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Module 1: Learning Plan in the Context of the 21 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 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
Curriculums have been thoroughly considered to ensure that all courses in the teacher
education program will meet the demands of 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 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.
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.

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 2
Module 1 – Learning Plans in the Context of the 21st Century
 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.

• 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 21st 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 developing learning materials to be able to implement the MTB-MLE program properly
especially since 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 entails 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 are aided by technologies for teaching and learning.
5. Gearing Up for the Future
The K to 12 Curriculum ensures college readiness by aligning the core and applied courses to the
College Readiness Standards (CRS) and the new General Education (GE) Curriculum.

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Module 1 – Learning Plans in the Context of the 21st Century
 6. Nurturing the Holistically Developed Filipino (College and Livelihood readiness, 21 st Century
Skills)

To nurture a holistically developed Filipino, every K to 12 graduate is expected to be ready to

go into different paths- higher education, employment, or

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 is 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. 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. Teachers need to
realize how to organize the classroom to structure the learning tasks.

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 and computer software. And
telecommunications facilities. It also includes computerized machinery and computerized robots.

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Module 1 – Learning Plans in the Context of the 21st Century
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 21st-
century skills. ICT helps a teacher to present his/her lessons attractively and enables learners to learn
at any level of the 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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Module 1 – Learning Plans in the Context of the 21st Century