Pathways project helps prepare ISAL teachers for inclusive teaching, F2F classes
Workshop participants with Pathways, DGME
As Academic Year 2022-2023 is set to start next month, a partnership project by the Australia-supported Pathways program and RCTQ gathered Islamic Studies and Arabic Language (ISAL) teachers from Mindanao for a three-day development of inclusive teaching, learning and professional development resources in Davao City on 19-21 July 2022. The activity also prepared them for the resumption of face to face classes later this year.
The workshop gathered immediate concerns and needs of ISAL teachers in the field capacitated them on the development of inclusive materials.
Mr. Ibn-Madar Karay Abdulmandangan, an ISAL teacher from the Hadji Tomoay Elementary School in the island of Sulu and one of the participants of the workshop, shared how the activity provided him the training he needed as a teacher.
“My college degree was BS Electronics and Communications Engineering. I had limited training in teaching. Because of my passion for Islamic education, I took and passed the Qualifying Examination in Arabic Language and Islamic Studies (QEALIS) and then the Language Enhancement and Pedagogy Training of the Department of Education (DepEd) because I have this passion to teach Islamic education,” Mr. Abdulmandangan said. “ISAL needs to be taught to children because this is where peace and development are first taught.”
Despite teaching Islamic education since 2011, he felt he still had so much to learn to be an effective ISAL teacher, especially in dealing with learners with diverse levels of Madrasah literacy.
Participants share experiences on the implementation of ALMs, facilitated by RCTQ Senior Project Officer, Ma. Izella D. Lampos, and Project Officer, Lizette Anne Carpio.
“Compared to regular teachers, we really lack the required pedagogical training,” Mr. Abdulmandangan said. “This activity is very helpful for our professional development.”
At the workshop, RCTQ conducted interviews and discussions with participants to get a grounding on the challenges encountered by ISAL teachers in the implementation of Adaptive Learning Materials (ALMs) during the pandemic, and to propose recommendations to address the needs as they transition to using the ALMs for face-to-face modality.
The 29 workshop participants were teachers from private and public Madrasah, coordinators for ISAL and consultants and members of the Technical Working Group from the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education-Directorate General for Madaris Education (MBHTE-DGME) participated the workshop.
Sessions were also provided to give inputs to participants on the development of inclusive teaching and learning materials for ISAL teachers.
Pathways’ Inclusion Specialist Ms. Rabia Mustapha introduced the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and its application in teaching and learning to address diversity of learners in the classroom.
Dr. Ali G. Anudin from RCTQ delivers a session on Instructional Resources Development using UDL Principles.
Dr. Ali G. Anudin, RCTQ Senior Program Manager, shared features of effective teaching and learning materials in his session on Instructional Resources Development using UDL Principles.
Ustadz Abu Hurairah Edza, Teacher III from Maguindanao and the invited resource person, in his session on Effective Teaching Methodology/Pedagogy, shared with the participants a number of effective teaching strategies that ISAL teachers could use in face-to-face classroom instruction.
At the end of the workshop, the group was able to pool materials, discuss ways forward on the priorities for materials development, and produce a sample draft Teacher’s Guide to support ISAL teachers in the face-to-face instruction, for proposal to and approval of the DGME.
“We learned a lot from this workshop. There were problems we encountered before for which we did not have solutions until we found them here. This inclusive teaching and learning for instance is very new to me, and is my most relevant takeaway from this activity,” Mr. Abdulmandangan said. (RCTQ Comms with Liz Carpio)
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