Community Development

LESSON 7
DIMENSIONS OF DEVELOPMENT

Objectives:

To gain knowledge and understanding on the aspects and dimensions of development.

To differentiate the significance of individual and community development in national

development.

To get aware of the skills which are essential to building community development.

Development:

Is characterized by the physical, social, political, and economic changes that happen in
a society achieved through modernization of technology, maximization of minimum
resources, invention, and man’s creativity. It is the product of man’s cooperation and
his desire to make things better and easier. The concrete manifestation of development
is progress and the acknowledgment of man’s importance as the key factor to consider
in its achievements.

Aspects of Development

Individual Development

Physical development -is characterized by a commitment to healthy nutritional

choices, physical exercise which optimize cardiovascular capacity, flexibility and strength
and medical self-management that results to prevention or early detection of illness;
and use of appropriate medical treatment. In addition, physical wellness is an
awareness of the interdependence of humankind and our environment. Physical
wellness provides fulfillment and health through interactions with others and the
environment.

Emotional development- is characterized by an awareness and acceptance of one’s

feelings. Awareness and acceptance of one’s feelings includes an enthusiasm for life, an
ability to express emotions appropriately, and an ability to cope with stress. In addition,
emotional wellness is characterized by the maintenance of satisfying relationships.
Human awareness-is characterized by recognition, acceptance, and appreciation of
diverse lifestyles and value differences. Recognition, acceptance, and appreciation of
diverse lifestyles and values also include an understanding of their impact on one’s
personal attitudes and behaviors. Human awareness is not fulfilling unless one seeks
opportunities to understand and appreciate the differences and similarities among
people

Intellectual development- is characterized by involvement in creative and

stimulating mental activities. In addition, one must seek and use available resources to
expand knowledge, improved skills, and share it with others. Intellectual wellness
provides for clarification of values thorough self-realization resulting in an
understanding of personal self-worth.

Financial development- is characterized by recognition of the interdependence of

personal/financial planning and external economic resources. Given the
interdependence, a concern for realistic establishment of goals within individual
financial restrictions is vital. Financial wellness provides for the development of skills
through education and career to achieve financial stability and security.

Life planning – is characterized by an attitude of satisfaction with one’s life plan.

Included here are the choice of occupation, occupation/employment preparation, and
occupational health. In addition, life planning involves the development and maturation
of satisfying lifelong relationships, family, and career.

Social development- is a recognition of the interdependence of individuals with other

people, society and nature. A concern for harmonious family relationships, for the
common welfare, and for the social/environmental culture is paramount. Social wellness
provides for self-confidence through relationships and interactions with the
environment.

Spiritual development- is characterized by a continuing search for meaning and

purpose in life. A meaningful and purposeful life includes a realization of self as one
interacts with and relates to a higher power, the forces of nature, and /or the expanse
of the universe. In addition, spiritual wellness provides for the development and
internalization of a personal belief system based upon a set of values and ethical
standards.

Community Development

It refers to a group of people sharing a common purpose, goal, and objectives. This is a
group of people who are dependent on one another for the fulfillment of certain needs
like sympathy, friendship, and acceptance from one’s peers.
Group of people who live and/or work in close proximity to one another.

Group of people who interact on various levels of sharing

Individuals who share in defining expectations for the group

People who assume some responsibility for the total group and who respect the
individuality of each member of the community.

Community development-is the on-going process of shaping and/or creating a

community environment in the ever changing situation, event, and circumstances.
Every individual experiences a “sense of community”-a feeling of cooperation,
of commitment to the total group and its welfare, of willingness to openly
communicates, and of responsibility to others as well as for one’s self.

The process of community development allows for and creates interaction among
individuals and different communities where cooperation and collaboration thrives.

Characteristics of Successful Communities

Find a set values or principles that allow people to co-operate

Find ways and means to create and maintain an organization that develops and grows
over time

Are able to adapt in response to changes in the community.

Are able to choose new developments aligned to goals and resources.

Are able to get memberships and financial support from an ever wider group in the
community.

Local Economic Development Model

Local Economic model has three sides of a triangle :a) Stewardship:Preservation of our
resources-natural, cultural , and economics, b) Economic Development : Stimulation of
trading, stopping “leakage” from the local economy: and c) Community Participation:
Building the community’s capacity to participate and share responsibility. As one door
closes, other doors open. There is always an opportunity, but the opportunity can be
exploited only by those who have already prepared themselves to be adaptable and
who have invested in new skills and ideas.

