A total of 75 faculty members from various UP Manila colleges, together with the General Education (GE) Council members, participated in the last installment of a four-part GE workshop held on 26-27 February 2019 at the Heritage Hotel Manila.
The fourth module entitled “Educational Research and Evaluation of Instruction towards Continuous Development of the GE Program” focused on providing knowledge and information to GE teachers on how they can improve the design and implementation of instruction in their respective GE courses. It also centered on giving the participants a broader perspective of GE and its impact on the University’s vision for its graduates.
In her presentation on educational evaluation concepts, Prof. Maria Elizabeth Grageda talked about measurement, assessment, testing, grading, evaluation, and research. The approaches to evaluation and application of its results and the issues surrounding educational evaluation were discussed by Prof. Nemuel Fajutagana.
Moreover, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs Alyssa Peleo-Alampay presented the challenges and future directions for GE in UP. She explained that the GE program evaluation was meant to ascertain the magnitude and depth to which the expected outcomes of the program are being achieved. She expounded on the evaluation matrix, where course exit survey and focus group discussions (FGDs) were highlighted.
Prof. Alampay also tackled the concerns and priorities in implementing the GE program, such as the continuing development of course packages, conduct of faculty workshops on effective teaching, updating of course content based on scholarship in the field/discipline, reflective exploration of subject pedagogies, setting of course delivery principles and standards, collaborative teaching, providing an adequate number of GE electives for students to choose from in each constituent university, and ensuring course quality.
At the end of the two-day activity, the participants were able to develop an evaluation plan for a given GE course; formulate a research agenda for the UP Manila GE program; and create a research plan for the GE courses.
The GE workshop series, organized by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and UP Manila GE Council, is part of the University’s faculty development program and efforts to ensure the best academic courses. “The four modules provided a channel for faculty members to acquire proper training and expertise in the implementation of various teaching-learning strategies to achieve the GE learning outcomes,” Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Nymia PimentelSimbulan said.
It can be recalled that the first module focused on the uniqueness of teaching within the GE framework, highlighting the different kinds of learning that it wants to develop among the students. Module 2 concentrated on the various teaching-learning methods most appropriate within the GE courses. The third module was on the creation of relevant and appropriate instructional materials which would supplement the teachinglearning strategies to be utilized in the GE classroom.
Anne Loren Claire Santos | Published in UP Manila Healthscape No. 373 (March – Apil 2019)
