CHALLENGES OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS IN SPIRALITY PROGRESSION IN SCIENCE

Mary Jel N. Dagal

The Educational System in the Philippines has undergone various revisions and had developed before it reached the present educational system: The K to 12 Enhanced Basic Education Program. This curriculum was implemented in the year 2012, it covers Kindergarten and 12 years of basic education. According to RA 10533, as supported by DepEd Order 31 s. 2012, the implementation of the K to 12 enhanced basic education program should follow the spiral progression approach across subjects. The spiral progression approach in Science is one of the features of this curriculum which provides the learners a wide variety of concepts that will teach repeatedly to them with deepening complexity until they mastered the subject matter. First graders will start learning the basic concepts and more complex ideas/concepts are introduced in succeeding grades and this reveals the new perspective and strategies in teaching and learning process.

In relation to secondary Science curriculum, Sanchez (2014) explained that, the Integrated Science, Biology, Chemistry and Physics are the four areas/disciplines of Science. In old curriculum, each year as learners promoted to higher year level they were introduced to different discipline in Science. In first year, the Integrated Science was taught, Biology in second year, Chemistry in third year, and fourth year was Physics. However, in the new curriculum, all of the four disciplines of Science are being taught at the same time. One per quarter of the grade level, the discipline of Science being taught is also changing instead of comprising all the lessons of specific discipline. Aside from that, Integrated Science was changed into Earth Science.

Scientific explanations and processes were applied to many problems in life. For this reason, an understanding of science and scientific approach is essential in making intelligent decisions (Realuyo, 2006). Concepts and skills in Life Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, and Earth Science are presented with increasing levels of complexity from one grade level to another through spiral progression, thus paving the way for deeper understanding of key concepts (SEAMEO INNOTECH, 2012).It required fully equipped teachers with knowledge in all these areas at a sufficient level to fulfill their significant role in the K to 12 curriculum.

The implementation of the K-12 curriculum have brought different reactions from students as well as teachers in the public sector cited by Cabansag (2014). The provision of learning activities, the use of technology in the delivery of instruction and the increasing difficulty of lessons has garnered opposing reactions to students and teachers. She further added that these features of the K – 12 curriculum have brought pressure to teachers who should follow these new practices with great accuracy. However, the presence of prepared modules and instructional materials for use both by the teachers and the students lessen the vulnerability of teachers to become unmotivated in the implementation.

According to Snider (2004), spiral progression approach avoids disjunctions between stages of schooling, it allows learners to learn topics and skills appropriate to their developmental/ cognitive stages, and it strengthens retention & mastery of topics & skills as they are revisited & consolidated. But, the problem with the spiral design is that the rate for introducing new concepts is often either too fast or too slow. All concepts are allotted the same amount of time whether they are easy or difficult to master. Units are approximately the same length, and each topic within a unit is 1 day’s lesson. And some days there will not be enough time to introduce. The fact that an entire class period must be devoted to a single concept makes it difficult to sequence instruction to ensure that students acquire necessary pre-skills before introducing a difficult skill. However, some critics mentioned some disadvantages entwined with the use of spiral progression approach in teaching. Moreover, certain problems in the field of teaching has aroused due to some problems of the said new approach. Teachers must innovate new instructional materials and attend more seminars and training in relation to spiral progression to address the challenges they face in the curriculum.

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The author is Teacher I at Del Carmen National High School