MODULE 1

Learning Plans in the

Context of 21st

Century
Introduction
The basic education curriculum of the country was enhanced with the implementation
of the K to 12 Curriculum. The K to 12 Program covers Kindergarten and 12 years of basic
education (six years of elementary education, four years of Junior High School, and two years
of Senior High School [SHS] to provide sufficient time for mastery of concepts and skills,
develop lifelong learners, and prepare graduates for tertiary education, middle-level skills
development, employment, and entrepreneurship.
The implementation of the K to 12 Curriculum is expected to contribute to the country’s
development in various forms. It is believed to be necessary to improve the quality of our
education which is critical to our progress as a nation.
One of the features of the K to 12 curriculum is the requirement to equip every graduate
with the following skills:

• information, media and technology skills;

• learning and innovation skills;
• effective communication skills; and
• life and career skills

The development of these skills can be done with the aid of technologies for teaching
and learning which is the focus of this course. This course aims to present activities that will
prepare pre-service teachers to integrate ICTs in the teaching-learning processes in the various
fields of specialization. It aims to help pre-service and in-service teachers to expand the
boundaries of their creativity and that of their students beyond the four walls of the classrooms.
It aims to enable teachers to discover the power of computer technologies as teaching tools for
greater learning.
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LESSON 1:

The K-12 Curriculum

Framework
The implementation of the K to 12 Curriculum of the Department of Education
paved the way for the enhancement of the Teacher Education Curriculum of the
Commission on Higher Education (CHED). The salient features of the K to 12
Curriculum have been thoroughly considered to ensure that all courses in the teacher education
program will meet the demands of the 21st century classrooms. One of the considerations is
the need to implement the following features of the curriculum through integrating technologies
for teaching and learning. The use of technologies is done in the different levels of learning and
in the various fields of specialization.
1. Strengthening Early Childhood Education (Universal Kindergarten)
With the Universal Kindergarten program of the Department, every Filipino child
is expected to have access to early childhood education. This access can be facilitated
using technological tools that are readily available to the school for teachers’ use.
2. Making the Curriculum Relevant to Relevant to Learners (Contextualization and
Enhancement)
Research shows that learners will value a curriculum that is relevant to their
lives. Sara Bernard (2010) stressed that students need to have a personal connection
to a lesson material that can be done through engaging them emotionally or through
connecting the information with that which they already know.
Briggs (2014) shared some few tips for making learning engaging and personally
relevant as cited by Willis, Faeth, and Immordino-Yang:
• Use suspense and keep it fresh – Drop hints about a new learning unit
before you reveal what it might be, leave gaping pauses in your speech,
change seating arrangements, and put up new and relevant posters or
displays; all these can activate emotional signals and keep student
interest piqued.
• Make it student-directed – Give students a choice of assignments on a
topic or ask them to design one of their own.
• Connect to their lives and to what they already know – Taking the time
to brainstorm about what students already know and would like to learn
about a topic helps them to create goals. This also help teachers see the
best points of departure for new ideas.
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 • Provide utility value – Utility value provides relevance first by piquing
students and by telling them the content is important to their future
goals; it then continues by showing or explaining how the content fits
into their plans in the future.
• Build relatedness – Relatedness on the other hand, answers the
question, “What have these to do with me?”. Relatedness is seen by
many as having non-academic and academic sides.
To be able to apply the tips recommended by various experts and to allow
students to realize the value of their curriculum, technological tools can be used. 21 st
century learners are expected to be demonstrating 21 st century competencies such as
collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem solving to be able to thrive
in this world (Rich, 2014). Contextualizing the curriculum of the students for meaningful
learning poses challenges in enhancing teachers’ pedagogical skills as well as
technological skills.
3. Building Proficiency (Mother-tongue Based Multilingual Education)
To be able to promote the child’s dominant language and to use it as a language
instruction, maximum use of technological tools is highly encouraged. Currently, a lot
of teachers and schools are into developing learning materials to be able to implement
the MTB-MLE program properly especially that there is a dearth of printed and e-
materials in the mother-tongue of students.
4. Ensuring Integrated and Seamless Learning (Spiral Progression)
Learning basic concepts that lead to a more complex and sophisticated version
of the general concepts entail TPACK: Technological knowledge, pedagogical
knowledge, and content knowledge. Rediscovering concepts previously presented as
students go up in grade level will be fully supported if all the areas of specialization will
be aided by technologies for teaching and learning.
5. Gearing Up for the Future
The K to 12 Curriculum ensure college readiness by aligning the core and applied
courses to the College Readiness Standards (CRS) and the new General Education (GE)
Curriculum.
6. Nurturing the Holistically Developed Filipino (College and Livelihood readiness, 21 st
Century Skills)
To nurture holistically developed Filipino, every K to 12 graduate is expected to
be ready to go into different paths- higher education, employment, or entrepreneurship.
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LESSON 2:

ICT- Pedagogy Integration in

Learning Plans
Teaching has always been a challenging profession since knowledge has been
expanding and essential skills have been increasing and changing. With these
challenges, teachers need to engage educational technologies to assist them in the
teaching-learning process. Engaging educational technologies in teaching are
founded on principles and philosophies. Understanding these will help you successfully
integrate technologies to allow your students to demonstrate the intended learning outcomes
of your field of specialization.
Integrating Technology in Instruction
1. John Pisapia (1994)
Integrating technology with teaching means the use of learning technologies to
introduce, reinforce, supplement, and extend skills.
2. International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)
Effective integration of technology is achieved when students can select
technology tools to help them obtain information and present it professionally. The
technology should become an integral part of how the classroom functions- as
accessible as all other classroom tools.
3. Margaret Lloyd (2005)
ICT integration encompasses an integral part of broader curriculum reforms
which include both infrastructural as well as pedagogical considerations that are
changing not only how learning occurs but what is learned.
4. Qiyun Wang and Huay Lit Woo (2007)
ICT integration can happen in three different areas: curriculum, topic, and
lesson.
5. Bernard Bahati (2010)
The process of integrating ICT in teaching and learning must be done at both
pedagogical and technological levels with much emphasis of pedagogy.
6. UNESCO (2005)
ICT integration is not merely mastering the hardware and software skills.
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Teachers need to realize how to organize the classroom to structure the learning tasks.

Module 1 – Learning Plans in the Context of the 21st Century

MUCabuenos
Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
The following are the definitions of ICT from various sources.
1. Moursund (2005)
ICT includes all the full range of computer hardware, computer software. And
telecommunications facilities. It also includes computerized machinery and
computerized robots.
2. Tinio (2009)
ICT is a diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate,
create, disseminate, store, and manage information. These technologies include
hardware devices, software applications, internet connectivity, broadcasting
technologies, and telephony.
3. UNESCO (2020)
It (ICT) is a diverse set of technological tools and resources used to transmit,
store, create, share, or exchange information. UNESCO defines it also as a scientific,
technological, and engineering discipline and management technique. ICT also refers to
handling information, its application, and association with social, economic, and cultural
matters.
4. Ratheeswari (2018)
Information Communication Technologies (ICT) influence every aspect of human
life. They play salient roles in workplaces, in business, education, and entertainment. In
this digital era, ICT is important in the classroom for giving students opportunities to
learn and apply the required the required 21st Century skills. ICT helps a teacher to
present his/her lessons attractively and enables learners to learn at any level of
educational program.

Corpuz, B.B., Lucido, P.I. (2008). Educational technology 1. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing Inc.
Lucido, P. I. (2012). Educational technology 2. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing Inc
Espique, F. & Ayao-ao, S. © 2020. Technology for Teaching and learning 2, Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing Inc.
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