Challenges in Teaching
TEACHING IN MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL CLASSROOMS
Addition of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB MLE)
Instructional Strategies in addressing cultural Diversity:
➤ Content Integration
➤ Cultural Immersion
➤ Celebrating Cultural Diversity
➤ Culture Responsive Pedagogy
➤ Teaching Local Culture
➤ Using Local Language as Medium of Instruction
Several Approaches to integrate indigenous knowledge in the Curriculum (Pawilen, 2013)
•Real-life Story Model
•Problem-based Approach
•Inviting Local Folks and Community Leaders as a Resource Person in School
•Developing Instructional Materials for Teaching Indigenous Knowledge
TEACHING SPECIAL EDUCATION CLASSES
Special education is an area in education that seeks to understand the nature and needs of
different learners with special needs.
It trains teachers and other professionals to respond to the needs of special learners in terms of
pedagogy, curriculum, and other forms of educational interventions.
CLASSIFICATIONS OF LEARNERS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS ACCORDING TO THE TYPE
OF DISABILITY (Wolery and Wilbers, 1994).
1. Deafness
2. Dual-sensory impairments Hearing impairments
3. Mental retardation
4. Multiple handicaps
5. Orthopedic impairments
6. Health impairments
7. Serious emotional disturbance
8. Specific learning disabilities
9. Speech (language) impairments
10. Visual impairments and blindness
11. Traumatic brain injury.
12. Autism
13. Diagnosed with medical condition
Special learners also include children and youth living in difficult context like those located in
war zones and economically depressed areas.
Special learners also include those who are considered as twice exceptional, intellectually
genius, and gifted.
In the Philippines, there are only a few schools offering programs for gifted students. These are
Science schools, special science classes in regular schools, and the Philippine School for the
Arts.
It is inevitable for teachers to encounter learners with special needs in their classes. This poses
an immense challenge not only in classroom management but also in curriculum and
instruction.
Thus, teachers must modify the curriculum and use instructional approaches relevant and
responsive to the needs of these special learners.
It is also important to be careful in identifying learners with special needs for it sometimes
causes tension with parents, for most of them aren’t ready to accept their children as special
learner.
Providing the needs of special education learners will certainly be one of the greatest
challenges to every teacher. Most teachers, in public or private schools, are not equipped to
handle special learners. Responding to the needs of each special leaners requires special
training in the field of special education.
TEACHING IN MULTIGRADE CLASSES
Multigrade teaching involves the teaching of students from different grade levels in one
classroom. It requires teachers to develop a skill in handling different students’ behavior and in
addressing their needs and interest.
It also requires teachers’ versatility to design an instructional plan that will cover all topics and
activities for all students from varying grade levels.
Multigrade teaching involves the teaching of students from different grade levels in one
classroom. It 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.
Teachers in multigrade perform multiple tasks for all grade levels in the classroom, no
what matter subject is being learned. Teachers are expert facilitators of the learning
process.
•They bring magic of learning in their classes.
•They plan effective lessons for their students.
•Monitor student progress.
•Motivate students to learn.
•They are resourceful, creative, patient, wise, and innovative
Multigrade teaching involves the teaching of students from different grade levels in one
classroom. It 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.
Some private schools, multigrade when they have small enrollment. In such case, classes could
be smaller and can be financially cheaper to operate than a complete school.
Teacher assigned in one multigrade class requires to develop separate worksheets and design
different activities for each grade level. It may be a difficult task, for teachers handling
multigrade class should always be ready to respond to the needs of the students.
In the Philippines, the Seventh Day Adventist Church has implemented numerous successful
multigrade classes in many of its mission schools in the country.
The Department of Education also implementing multigrade classes in many divisions in the
country. Most of the public schools operating multigrade classes are in local communities that
are geographically far. Thus, public school teachers assigned in these schools faced difficult
challenges every day.
TEACHING IN MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE CLASSROOM
Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
1. Linguistic Intelligence
2. Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
3. Spatial Intelligence
4. Musical Intelligence
5. Naturalist Intelligence
6. Bodily Kinesthetic
7. Interpersonal Intelligence
8. Intrapersonal Intelligence
The MI theory became a powerful force that pushed many educators and schools to change the
educational system radically. It led the teachers and schools to design curriculum and
instructions that develop these multiple intelligences.
Teachers should know how to use varied teaching strategies and assessment tools that bring
out the capacity of each individual learner. This will help the teachers reach out to more
students and help them better understand their lessons.
TEACHING IN A LEARNER-CENTERED AND CONSTRUCTIVIST CLASSROOM
In many teaching and learning documents in both public and private 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. It refers to a kind of education that considers the knowledge, skills, abilities, attitudes,
interests, and beliefes that learners bring into the classroom.
It pays attention to the needs, concerns, and expectations of the learner, also includes curricular
and instructional practices that are developmentally appropriate for learners.
In learner-centered education, providing the learners’ social and emotional development is an
equally important aspect in planning the curriculum.
Teaching practices and pedagogy includes “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 curriculum that is based in the interest, 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, and this
idea is supported by the theory of Constructivism.
Constructivist teaching and learning therefore lead to:
•Active learning
•Learning in a meaningful context
•Reflective and intuitive problem-solving
•Doing investigations
•Providing real-life and hands-on experiences to the learners
BRAIN-BASED EDUCATION
Brain-mind learning principles (Caine and Caine, 1997)
1. The brain is a whole system and includes Physiology, emotions, imagination, and
predisposition. These must all be considered as a whole.
2. The brain develops in relation to the interactions with the environment and with others.
3. A quality of being a human is the search for personal meaning.
4. People create meaning through perceiving certain patterns of understanding.
5. Emotions are critical to the patterns people perceive.
6. The brain processes information into both parts and wholes at the same time.
7. Learning includes both focused attention and peripheral input.
8. Learning is both conscious and unconscious.
9. Information (meaningful and fragmented) is organized differently in memory.
10. Learning is developmental.
11. The brain makes optimal number of connections in a supportive and challenging
environment.
12. Every brain is unique in its organization.
Resnick (1987) postulates that people learn better if they are asked to think in ways that are
more complex. She theorizes that even in elementary school, students learn more if they are
given several ways to look at a problem and asked to give more than one way of solving it.
Renata and Caine (1991) also cite studies showing that the brain learn best when it works to
solve problems or accomplishes specific tasks instead of merely absorbing isolated bits of
information. Brain’s primary function is to seek patterns in new learning.
Sylwester (1995) correlates current scientific theories on how the brain processes information.
He suggests that this new learning theories have broad educational applications that can be
used in today’s schools to improve teaching and learning.
Interactive Teaching Elements based on the Principles of Brain-Based Education (Caine
and Caine, 1997) (Jensen, 2005)
•Orchestrated Immersion-learning environments aro croated that immerses students in a
learning experience.
•Relaxed Alertness- an effort is made to eliminate fear while maintaining a highly challenging
environment
•Active Processing-the learner consolidatos and internalizos information by actively processing
it. Information should be connected to prior learning and experiences.
ICT INTEGRATION IN TEACHING AND LEARNING
The entry of computers into schools changed the landscape of education radically. With
computers, education programs came in DVD, VCD, CD, and other forms. Microsoft, Apple, and
other companies developed software that were currently use in education.
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 has
enhanced teachers’ and students’ presentations, reports, and lectures.
The growing influence of ICT in every aspect of life made ICT literacy essential among all
teachers and students. In the Philippines, the students are taught about computer as early as
elementary, although exposure to ICT already starts in the preschool level.
