REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES

PASSI CITY COLLEGE

City of Pas s i
School of Teacher Education
MODULE 1

THE TEACHING AS A PROFESSION

MODULE OVERVIEW

We don’t live in a vacuum. We live in a society. We are part of the society. Our society
influences us to the extent that we allow ourselves to be influenced by it. Our thoughts, values and
actions are somehow shaped by events and by people with whom we come in contact. We, in turn,
help shape society- its events, its people and its destiny.
John Donne said it in his song “ No man is an island”. No man stands alone. We need one
another. In the context of your life as a teacher, we would say: No teacher is an island. No teacher
stands alone. Think of the many people who are helping you now become a teacher in the near
future. In fact, soon you will be called “teacher” in relation to a student, in the same manner that your
student will be called “ student” in relation to you as teacher.
In this module, you will be made to realize the significant role that you will play in society. This
is perhaps one reason why many a time the teacher is blamed for the many ills in society. You will
also come to realize the demands it will exact from you for much is expected of you, the teacher. It is,
therefore, no joke to become one.
While teaching has many demands it also has its share of rewards. Great teachers recite a
litany of these rewards most of which are invisible to the eyes but are the most essential.
Your influence on your students and on other people with whom you work and live depends on a
great deal on your philosophy as a person and as a teacher. Your philosophy of life and your
philosophy of education serve as your “window “ to the world and your “compass” in the sea of life.

MODULE OUTCOMES

At the end of the unit, the students must have:

1. defined what teaching is;

2. examined the teaching profession against the elements of a profession
3.traced the historical development of teaching as a profession in the Philippines.
4.explained teaching as a mission and as a vocation.

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EDUC 102- THE TEACHING PROFESSION MODULE NO. 1
 REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
PASSI CITY COLLEGE
City of Pas s i
School of Teacher Education

MODULE CONTENT

1. Definition of Teaching
2. Teaching Profession against the Elements of a Profession
3. Historical Development of Teaching as a Profession in the Philippines.
4. Teaching as a Mission and as a Vocation.

LEARN THIS

What is Teaching?

Teaching is the noblest of all professions because in teaching we help develop

people. We work with human minds and hearts to help persons become more human.
Teaching is touching lives. In that way. Teachers help in shaping the future.
Want to give your life a meaning? Want to live a purpose-driven life? Spend it
passionately in teaching, the most noble profession. Consider what Dr. Josette T. Biyo,
the first Asian teacher to win the Intel Excellence in Teaching Award in an international
competition, said in a speech delivered before a selected group of teachers,
superintendents, DepEd officials and consultants, to wit:
Teaching may not be a lucrative position. It cannot guarantee financial security. It
even means investing your personal time, energy, and resources. Sometimes it means
disappointments, heartaches, and pains. But touching the hearts of people and opening
the minds of children can give you joy and contentment which money could not buy.
These are the moments I teach for. These are the moments I live for.
There may be times, when you feel like giving up (many leave teaching after 3or 5
years for varied reasons). Remember you responded to the call to teach and that you
have accepted the mission to teach. May you be found faithful to your vocation and
mission till the end.
For you, what is teaching?

THE TEACHING PROFESSION

“Without hard work and discipline, it is difficult to be a top professional”

 A professional is one who conforms to the technical or ethical standards of a

profession. So, two elements of a profession are competence and a Code of
Ethics.
 The other elements of a profession are:
1. Initial Professional Education- Professionals generally begin their
professional lives by completing a university program in their chosen
fields- teacher education, engineering, nursing, accountancy. This means
long and arduous years of preparation. Take note this is just initial, which
means only the beginning because a professional is expected to learn
endlessly.
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EDUC 102- THE TEACHING PROFESSION MODULE NO. 1
 REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
PASSI CITY COLLEGE
City of Pas s i
School of Teacher Education
2. Accreditation- University programs are approved by a regulatory body
like the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in the Philippines to
ensure that graduates from these recognized programs start their
professional lives with competence.
3. Licensing- Licensing is mandatory, not voluntary and is administered by a
government authority is the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).
4. Professional development
This is an on-going professional education that maintains or
improves professionals’ knowledge and skills after they begin professional
practice. In the Philippines this is Continuing Professional Development
mandated by RA 10912, otherwise known as the CPD Act of 2016.
5. Professional Societies
Professionals see themselves as part of a community of like- minded
individuals who put their professional standards above the individual self-
interest or their employer’s self- interest. These professional societies put
dedication to the public interest and commitment to moral and ethical
values.
Professional societies define certification criteria manage certification
program, establish accreditation standards and define a code of ethics and
disciplinary action for violation of that code.
6. Code of ethics
Each profession has a code of ethics to ensure that its practitioners
behave responsibly. The code states what professionals should do.
Professionals can be ejected from their professional societies or lose their
licenses to practice for violating the code of ethics. (McConnell, Steve,
source: http://www. Alexs brown. com/prof9.html, retrieved 6-3-18)
 The teaching profession is governed by the Code of Ethics for Professional
Teachers. Violation of the Code of Ethics for professional teachers is one of the
grounds for the revocation of the professional teacher’s Certificate of Registration
and suspension from the practice of the teaching profession (Sec.23., RA.7836).

