OSIAS COLLEGES INC.

F. TANEDO ST. SAN NICOLAS, TARLAC CITY

TEL. NO. 045-982-02-45

Name: John Paul F. Ong Date: September 24, 2021

Degree/Program: MAED Major in Administration and Supervision Score/Rating:_________
Faculty: Education

Cultural Intellectual Identity Findings as Missing Variables and Technicalities: “’That’s

just impossible in my kindergarten.’ Advocating for ‘glocal’ early childhood curriculum
frameworks and Teachers’ readiness to work with children with
signs of psychomotor aptitude” Commentary

Intellectual inquiries are contributory factors that help mankind conceptualize intellectual

ideas to promote and adopt these things to the daily lives of people. Inquires do not just give birth

on its own for it requires the aid of proper utility of the intellectual formation process to fully

stabilized and cohere the idea’s validity and confirmation. At first glance, this is hugely seen in

majority of the papers. Unfortunately, if you historically look the ideas per se, majority of

intellectual contributions are western dominant and in a sense, our central thesis of education are

extremely focus on western thought all across the globe if implication wise as well as minimally,

ideas are centralized to that said concept. Nevertheless, lets observe the Hong Kong and Singapore

ideology.

First things first, the paper has no flaws in terms of technicality. However, the results are

highly restrictive. As this is observed, the introduction itself from this paper is extremely minimal,

elaborations for eastern curriculum approaches are barely limited for the access of the masses.

Take a look of this part as proof.

That’s just impossible in my kindergarten. I don’t care what the curriculum Guide
says. We really can’t do any of that here… No way! This is not America! Parents
would complain immediately, so my Principal wouldn’t allow it. And obviously, I
don’t want to get fired (laughter).
 Collected from an in-service teacher in a Hong Kong local kindergarten, this quote
captures some of the challenges resulting from globalization in Early Childhood
Education (ECE). In recent years, the phenomenon of globalization has been widely
observed in the field of ECE around the world, and notably in Asian societies
(Adriany, 2018; Lee, 2018). The trend to homogenize ECE policies and practices
has heavily relied on theories, pedagogies, and values from the Western world (i.e.,
Euro-American nations), with a clear bias for philosophical, epistemological, and
ideological perspectives of progressive and democratic education (Gupta, 2006).
The dominance of the Western vision of ECE is evident in the widespread use of
notions such as child-centeredness, constructivism, developmentally appropriate
practices, holistic development, and play-based learning, drawing on the core
principle that education should meet the social, emotional, psychological and
biological needs of each individual child (Gupta, 2015).

The understanding globally accepted is that children should be at the center of the
learning process, and that the goal of ECE should be to foster each child’s
uniqueness, individuality, autonomy, critical thinking, creativity, and leadership
(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2004).
Numerous European and American contemporary curricula (e.g., Reggio Emilia
and Montessori approaches in Italy; Early Years Foundation Stage in England;
Project Approach and High/Scope curriculum in the United States) are based on
this vision of ECE, which currently constitutes a normative ideology worldwide,
being doubtlessly understood to be universally valid (Chen, Li, & Wang, 2017).
However, certain Western ECE notions are incompatible with cultural values and
social mindsets in many Eastern societies, particularly in Asia, which leads to
important challenges not only for kindergarten teachers, but also for principals,
teacher educators, and parents, as discussed in the next section. (Bautista, Bull, Ng
and Lee, 2020)

As you can see here, the critic exposes a too short but meaty content. Yet, if looking closely,

the idea has a lot of potentials to be expanded of yet, ideas from eastern thought or exposing its

advocacy for eastern curriculums are lack lustered. In fact, the results itself is a lot to be discussed.

As a matter of fact, this idea will highly promote researches for theory crafting for a certain concept

yet, restraints at constructive criticisms is what makes the idea seem only open for evaluative

processes.

