The great philosopher Bertrand Russell highlighted the crucial role of educators when he stated: “Educators are the guardians of civilization more than any other group.” They ought to be conscious of civilization and eager to instill in their students a civilized mindset. Teachers are now forced to adapt their teaching strategies in order to meet the changing demands of their students as education becomes more complex. In order to gauge their progress in their teaching profession, they are also motivated to evaluate their instructional competency.
The advancement of their students can be impacted by good teachers. The findings of the meta-analysis demonstrate that teachers are a major source of variation in students’ school-related development. The concept of teacher competency is a framework that outlines the particular character traits that educators must possess in order to satisfy the demanding standards of their field. For instance, effective educators should possess in-depth knowledge of the assignments and teaching techniques that support students’ conceptual learning also known as content knowledge and pedagogy. To focus on the difficulties of regular classroom learning, they should also demonstrate a certain level of motivation.
Developing competencies referred to as 21st-century skills is becoming more and more popular as a way to raise the caliber of instruction provided by teachers. The need for a more context-specific understanding of teaching techniques and significant measures to assist teacher professional development, however, is a major obstacle to achieving the needed improvements. Similar to this, the caliber of instruction in the classroom and how it relates to learning objectives can be a crucial lever for reforming the system of education. But there’s still a lot to learn about what goes on in classrooms, especially in low- and middle-income nations like the Philippines. Even while there are a lot of observational instruments available today, very few have been applied to various contexts and interventions, and the majority have not undergone thorough methodological development.
The Department of Education develops quantitative methods for evaluating teachers’ work in order to increase the effectiveness of their instruction. It is possible to employ RPMS (Results-Based Performance Management System) in a more methodical manner by categorizing it widely and requiring the observer in the classroom to indicate whether an item is present or absent. They can catalog a variety of desired constructs, from teacher practices to classroom artifacts, but they are inadequate inference tools. Rating scales are frequently higher order inference techniques that concentrate on the attributes of particular behaviors and how frequently they occur in the classroom. It is believed that RPMS quality, rating, and categorization scale assessments have a greater ability to provide teachers with input on how to improve their areas of weakness.
The Strategic Performance Management System (SPMS) of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) is adhered to in the implementation of the RPMS. It attempts to guarantee that teaching and non-teaching staff concentrate efforts on accomplishing the Department’s vision, purpose, values, and strategic priorities. It adheres to the four-phase cycle of SPMS specified in CSC Memorandum Circular No. 6, s. 2012. DepEd Order No. 2, s. 2015 (Guidelines on the Establishment and Implementation of RPMS in DepEd) lays out the requirements for RPMS as a systemic mechanism to manage, monitor, and measure performance as well as identify organizational and human resource development needs in order to support ongoing work improvement and personal development.
The complexity of education nowadays stems from the requirement for teachers to adapt their pedagogical approaches in order to meet the needs of their students. In order to gauge their progress in their teaching profession, they are also motivated to evaluate their instructional competency. The yearly teaching assessment conducted by RPMS-PPST in the Olongapo Division gave schools a framework for the necessary competencies for efficient instruction. It is believed that in order to meet the demands and fulfill the calling of the teaching profession, ongoing competency assessment is required. It also reveals areas in need of professional development and assesses one’s professional and personal qualities.
According to the assessments, educators should regularly examine if their methods of instruction align with the aims and objectives of education, whether they are creating an environment that is both interesting and conducive to learning, and whether they are obtaining valuable experiences and insights. Essentially, teachers can only identify typical procedural faults and become more attuned to their students’ behavior and development if they are able to honestly diagnose themselves.
Teachers are demanding more and more in-depth training that will help them become more proficient educators. In order to meet the demands of students, teachers need to continuously improve their pedagogical expertise as the learning environment and learning preferences of the students change. The way teachers teach is crucial to how students learn. The instructional ability of the teacher has a comparatively big impact on the student’s mastery of the material. Nonetheless, some educators provide education ineffectively, which hinders students’ ability to learn. Several observations revealed the teacher’s inadequate ability to match the lesson’s goal with the activities in the classroom. This is mostly the result of teachers’ inadequate lesson preparation abilities, which urgently need to be rectified. Aside from this observation, some teachers are unable to apply contextualization in their lesson delivery, which hinders the students’ ability to discover meaning in applying the lesson to real-world situations. In a similar vein, remarks have also been made about teachers’ inadequate proficiency in creating assessments and using them to decide how best to present the lesson. This realization, calls for the education leaders to act accordingly to developing teachers’ instructional competencies.