ACTIVITY: Let’s read these Teaching as a Profession

Read the following instances when the word “professional” is used. ADD SOME
MORE INSTANCES, IF YOU CAN. As a group, explain what the word
“professional” means in each case.
1. One night, cellphones were stolen right there from your home while you
were asleep. There was no indication of forced entry, so you claimed that
the manner by which your cellphone was stolen was highly professional.
2. Father tells floor tile setter home he asked to work on a newly constructed
bathroom “ Gusto ko yong gawang propesyonal, malinis at maganda.”
3. She is highly professional in her ways. She deals with everyone including
her daughter- employee professionally.
4. “How unprofessional of her to act that way. Teacher pa naman din.”
5. Medical doctors, lawyers, education consultants are entitled to
professional fees (PF) for expert services rendered.
6. After his oath taking as a professional teacher, he was congratulated and
was told “ now you are truly a professional.”

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EDUC 102- THE TEACHING PROFESSION MODULE NO. 1
 REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
PASSI CITY COLLEGE
City of Pas s i
School of Teacher Education
 Historical development of teacher preparation and professionalization
in the Philippines

Teaching became a profession in 1976 with PD. 1006.The requirement of a

licensure examination for teachers that puts teaching at par with the other professions
was enacted only in 1994 with the passing of RA. 7836, otherwise known as The
Teachers’ Professionalization Act. There was no formal preparation for
teachers during the pre-Hispanic times. The formal training of teachers began during the
Spanish period when men were trained as maestros by The Jesuits. A few years’ later
“maestros” were also trained. In 1901, a two-year preparation for teachers was given by
Philippine Normal School. Then the two years became four years since the two-year
academic preparation was seen inadequate. To ensure quality teachers and to make
teaching at par with other professions, in addition to a four-year teacher education
course, passing a licensure examination was made mandatory by RA. 7836.

TEACHING AS A VOCATION AND MISSSION

Teaching: Mission and/or Job?

If you are doing it not only for the pay but also for
service, it’s a mission. If you quit because your boss or
colleague criticized you, it’s a job;
If you keep on teaching out of love, it’s a mission.
If you teach because it does not interfere with your other activities, it’s a job;
If you are committed to teaching even if it means letting go of other
activities, it’s a mission. If you quit because no one praises or thanks
you for what you do, it’s a job;
If you remain teaching even though nobody recognizes your
efforts, it’s a mission. It’s hard to get excited about a teaching
job;
It’s almost impossible not to get excited
about a mission. If our concern is
success, it’s a job;
If our concern in teaching is success plus faithfulness in our job,
teaching is a mission. An average school is filled by teachers
doing their teaching job;
A great school is filled with teachers involved in a mission of
teaching.
*Adapted from Ministry or Job by Anna Sandberg

 TEACHING AS A VOCATION

Vocation comes from the Latin word “vocare’ which means to call. Based on the
etymology of the word, vocation, therefore, means a call. If there is a call, there must be
a response. For Christians, the Caller is God Himself. For our brother and sister
Muslims, Allah. Believers in the Supreme Being will look at this voiceless call to have a
vertical dimension. For non-believers, the call is also experienced but this may viewed
solely along a horizontal dimension.
It is like man calling another man, never a Superior being calling man.Most often,
when people use the word “vocation,” they refer to a religious vocation, like the mother
in the Activity phase of this lesson.

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EDUC 102- THE TEACHING PROFESSION MODULE NO. 1
 REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
PASSI CITY COLLEGE
City of Pas s i
School of Teacher Education
Vocation includes other big callings like marriage and single blessedness. It does
not only refer to a religious vocation. It can also refer to a call to do something like to
teach, to heal the sick, etc. Whatever is our calling or station in life, the call is always to
serve.

The Christians among you realize that the Bible is full of stories of men and
women who were called by God to do something not for themselves but for others.

We know of Abraham, the first one called by God, to become the father of great
nation, the nation of God’s chosen people. We recall Moses who was called while in
Egypt to lead God’s chosen people out of Egypt in order to free them from slavery. In
the New Testament, we know of Mary who was also called by God to become the
mother of the Savior, Jesus Christ. In Islam,we are familiar with Muhammad, the last of
the prophets to be called by Allah, to spread the teachings of Allah.

