Instructional design of a blended teacher professional development course in the Philippines

• In Event: Disrupting the status quo of continuous teacher professional development: alternative models for improved learning outcomes

Proposal

The forced pivot toward remote teacher training during the COVID-19 pandemic strengthened the viability of technology-based teacher professional development (TPD) at scale. Technology-supported TPD holds promise as a delivery method that can enable a more ambitious scale, increase the efficiency of large-scale training efforts, situate learning closer to where teachers live and work, and ensure consistency of content quality and delivery. It has the potential to increase equitable access to locally situated, contextually relevant, and high-quality TPD, a goal that remains elusive in many LMICs. Moreover, it enables innovation with instructional design elements that can disrupt the traditional, top-down cascade model of in-person training, creating space for more “horizontal,” teacher-led learning experiences in which self-paced study and peer-to-peer reflection take on a larger role, thereby disrupting the traditional residential training model.

This presentation will feature the instructional design of a blended learning online course on formative assessment developed at the request of the Philippine Department of Education (DepEd), under a USAID/Philippines task order. In 2020, DepEd, through the National Educators Academy of the Philippines (NEAP), issued a policy aimed at strengthening the quality of TPD. The policy calls for several transformations, including higher content quality; the use of a wider range of learning modalities, such as job-based learning and teacher communities of practice; the adoption of a wider range of delivery platforms, such as online and blended learning; and the immediate application of TPD lessons in classrooms. The adoption of the policy has been slow and there are few exemplars of approved courses that meet these requirements. The challenge was to design a learning experience for teachers that not only exemplified these requirements but was also flexible enough to adapt to the myriad school contexts in the Philippines and was ready to be taken to scale by regional DepEd offices―without donor support―before the closeout of USAID funding for this activity.

The result of this activity was a NEAP-recognized, ready-to-scale-up blended learning course with a flexible design that can be localized according to school- or district-based needs. The implementing partners and DepEd co-developed a comprehensive scale-up protocol for this and other technology-led TPD courses. The scale-up protocol was developed based on a qualitative evaluation of the final pilot of the course to determine its readiness for scale-up.

The final iteration of the course was a 5-week, 4-unit school-based training program with several learning components: self-paced online learning, peer-to-peer practice in the context of communities of practice, direct application in schools, and reflection. The presentation will consider each of these components in detail and will explain how each aligns with evidence-based practices in adult learning, TPD, online course design, as well as with DepEd expectations. The presentation will likewise feature findings from the evaluation that provided insights into how the training design and content could be more adaptable to local needs, and how these lessons were applied to the development of the scale-up protocol.

Author

• Ana Robledo, RTI International