TACTics Journal

A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners

December 7, 2001

 

In this week’s issue:

Connections

   (1)     News from the Philippines, Nora Uy

   (2)     The 6th International TOCFE Conference

Quote

   (3)   Norman Cousins

Editor’s Notes

  (4)   Kay Buckner-Seal

 

CONNECTIONS

(1)        News from the Philippines

From Nora Uy, Makati, Philippines

 

Background on TOCFE Philippines: 

Our volunteer TOCFE Director of the Philippines, Dr. Cora Santiago, is also the Director of the National Capital Region of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) which educates 8 million children.  Thirty-six of the thirty-seven superintendents who serve under Cora have been through a TACT training.  There are three geographical divisions within this region that have especially active TOC training programs through the support of the DECS, municipal governments, local Rotary Clubs, and an extraordinary team of facilitators who generously contribute their time and talent.  Here is a report recently received from Nora UY who is responsible for the TOCFE Makati Division.  —Kathy Suerken

 

This year, 2001, has been a very busy year for all of us TOCFE people here in Makati.  We are on the last leg of training and licensing teachers in TACT to which our Training Calendar attests.  Since January, we have conducted 27 full TACT trainings at 27 schools to 1,039 teachers. (The complete list of trainings is available at www.tocforeducation.com.  Click on trainings and then go to schedule.)

 

In the new Teacher Instructional Support System in the Philippine school system, researchers pointed out three factors by which a teacher could fail in teaching: lack of knowledge of content, lack of teaching skills/strategies and lack of personal efficacy.  We zeroed in on the third factor, lack of personal efficacy, in order to institutionalize the use of TOCFE tools in teaching the different subject areas.  Here in Makati, my boss, Superintendent Elena R. Ruiz, enabled us to reach out to each and every teacher in the whole division!

 

Just wait for all the rest of our TOCFE news!

 

(2)        The 6th International TOCFE Conference

 

The 6th International TOCFE Conference will be held from July 8 to July 11, 2002 at the University of Nottingham in Nottingham, United Kingdom.  Nottingham is approximately 100 miles north of London and the university is one of the United Kingdom’s leading research universities, with six departments gaining the coveted “Five Star” rating.  To get a better picture of what Nottingham is like, visit their website at: http://www.nott.ac.uk/ to learn key facts and figures about the University and its activities.  The members of TOCFE UK Conference Committee are Galina Doyla, David Higgins, and Linda Trapnell.

 
QUOTE

(3)        "If something comes to life in others because of you, then you have made an approach to immortality." —Norman Cousins (1912-1990)

 

EDITOR’S NOTES

(4)        Kay Buckner-Seal

 

Nora, thanks for your contribution to TACTics this week.  Your comments about the three factors by which teachers could fail dealt with lack of content knowledge, skills/strategies (process), and lack of personal efficacy (pedagogy).  Our November 30, 2001 issue of TACTics, made a similar connection to a model of effective instruction, which involved teachers’ knowledge of their learners, and knowledge and application of process and pedagogy.  Further news about your efforts will probably give us more insights on how the thinking tools can be applied to the idea of effective instruction.  Good luck!

 

To the rest of our TOCFE family, send your responses, applications of the thinking processes, lessons, announcements, and etc. by mail to:  Cheryl A. Edwards, 2253 S. Hill Island Rd., Cedarville, Michigan 49719, USA.  Or send hyperlink to:  redwards@sault.com, or bucknek@earthlink.net.

 

To view TACTics in its intended formatting, visit our website at

www.tocforeducation.com and click on “What’s New.”