Misdirected, mismatched?

I've had this URL since May last year and had just published a single post since then. So my blog isn't necessarily in good shape and it is as sedentary as my lifestyle since I entered medical school. The past year has been very fast paced and I can't seem to document everything that has been happening. Hopefully through this post, I can get people updated.

UST Central COMELEC Executive Board 2014-2015

I got elected as the Vice Chairperson of the UST Central Commission on Elections. The UST COMELEC is arguably one of the three biggest organizations in the university. It handles all political parties and  college-based units in UST. I turned out to be a surprise to the organization when I ran for office because the representatives of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery are usually the more passive ones due to their busy schedules. But hey, no one is too busy for one not to care about issues that directly affect us. I want to prove that Medicine students can do it if they have the will and commitment to do it.  The organization breeds with potential even before I entered it. I, along with the other Executive Board members, have this vision of taking the organization to greater level of significance that can span the national level. We plan to do this by instituting reforms in the electoral process, innovating projects, and by having strategic partnerships with other organizations. Talks are currently ongoing for a big project for the 2016 National Elections and I am very thrilled with the opportunity of doing something concrete for the Philippines.

Aside from being elected, I also got pretty decent grades in my first year of medical school which qualified me for the Dean's List. Aside from the bragging rights, I don't really think this speaks a lot about myself. The more I stay in med school, the more I get the perception that grades only measure a part of a persons intelligence. It doesn't evaluate things like cooperation, creativity, and linguistics. I think medical school has misappropriated focus. I am not saying that technical education is bad. In fact, it is the lifeblood of medical education. However, I think there should also be a way of evaluating the other facets of a person.

Upon looking at the issues the world facing today, they actually stem more from problems with the emotional quotient (EQ). Territorial disputes, corruption, mindless politicking - can only be addressed not by technological advancements but by developing morally upright people. So when we look at the current problems and the current system of education, there is clearly a mismatch. We focus to much on how to make our lives better (through technology) but we fail to live better lives as a person.

My idea may not hold much water in other institutions as I am confined only to my experience in the university. As of now, I am not necessarily satisfied with  the institutionalized education I'm getting. I must continuously try to learn more than what the confines of medical school offers.

The Disadvantage of Recitations

You try and raise your hand straight in the air, waving it a little, competing with your classmates for your teacher to call you. Once called, you stand up and give the answer to your teacher mouthed from the words of some author of a book whose some statements contradict those of other authors. Then, you sit back again, following the discussion with the pages of your book, anticipating in rage for the next question, while your snoozing seatmate starts to drool all over his notebook.

How many times have you encountered situations like these in the classroom?

While recitation may be one of the ways to train students to speak up regarding a topic, it may not always be effective, especially if a fixed response (a name of a person, date, place, or event) is expected by the teacher. The way I see it, not all “recitations” can be considered as “class participation”. The teacher asks a question, you find it in the text book, say it out loud in class – where is the part that zaps the neurons for creative and critical thinking? 

Sometimes I wonder why class participation is even graded. If the class is interested in the topic and the teacher is just as an effective in delivering the lecture, I do not see any reason why students would not participate. And by participate, I mean that it should not be confined to the typical teacher asks-student answers practice rather it must be composed of a healthy discussion, facilitated by broad questions from the teacher. Questioning of the facts by the students should also be encouraged and entertained allowing a more dynamic communication process between the learner and educator. Should grading class participation be really necessary, the quality of the answer must be the parameter, not just base the merit on how many times a student stood up and gave an answer. 

Another problem with recitations is that not everyone will have equal chances of answering as the teacher would be the one to select the lucky palm among a sea of raised hands. A better option to elicit a response from the students is by asking them to do an essay on the required topic.

To sum up, I believe that recitations is not that bad as long as it stimulates thinking, has a just system of selection, and has a clearly defined parameter for grading. I may not be an expert talking about education theory but as a student, I see what works and what doesn’t.

Photo from here

How Blogging could Revolutionize Philippine Education

In Francis Bacon’s “Of Studies”, he said that it is in the act of writing that makes a man precise and it is in reading where a man is made whole. Granting that the first statement is true, I wonder why hasn’t blogging been utilized in educating the youth? In an article by BBC News UK entitled “Academics give lessons on blogs” by Shola Adenekan, it was mentioned that Warwick University already noticed the benefits of blogging and gave its students free space on their server, allowing them to have their own blogs for academic and personal use. 

While we may not have the monetary resources to provide computer stations in every school similar to the university above, we have internet cafes in every corner and street. We have cafes going low as 5 pesos per quarter-hour and 15 pesos for a whole. With regard to the issues of that keeping a blog may be too tedious, we now have blogging platforms such as Blogger, Wordpress, and Tumblr where setting up a blog only requires the technical skills of clicking, dragging, and reading instructions.

I dream of a Philippines where you no longer take the hassle of printing out college papers only to be read by your professor, kept in a cabinet, and disposed of when the semester ends. 

By blogging, you take your papers/essays/reflections to the next level by sharing to the online community your work. This allows students to:

• Share their perspective on different issues that plague our country today. This may contribute to the holistic development of students making them socially aware and proactive citizens
• Become more accurate with their facts and more responsible for what they write since they are accountable for what they post
• Interact with other people via online means by reading, subscribing, and commenting on other’s post as blogging is a form a social media.
• Improve their grammar and writing styles. According to educationworld.com, several researchers already stated that students who blog “write more, write in greater detail, and take greater care with spelling, grammar, and punctuation, when they are writing to an authentic audience over the Internet”.
• Be exposed to different perspectives, opinions, and experiences that may facilitate their understanding, enrich their knowledge, and supplement their learning obtained from the traditional classroom set up. This is in congruence with an article by Stephen Downes (2004) where he said that the blogging, especially those that reflect the teachings in class, brings life into learning.

This can also have a beneficial effect for the faculty members should they make their own academic blogs since blogging can be employed as a means of:

• Distributing supplemental notes online in a jiffy so that it could be accessible to all
• Having as an out-of-the-classroom interaction venue where students can post questions about the topics left unanswered or unasked in class.

In a nutshell, I believe blogging can be an effective tool in revolutionizing the Philippine educational system. Just imagine your teacher requiring the class to come up with their blogs where they can post their reflections and essays. The teacher gives then feedback in the form of comments left on the student’s blog. Wouldn’t that be more convenient and cost effective than the students printing their work and submitting it personally to the teacher who is then left with layers and layers of paper? 

*Click the names of the author for the complete source material
Photo from here