The Whole Child Education: How it Affects Students’ Perception of School and

Students’ Success in Elementary School Children of Good Shepherd Cathedral

School

Our world is vastly changing and the children nowadays are exposed to wide-ranging
technology around them. They were born with computers, smart phones, tablets,
gaming devices and can easily access the internet. They are often called digital natives
and may not know life without technology. To be able to prepare our children for this
new world we need a paradigm shift in education.

The 21st century requires a highly skilled, educated work force and individuals like those
that we have never encountered before. The international marketplace and economy
are expecting the education system to develop and train the skills, attitudes and
aptitudes needed for this century. We are now living in a world full of changes and
innovation and it has become the new status quo. Due to this, our educational system
needs a new whole approach on how we are educating our children, preparing them for
college and citizenship. To address these concerns, the Whole Child Approach was
developed and it is confirmed by research, practice and common sense. The aim of the
Whole Child Approach is to develop and prepares students for the challenges and
opportunities of today and tomorrow by considering the learners’ diverse needs through
the collaboration of teachers, schools, parents and the community.

In 2007, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) launched
a comprehensive framework on how schools and communities can align their policies
and resources to make sure that all children have the opportunity to be successful
learners. ASCD’s Whole Child Approach aimed to change the educational system from
focusing on academic achievement to one that promotes the long-term development
and success of children. ASCD helps educators, families, community members and
policymakers to have a vision about educating the whole child to sustainable
collaborative action.
The whole child approach, make certain that each student is healthy, safe, engaged
supported and challenged, sets the standard for comprehensive, sustainable school
improvement and provides for long-term student success.

Grounded in research studies, ASCD’s Whole Child Education arrived in a conclusion to

establish the five key tenets as its core.
1. Healthy: each student enters school healthy, learns about, and practices a
healthy lifestyle.
2. Safe: Each student learns in an environment that is physically and emotionally
safe for students and adults.
3. Engaged: Each student is actively engaged in learning and is connected to the
school and broader community.
4. Supported: Each student has access to personalized learning and is supported
by qualified, caring adults.
5. Challenged: Each student is challenged academically and prepared for success
in college or further study and for employment and participation in a global
environment.
ASCD also provided indicators for each tenet and a school improvement tool to assess
school’s performance on those indicators. From here, schools can define their policies,
practices, and relationships to ensure that each child is healthy, safe, engaged,
supported and challenge.

Educating the Whole Child in the Philippines

On May 15 2016, former president Benigno Aquino III approved Republic Act 10533,
signing into law the K to 12 program

The K to 12 Basic Education Program aims to produce Filipino graduates who are
holistically developed with 21st century skills prepared for higher education, middle-level
skills development, employment, and entrepreneurship.
REX-ASCD Partnership
For more than ten years, REX Book Store Inc., and ASCD has been collaborating in
creating programs, learning materials, and solutions to involve and empower educators,
parents and communities in providing holistic education for learners. Both REX Book
Store Inc. and ASCD shared the same vision of Educating the Whole Child.

ASCD had an exclusive agreement with REX Book Store Inc., as the prefered provider
of ASCD publications and services in the Philippines. In line with this, Filipino educators
will now have an increased access to award-winning and resarch back professional
learning materials and programs that will support their role in developing the Whole
Child.

At the Annual Educators Conference in Manila held last October 2017 (AECON 2017),
the Director of Outreach at ASCD, Sean Slade presented a preview of ASCD’s up-
coming work around the Whole Child Initiative, which is aligned with the theme of
AECON 2017: Securing the Success of the Filipino Whole Child.

A whole child approach to education ensures that each student is healthy, safe,
engaged, supported, and challenged, sets the standard for comprehensive, sustainable
school imporivement and provides for long-term student success.

Educational pyschologists have proposed that holistic education aimed to help students
be the most that they can be and this is related with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
(1954) and reffered to as”self-actualization.” He developed a framework of human
potential. When a lower and more pressing need is satisfied humans can then shift their
motivation to achieving a higher need. Once you have your Physical / Survival Needs
(food, water, temperature) – met you can move to
 Security – Once your physical and emotional Safety needs are met ( you have a
safe home, a safe place to go) you can focus on…
 Love and Belonging – This is having a group with which you identify, (a family, a
social group, peers, clubs), a need to care for someone and have them care for
 you in return, not just romantic love but comrade of family and friends too.
When that need is met you can focus on
 Self Esteem Needs –this is where you gain the respect of others, and show it in
return. You form an interconnection of support
When ALL of these are met, you become Self – Actualized – where you are able to
maximize your full potential – you are moral, creative, a problem solver and someone
who seeks continued growth.

