“SELECTION AND ORGANIZATION OF CONTENT”

INTRODUCTION

Our leader in the basic education level made the Philippine Elementary Learning Competencies (PELCs) and the Philippine Secondary Learning Competencies (PSLCs) in 2001 which has the content already that is truly essential and enduring to the learners. In the standards and competencies the K to 12 Curriculum is already given. So we are not free in selecting the content that we want to teach but on how deliver it well, will depend on you.

Guiding Principles in the Selection and Organization of Content

1. One guiding principle related to subject matter content is to observe the following qualities in the selection and organization of content:

a. VALIDITY- This means teaching the content that we ought to teach according to national standards in the K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum; it also means teaching the content to order to realize the goals and objectives of the course as laid down in the basic education curriculum.

b. SIGNIFICANCE- What we teach should respond to the needs and interests of the learners, hence meaningful and significant.

c. BALANCE- Content includes not only facts but also concepts and values. The use of the three-level approach ensures a balance of cognitive, psychomotor, and affective lesson content. (For a more detailed discussion of the three-level approach, refer to principles and Strategies of Teaching (2003) written by B. Corpuz and G. Salandanan.) A balanced content is something that challenges the student. To observe the principle of balance, no topic must be extensively discussed at the expense of other topics.

d. SELF-SUFFICIENCY- Content fully covers the essentials. Learning content is not “mile-wide-and-inch-deep”. The essentials are sufficiently covered and are treated in depth. This is a case of “less is more”.

e. INTEREST- Teacher considers the interest of the learners, their development stages and cultural and ethnic background.

f. UTILITY- Will this content be of use to learners? It is not meant only to be memorized for test and grade purposes. What is learned has a function even after examinations are over.

g. FEASIBILITY- The content is feasible in the sense that the essential content can be covered in the amount of time available for instruction. A guaranteed and a viable curriculum is the first in the school-related factors that has the greatest impact on student achievement. (Marzano, 2003)- it is observed that there is so much content to cover within the school year, that teachers tend to rush towards the end of the school year, do superficial teaching and contribute to non-mastery of content. This is probably one reason why the least mastered competencies in national examinations given to pupils and students are those competencies which are found at the end of the Philippine Elementary/ Secondary learning Competencies (PELC/PSLC). This was a finding during the implementation of the Third Elementary Education Project.

2. At the base of structure of cognitive subject matter content is facts. We can’t do away with facts but be sure to go beyond facts by constructing an increasingly richer and more sophisticated knowledge base and by working out a process of conceptual understanding.

Here are a few ways cited by cognitive psychologists (Ormrod, 2000) by which you can help your student:

a. PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR EXPERIMENTATION- Our so-called experiments in the science classes are more of this sort-following a cook book recipe where students are made to

follow step-by-step procedure to end up confirming a law that has already been experimented on and discovered by great scientist ahead of us instead of the students coming up with their own procedure and end discovering something new. After teaching your students how to cook a recipe following procedures laid down in a cookbook, allow them to experiment with mix of ingredients.

b. PRESENTING THE IDEAS OF OTHERS- While it is beneficial for you to encourage the students to discover principles for themselves, it will not jeopardize the students if you present the ideas of others who worked hard over the years to explain phenomena.

c. EMPHASIZING CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING- Many a time, our teaching is devoted only to memorization of isolated facts for purposes of examinations and grade. When we teach facts only, the tendency is we are able to cover more for your students to commit to memory and for you to cover in a test but our teaching ends up skin-deep or superficial, thus meaningless. If we emphasize conceptual understanding, the emphasis goes beyond facts. We integrate and correlate facts, concepts and values in a meaningful manner. The many facts become integrated into a less number of concepts, yet more meaningful and consequently easier to recall. When we stress on conceptual teaching, we are occupied with less, but we are able to teach more substantially. It is a case of “less is more”! This is precisely the emphasis of the K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum.

Here are some specific strategies that can help you develop conceptual understanding in your students: (ORMROD, 2000)

Organize units around a few core ideas and themes. Explore each topic in depths. For example, by

considering many examples, examining cause- effect relationships, and discovering how specific details relate to more general principles.

Explain how new ideas relate to students’ own experiences and to things they have previously learned.

Show student-through the things we say, the assignments we give, and the criteria we use to evaluate learning-that conceptual understanding of subject matter is far more important than knowledge of isolated facts.

Ask students to teach to others what they have learned. A task that encourages them to focus on main ideas and pull them together in a way that makes sense.

Promote dialogue. When we encourage our students to talk about what they learn, they are given the opportunity to reflect, elaborate on, clarify further and master what they have learned.

Use authentic activities. Incorporate your lesson into “real world” activities. Instead of simply asking students to work on some items on subtraction, simulate a “sari-sari” store and apply subtraction skills.

 

CONCLUSION

Therefore, in Selection and Organization of Content you must teach valid lessons or the content of what is being given by our leaders in the basic education level. If you are teaching don’t cover very wide content, it must be feasible so that your students can understand well of what you are teaching .The content must be balance in the three level approach, the cognitive which involve mind and thinking, psychomotor which involve skills and the affective involves attitudes and values. This three level approach must be incorporated into one balance. The content also must be utilized so that even after school they can still used it and also it should be interesting, self-sufficiency and significance. It should be interesting so that you can catch attention from your students, self-sufficiency meaning you are being independent and your content must support all what you have discuss and also it must be significance in which your students can take value and also has the meaning to them.

