The UP Visayas Teaching and Learning Resource Center recently conducted the fourth iteration of its Teach SMART Program that focused on the “principles of teaching” and “humanizing education” as core topics on November 16-17, 2023, at the UPV MILC, College of Arts and Sciences building. Teach SMART, a short name for “Teaching Strategies, Methods, Approaches, Rudiments, and Theories” is a training-workshop categorized as one of the Teaching Effectiveness Programs of the TLRC and was first conducted in 2021, following the shift to the online learning set up and was meant to train faculty members on the different approaches in teaching in a dynamic learning landscape.
The November 2023 run was the first full face-to-face implementation of the program and focused on different teaching principles and their applications inside the classroom, and the concept and practice of humanizing education. Education experts from the faculty pool of the Division of Professional Education – UP High School in Iloilo namely, Asso. Prof. Dominique Maquiran, Asst. Prof. Jeena Amoto, and Asst. Prof. Donne Jone Sodusta were invited as resource speakers for the two-day training-workshop. Throughout the program, the 24 faculty participants from different colleges, divisions, departments, and institutes were introduced to the tripartite role of UP educators and different models of education followed by a workshop wherein they had to craft a teaching philosophy that will serve as their own personal guiding statement throughout their continuous service as teachers in the university.
They were also introduced to the different learning theories, models, strategies, methods, and skills for teaching and learning, and assessment techniques. Part of the training workshop was for faculty members to develop assessment matrices for the courses they are handling.
The second day of the training-workshop focused on the topic humanizing education where faculty members were provided a space for conversation about different practices on addressing inequity inside the classroom. It proved to be an enriching discourse as faculty members were able to share the different strategies they practice in their own respective classes. The program was indeed an enriching experience for faculty members as they not only got to listen to the knowledge of the education experts, but they also had a space for meaningful discourse on the challenges they face and gained new insights on how to address these challenges.