All of them responded positively to God’s call. Buddha must have also heard the
call to abandon his royal life in order to seek the answer to the problem on suffering.

From the eyes of those who believe, it was God who called you to teach, just as
God called Abraham, Moses, and Mary, of the Bible. Among so many, you were called
to teach. Like you, these biblical figures did not also understand the events surrounding
their call. But in their great faith, they answered YES. Mary said: “Behold the handmaid
of the lord. Be it done to me according to your word”. (Of course, it is difficult explaining
your call to teach as God’s call for one who, in the first place, denies God’s existence,
for this is a matter of faith.) The fact that you are now in the College of Teacher
Education signifies that you said YES to the call to teach. Perhaps you never dreamt to
become one! Teaching must be your vocation, your calling. May this YES response
remain a YES and become even firmer through the years.

 TEACHING AS A MISSION

Teaching is also a mission. The word mission comes from the Latin word “mission”
which means “to send.”The Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary Defines mission as
“Task assigned.” You are sent to accomplish an assigned task.
The phrase “ mission accomplished” from the soldier in the Activity phase of this
lesson suggests that you were sent to do an assigned task, a mission and so if you
faithfully accomplish the assigned task, you proclaim “mission accomplished’.” You
responded to the call to be a teacher and so your mission in the world is to teach, the
task entrusted to you in this world. These are how vocation and mission are related. You
were called for a purpose, i.e. to accomplish a mission while on earth which is to teach.
If it is your assigned task then naturally you’ve got to prepare yourself for it. From
now on you cannot take your studies for granted! Your four years of pre-service
preparation will equip you with the knowledge, skills and attitude to become an
effective teacher. However, never commit the mistake of culminating your mission
preparation at the end of the four year pre-service education. You have embarked in a
mission that calls for a continuing professional development As the saying goes “once a
teacher, forever a student.”( More is said of continuing professional development in the
Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers in chapter 3.)

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EDUC 102- THE TEACHING PROFESSION MODULE NO. 1
 REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
PASSI CITY COLLEGE
City of Pas s i
School of Teacher Education
Flowing from your uniqueness, you are expected to contribute to the betterment of
this world in your own unique way. Your Unique and most significant contribution to the
humanization of life on earth in the field for which you are prepaid- teaching.
What exactly is the mission to teach? It is merely to teach the child fundamental skills
or basic r’s of reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic and right conduct? Is it to help the child master
the basic skills so he/she can continue acquiring higher-level skills in order to become a
productive member of society? Is it to deposit facts and other information into the “empty
minds” of students to be withdrawn during quizzes and test? Or is it to “midwife” the birth
of ideas latent in the minds of student? Is it to facilitate the maximum development of
his/her potential not only for himself/herself but also for others? In the words of Alfred
North Whitehead, is it to help the child become “the man of culture and of expertise?
Or is it “to provide opportunities for the child’s growth and remove hampering
influences” as Bertrand Russell put it? you will be made to answer this question again
when you will be made to write down your philosophy of education in a later lesson.

To teach is to do all of these and more! To teach is to influence every child entrusted
in your care to become better and happier because life becomes more meaningful. To
teach is to help the child become more human.
Teaching is indeed your mission:
- If you are doing it not only for the pay but also for service,
- If you keep on teaching out of love, it’s a mission.
- If you are committed to teaching even if it means letting go of other activities,
- If you remain teaching even though nobody
recognizes your efforts, It makes you get excited
If your concern is success plus faithfulness, it’s a mission

APPLICATION

Activity 1:
Let’s Analyze
What does the word” professional” mean as used in the instances given above.

Activity 2: By the use of a graphic organizer, present the elements of a profession.

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EDUC 102- THE TEACHING PROFESSION MODULE NO. 1
 REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
PASSI CITY COLLEGE
City of Pas s i
School of Teacher Education
Activity 3. Answer this question, why does the profession like teaching require
long years of initial professional education and continuing professional
development after that long, arduous initial professional education?

Activity 4. By way of an acrostic, explain the elements of a profession by defining each

letter.
P-
R-
O-
F-
E-
S-
S-
I-
O-
N-
RUBRIC FOR ESSAY/WRITTEN EXAMINATION

CRITERIA Points Score

Content 20
Grammar Accuracy 15

Structure, Logic, Transition 15

Activity 5. Present the historical development of teacher preparation and

professionalization in the Philippines from pre-Hispanic Philippines to 1996 by
way of a graphic organizer.

