TPACK in Philippine STEAM Education (Technical Report)

Aimed at creating the Philippine Workforce 4.0, ideally skilled to flourish in the Fourth Revolution era (FIRe), we gear our efforts to revolutionize the country’s STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Agri/Fisheries, Mathematics) Education. The country’s firm stand on improving the human capital, and its science, technology and innovation (Philippine Development Plan [PDP], 2017) is our way towards concretizing Education 4.0, to help bridge us to the FIRe phenomenon (featuring technological revolution to converge and fuse human and the cyber world [Van Duuren 2017] through analytics, artificial intelligence, cognitive technologies and the internet of things [IoT] Renjen 2018]to design interconnected digital enterprises capable of more informed decision making tasks [Mars et al., 2014]). We also confirm that a strong STEAM (professionals, and education) will contribute to the knowledge society and economy of the country (Government Office of the Slovak Republic 2018; Morales, 2017), as well as improve its economic competence and competitiveness (English, 2016).
 
The Philippine context STEAM (where “A” refers to Agri/fisheries) in higher and advanced learning focuses on several aspects of teaching and learning, and on the merging of the disciplines to teach a particular STEAM content (Morales et al., 2019), thus, we explore the possibility of generating the Philippine STEAM Education model as our blueprint for STEAM higher and advanced learning and our way towards realizing the country’s development plan themed as AmbisyonNatin 2040 (PDP, 2017). We theorize that weaving all concepts and principles drawn from the nation’s policies, standards, and guidelines defined by its Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for the individual STEAM programs, tempered by the principles of the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers, and looking at these extracted principles, ideas and concepts from the lens of TPACK may help define a contextualized model for the Philippines, which the current study, “TPACK in Philippine STEAM Education,” shares.

The current study’s key findings include:
1. A self-rating tool with a built-in scoring program to determine the Philippine Higher STEAM educator proficiency in enacting the STEAM disciplines.
 
2. Philippine Higher STEAM educators’ perceived proficiency ranges from ‘Highly Proficient to Distinguished leaning on the `’Distinguished’ self-perception as STEAM educators.
 
3. Notably, male and female educators do not register significant differences on how they perceive themselves except in one or two (i.e., learning environment, diversity of learners, pedagogy) domains and dimensions, which by nature favor the female gender.

4. School type (private and government-owned) do not index significant difference either, except on Community Linkages and TPACK as a whole. 
 
5. The Philippine STEAM Education models visually present three major constructs: variables (characteristic that expresses the feature or parameter of the practices of STEAM educators in terms of the three domains of teaching and learning: Pedagogy, Assessment, and Technology Integration); dimensions (route of the actions covering the distinctive feature of the whole, as an integrated piece that seizes a single aspect of STEAM), and indicators (as set of features or characteristics that allow or establish the description and evaluation of certain dimensions of a variable).
 
6. The generated STEAM pedagogical model of the current Philippine Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) demonstrates an interdependence between Institutional Pedagogical Culture (which drives its STEAM pedagogical processes [planning, facilitating, and monitoring learning, mentoring mechanism for learners], and shapes the pedagogical character [teacher's epistemological beliefs and teaching practices], and STEAM Pedagogical Processes to deliver the fourth variable known as outcomes (competent STEAM professional, critical thinker, productive citizen).
 
7. Significant inputs from STEAM experts crafted the emerging Philippine STEAM (PSEPM) Pedagogical Model emphasizing the inclusion of new indicators of the expected outcomes of STEAM Education (21st century-skilled STEAM professionals, productive citizens, and competent and innovative STEAM professionals).
 
8. The engendered Assessment Model of the current Philippine STEAM education features four variables (Enablers [with two dimensions: institutional affordances and sustainability], Drivers [with three dimensions: equity and diversity, collaboration and modality], Processes [with five dimensions: planning and preparation, implementation, rating, reporting and reflection], and Outcomes [with three dimensions: innovative STEAM professional/learner, critical thinker, and productive citizen]).
 
9. The crafted emerging Philippine STEAM Education Assessment Model (PSEAM) covers “innovation” as part of the dimensions of the Drivers, and a shift from critical thinker to “21st century-skilled STEAM learner.”
 
10. The generated Technology Integration Model builds on three variables: Teacher Technological Knowledge [with two dimensions: lesson structure and content-driven], Institutional support [with two dimensions: capacity building and quality of technology, architecture, system and design], and Outcomes [with three dimensions: innovative, productive citizen, critical thinker], and heavily supported by the Triple E framework: Engagement, Enhancement, Extension. 