Aligned with the notion of child-centeredness, Singapore’s NEL states that teachers
should “Design learning experiences based on interests, needs and abilities” and
“Select a theme/story/topic for investigation based on the children’s interests,
culture and shared experiences” (MOE, 2013b, p. 96). Similarly, Hong Kong’s
Guide poses that “Learning content should be in line with the interests and needs
of children and respect individual differences to enable different children to derive
satisfaction from learning, and sustain their interest in learning” (CDC, 2017, p.
62). However, numerous observational studies have shown that actual pedagogies
significantly differ from the Western ideal of a child-centered classroom. Both in
 Singapore and Hong Kong, many kindergarten programs are characterized by
relatively rigid schedules, with 20 to 30-minute periods, during which all children
are expected to participate in the same activity type or lesson (e.g., story time, music,
art and craft, physical activities, mother tongue lesson, outdoor play, learning
center time, phonics). While the thematic approach is widely used, teachers are
typically the ones who decide which theme/topic will be selected (Lau & Grieshaber,
2018). The most prevalent and frequent instructional format is that of one-size-fits-
all whole-group activities (Chen & Liang, 2017), during which children have limited
accessibility to materials, resources, or tasks of their choice. Time for free choice is
rather limited throughout the day (Chan, 2016; Lim-Ratnam, 2013).

These tendencies have been documented in several classroom-based studies

conducted as part of the ‘Singapore Kindergarten Impact Project’ (SKIP), a large-
scale project on preschool education in Singapore. The resources collected as part
of SKIP allowed an insight into how the NEL vision is enacted by teachers,
specifically within kindergartens affordable to most Singaporean families (note that
commercial kindergartens charging high fees were not included in SKIP).
Researchers videotaped 108 K1 classrooms during a full “typical day” (3-4 hours).
Educators were given no instructions or directions regarding the content or the
pedagogy of the activities to be conducted that day. One of the analysis conducted
focuses on the teaching of gross motor skills (Bautista, Moreno-Núñez,
Vijayakumar, Quek, & Bull, 2020). In the 63 classrooms where gross motor
teaching was observed, activities were predominantly teacher-directed. Children
had limited influence, if at all, on lesson content and procedures. Gross motor
teaching occurred mainly indoors, with limited exposure outdoors. All children
were expected to engage in the same physical activities, with lack of opportunities
for unguided practice. Despite this, children were actively engaged in all the
activities posed by teachers, showing high levels of participation, interest, and
enthusiasm. (Bautista, Bull, Ng and Lee, 2020)

As observed, the results are seeing a problematic essence when it comes to implications of

western ideas. Apparently, the demands itself are extremely different compare to the other one

resulting to its factor. Nevertheless, this is where implications of individual proposal of authentic

educational approaches and curriculums exclusive to a specific country without too much aid in

the western thought should be augmented which unfortunately, insufficient researches are absents

for majority of Filipino researches are evaluation and validity and less on conceptualization and

inventiveness of newer ideologies for specific area implication. As a matter of fact, Tagunies

(2020) in her seminar of Human Empowerment exposes the flaw within the K to 12 system that

the implications did not fully address the exactness element of the intention of the K to 12

curriculum idea for in her commentary, the states has a career program in the second year junior

high school level where individuals are now being assess and guided on which academic and life
track one will take. However, the intended idea was not fully maximized for critically speaking,

the curriculum only expanded by itself and did not change the labor process of individuals after

their academic life in both aspects as a High School Graduate or a College Graduate. As a result,

the curriculum extended only the time frame of the academic formation instead of aiding

collaboratively for labor forces implications showing one sign of curriculum flows under

collaborative process of both the education sector and labor sector. In line with this, even old news

from Failon Ngayon (ABS-CBN, 2015) exposes the insufficiencies regarding the implications. As

a matter of fact, even in latest news like Briones (UNTV News and Rescue, 2021) still insists the

traditionality of learning to the educational standpoint of the Philippines which before if looking

in previous news shows inconsistencies due to the fact that lasts claims from the education sector

that the New Normal education will never go back to its roots. This itself is within a flaw and one

reason why countries need authentic curriculums utilized for that matter. Dupitas (2020) in her

discussion on Curriculum Designs emphasizes the needs assessment of the location before

constructing a curriculum flow. This means it is needed to assess what are the demands of the

learning needs of individuals provided that they incorporate cultural approaches to individuals

which Dupitas strongly emphasizes upon conceptualizing a curriculum. Nevertheless, this paper

is a perfect example of both technicalities and awareness collaborate to each other yet, it is a great

invitation for Filipinos to be proponents of ideas instead of validators of ideas. Thus, the paper

itself hugely delivers a demand of one country’s needs which papers should always be present

within. However, despite of this praise yet ignoring factor of the paper, processes are still needed

to be observed in this particular matter. Thus, observing the next paper is critically analyzed in the

next concept.
 Next, Teachers’ readiness to work with children with signs of psychomotor aptitude

significantly gave a data that will utilize the clear conception of this clarity about psychomotor.