Steps in Building Communities:

Step 1: Systematic discussion and brainstorming on the common felt needs of the
community through the SWOT Method

Finding the strength of the members of the community

Identifying the weakness of the members of the community

Determining of the opportunities beneficial to the community

Eliminating of threats that hinder progress and development

Step2: Establishing a sound vision, mission, goal and objectives

Developing a workable and achievable vision and mission

Establishing the goal and objectives that help and direct the people in the achievement
and realization of the vision and mission

Establishing linkages and networking

Training and technical support

Preparing core groups through training and workshop who will become the prime
movers and planners of every project and activity.

Creating committees that will facilitate smooth working relationship

Providing technical support that sets limitation and potent workforce.

Step4: Creating community spirit, cooperation, and oneness

Developing the spirit of responsibility and commitment and highlighting the importance
of cooperation and community spirit.
Forming the community into a team through team building activities.

Imbibing the spirit of “ownership” in every project and community endeavor to develop
in the members of the community a spirit of valuing and giving their best in the
realization and achievement of every project.

Step5: Mobilizing the community into a single workforce whose main thrust is progress
and development.
 Lesson 8: Literacy and Numeracy
Literacy and Numeracy

Objectives:

To familiarize students with the basic terms and concepts of literacy.

To broaden student’s perspective on the importance of being literate.

To discuss the benefits of literacy and numeracy

To identify relevant projects or activities that effectively promote literacy and numeracy

Introduction:

With the advent of the so-called knowledge Based Economy, people around the world
have grown up to be conscious of the ability to read and write and understand a simple
message in any language or dialect. At a conference in Udaipur, India in 1982, UNESCO
as an international body vigorously framed up and mobilized its resources and became
a primary institution to eradicate illiteracy. The Philippines, a signatory to the 1990
Jomtien (Thailand) World Declaration, another program expanding the world literacy
movement: initially concretized its participation to this movement through Proclamation
No. 480, which mandated the creation of inter-agency National Education for all
(NCEFA). Further, to ensure and provide direction in the inter-agency EFA planning and
implementation to address literary issue, the Philippine Congress passed the Republic
Act 7165 creating the Literacy Coordinating Council, which is an inter-agency body
administratively attached to the Department of Education. This law is amended in May
27, 2010 through the Republic Act 10122, “An act Strengthen the Literacy Coordinating
Council”.

Providing the necessary assistance to our young children for them to be a great start in
life is expected from every parent . Secondary to the children’s basic needs during their
formative years is the provision of education that starts with literacy and numeracy,
which is a very education would now form part of the primary concern as he is now led
to the formal learning environment.

In the Philippines, poor children’s education opportunities and outcomes support for
emergent literacy. Here and even in other countries, there is strong evidence that poor
reading exposure in the early stages of development leads to a cycle whereby many
children fall increasingly behind in their education, contributing to low achievement and
high dropouts in school. In the face of providing and enhancing public services in the
country, key struggles remain to challenge its delivery. , like (1) right of the entry of
children in schools, (2) quality if teaching and learning particularly in improving the
literacy/numeracy of school children, and the (3) involvement of parents and the
community in the development of education.

A new generation of Filipinos is growing up basically concerned not only on the literacy
but also on the component of numeracy. According to the 2003. Functional Literacy,
Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS), the country’s population of 57.6 million
aged 10 to 64 included some 3.8 million Filipinos 10 years old and above, who are
unable to read and write and a total of 9.2 million, who are not “functionally literate” or
unable to compute and lacked certain numeracy skills. These illiterates and functional
illiterates comprise the most extreme segment of the larger portions of our population
who are educationally disadvantaged.

The changing nature of work in the 21th century increasingly impacts workplace
literacy, which not only involves basic skills-reading, writing, and mathematics-but the
application of these skills to areas such as communication, teamwork and problem
solving.

Table shows the simple literacy rate, targets versus latest data by region in the country.
The 1994 simple literacy level of 93.9 percent was just 4.1 percentage points below the
98.0 percent target set for 2000. By 1994, eight regions has actually surpassed their
1995 targets. Good performance was led by Region XII, which had already overshot its
1995 targets by 5.2 percentage points and was only 0.91 percentage points from its
2000 objectives. Surprisingly, it is followed by the ARMM whose 73.5 actual simple
literacy rate was 3.7 percentage points higher than its 1995 target of 69.8 percent.
(The EPA 2000 Assessment: Country Reports, Philippines)

Based on the 1994 performance, Region XII, NCR, and Region V have the highest
probability of achieving their 2000 targets, since they had gaps of only 0.91, 1.17 and
2.77 percentages points respectively. On the other hand, CAR, ARMM, and Region XI
have relatively higher gaps at 7.3, 6.8 and 6.4 respectively. The other region may thus
find it difficult to attain their targets. (The EPA 2000 Assessment: Country reports,
Philippines)

