An Education from the University of the Philippines (UP) Last year I had a conversation with a friend who shared to me a conversation she had with a parent who transferred her child from the UP to a prestigious private university, “criticizing” UP as offering a long-distance education. This criticism caught me with my mouth open, as my mind zoomed back to those days I was a UP student myself. For a split of a second, I concurred, saying “hmm..yes, one could look it like that…”. How was I educated in the UP? I remember that on the first day of school, my professor would hand in his/her course syllabus, which detailed the topics to be covered and a long list of about 3-5 readings for each of the topics, which could total to about 20 or more readings. After reading through this part of the syllabus, the professor would also add, “actually, these are just suggested reading; there are other readings which you can find in the library…” . (Of course, today, the professor would also include one other source, the internet. ) Then, my professor would cite his other requirement, which was most likely a term paper, which I would call, my saving grace. It would entail reading at least 5 books about the topic of my term paper. I preferred reading 5 books and 4 months lead time for writing a 20-25 page term paper, to 45 minutes writing answers to 2-3 essay questions . Anyhow, if the professor was not “a terror”, he/she would suggest specific topics for the term paper. Otherwise, we would be on our own, which I would not possibly be able to identify unless I would read his/her readings ASAP. His/her syllabus would end or somewhere around it would be his/her grading system and the schedule of his/her exam. Usually, my professor would give a midterm and a final, but sometimes, he/she would only give a final exam. On the first day of school, the classroom was usually packed with the professor’s total number of students for the semester. While I don’t remember having missed any of my classes, I do remember that as the semester progressed, there would only be a handful of us attending his/her classes. Why is that so? Where are the others? What happened? Before I answer that question, I have to add that I would see ALL my classmates again ONLY during the midterm and/or finals. Now, the questions, “Why? and What happened?” Well, my classmates were actually in the library reading the “list of readings” themselves. The UP library would be packed with students, either lining up for their turn of the books, or sitting in one of the chairs. Once in a while, some of my classmates would be in class to participate in the discussion with the professor or simply to listen to what the professor would say about the topics, which I would not be able to understand, participate in and/or appreciate, unless I had already read some or at least most of the listed suggested “readings” myself. Blooms Taxonomy. What is that? I entered UP in 1968 and graduated in 1972. At that time, I never heard of Blooms Taxonomy. I shouldn’t. It was one of the theories that one could hear only if you were a student taking up education. I was not taking up education; I was a student taking up foreign service or what would be a major in both political science and history. I would hear about Blooms Taxonomy 14 years after. From 1986-1988, I took up a Master of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, an ivy league school, which, to me, was/is/will always be the best university for students of education in the U.S. if not in the whole world. Hmmrmmp! He, he, he, he. Blooms Taxonomy is a listing of learning domains – a student is said to have learned or to have acquired an “education”, if he/she could do or demonstrate all the eight domains. Dr. Benjamin Bloom created it in 1956 and originally used nouns to describe these learning domains. These are knowledge, comprehension, application, synthesis, and evaluation. A student of Bloom revised these noun forms to verb forms and these are remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating, with the latter two, evaluating and creating as interchangeable. Let me go back to my education at the UP. From our second meeting to the rest of the semester for that matter, the professor already presumed that we had knowledge and comprehension of the scheduled topic as soon as we entered his/her classroom. From the second meeting and throughout the rest of the semester, the professor would engage the couple of us in his/her classrooms with the rest of the learning domains, namely, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating. Assuming the last two domains, knowledge or remembering and comprehension or understanding, the professor’s midterm and final exams would cover these latter four – applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating. In short, in UP, knowledge/remembering and comprehension/understanding were something the student should do on his/her own, while the last four, the student would have to do with the professor in class. If a student could not do all six, this student can expect to fail in the professor’s course, if not, from the university. On my first year in UP, I stayed in Ilang-Ilang Residence Hall. In the first semester of my stay at Ilang-Ilang, the residence head forewarned us to regulate our “confidence”, because from her experience, less half or half of us, would be gone from the university after the first semester. The second semester of the first semester, a quarter would be gone. Alas, she did not lie. Her statistics were quite accurate, too. In my next two years in UP, I stayed at Kamia Residence Hall. On my first year at Kamia, I did not see a couple of the residents on my second year there. In my fourth year in UP, I saw all of my fellow residents at Kamia Residence Hall, although they may no longer lived at Kamia. Not all of us though graduated, the same year, for a hundred and one reasons. Ah that was many, many years ago. I am already a UP alumna, twice over. I also completed my MPA from the UP. As a UP alumna, hmmm..a veteran, would be a most appropriate word, I had a chance to be an instructor/teacher myself in college and graduate school in non-UP universities/colleges. To my chagrin and consternation, most of my students only wanted from me “knowledge and comprehension.” In UP, you don’t study, “chapters 1-3 and/or sections 1-3…”, To parents who only want knowledge or remembering and comprehension or understanding for their student-child in college, the University of the Philippines is definitely not your kind of school. I say the same to students planning to go to UP. I picked up a new word which I would describe studying in UP. “Ma-dugo” mag-aral sa UP. For me, academically, my UP education had put me in good stead when I attended Teachers College, Columbia University. In life, I use my UP education.when I problem solve, make choices and arrive at decisions. And, my guiding values? UP definitely did not teach me values. It was too late for that. I learned and formed my values earlier in life, from my parents, my earlier education, and my personal interaction and experiences with others, earlier in life. The end.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 02:58:31 +0000
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