However, take into consideration the following concerns on the paper.

No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups in the
definition of aptitude and the identification of its types. Most of the respondents draw
attention to the potentially high abilities of a person for any kind of activity as a key
characteristic of aptitude.

Among the types of aptitude, the most often distinguished types are intellectual,
creative, and motor aptitude. Psychomotor aptitude is often viewed within the
framework of motor aptitude, and only a small percentage of respondents in both
groups distinguish it as a special type. These results were reflected in the
comprehension of the essence of this concept, which was formed by almost half of
the respondents in group B and about 1/5 of group A. At the same time, we noticed
a part of the respondents who understood this type of aptitude in the narrow sense
(as athletic aptitude).

Defining psychometrics, the study participants established a connection between

motor and mental development, and also concentrated on identifying a set of
consciously controlled motor actions. - This can be quite misleading for an essence
of a word should have a concrete definitive idea to it. This here now needs to be
justify in Clarity to know its significance. (Morris, 2006)

In the first place, the topic is readiness, so if it is readiness and there is no clarity with the

result, the idea will be problematic in these reasons. First, readiness defines as clarity of views.

Clarity of views see this as an easier understanding of one idea. However, if there are no clear

results among the group data of clear definition of views of psychomotor ideologies, there will be

a big flaw on the process which still the problem itself is still unanswered by which brings this

paper to a big concern where this statement shows.

A theoretical analysis of psychological and pedagogical literature, questionnaires,

mathematical processing of empirical data, a comparative analysis was carried out.
The study of the teachers’ readiness (concerning the cognitive and activity
components) to work with children with signs of psychomotor aptitude was
participated in by bachelor and master program students studying at the Institute of
Pedagogy and Psychology of Education of the Moscow City Pedagogical University
and the Pedagogical Institute of Tambov State University named after G.R.
Derzhavin in the Pedagogical Education, Psychological and Pedagogical
Education program, as well as practicing teachers. The study population consisted
of 198 people. The participants were divided into two groups: group A included
undergraduate students (82) and group B included graduates and practicing
teachers (116). A questionnaire was developed, aimed at identifying knowledge
about general aptitude, its types; psychomotor aptitude, its signs, ways of formation
in children. It was also clarified whether the students had any professional training
 for working with children with signs of psychomotor aptitude in the process of their
studies. (Borisova, Pavlova, Shukshina and Morozova, 2021)

The paper has no clear statistical treatment approach stated here which can justify a wrong

interpretation or idea in interpreting the data. This can be dangerous for critical readers might be

hugely mislead on interpreting the results since 1. There is no indication if the research is

descriptive or inferential base. 2. The paper clearly is applied for Analysis of Variance Sampling

which is highly recommended to use in this paper. Finally, 3. The results have huge gaps and some

from the question Psychomotor Abilities Expressed have a missing variable and here is the

exposition about it.

Figure 6.1. The evidence of lack of data in Educational Activities

As its observed, one variable from the first group has lacking percentage and since one

sample is missing from that element, it is highly needed to see the dominance of the second group

yet, that within itself is insufficient to conclude thus, to consistently and give emphasis to which 2

groups give clarity to the definitive essence of Teacher’s readiness, the ANOVA sampling is best

suited for this matter.

In conclusion, the first paper has no flaws to it in technicalities yet a flaw on content due

to insufficient data to validate claims which brings the critic an invitation for readers to conduct

new concepts for authentic ideas suitable in one’s current location and the second paper is a
fragmented paper with vague processes in data gathering which prone for mislead interpretations.

Nevertheless, both papers commonly invite 2 things. First, in Asia setting like the Philippines, a

Qualitative intellectual idea from authentic Philosophical ideas, authentic education ideas,

theological ideas, business ideas or more are highly needed for authentic adoptability of Filipinos

in their own way of utilizing the educational stand point. And 2. Assurance of quality is extremely

specified for authenticity thus, the challenge for all critics is the critics themselves or academicians

to evolve their intellectual principles into curriculum contributions or educational philosophies as

foundation of one needs of the country.