11. The emerging Technology Integration Model (TIM) embraces “context-based” as part of the Teacher Technological Knowledge, restructures the Institutional support to include research in technology development, and  shift from critical thinker to “21st century-skilled STEAM learner”.
 
12. The Philippine STEAM Education Model (PSEM) generated from the model analysis and synthesis exudes four variables: outcomes [represented as innovative STEAM learner or professional, critical thinker, productive citizen], drivers [with three dimensions: teacher technological knowledge, teacher pedagogical character, and providing modality], institutional support [with five dimensions: capacity building, provision for appropriate architecture, administrative support, provision for collaboration and ensuring equity and diversity], and processes [with three dimensions: planning and preparation, implementation, monitoring, mentoring] exemplifying innovative, appropriate, and contextualized pedagogy, assessment, and technology integration in educating the Filipino learners.
 
13. The emerging PSEM includes “platform for innovation” in its institutional support, and “core values” in its drivers, and shift from critical thinker to “21st century-skilled STEAM learner”.
 
14. The developed Lesson Exemplars concretize how Philippine STEAM Educators may yet help realize the PSEM and achieve the goals for STEAM education.
 
These aforecited key findings were detailed in sections or chapters of this document. In its entirety, the book format research report extends to six chapters described as follows:
 
Chapter 1: Philippine STEAM Proficiency This chapter expounds on the Philippine Higher STEAM educators proficiency in enacting the STEAM disciplines. It further describes the stages in determining the national measure: developing the self-rating tool (Proficiency Indicators for Philippine Higher Education STEAM Educators [PIPSE]), developing the scoring framework, and determining the national proficiency of the Philippine Higher Education STEAM educators.
 
Chapter 2: The Pedagogical Model The chapter presents the entirety of the Philippine Higher STEAM Education Pedagogical Model (descriptions, salient features, domains, variables, dimensions, indicators, continuum of practice and illustration of practice). It also informs readers/users on how the model may align to the identified frameworks (e.g., Policies, Standards and Guideline, Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge). Furthermore, the chapter clarifies the methodology used in crafting the model and the generated, validated and emerging models.

Chapter 3:  The Technology Integration Model The chapter pictures the range of the Philippine Higher STEAM Education Technology Integration Model (descriptions, salient features, domains, variables, dimensions, indicators, and illustration of practice). It also provides information on how the model aligns to the identified frameworks (e.g., Policies, Standards and Guideline, Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge). Furthermore, the chapter explains the methodology used in crafting the model and the generated validated and emerging models. It also presents the proficiency continuum of STEAM teachers.
 
Chapter 4: The Assessment Model The chapter deals with the entire gamut of the Philippine Higher STEAM Education Assessment Model (descriptions, salient features, domains, variables, dimensions, indicators, suggested resources and illustration of practice). It also offers considerable insights into how the model may align to the identified frameworks (e.g., Policies, Standards and Guideline, Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge). Moreover, the chapter accounts the methodology used in crafting the model and the generated, validated and emerging models.
 
Chapter 5: The Philippine STEAM Education Model The chapter discusses how the team developed the Philippine Higher STEAM Education Model. In detailed descriptions of the methodology used in crafting the model and the generated validated and emerging models, it specified and distinguished all the indicators mapped in the different TPACK dimensions to generate the country’s TPACK model for Philippine STEAM Education. This section also features the attributes of the Career Stages of a Philippine Higher Education STEAM Educator, as verified in the required documents for each Career Stage.
 
Chapter 6: STEAM Educators Professional Development The chapter explains the team’s intentions and actions in synthesizing all the phases of the STEAM education program titled, TPACK in Philippine STEAM Education, through the professional development of the STEAM teachers. Lastly, it details all the activities and participants deliverables staged in two parts: capacity building program and National forum in STEAM education.
 
Initially, the STEAM education program crafted through this CHED-funded research endeavor of the researchers’ part, together with selected university collaborators attempt in clearing the path for the Philippine STEAM education towards realizing its goals spelt in PDP 2017-2022. Together, we envision that by using the Philippine Commission on Higher Education model, other related agencies (e.g., Department of Science and Technology), and professional organizations, may follow STEAM education or may yet succeed in providing the country with Filipino Workforce 4.0 who are able to maneuver in FIRe.