Abstract
Teacher professional development is as important as the education of students in schools. The Professional Learning Community (PLC) is one of the effective bottom-up strategies for professional development as it gives teachers opportunities to collaborate and share experiences and expertise, rather than merely receive knowledge from an expert outsider. The Learning Action Cell (LAC) is the Philippines’ version of the PLC and it highlights the teachers’ best practices and real-life classroom experience as their source of knowledge. This paper presents mathematics teachers’ conceptions about the professional development strategy which was introduced concurrently with the K to 12 curriculum last 2016. In the study, 53 secondary school mathematics teachers articulated what they perceived as benefits of the strategy, which include gaining new knowledge, learning about innovations, and developing uniform classroom materials. Mathematics teachers also valued some intangible benefits such as the act of sharing experiences and having others work with them collaboratively on problems. The paper discusses these within the broader concept of teacher collaboration and uses the perspective of dialogic relations to identify challenges for school leaders and teachers. Moreover, several issues regarding enforcement of the new program have emerged, such as the lack of awareness of some teachers about the program and their reluctance to participate in the LAC. This study aimed to unveil the potential of the LAC to improve the professional development landscape of the country as well as identify possible solutions to issues related to implementation that have surfaced.
Author Information
Amiel Paulo G. Cardenas, University of Santo Tomas, Philippines
Angela Fatima H. Guzon, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines
Catherine P. Vistro-Yu, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines
Paper Information
Conference: SEACE2023
Stream: Professional Training
This paper is part of the SEACE2023 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Cardenas A., Guzon A., & Vistro-Yu C. (2023) Learning From the Ground: How Mathematics Teachers View Collaboration Through the Learning Action Cell Program ISSN: 2435-5240 The Southeast Asian Conference on Education 2023: Official Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2435-5240.2023.47
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2435-5240.2023.47
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