Filipinos are among the best educated, most
literate, and highly trainable citizens in Asia. We are known to have a deep regard
for education, which we view as a primary avenue for upward social and economic
mobility. Each one of the Filipinos believes that educational attainment is
important to one’s life. It is proven that even the poor parents make way to be
able to send their children to school.
But the
problem is what if the school or the education system is confronted with a lot
of problems and issues? How could these parents (especially the poor ones) be assured
that their children will be equipped with knowledge and understanding if the
teacher is not knowledgeable about the subject matter? It’s sad to admit that
the children could not learn what s/he supposed to learn and understand because
of the teacher’s ability.
The phenomenon of out-of-field teaching
— teachers assigned to teach subjects for which they have little education or
training—is an important, but long unrecognized, problem in schools and in
education in general. Few
educational problems have received more attention in recent times than the
failure to ensure that our nation's elementary and secondary classrooms are all
staffed with qualified teachers. Over the past decade, dozens of studies,
commissions, and national reports have bemoaned the qualifications and quality
of our teachers.
The term ‘non-specialist’ is used for
teachers without qualifications and training in the subject. This is sometimes referred as out-of-field
teaching or teachers being assigned to teach subjects that do not match their
training or education.
According to
the DepEd, the problem which has adversely affect their quest for quality
education, could be largely attributed to the few number of teacher-education
graduates who are specialist or major in such subject.
First and foremost,
the quality of teachers and teaching is undoubtedly one of the most important
factors in shaping the learning and growth of students. Generally, the quality
of non-specialists’ teaching is lower than that of subject specialists due to
lack of skills, knowledge and experience. Even the most effective
non-specialists who undergone a lot of observations and training identify weak
subject as the greatest challenge to their teaching. We notice that the number of
non-specialist teachers in Values Education (V.E.) in the country is disturbing.
One of the causes of their continuous increase is due to lack of graduate and
licensed teachers who could teach the subject. As a result, non-specialist
teaching occurs.
Reality speaking, we
cannot escape absorbing non-specialist teachers in teaching but the problem is
that these teachers lack adequate knowledge and skills to teach the subject. Most
of the non-specialist V.E. teachers do not know where to find information or
have so little knowledge that they do not know the right questions to ask in
order to develop their knowledge. Their most common sources of subject
knowledge are the school text books. These
are inadequate because they are not pitched at a suitable level for teachers
and too often portray stereotypical descriptions.
Teaching Values
Education is a challenge to every teacher- even for those who major in this
course. In teaching Values Education, one is not only teaching simple and
complex facts but one is also responsible in directing about life. The subject
is far different from the other subjects because V.E. deals with the affective aspect
of a person’s life. Teaching this subject requires a lot of preparation
intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. There is a saying that in V.E.,
one cannot teach what s/he does not experience. How can one possibly teach such
virtues if the teacher did not know the importance of teaching it due to lack
of personal understanding. Many of the weaknesses in non-specialist teachers’
teaching are caused by poor subject knowledge.
Teachers’ inputs too often lack substance and depth with much repetition
of the same points but insufficient explanation about the impact of the topic
or about the inter-relationship between different aspects. Too often teachers are inaccurate or credit
wrong answers from pupils because personally, they do not fully understand the
content. When one failed to see the connection of the topic to one’s life, the
teacher would never be effective in passing the learning to the students.
Nowadays, many of the
students failed to see the relevance of Values Education to their lives. Based on
our experience, one of its reasons is because of the teacher’s insufficient
skills in deploying it. Even if these teachers were given training programs, it
wouldn’t be enough to make their teaching strategy effective.
This issue is one of
the least recognized problems in education. One of the reasons for the lack of
awareness of this problem has been the absence of accurate data on the subject.
The absence of accurate statistics on out-of-field teaching has kept this
problem largely unrecognized.
The issue of
non-specialist teaching not only in the country but to foreign extent is for a
long time has been the problem in the education system. But it is speculating
to learn that there were few studies and research regarding the statistical
data of this issue. The level of under qualified teachers in most of the
countries was alarming.
The significance of exploring this issue is due to the fact that the real source of
out-of-field teaching lies not in the amount of education teachers have, but in
the lack of fit between teachers' fields of training and their teaching
assignments. Many teachers are assigned by their principals to teach classes
that do not match their training or education.
Based on
this data, we could conclude that the rest of the subjects taught in primary
and secondary level were teach by non-specialist teachers who have not
undergone to formal training for a couple of years.
In
the Philippines, few studies were done regarding this issue. It is also
doubtable that there were no accurate statistical data that reveals how great the
number of non-specialist teachers in the teaching field. This leads to setting
the issue aside and giving non-quality training program for the said teachers.
The numbers of non-specialist teacher
in our teaching field have been increasing due to the shortage of teachers here
in the Philippines. There should be adequate training or course for the
non-specialist teachers for them to gain enough knowledge about the subject and
strategies to assess learning. Certificate program is not enough for the
non-specialist to gain the appropriate knowledge, there should be additional
seminar-workshop and essential trainings to strengthen the understanding that
they have gained from the certificate program. Teachers without sufficient
knowledge or not specialized in a specific subject should not be allowed to
teach any of its class because it’s the students who are suffering in the end
because of the lack of substance that the non-specialized teacher is teaching
them. The Department of Education should monitor the number of non-specialist
teachers in the teaching field here in the Philippines for the people to know
what is the implications of having such numerous number of non-specialist
teachers in the schools.
Educators should
consider their profession in which it is expected of them to impart or teach
the right information. Even though it is not their specialized subject they
should prioritize the sake of the students’ future which lies in the education
or knowledge that will gain from them. Non-specialist teacher should do their
best to teach the subject that they did not specialized in because no matter
how low or high the quality of education that they give, even if its their
specialized subject or not, in the end it’s the students who will benefit or
suffer with the kind of education that their teachers are giving them.
Managing
More Effectively the Contribution of Non-Specialist Teachers (2006) by Barbara
Wintersgill or
Rejoinder: Misunderstanding the Problem of Out-of-Field
Teaching (2001) by Richard M. Ingersoll
The Problem of Out-of-Field Teaching by Richard M. Ingersoll
The Problem of Underqualified Teachers in American Secondary Schools
(1999) by Richard M. Ingersoll
