International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
and therefore could facilitate learning processes. On the other end, the students probably thought of “student
lingo” as too informal and inappropriate in the classroom setting, and may be difficult for the teachers to
comprehend. Thus, students decided that their peer language should not be spoken while doing classroom
activities. Given the valuable contribution of effective communication in the skillful delivery of teaching and
learning processes, the inclusion of communication skills development in the training content and design of
teacher development programs should be considered. Similarly, the inclusion of the Mother Tongue-Based
Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) in the K to 12 Curriculum necessitates the conduct of formal teacher
training to help ensure the effective implementation of program.
Teacher as a Facilitator. The respondents at all levels strongly agreed to the idea that 21 st century teachers
should encourage learners to freely express their ideas while optimizing time and available learning resources
and observing established routines and procedures. The respondents clearly recognized one of the key roles that
teachers play—as facilitators of learning. Gleaning from the data, the 21 st century teachers are expected to be
skillful at creating a truly learner-centered learning environment, one that is non-threatening and able to get
learners hooked at achieving despite of apparent academic diversities. While computer-based instruction is quite
rapidly dominating teaching-learning processes, the stakeholders’ response on the issue of teaching without the
black/chalkboard shows the appreciation of the importance of having a discussion board while teaching. It would
be most helpful, therefore, to design the training curriculum of teacher training programs for knowledge and
skills development, providing minds-on and hands-on opportunities to explore and learn various facilitative
techniques, and development and utilization of technologies that support teaching and learning processes.
Teacher as an Expert. The stakeholder respondents at all levels strongly agreed that 21 st century teachers
should be knowledgeable not only of their specific field of expertise but also of other fields that may be directly
or indirectly related to the content they teach. Data further reveal that the 21 st century teachers are expected to
integrate relevant scholarly works or ideas to enrich the lesson as needed, and not simply focus on the specific
topic to be learned at a time. They should make learning meaningful and relevant by linking current content
with lessons learned in the past and those that may be presented in the future, as well as to the learners’ actual
experiences. Clearly, teachers must have a thorough understanding of content—what it is about and how it
connects with other areas and to real life. It may be observed, however, that if compared with the basic education
students, the pre- and in-service teachers and the teacher educators are more conscious of the need to connect
specific content with those in other related fields. This is an evidence of the formers’ appreciation of one of the
special features of the K to 12 Enhanced Basic Education Curriculum—the use of the spiral approach to ensure
mastery of knowledge and skills after each level. The spiral curriculum is a technique often used in teaching
where the basic facts of a subject are first learned. As learning progresses, the details gradually increase; its
connections with concepts in other learning areas are established, and the basic and preceding concepts are
emphasized many times. To support this expectation of 21 st century teachers as experts, and in line with the
teacher quality requirements of the K to 12 EBE Program, importantly, teachers are afforded learning
opportunities that would keep them abreast with constantly evolving concepts and information in their fields,
and how these are found to connect with the content of other learning areas. Teacher development programs,
therefore, should not only constantly provide teachers with content updates, but also with learning opportunities
to truly appreciate where and how concepts connect and should be viewed.
Teacher as a Motivator. The majority of the respondents agreed that the teacher as a motivator inspires
students to study hard. As the teacher serves as motivator, s/he inspires the students to study hard, gives timely
feedback to students for all given tasks, creates a stress-free environment, encourages students to join various
school and class activities, and sets high standards of learning performance. According to Zulueta and
Guimabatan (2012), motivation is central of learning. A motivated student obtains what he/she learns more
compared with others who are not motivated. As teachers play an important role in the learning process of the
students, teachers must be a motivator to each learner. Each learner is different from one another. Some learners
who respond well to the challenge of mastering a complex task and subject are considered deep. Others are
strategic learners who are motivated primarily with rewards. Some learners react well with competition. Another
type is the surface learners who are motivated by a desire to avoid failure (Bain, 2004). Individual teachers have
various types and levels of motivation to improve their teaching in ways that better enhance student learning
(NCBTS, 2006).
Teacher as a Classroom Manager. Stakeholders believed that the 21 st century teacher must be a classroom
manager, who maintains a safe and orderly classroom for his/her students. S/he must check the condition of
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