“Facts are basic in the structure of cognitive subject matter. But the content must go beyond the fact”. Therefore explanation in books is not enough, you must go beyond the fact. You add more information or you explore the meaning. And also through providing them opportunities for experimentation, presenting the ideas of others and emphasizing conceptual understanding you are helping your students exploring their skills and you let your students conceptualize.

 References:  Brenda B. Corpuz, Ph.D. & Gloria G. Salandanan Ph.D. :

Principles of Teaching 1, (Third Edition) www.studymode.com>Home>Education>Teaching &

www.jstor.org/stable/3497001

Prepared by:Joycee H. Gamgam BEED-II-A

“SELECTION AND ORGANIZATION OF CONTENT”

 in EDUC 104 

Submitted to: Dr. Wilfreda Arones

Submitted by: Kimberly Are BEED

II-A

INTRODUCTION

The intended content of what we teach is laid down in such document. In the k-12 curriculum, standards and competencies are also spelled out. This means that we are not entirely free in the selection of our content. They are given but how they are organized and presented in the classroom ultimately depends on you.

 

CONTENT/ BODY3. Subject Matter Content is an integration

of cognitive, skill, and affective elements. Subject matter content comes in three

domains these three domains should not be treated as thought there was clear dividing line among them. In the first place, our teaching of facts, concepts, principles theories and laws necessitate the skill of seeing the relationships among these in order to see meaning in short. In short, subject matter content is an integration of facts, concepts, principle, hypothesis, theories, and laws, thinking skills, manipulative skills, values and attitudes.

The Structure of Subject Matter Content

Our subject matter content includes cognitive, skill and affective components. The cognitive component is concerned with facts, concepts, principle, hypothesis, theories, and laws. The skill component refers to thinking skills as well as manipulative skills while the affective component is the realm of values and attitudes.

(1) Cognitive (Ormrod, 2000)Fact is an idea or action that can be verified.Concept is a categorization of events, place, people, and ideas.Principle is the relationships between and among facts and concepts. Hypotheses are educated guesses about the relationships or

principles. Theories refer to a set of facts, concepts and principles that describe

possible underlying and observable mechanism that regulate human learning, development, and behavior.

Laws are firmly establish, thoroughly tested principle or theory.

(2) Skills

Manipulative Skills – there are course that are dominantly skill0oriented like Computer, Home Economics and Technology, Physical Education, Music and the like. In the biological and physical sciences manipulative skills such as focusing the microscope, mounting specimens on the slide, operating simple machine other scientific gadgets, mixing chemicals are also thought.

The learning of these manipulative skills begins with naïve manipulation and ends up in expert and precise manipulation.

b) Thinking skills-these refer to the skills concerned with the application of what was learned, (in problem solving or in real life) evaluation and critical and creative thinking and synthesis.

Divergent thinking- a thought process or method use to generate creative ideas about the topic in a short period of time. It includes fluent thinking, flexible thinking, original thinking and elaborative thinking.

Fluent Thinking- is characterized by the generation of lots of ideas. Thought flow is rapid. It is thinking of the most possible ideas. Flexible thinking- is characterized by the variety of thoughts in the kinds of ideas generated. Different ideas from those usually presented flow from flexible thinkers.

Original thinking- thinking that differs from what gone before. Thought production is away from the obvious and is different from the norm.

Elaborative thinking- embellishes on previous ideas or plants. It uses prior knowledge to expand and add upon things and ideas.

 Convergent thinking- it is narrowing down from many

possible thoughts to end up on a single best thought or an answer to a problem.

Problem solving- is made easier when the problem is well-defined. “The proper definition of a problem is already half the solution. ”It is doubly difficult when the problem is ill-defined. When it is ill-defined, then the first thing to teach our student is to better define the problem. Here are some techniques to better define the problem (ormrod 2000)

-break large problems into well-defined ones-distinguish information needed-identify techniques to find needed information

 

Problem solving involves either an algorithm or a heuristics strategy: Algorithm- means the following specific, step-by-step instruction.Heuristics- general problem solving strategy, for a solution. These

are informal, intuitive, speculative strategies that sometimes lead to an effective solution and sometimes do not.

Our student acquires effective problem-solving strategies;; Ormrod (2000) cites a number situations in which they can be used.

-Provide work-out examples of algorithm being applied.-Help students understand why particular algorithms are

relevant and affective in certain situation.-when a student application of algorithms yields an incorrect

answer, look closely at the specific steps the student has taken until the trouble spot is located.

 For teaching heuristics:

-give student practice in defining ill-defined problems.-teach heuristics that student can use where no algorithms apply.

  

CONCLUSION

Students teacher undergo the three domains which are the cognitive which is knowledge help student/teacher to learned more about their lesson, skills which are the techniques on how to solve the problem, attitude and values which is the attitude of the student/teacher. These three domains is important to us because these three domains can use in our daily life.

Thank You and

God Bless!!!