a more industrialized environment.

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Christopher Punzalan is a research scholar at the Ronin Institute, United States, an associate member of the DOST National Research Council of the Philippines, and an assistant professor at the National University Philippines. Currently, he is pursuing an EdD program in educational management. Additionally, he finished a postgraduate summer school at the Education University of Hong Kong and a master’s degree in integrated science at the Philippine Normal University. Lastly, his research interests are STEM education, ESD, environmental science and education, and green technology. 

This post is a perspective of the author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Ronin Institute.

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