IFSU, DepEd equip teachers in producing modules

IFUGAO State University (IFSU) together with the Department of Education-Ifugao is enabling teachers of secondary public schools to create contextualized learning modules (LMs) through the Ifugao Indigenous Knowledge Educators Training Program (IIKETP).

Contextualization of LMs is one of DepEd's thrusts of interfacing national competencies with those at the community level to maximize learning.

This entail teachers to facilitate lessons that learners can relate easily by integrating local conditions and culture in the learning process.

Orientation among IFSU mentors and teacher-trainees was conducted on June 23 and 26, 2020. Succeeding training will be done on the flexible mode in consideration of the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, the IFSU lent them tablets for online learning while at home. Lectures and digitized learning were also stored in the gadgets for the teachertrainees to study.

According to Herminia Hoggang, Indigenous Peoples Education Coordinator of DepEd- Ifugao, contextualization of LMs in basic education will provide opportunities for learners to study their own community's way of life. The outputs, she added, will be mainstreamed for teachers who share the same learners' circumstances, to maximize in their Alternative Delivery Mode when schools resume.

Eulalie Dulnuan, director of IFSU’s Ifugao Rice Terraces as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (IRT-GIAHS) Center, opined that learning IKS is timely and adaptive of the current condition we are in.

“From the economic, cultural to its psychological impacts, IKS

can give us other perspectives on how to deal with the impacts of COVID. Integrating this time-tested community knowledge and systems in the basic education learning modules can make a difference," stated Dulnuan.

Resource persons from DepEd-Ifugao, in their lecture-discussion workshop, cited the inculcation of state of linggop in the contextualization of LMs as an example of a cultural belief that is timely and a health emergency concern.

Linggop is an Ifugao term for mental wellness brought about by a feeling of contentment with oneself, and harmonious relationship with the community and the environment.

Dr. Nancy Ann Gonzales, IFSU vice president for academic affairs and one of the mentors, encouraged the participants to deliver contextualized modules in different learning areas. The IIKETP is an offshoot of the Center for TaiwanPhilippines Indigenous and Local Knowledge, and Sustainable Studies launched on July 12, 2019 at IFSU with the National Chengchi University of Taiwan, University of California Los Angeles and the The University of Hawaii at Manoa as project collaborators.

This year's batch consists of 20 public school teachers in Ifugao. The first batch of trainees graduated on February 06, 2020. They were able to produce 14 learning modules.