Table 1: Simple Literacy Rate, Targets us, Latest Data by Region

Region1994 Actual2000 TargetGap

I95.598.4-3.0

II93.397.2-3.9

III96.3100.0-3.7

IV96.499.9-3.4
V94.996.9-1.8

VI91.996.9-5.0

VII93.197.0-4.0

VIII90.993.6-2.7

IX89.792.9-3.2

X94.698.4-3.8

XI92.098.4-6.4

XII90.891.7-0.9

ARMM73.580.2-6.8

CAR88.896.1-7.3

NCR98.8100.0-1.2

PHILIPPINES93.998.0-4.1

LITERACY

Simple literacy is officially defined in the , FLEMMS as the ability of a person to read and
write with understanding a simple message in any language or dialect. “The National
Statistic Office (NSO) definition of terms also explains that the simple literacy status of
an individual can be determined based on the respondent’s answer to the question,
“Can ___read and write a simple message in any language or dialect?”

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines
literacy as the “ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, and
compute using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy
involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to
develop their knowledge and potential, and to participation fully in their community and
wider society.

Reading development involves a range of complex, language underpinning including

awareness of speech sounds (Phonolgy), spelling patterns (orthography), word
meaning (semantics), semantic (syntax), and patterns of word information
(morphology); all of which provide a necessary platform for reading fluency and
comprehension. Once, these skills are acquired, the reader can attain full language
literacy, which includes the abilities to approach printed material with critical analysis,
inference and synthesis, write with accuracy and coherence, and to use information and
insight from text as the basis for informed decision and creative thought.

Literacy does not only include the 3R’s or reading , writing, and arithmetic. Its coverage
has already expanded. Functional literacy includes the provision and enhancement of
knowledge on various topics such as values education, health awareness campaigns,
financial literacy and management, solid waste management, information technology
literacy (computer literacy), drug education, and peace education.

Guererro (2007) defines basic or simple literacy as the ability of a person to read and
write with understanding of simple message in any language or dialect. Functional
Literacy is a range of skills and competencies-cognitive, affective, and behavioural-
which enable individuals to

Live and work as human persons

Development their potential

Make critical and informed decisions

Functions effectively in society within the context of their environment and that of the
wider community (local, regional, national, global); all, in order to improve the quality
of their life and that of society.

Literacy includes the ability to understand all forms of communications, be it body

language, pictures, and video or sound (reading, speaking, listening, and viewing). This
is the basic steps to literacy, and which is sound sign connections. Literacy
encompasses that understanding of certain signs have recurring sounds, or that certain
signs mean certain concepts. Associating the sound to sign is the initial step in learning
to read and write. The presence of a sound-sign process will start a more quick literacy
incidence.

Cited as example in reading alphabet-based texts, a reader uses three main skills: (1)
sound-symbol connection (2) syntax connection what words are likely to follow in
order), and (3) a meaning connection (predicting new meaning from existing ones).
The learner locks for clues in a text: sounding of sound is the most basic one, while
predicting meaning is the developed strategy of a reader, When we write, we start from
meaning (what we wish to say) and then convert this to symbols.

EFFECTIVE LITERACY
Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print. Key
to all literacy is reading development, which involves a progression of skills with the
ability to understand spoken words and decode written words, and culminates in the
deep understanding of text.

Research into the teaching of literacy has shown that trainers have based their practice
on three main approaches (Lo Bianco & Freeboy) as cited in the Manual of functional
Literacy for Indigenous People (UNESCO, 1999)

The Skills Approach

This approach is based on teaching the fundamental coding conversations of the written
script. Teaching of the written script must be systematic and explicit, with
concentration. Teachers who follow this approach believe that there is a strong link
between the learner’s development of literacy skills and the increasing refinement of
psychological process.

The Growth and Heritage Approach

Learners learn literacy skills more by responding to “natural” needs of writing and
reading and by being immersed in reading and writing activities from which they
implicitly learn rules. It emphasizes the importance of reading and writing as giving
access to the valued literacy heritage of a culture.

The Critical-Cultural Approach

Followers of the critical cultural approach believe that learners need to be taught writing
and reading explicitly, but with an emphasis on how literacy is connected to society.
Learners are encouraged to learn to critically analyse the often silent cultural
assumption on which text are based, and to see texts as having implicit cultural, even
ideological meaning.

There are personal variables that may affect the learning of literacy, Abadzi (1945:15)
as cited in the Manual on functional Literacy from Indigenous People (UNESCO, 1999)
gives a list “participant-related variables” that have an impact on the success of literacy
learning. It includes

The physical health of the learners

Their gender and whether in the given community both males and females are
expected to be literate

The number of small children in the group and who is responsible for their care.

