GSCS Meets DLP

By Marie Gabrielle T. Bernabe

Along with the coming of the new school year, the Good Shepherd Cathedral School familiarizes its students with the new teaching method, the Dynamic Learning Program (DLP) that will be used from this school year onwards. Its goal is to develop students’ academic performance by making them independent learners.

            The Central Visayan Institute Foundation (CVIF) was the first to implement the Dynamic Learning Program that was created by theinternationally renowned throretical physicists and 2010 Ramon Magsaysay awardees, Dr. Christopher and M. Victoria Carpio-Bernido.

DLP is not a curriculum as schools that have adapted this system will still use the K-12 curriculum of the Department of Education. DLP is being practiced in more that 200 public and private high schools in Bohol and Basilan provinces and Cagayan de Oro and Lamitan Cities. This teaching method concentrates on the 30% of discussion and 70% of hands on for the students as studies show that the majority of learners learn better when writing than sitting down in a class listening to a one hour discussion. The DLP’s positive results include the increase of students passing college entrance exams, DepEd’s annual standardized exams and assessment tests. It also shows students’ improvement in all three subjects of English, Science and Math based on tests conducted by the Center for Educational Management. Internal improvements in the campus comprise cooperation, discipline and responsibility in both teachers and students. This program pairs up with the no homework policy since the time at home should be used for rest after writing for the entire day.

            This would be the first year GSCS would be using this new teaching method and in the first few weeks, the students and even the teachers needed time to adjust. For the students, they need to condition themselves to be able to write in the quarterly given pad called the Learning Activity Sheets (LAS). Students are also required to have portfolios to keep their LAS organized for each subject.

This also has the perception of parallel classes where in, there will be two teachers for an hour of a subject: The Expert Teacher and The Facilitator Teacher. The expert will discuss the subject for half the hour and the facilitator will watch over the students as they answer the given activity in their LAS. The students are not allowed to ask the facilitator any questions regarding the subject, which make pupils think fast and ask everything they need to before the expert teacher leaves the room. For the teachers, they have all their lessons planned out for them in their Comprehensive Teacher’s Portfolio.

Students have different opinions on the DLP system. Some say that its effective because of the improvement in their memory and some had to disagree like third year student, Catherine Aure. “At first, it was tiring since there were a lot of LAS to finish in one day and my work just keeps on piling up!” she says. But for her, the DLP also helps students become more responsible.

The Dynamic Learning Program will be used as the teaching method in intermediate and high school students from now on in GSCS and hopefully, its results will have a positive impact on the students as well as in the educational community.