A Teacher Education Institution (TEI) Initiative for Collaborative Materials Development in Mathematics Through Community Engagement

Abstract

For a topographically diverse and archipelagic country like the Philippines, truly contextualized learning materials that can cater to specific cultures in the country are difficult to find and may not be sufficiently provided by a centralized department like the Department of Education. Teacher education institutions housed in state universities and colleges, we propose, should be at the forefront of the development of instructional materials through collaborative undertakings involving students, faculty members, and other community stakeholders. Using the experience of a capstone project involving graduate students at a teacher education institution (TEI) in Iloilo, Philippines, we demonstrate that collaborative initiatives are not only important as fundamental groundwork but are in fulfillment of public universities’ core mandate of instruction, research and extension. In the project, four graduate students immersed in an island-community in northeast Panay to develop contextualized learning modules using the Community as Learning Laboratory Model to develop supplementary learning resources for students in the island community. We conclude with some recommendations as to how the adoption of the model for materials development may benefit other disciplines.