Ms. Krupskaya “Kay” Añonuevo—RCTQ Senior Manager for Projects, Planning & Linkages, who taught at the University of the Philippines-Diliman Department of Psychology—steps back in time to honor one teacher that left a mark on her professional life:

One of my favorite and memorable teachers was Sir Garma, now Asec Garma, OIC-Assistant Secretary of Field Operations and National Academy of Sports of the Department of Education.

Sir Garma was my teacher in both elementary (World History in Grade 6) and secondary (Economics in Grade 10) levels at the University of the Philippines Integrated School.

Apart from showing a lot of enthusiasm in teaching Social Studies subjects, Sir Garma taught me how assessment doesn’t have to be a stressful activity. I had my very first open-book test in Economics and it was liberating not needing to memorize key terms and formulas. With the help of the three or four Economics textbooks I brought (it helped that Papa taught Economics so I could borrow his books), I could focus on integrating the different concepts with each other and writing essays that demonstrated a deeper understanding of how Economics concepts can be applied to solving the real-world problems he posed.

Of course, I still had to study both the content and the structure of the books for the test, but I loved how I didn’t feel nervous before or during the test. It was a good lesson on how assessment activities can be designed to be enjoyable for learners and authentic measures of higher-order thinking.

When I became a teacher myself, I tried different types of assessments—from the usual multiple-choice tests to portfolio-type projects and, perhaps the most innovative one— rubrics to assess solutions and peer evaluation forms for my Psychological Statistics problem-based learning class. Having that positive open-book test experience made me open and excited to try out a range of assessments —thanks to Sir Garma!

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Ms. Krupskaya “Kay” Añonuevo—RCTQ Senior Manager for Projects, Planning & Linkages, who taught at the University of the Philippines-Diliman Department of Psychology—steps back in time to honor one teacher that left a mark on her professional life: One of my favorite and memorable teachers was Sir Garma, now Asec Garma,...
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