Mother Tongue Based-Multilingual Education

Strong and well-planned MT-Based MLE programs help students to build a

string educational foundation when they enable and encourage students to develop oral
fluency in their first language, introduce reading and writing in their first language,
help students to become fluent and confident in first language literacy, and lastly,
build their capacity to use their mother tongue for everyday communication and for
learning in school.

MTB-MLE help learners build a ‘good bridge’ when the teachers introduce
other languages in oral through a meaningful and non-threatening activities, introduce
writing and reading other language by building on what they have learned about the
oral teaching of language and their foundation in the first language literacy because
reading is like a bicycle, we only need to learn once, and lastly, build fluency and
confidence in using oral and written language for everyday communication and for
academic learning.

MTB-MLE programs ensure that students achieve educational competencies or

standards established by education officials for each grade when the teachers use the
mother tongue only for teaching in the early year of grade school, as students are
learning basic communication skills in English and the teachers use the mother tongue
with English for teaching in later grades, as students gain fluency and confidence in
using the school language for learning academic concepts.
 Multicultural education
Because of culturally diverse student learning styles, teachers need to practice
vary methods of multicultural instruction in classroom. Firstly, I need to know where
my students come from. During the first lesson, I will ask my students to share
something about themselves with their classmates. This help them better understand
their identities.

When it comes to teaching, I must be open, knowledgeable, and not afraid to talk
about the cultural differences in class. Open discussion in classroom creates a positive
and conducive learning environment for everyone. I will also encourage my students
to use technology to interact with me and with other students. I want to create an
environment that allows my students to feel that they can comfortably interact with
other students of different races, socioeconomic backgrounds and ethics. This can
actually enrich their own learning, because they can learn other languages, understand
other culture etc. Moreover, if my students are willing to interact with others who face
different challenges in their lives, then they will have a better understanding of the
diversity and social challenges that people face based on racial differences. Students
must develop and maintain their cultural competence. Some students struggle to
balance the different worlds they live in: academics and culture. In my opinion,
students must value both academics and culture, by finding ways to incorporate
culture into the school day. It is important for students to value their culture, not feel
that it needs to be hidden.

Language difference is another major issue that teachers must address when
establishing a multicultural classroom. A teacher can learn a few world of the native
tongue of her or his students to convey respect for the culture of his or her students.
My primary focus will be students who have a language other than English as their
native language. I will use more visual graphic to help them visually understand
important concepts in a way that also helps overcome language barriers.
 Catering to diverse learners through multi-grade
When I stared to learn about the concept of multigrade teaching, I realized
that this approach can be helpful to areas that need attention to address issues on
access to education such as remote and rural areas, and areas that facing different
types of conflict.

However, as someone who took education in the university prior to this

course, I realized that teachers were not prepared to handles classes with special
needs such as multigrade class. This can be very challenging to teachers because of
their monograde training in the university. However, given the potential advantages
of this approach, our education system can take focus and give priority to train
teachers, develop instructional materials, and develop curriculum that would match
mutltigrade teaching and learning.
 Graphic Organizers as thinking Technology
Graphic organizers are great tools for gathering and organizing thoughts.
They are also good for students to show teachers how well they understand a specific
concept. When a student displays the ability to develop a graphic organizer to
display content that has been learned they have met 4 of the 6 NETS for students.
These include: creativity and innovation, research and information fluency, critical
thinking, problem solving and decision making, as well as technology operations and
concepts. As stated in Integrating Computer Technology in the Classroom,
achieving improved student learning, increasing attention and motivation means
implementing effective lessons that allow students to use graphic organizers.

While I have used graphic organizers for years now it has been just recently
that I began to teach some of students how to use them during my observation at
Calingnan Elementary School. I was amazed at what those kindergartners could do
with a circle map by the end of the lesson. It made me feel like I had been holding
them back from meeting their fullest potential. While one can't use all types of
thinking maps there are many options for graphic organizers that kindergartners can
use.
 Conflict Resolution: Contextualized Approach to
Learning
Handling classroom conflicts is a part of most teachers’ lives. Even
seemingly small disputes can negatively impact the classroom environment and
interfere with long-term relationships. This is why managing student conflict
peaceably is such an important part of our work as educators. If we want to establish
a classroom culture that values community, conflicts between students should be
approached with true reconciliation as the goal. We can turn these situations into
teachable moments by helping students understand their actions, the actions of
others, and find solutions together.

When conflicts do arise, provide students with the opportunity to resolve

their issues together, with your help, through a peace-making process. Create a
teachable moment by helping students acknowledge the situation, propose
resolutions, and find closure. Remember, this is most effective when students are
taught this process before they need it in class.