The ASCD’s Whole Child tenets is aligned with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Self Actualized / Maximized Challenged

Self Esteem / Recognition Supported

Love / Belonging Engaged

Safety / Security Safe

Physiological / Survival Healthy

Ron Miller (2008) is a proponent of holistic education and he defined it as an effort to

cultivate the development of the whole human being. According to him, a holistic
approach to education recognizes that to become a full person, a growing child needs to
develop his intellectual skills, physical, psychological, emotional, interpersonal, moral
and spirited potentials.

Researchers Wang, M-T., & Degol, J. L. (2016) has found that a positive school climate
improves academic achievement- boosting grades, test scores and students’
engagement.

In a study conducted by National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health
Promotion they found out the health plays a vital role in students’ academic
achievement. Healthy students are better learners. Healthy students are better on all
levels of academic achievement: academic performance, education behavior, and
cognitive skills and attitudes. Schools can influence eating and physical activity
behaviors. Students spend much of their time at school, and may eat as many as 2 out
of 3 meals per day and may get much of their physical activity at school. Healthy,
successful students help build strong communities. Investing in the health of students
contributes to healthy communities in the future.

In addition to this, Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (2014) said “Healthy
Students Are Better Learners”. The academic success of America’s youth is strongly
linked with their health, and is one way to predict adult health outcomes.

Engaged students also are more likely to perform well academically. Therefore,
teachers need a large inventory of instructional strategies to engage a variety of
students (Garcia-Reid et al., 2005).

When students can relate to what is being taught and can actively participate in the
learning process learn more and retain more information (Akey 2006). Drawing
connections between information taught and real life—such as everyday life, social
issues, and personal concerns of the age group of students—is highly effective in
engaging students in the lesson (Heller et al., 2003).

For students to learn at high levels, they should have an access to a 21 st century
curriculum that will challenge and inspire them. In order to educate in the 21st century,
teachers and administrators need to cultivate and maintain the student's interest in the
material by showing how this knowledge applies in the real world. They must also try to
increase their student's curiosity, which will help them become lifelong learners. ( The
Role of Education in the 21st Century)

In the Philippine setting, UNICEF Philippines is upholding children’s right to an

education through the Child Friendly Schools System. UNICEF Philippines has been
supporting the Department of Education in setting up a network of Child Friendly
Schools. They aim to promote child-centered teaching, children’s health and non-
discriminatory, protective practices. Enhanced participation of children, parents and
community members are also included in their program. “Child Friendly Schools is
about engaging the school and community in promoting a more holistic approach to
child rights and wellbeing,” Lulay de Vera, Chief of Education at UNICEF Philippines,
says. “We want to make schools safe and happy places for children and to reduce the
student drop-out rate, which remains a big challenge for a country like the Philippines.”

Most educators aim to develop and improve the work they do for students, for their
families and the community they belong to in terms of curriculum and instruction, school
climate, leadership, family engagement and other issues a school faces on a daily
basis. In line with this, the Good Shepherd Cathedral School administrators initiated to
enhanced its educational system by adapting the Whole Child Approach in Education.

Good Shepherd Cathedral School partnered with REX Book Store in adapting the whole
child approach in education. Key adminstrators attended series of seminars and
trainings regarding the approach and last May 2018, the school launched the whole
child approach in education to its stakeholders. The school started by answering the
ASCD School Improvement Tool to assess the school’s performance regarding the
indicators of a whole child approach to education. From there, the school reviewed its
school policies, curriculum and programs and started to align them to ASCD’s whole
child approach to education.

Purpose of the Study

This is the first year that Good Shepherd Cathedral School is adapting the ASCD’s
Whole Child Approach to Education. This research attempts to evaluate if the school
policies, curriculum and programs created a viable infrastructure to support the whole
child and if the minimum requirements within each of the tenets were met. This is also
an attempt to find out how it affects students’ perception of school, if they really feel
healthy, safe, engaged, supported and challenged. In addition to this, the researcher
wants to find out how it affects students’ success. Results from this research will serve
as an instrument for the administrators, teachers and staff to review and to improve how
the school implements the whole child approach to education.
Statement of the Problem
This study is an attempt to explore how The Whole Child Education Affects Students’
Perception of School and Students’ Success in Elementary School Children of Good
Shepherd Cathedral School (GSCS)

Specifically, it sought answers to the following questions:

1. How do elementary school children of Good Shepherd Cathedral School

perceive school in a whole child education approach?
2. Do elementary school children of Good Shepherd Cathedral School feel healthy,
safe, engaged, supported and challenged in school?
3. How does the whole child education affects students’ success?

Hypothesis

The following assumptions were formulated by the researcher:

1. Elementary school children of Good Shepherd Cathedral School positively

perceive school.
2. Elementary school children of Good Shepherd Cathedral School feel healthy,
safe, engaged, supported and challenged in school.
3. The Whole Child Approach to Education affects students’ success of elementary
school children of Good Shepherd Cathedral School.