Bypassing the National STEM Teacher Shortage: Dynamic Learning Program

The Learning Physics as One Nation Initiative:
Bypassing the National STEM Teacher Shortage

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Ma. Victoria Carpio-Bernido, Christopher C. Bernido
Ramon Magsaysay Foundation Awardees for 2010

Carolina C. Porio
FAPE Executive Director

Learning Physics as One Nation (LPON) is an initiative of the Fund for Assistance to Private Education, funded by the Department of Education of the Philippines, and designed to bypass the nation’s severe STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) teacher shortage. Project components include a specially designed Physics Essentials Portfolio of 239 learning activities to be independently accomplished by students during one school year, and associated 18 DVD volumes of video lectures by national educators. The materials are designed such that a command team can monitor student progress, and address questions from the field through e-mail, mobile phone text messages, Skype, and fast courier services. Initial assessment of student performance shows a positive trend. Thus, after field studies in over 200 schools, plans are to produce Learning as One Nation materials for all other STEM subjects following the LPON model.

Keywords: STEM, Teacher shortage, Physics learning activities, LPON

Smart Foundation “Dynamic Learning Program” from madbanana.tv on Vimeo.

Learning Physics as One Nation: An Assessment

Ma. Victoria Carpio-Bernido, Christopher C. Bernido
Ramon Magsaysay Awardees for 2010

Carolina C. Porio
FAPE Executive Director

The Bernidos

C.C. Porio

ABSTRACT: We report on the assessment of student performance of participating schools in the pilot implementation of the Learning Physics as One Nation (LPON) project in School Year 2008-2009. The LPON project is an initiative of the Fund for Assistance to Private Education, funded by the Department of Education of the Philippines, and designed as a possible solution to the nation’s chronic lack of qualified physics teachers. Of the 32 LPON schools, only five had teachers who had an undergraduate degree in physics or physics education. The LPON project components include a specially designed Physics Essentials Portfolio of 239 learning activities to be independently accomplished by students in the classroom during one school year, and 18 DVD volumes of associated video lessons by physicist-educators. Being conceptually based on the Dynamic Learning Program (DLP) of the Central Visayan Institute Foundation (CVIF) in Jagna, Bohol, the LPON didactic method follows the limited-teacher-intervention rule, i.e., on average, students independently accomplish written work 70%-80% of the allotted physics time, with the rest for strategic teacher intervention or discussion which, in the LPON case, is through the video lessons. For assessment of performance, a pre-test and post-test were independently conducted by the Center for Educational Measurement. Results are indicative of a positive effect on student learning, in particular, in terms of gain in pre-test-post-test scores and in number of students achieving given performance levels, compared to benchmark performance levels characteristic of the norm group and accredited Philippine private schools.

For the complete report, click on PHILIPPINE EDUCATION RESEARCH JOURNAL (PERJ).