Reflection 1 - Administration of BEC

A Reflection Paper on the 1st Meeting of the
EDAD 207 Class of Dr. Olga Alonsabe

Our first meeting for the EDAD 207 class of Dr. Alonsabe has refreshed me about the definition of curriculum, leadership, administration and management. I thought that the only definition of curriculum is that it is the total learning experience that a child has to go through in school. Dr. Alonsabe explained that the traditional definition of curriculum is “a list of subjects to be taken by the learners being translated into action by the teachers/instructors.” I was also reminded that leadership covers the art of administration and management. This is an important topic that I have to learn by heart in this degree I am taking - Master of Arts in Educational Administration.

I realize that the work of a principal is beyond paper works because a principal is more on administering instruction. Meaning that, he also looks into the relevance of the lessons taught and appropriateness of the strategies employed by the teacher in adherence to the curriculum. I think, this is the essence of educational leadership. Along with the plans made by the principal for the improvement of the school system, he needs to find out what exactly the needs of the community are and what outputs they are interested to achieve by the end of the school year. It is to this principle where administration of the basic education curriculum has been anchored.

With the first session we had last Saturday (18 June 2011), I am looking forward to understand better why the Department of Education has to keep changing the curriculum; notwithstanding, the sad fact that there are a lot of existing problems in the education department which has to be given priority over the implementing of another form of curriculum from time to time. Thus, it is the school principal’s responsibility to put things in the right perspective for the teachers and pupils to successfully reach the desired end of our agency – functional literacy among the Filipino learners. I am also expecting that from this class I would acquire a clear idea on how to construct the curriculum so that when I get interested to start my own school, I would be knowledgeable as to what curriculum to implement.