The goal in creating a clear conflict-resolution process is not just to end

disputes, but to empower students to learn from their mistakes, solve their own
problems, and contribute positively to the classroom community. With time and
dedication, we can help students achieve these goals.
 Authentic Assessment: Let’s Do It!
There are lots of assessment tools we are using in order to measure students’
ability and attain their needs. The used of authentic assessment is to engage
students in discourse social learning to involve in real-world problems. As teachers,
we wanted our class to be alive and most of all engage all students in doing the
hand’s on and minds on activities. This can only happen when a teacher knows how
to facilitate her class in such a way that she uses several techniques in the form of
authentic assessment when assigning a task. Authentic assessment is one of the best
useful tools in assessing the child performance. It is one way of evaluating your
students according to their knowledge, skills and abilities to do work. Using
authentic assessment is very much useful in the classroom because students
perform, construct on their own to produce or do something. Likewise, it also
allows students to perform tasks and find solutions when questions are posted. In
other words, they are problem-solvers and at the same time problem-posers too. It
gives them time to explain, justify and defend based on their real life experiences.
 The Art of Questioning
Questioning is the key means by which teachers find out what pupils already
know, identify gaps in knowledge and understanding and scaffold the development of
their understanding to enable them to close the gap between what they currently know
and the learning goals.

Questions are the most common form of interaction between pupils and
teachers, yet research suggests that the majority are recall and comprehension - lower
order questions which do not require pupils to actively process information. It is only
in active processing that the pupil achieves deep level learning. In order to raise pupils'
levels of achievement they therefore need regular practice in higher order thinking -
analysing, synthesising and evaluating. Focusing on the kinds of questions we ask in
classrooms and the strategies we use can help us achieve this.

Questions serve a number of essential purposes. For example they:

 Give immediate feedback on pupils’ understanding, which can then be used by

the teacher to modify the teaching.
 Help pupils to develop their thinking from the lower order concrete and factual
recall type to the higher order analytical and evaluative which promote deeper
understanding. Higher order questions help pupils explore ideas and make
connections, helping pupils see the "big picture" of the learning. This in turn
leads to greater motivation and improved engagement.
 Prompt pupils to inspect their existing knowledge and experience to create new
understandings. Articulating understanding helps to clarify it and improves the
likelihood that it will be retained.
 Focus pupils on the key issues and enable teachers and pupils to see progress
over time.
 Model for pupils how experienced learners seek meaning- moving them
towards greater independence.
 Transformative Education
I have learned that Transformative Learning provides higher educators with a
framework that helps students to understand the relevance of, and develop strategies
for, ideas such as self-directed, experiential, practical, and applied learning.

It supports the transition of students from being dependent on and acceptant of

knowledge delivered by their teacher, to becoming critically engaged, reflective and
independent as learners. For example, while our students often expect and demand
definitive answers to questions they have about their subject, the development of an
independent mind equips a student for engaging with university-level knowledge;
knowledge which is often complex, uncertain and inconvenient.

Transformative Learning recognises the significance of diversity and

differentiation in the classroom, and the need to not only teach content, but develop
the students’ awareness of their frames of reference and how these can become
obstacles to successful learning. Through Mezirow’s 10 stage strategy, TL allows the
academic to re-orientate their students so that they are able to challenge their belief
systems.

TL encourages students to use critical thinking to check the accuracy of their

underlying assumptions and beliefs about the world.
 Problem-Based Learning: The Pedagogical Advent
I was in great doubt what problem-based and project-based is. But as the
reporters discuss more about his topic, I was able to state similarities and differences
of PBL and PrBL. First is the similarities, this two are; both learner-centered
approach, they are geared toward the real world task, project or problem have more
than one approach or answer, stimulate professional situation, teacher as coach or
facilitator, students generally work in cooperative groups, students encourage to find
multiple source of information and emphasis on authentic and performance based
assessment.

I have also learned that the main activity in a constructivist classroom is

solving problems. Students use inquiry methods to ask questions, investigate a topic,
and use a variety of resources to find solutions and answers. As students explore the
topic, they draw conclusions, and, as exploration continues, they revisit those
conclusions. Exploration of questions leads to more questions. I also learned that in a
constructivist classroom, there is this different interactive learning between the
teacher and the students because they view that a knowledge is constantly changing
as they learn something new again as they continue searching or engage themselves
in a daily experiences they encounter.

I also learn here that a student can revisit problem with new information and
knowledge acquired during self-study, students could critique learning resources
used and also, group decides appropriate hypotheses and critiques prior performance.
In fact, there is an collaborative learning within the group.
 Integrative Teaching Strategies
As of making myself acquainted with this chapter, I was able to know the types
of constructivist teaching and constructivist teaching, itself. Going beyond to their
respective definition, I learned the helpful uses of each when they are utilized inside
the learning environment. Those approaches will help me to integrate different kind of
learning among students and in return my students would be able to experience
different tasks that would help their academic success become even more effective and
equipotent. Aside from that, I also learned the different task that I should impose to
myself every time I will put into practice those approaches. From the discussion of this
chapter, I was able to distinguish the varying qualities of each approach and where
they are best suit to utilize. By that, getting through to those approaches I am able to
be an effective learning facilitator by the means of those approaches.

This chapter brought me to a view of sense of social interaction of students and

the effectiveness of it. So far, I don’t have any misconception about this and it was
presented as crystal clear.