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EDUC 102- THE TEACHING PROFESSION MODULE NO. 1
 REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
PASSI CITY COLLEGE
City of Pas s i
School of Teacher Education
Activity 6. Interview LET passers now teaching who did not go through the 4-
year teacher education course. They are graduates of other four-year courses
but not teacher education.

Ask them the following questions?

1. What difficulties are they experiencing in teaching?

2. Do they agree that a four-year teacher education course is a better preparation

for the teaching profession? Why?

Activity 7. Please answer these questions.

1. What is meant by vocation/ mission?

2. Teaching as a job or a mission. What’s the difference?

Activity 8. Read this letter given by a private school principal to her teachers
on the first day of a new school year. It may make your humanizing mission
in teaching crystal clear.

Dear Teacher:

I am a survivor of concentration camp.

My eyes saw what no man should witness:
- Gas chambers built by learned engineers.
- Children poisoned by educated physicians.
- Infants killed by trained nurses.
- Women and babies shot and burned by high school and college graduates.

So I am suspicious of education
My request is: Help your students become human. Your efforts must never produce
learned monsters, Skilled psychopaths, and * Eichmanns. Reading, writing, arithmetic are
important only if they serve to make our children more human.

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EDUC 102- THE TEACHING PROFESSION MODULE NO. 1
 REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
PASSI CITY COLLEGE
City of Pas s i
School of Teacher Education
Directions: Explain your mission as a professional teacher by helping children become
more human.

ASSESSMENT

PART I.
Direction: Please answer these questions comprehensively

1. To be your vocation and mission as a teacher, you have to “have more, do more in
order to be more” to your students and all others to whom you were sent. What does
“do more, have more in order to be more” mean?

2. The greatest Teacher, Jesus Christ, spent much time to prepare his apostles before he
“sent” them for their mission to “go into the world baptizing them in the name of the
father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” What is the equivalent of this preparation
in your life as a future professional teacher?

3. Here is an excerpt of The True Decalogue of Apolinario Mabini.

Third. Develop the special talents that God has given you, working and studying
according to your capabilities, never straying from the path of good and justice, in order
to achieve your own perfection, and by this means you will contribute to the progress of
humanity: thus you will accomplish the mission that God himself has given you in this
life, and achieving this, you will have honor, and having honor, you will be glorifying
God. (Source: http://malacanang.gov.ph/813-the true decalogue-by-apolinario-
mabini/Retrieved,June22,2018)

What mission has God given to teachers according to The True Decalogue of Mabini?

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EDUC 102- THE TEACHING PROFESSION MODULE NO. 1
 REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
PASSI CITY COLLEGE
City of Pas s i
Part II.
School of Teacher Education
Directions: Read the questions carefully, choose your answer and write the letter
of your answer on the blanks provided before the number.
1.Based on the elements of a profession given in this lesson, can the
taxi driver be considered a professional?- Analysis
a. No, because driving is not a college/university degree.
b. Yes, because there is such a term professional driver.
c. It depends on the technical and ethical competence of the taxi driver.
d. Yes, the taxi driver is competent and honest.
2.Which are elements of a profession like teaching?- Analysis
I. Long years of professional education
II. Passing the competency- based examination to obtain a diploma from TESDA
III. Continuing professional development
IV. Adhere to a code of ethics for the professional group
a. I,II And III b. II,III And IV c. I,III And IV d. I,II And IV
3.In the Philippines there was no teacher’s preparation since the
Spanish regime. Is the statement CORRECT? - UNDERSTANDING
a. No b. Yes c. There was but informal d. There was and for men only.
4.Which is the first legal document that professionalized
teaching in the Philippines?- Remembering a.RA.7836b. PD 1006
c.RA.9192 d. RA 8981
5.Did the teacher preparation in the Philippines begin with 4 years?
a. Yes. b. Yes,4 years but informal c. No. d. No, it began with 1 year

THINK AND REFLECT

REFLECTION

If you say “yes” to the call and mission to teach in this life, reflect on how you are
going to prepare yourself in this four-year teacher education
course.

REFERENCES

Bauzon, Prisciliano T. (2012). Handbook in Legal Bases of Education 2e. National Book
Store, Inc., Mandaluyong City, Philippines.
Bilbao, P.P. Corpuz, B.B., Llagas, A.T., & Salandanan, G.G. (2018). The Teaching
Profession. Lorimar Publishing Inc., Quezon City, Philippines.
De Belen, Rustico T. (2011). Education Laws and Jurisprudence: A Developmental
http://malacanang.gov.ph/813-the true decalogue-by-apolinario-
mabini/Retrieved,June22,2018

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