Making History Come Alive with Voices
Audio books, the audio versions of books or publications, have the ability to relive history for listeners. The nation’s past where Filipino patriotism and valiant efforts abound have the added bonus of reeducating high school students on values and honor.
On several occasions, it is evident that making history a personal experience can motivate and inspire those who teach and learn from it. Sometimes, spoken history means stories heard for the first time, with information not usually found in history books.
Several seminars for high school and college history teachers were organized by University of the Philippines Diliman professor Ricardo Jose, and they were on the Filipino forefathers’ accomplishments, and how these could be of help in teaching history.
One teacher in Cagayan said that before the workshop, he was unaware of the significant involvement of their province in the war. Now he could retell this special story with pride and improved self-worth.
These seminars are but one example of how inspired learning and teaching can be extracted from listening to stories.
Redefining the subject of history
When the 2002 curriculum for Araling Panlipunan was finalized, several history teachers felt that the subject they taught became second-class.
Results of public elementary and high school student achievement tests varied after 2002.
In public high schools, students posted mean percentage scores in Araling Panlipunan of 58.84 for school year 1999-2000; 57.19 for SY 2000-2001; and 50.01 for SY 2004-2005.
Then-Education Secretary Florencio Abad commented that most instruction was authoritative and textbook-based. There seemed to be a need for teachers to gain more knowledge and innovate on ways to teach history, a “laboratory of life.”
The traditional way of memorizing dates and names has become inherent in the subject, but there is a clamor from teachers to learn more and familiarize themselves with multimedia technology and Information and Communication technology.
Philippine History in UP, for example, is taught through lectures with the aid of Powerpoint presentations, and supplemented with field trips. In La Salle, there is now a “transformative learning framework” where students participate in learning history through posters, dramatization, position papers and the like.
The need for new media
It cannot be denied that media, parents’ value orientations and other environmental factors have shaped the youth to how they think today. Their focus veers more on personal aims and not the nation, and this mindset can’t be changed immediately.
Thus the need for new media, the utilization of technology to enhance the teaching of history, the use of voice and personal stories and audio books for longer-lasting recall.
Studying history is very much relevant, especially in this age of globalization. Teachers and schools just have to keep up.
Sources:
Bolido, Linda. How history teachers got their groove back.” Retrieved August 2, 2009 from
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/learning/view/20080929-163526/How-history-teachers-got-their-groove-back
Hicap, Jonathan. “History loses its stature.” Retrieved August 2, 2009 from
http://mypba.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=7271
(Published 17 August 2009, Smart Communications, Inc.)
