There have been tons of learning programs that were tried by us, educators, around the world, and it is not new to us to hear about and to seek the newly introduced approaches, techniques, and methods to use when it comes to facilitating learning. We all know that following just one program won’t be that helpful in the long run for the needs of our learners, and the situation we are in constant changes, and so do our techniques and styles.
In 2013, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Novaliches Educational System (RCBN-ES) had implied the Dynamic Learning Program as a new teaching method in all catholic schools under it. With its implementation, challenges arose, but after years of observation and adjustment, the program has been found to be very effective, especially in instilling to the student the love for continuous learning.
Dynamic Learning Program (DLP) was developed by Dr. Christopher Bernido and Dr. Ma. Victoria Carpio-Bernido, a couple who is the head of the Central Visayan Institute Foundation. Solely basing on the curriculum of the Department of Education (DepEd), they designed the DLP to improve the basic education with consideration to the multiple socioeconomic and cultural constraints.
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A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF DYNAMIC LEARNING PROGRAM (DLP)
This program focuses on implementing activities in the classroom, which consider the multi-domain learning. According to Polintan (2013), through The Dynamic Learning Program, students can focus more on their academic studies and can engage more in Individual and Cooperative Learning. Less homework is also applied so that students can have more time for their family and to get involved in extracurricular activities.
WHAT KIND OF CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES MUST BE GIVEN TO THE STUDENTS UNDER THE DYNAMIC LEARNING PROGRAM?
- Activities that require students to develop independent learning.
- Motivational activities that would help the students discover and understand the lesson on their own
- Concept notes before the discussion
- Comprehensive writing ( which gives more time to the students to focus allowing more time for the brain to absorb the topic)
- Writing and drawing of figures (which activates both the psychomotor and visual faculties)
AN INTERESTING THING ABOUT DYNAMIC LEARNING PROGRAM (DLP)
Dynamic Learning Program is about developing mental work in progress. It aims to create a physiological effect (particularly to the brain) by activating the different structural parts of the brain. It is done through constant activities designed to accomplish certain learning tasks. Repeatedly accomplishing such kinds of learning tasks can compensate for the deficits or weakness of specific brain regions, which can allow parts of the brain to perform in multiple functions. Furthermore, myelination of the brain can also continue, especially for those who are in their adolescence and the teenage period. (Abegonia et al., 2017).
The central idea of this program is that students learn more by doing rather than by merely listening. The students are not given an assignment for them to work at home giving them ample time to rest and to spend time with their family members, especially on the weekend. All activities are done in school, facilitated, and supervised by the teacher, making sure that all activities are done by the students themselves. Parents, on the other hand, are very much guided on every detail of the activities through the portfolios of the students. (RANCES, L. 2015)
THE PEDAGOGICAL MAXIMS OF DYNAMIC LEARNING PROGRAM ACCORDING TO DR. LORNA E. RANCES, Ph.D., CESO VI
- Learning by doing. For science and math, students need to think with their own minds and work with their own hands.
- Sound fundamentals. Virtuoso levels are reached only by being well-grounded in the fundamentals.
- Mastery, not vanity. Simple problems completely and clearly solved have greater educational value than advanced problems sloppily analyzed with forced final answers.
- Adaptability. An educational program must be adaptive because no two learning situations are ever completely alike.
- Honesty. Cheating is unscientific. Fraudulent data invalidate evaluation and assessment.
THE CHALLENGES FOR TEACHERS
Introducing a new learning program also brings new challenges to the teachers. It is not that easy to jump from a certain approach to another one. Therefore, in implementing the DLP, the following expected challenges of teachers in embracing this must be given attention and solution to:
- adjustment period
- guidance and resources for lesson and unit planning for new teachers
- ample time for teachers to gather learning resources and materials
- too much workload that hinders the teacher from having time thinking of the suited learning activities for students.