The level of parental education.

The stability of home life, and

The attitudes and beliefs about literacy and its role individuals and cultural
advancement.

Literacy implementers need to sensitive enough to consider these factors as it can

affect the result of the program. Solutions to problems should be immediately provided
so as not to impede the progress of the program.

Further, trainers of literacy programs should find a way to link literacy training to the
learners day to day activities. To Manual on functional Literacy for IndIgenous People
(UNESCO, 1999) cited some measures to link it with the live.

Appreciate the fact that learners (especially) are more likely to want to learn to read
and persist in learning literacy if they can clearly see how much such learning will
improve their lives.

Trainers should give a lot of examples on how literacy skills can improve people’s lives
and how they can access to new knowledge in areas such as health, family planning,
the environment, and in sourcing out additional income.

Show the links between literacy skills and access to formal education and degrees.

Trainers should try to connect literacy training to formal schooling so as learners feel
part of letting them make their entry to a wider learning environment –the school and
the possible attainment of a diploma and a degree soon after.

Understand the causes which explains the lack of motivation for some people to enrol
remain in the literacy program.

Poverty, exhaustive work, forced labor, low self-esteem might be some of the factors
that interfere with the desire to acquire the skills to read and write. It is important for
the trainer to impart on the learners the difference between lack of commitment and
the lack of desire. It is important to be open, be supportive, non-judgemental, be
gentle and flexible, and be able give the learner time to reset their opportunities.

Deal in advance with potential drop-outs and lack of motivation.

It would be good for the trainers at the early stage to discuss with the new participants
some personal variable that can affect their attendance to the literacy program. In such
way, trainers can anticipate and counter what should be some sweeping actions and
difficulties being made by the learners.

Try to promote a new literacy program within “naturally” existing groups who share
common interest and feel comfortable with each other and harness the group dynamics
to support the learning of literacy.

Trainers should consider in observing what people do together and what social group
they have created, applying the principle of “group approach” to literacy training. The
more people that they have in common, the more they are likely to support each other.

While the country’s basic literacy rate seems high, these illiterate youth and adults
should have been covered in the literacy programs and initiatives of various
stakeholders under the alternative learning systems.

NUMERACY

Is the ability to reason and to apply simple numerical concepts. Basic numeracy skills
consist of comprehending fundamental mathematics like addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division. For example, if one can understand simple mathematical
equations such as 2 +2=4, then one can be considered possessing at least simple
numeric knowledge. Substantial aspect of numeracy also includes number sense,
operation sense, computation, measurement, geometry, probability, and statistics. A
numerically literate person can manage and respond to the mathematical demands of
life. However, the lack of numeracy or innumeracy can have a negative impact if the
skills on one’s life. Numeracy has an influence on career professions, literacy, and risk
perception towards health decisions.
Numeracy is a proficiency that is not only developed mainly in mathematics but also in
other subjects. It is more than an ability to do basic arithmetic. It involves developing
confidence and competence with numbers and measures. It requires understanding of
the number system, a repertoire of mathematical techniques, and an inclination and
ability to solve quantitative or spatial problems in a range of contexts. Numeracy also
demands. Effective and efficient numeracy teachers according to De la Cruz (2000)
have the following roles which should be taken seriously:

Help students understand the value of Mathematics in their everyday life and its
usefulness.

Develop in students the numeracy skills, concepts, understandings, and attitudes that
will enable them to cope confidently with everyday life;

Provide strong mathematical foundation for students.

Help students to achieve mathematical and statistical literacy needed in a society, which
is technologically oriented and information rich;

Help students to be creative by using a variety of approaches in solving problems;

Provide students with the mathematical tools, skills, understanding and attitudes they
will encounters in the world of work; and

Help foster and develop math talent.

RATIONALE OF NUMERACY:

A focus on numeracy is justified by the demands of modern life-both written and

outside the workplace. It is also justified by the demands of acquiring an education.
Numeracy can be considered, as a way of knowing-one which helps students better
understand all of their school subjects. Strengthening the student’s mathematical ability
by exercising them in other subject areas may offer student’s opportunities to apply
their numeracy skills and should result in more students integrating them into their
everyday undertakings.

Benefits of Literacy and Numeracy:

Improved levels of literacy and numeracy-enhanced employment prospects of young

people.
A move towards economic stability-increased take up of further and higher education.

Students better prepared to take up modern apprenticeships-higher levels of

employment

It is widely accepted that the greatest benefits acerue as a result of highquality training
and the opportunity to reflect upon and modify one’s own practice. Employing literacy
and a numeracy coordinator to work alongside teachers will give the opportunity to
improve people’s life.