Promoting Peace Education through Integration of UN International Days Celebration in Teaching Science Class

In support of APCEIU and the Department of Education's Global Citizenship Integration in the Philippines to K -12 Curriculum, the Manila Secondary Science Head Teachers Association (MSSHTA), Dep-ED ICO, and the Division of City Schools-Manila conducted a Capacity-Building Workshop on integrating peace education in science class through UN International Days. The project proponent Melandro D. Santos implemented this workshop as a part of APCEIU’s 2021 Mentorship and Grant Competition programme in line with the 20th Asia-Pacific Training Workshop (APTW) on EIU/GCED.

The Workshop was held based on three main phases from 28 September to 1 October 2021. During the first and second week of implementation, participants joined synchronous webinars and asynchronous workshops to discuss GCED themes and develop GCED learning resource materials. In the monitoring phase, headteachers mentored teacher-participants and finalized GCED learning resource materials based on rubrics of worksheets and videos. The evaluation phase consisted of presentation outputs and validation of GCED learning resource materials.

As this virtual workshop was facilitated by the invited resource speakers specialized in the GCED, the lectures and discussions have successfully provided participants of secondary science teachers, headteachers, selected school district supervisors, and other school leaders with key knowledge on GCED. This included promotion of peace, UN International Days Celebration, UN Sustainable Development Goals, GCED pedagogical approaches, and development of GCED learning resource materials.

Upon the completion of the project, Melandro D. Santos expressed his gratitude to all stakeholders that contributed to the success of the project by stating that the realization of the project goals would not be possible without their full support, guidance, and leadership.

He added, “I would like to express my sincere appreciation to UNESCO-APCEIU for supporting this significant project and for encouraging us to develop capacity building program for secondary teachers that have a significant impact on the integration of GCED in the science curriculum. This project would not be possible without the guidance of the hardworking of the Department of Education, Dr. Margarita Consolacion C. Ballesteros, Director of DepEd-International Cooperation Office, Dr. Maria Magdalena M. Lim, Schools Division Superintendent; Rebecca M. Roxas, the Science Education Program Supervisor, Mr. Philip Baldera, Public Schools District Supervisor and Mr. Sonny D. Valenzuela, Principal of Timoteo Paez Integrated School, who gladly approved and monitored the implementation of our project. I am truly grateful to the Technical Working Committee (TWG) from Manila Secondary Science Head Teachers Association, for their unrelenting commitment to this project. As we successfully beat several challenges, we aimed to continue our advocacy of promoting GCED in the Division of Manila. To all our Resource Speakers, Dr. Rowena Hibanada, Mr. Carl O. Dellomos, and Mrs. Vivian B. Intatano, for the relevant and meaningful sharing of expertise in GCED. To the secondary science teachers and headteachers of Manila, may you continue to integrate GCED in your science classrooms and share your experience with your colleagues in developing relevant science teaching and learning materials.”

Based on the successful implementation of this workshop, Melandro D. Santos showed his desire to conduct several pilot-testing of the developed GCED learning resource materials in selected Junior High Schools in Manila, as well as the celebration of GCED in Science Teaching. He believes that GCED Integrated science lessons can be showcased in teaching demonstrations for the promotion of the UN International Days Celebration continuously in the future.

Detailed information and updates on the 2nd Capacity Building Workshop on Global Citizenship Education (GCED) are available at the link below:

Facebook Group: Integrating Global Citizenship in Classroom Teaching https://web.facebook.com/groups/232922207116933

Reflections from the teacher-participants from the workshop were documented using the Padlet as below:

Reflections of participants: https://padlet.com/milan102780/px044xfch985t47l