AN ACADEMIC intervention proven to be effective in Europe, United States of America (USA), and other countries in Asia will now be introduced in Davao Region.
It is called looping or multi-year teaching from Kindergarten to Grade 3. The Project Eagle (Elimination of Academic Gaps of Learners in the Elementary) of the Department of Education (DepEd) was launched on June 7 to formally start the intervention scheme called looping where the teacher stays at the same class for more than one year.
How is this so? The kindergarten pupils will no longer have different teachers as they move up to another grade level.
In looping, the kindergarten teacher handles and mentors a group of learners and continues with them up to Grade 3. As learners reach Grade 4, another team of teachers will continue the second loop to provide instructions to Grades 4,5, and 6.
Regional Director lawyer Alberto Escobarte strongly initiated the program as he believes this will increase learning outcomes and will keep learners in school.
“This will strengthen the relationship between the teacher and the learners,” he said.
Escobarte cited a foreign study on issues and concerns in keeping learners in school.
It is perceived that learners leave school due to academic failure, emotional and behavioral problems, and lack of psychological attachment to school. As this becomes one of the challenges in basic education, looping, for Escobarte, may be part of the solution to provide remediation or enrichment activities as teachers and learners will be engaging in more sequential grade levels.
The scheme is used by many countries. The children stay with the same teacher for three years in preschools in Italy.
In Jamaica, elementary schools are formed into classes with the same teacher and classmates all throughout.
In China, the teachers mentor their learners in the specialized subject and move together with their learners in the next grade level.
Schools in USA also incorporated the current model of looping from preschool to higher education.
As the scheme will be introduced first in Davao Region for this school year, Project Eagle will be piloted to 22 schools all over the region. This will be piloted first to determine its viability being a research and development approach. If seen as effective, there will be a wider implementation in subsequent years.
The classes under this project will develop a family-like environment where teachers and learners have the opportunity to build strong and meaningful relationship.
The project will start with two schools per schools division. This will comprise one small school and one big school.
In Davao City, Teodoro Palma Gil Elementary School (ES) and Kapitan Tomas Monteverde Sr. Central Elementary School (CES) will pilot the program.
In Tagum City, it will be Mangga ES and Don Ricardo Briz CES.
For Panabo City, Little Panay ES and Rizal ES will start the looping project while Digos City will start with Binaton ES and Digos City CES.
Other cities such as Mati City and Island Garden City of Samal will pilot the program in Francisco Hinayon ES and Sigaboy CES, and Angel Villarica CES and Kaputian CES, respectively.
It will be Olaycon Integrated School and Montevista CES for Compostela Valley, and Tuganay ES and Sto. Tomas CES for Davao del Norte.
Davao del Sur pilot schools are Sinayawan ES and Bansalan CES and Davao Occidental schools are Cumasi ES and Malita CES.
Davao Oriental will start with Old Macopa ES and Lambajon CES.
Dr. Janet Veloso, chief of Curriculum Learning and Management Division, said the period of implementation of the first looping is from school year 2017 to 2018 to 2020 to 2021. This means the Kindergarten learners, who underwent looping will then be Grade 4 in 2021 so they will have another set of teachers up to school year 2023 to 2024.
Some advantages of looping as implemented in other countries are already visible. This is one of the reasons why the looping project will be strongly introduced in Davao Region especially that we are composed of diverse learners.
One of the advantages of looping is promoting stronger bonds between parents and teachers, teachers and learners, and among learners. Parents are able to gain a better understanding of their child’s educational development and needs. Hence, this will increase parental involvement.
The learners, on the other hand, will be intellectually and emotionally motivated. Their attendance in school will improve and teachers will be able to know more the strengths and weaknesses of each learner.
Aside from that, looping will maximize instructional time as teachers and learners start the lessons immediately where they left off. There may be disadvantages in looping but these will always outweigh the advantages.