The 500 teachers of Philippine Science High School (PSHS) System will have the chance to be trained on Adaptive Design for Learning (ADL) and respond more to the challenges under the new normal.
This will be made possible through the partnership between the PSHS and the Ateneo de Manila University through the signing of a memorandum of agreement signed last October 29.
The agreement was signed by Ateneo President Fr. Roberto Yap, SJ, and PSHS System Executive Director Fr. Lilia Habacon, and was witnessed by a benefactor of the program, JJ Atencio, CEO of Januarius Holdings and chairman of the Dr. Rosario Bustos-Atencio (RBA) Endowment Fund for the Scholarship of Public School Teachers, an alumnus of Ateneo.
“We are proud to work together with our partners in the Philippine Science High School System as they equip their educators with the knowledge that will allow them to better serve the needs of their students during these unprecedented times,” Yap said.
“The Philippine Science High School System is grateful for the Ateneo de Manila University for the teacher-capability building on Adoptive Design Learning. This partnership is a trailblazer for many ideas that shall improve teaching and learning,” Habacon added.
The training program was launched by Ateneo Science and Art of Learning and Teaching (SALT) Institute last September 21 and will be conducted for three months.
The ADL professional certificate course for the teachers of PSHS, also popularly known as Pisay, is expected to conclude by the latter part of January 2021.
The ADL is a unique asynchronous project-based program for educators who want to learn online course design and delivery.
The program offers a unique framework that enables educators to design an engaging holistic learning experience and to resist the usual temptation of dumping online content on students.
Over 2,000 educators from the nationwide network of Jesuit schools and universities have undergone the ADL course in preparation for the fully online academic year.
To make this program more accessible for the PSHS System, Ateneo is subsidizing 65 percent of the cost of the training program through the RBA Endowment Fund and the VTL Teacher Education Endowment Fund.
These endowment funds were established to promote teacher education and professional development.
“It is both a joy and a privilege for my siblings and I to be part of this endeavor between my alma mater [Ateneo] and one of the foremost public school institutions, PSHS,” Atencio said.
“The scholarship fund that we established in honor of our mother was to help, even in some small way, to uplift the delivery of education services in the public school system. The family is thankful that through this venture, we are able to do that and, at the same time, enhance the legacy of our mother, Dra. Rosario Bustos-Atencio.”
According to Ateneo SALT Director Fr. Johnny Go, SJ, the 65 percent subsidy of the cost of this nationwide training demonstrates how much Ateneo values PSHS’s unique mission of providing premier science high school education in the country.
The training could not have come at a better time. Like educators in schools all around the world, without warning, the PSHS teachers have found themselves thrust into participating in a global teaching experiment where the teachers themselves need to learn and figure out how best to respond to the needs of their students in the online environment.
Five online classes have been opened to conduct and deliver the six-module ADL course to the participants from PSHS through a team of professional trainers from multiple disciplines—Filipino, Sociology and Anthropology, English, Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
Todate two webinars have been conducted: an initial orientation last September 21, and a presentation on the most important ADL principles by Fr. Go last October 29.