Rustom R.

Sapitona MAE- Management of Student Development Program

Teaching at its core is a moral profession. Scratch a good teacher and you will
find a moral purpose. The most frequently mentioned theme was to make a
difference in the lives of students. Of course, such statements cannot be taken at
face value because people have a variety of motives for becoming teachers.
Nonetheless, there is a strong kernel of truth to this reason. What happens in
teacher preparation, the early years of teaching, and throughout the career,
however, is another story. Those with a clear sense of moral purpose often become
disheartened, and those with a limited sense of purpose are never called upon to
demonstrate their commitment. In an extensive study of teacher burnout, Farber
(1991) identifies the devastating effects of the growing sense of
inconsequentiality that often accompanies the teacher's career. Many teachers,
says Farber, begin their careers with a sense that their work is socially meaningful
and will yield great personal satisfactions. This sense dissipates, however, as the
inevitable difficulties of teaching ... interact with personal issues and vulnerabilities,
as well as social pressure and values, to engender a sense of frustration and force a
reassessment of the possibilities of the job and the one wants to make in it.
In this connection, I would agree to the Perrys Theory of Intellectual and
Ethical Development which is in the part of the implementer of education, was a
challenge. There are teachers, nowadays, whose purpose in his/her profession to
becoming a teacher was just a selfish motive, i.e. job security. Without considering
that the learners should be the most important reason why they are here in this
kind of profession. They are only after the compensation and what would be the
benefits to becoming a teacher.
As a teacher, like for me, I can only be and will be a good teacher if I think
first what I could do to make my learners learned and that would help them
someday as they grow as a mature individual. To sharpen their minds, and to let
them think out of the box in order for them to utilize and to exercise their higher
order thinking skills. And I can only do this if I have to understand first how my
leaners develop their intellectual (cognitive) aspect. As what Perry had believed that
how students view their experiences, whether good or bad, intellectual
development would help them shape those experiences. I have to think and think
different styles and strategies in order to develop my students cognitive aspect. I
also believe to the statement of Perry that students differences in meaning-making
is also one of the important things to be considered because every learner is a
unique individual and that they have differences the way they see things, the way
they make meaning of every thing.

Finally, becoming a teacher is not joke. I have to consider many things and
the most important thing is to mold every learners mind to help them think
critically that would help them grow not just as a person but also a good citizen of
this country.
Rustom R. Sapitona MAE 209- Management of Student Development Program (Paper
No. 2)

One of the main reasons that restructuring has failed so far is that there is no
underlying conception that grounds what would happen within new structures.
Restructuring has caused changes in participation, in governance, and in other
formal aspects of the organization, but in the majority of cases, it has not affected
the teaching-learning core and professional culture (Berends 1992, Fullan 1993). To
restructure is not to reculture.
The professional teacher, to be effective, must become a career-long learner
of more sophisticated pedagogies and technologies and be able to form and reform
productive collaborations with colleagues, parents, community agencies,
businesses, and others. The teacher of the future, in other words, must be equally
at home in the classroom and in working with others to bring about continuous
improvements.
I do not have the space to elaborateindeed many of the details have not been
worked out. The general directions, however, are clear. In terms of pedagogy, the
works of Gardner (1991) and Sizer (1992)in developing approaches to teaching for
understandingexemplify the kinds of knowledge and skills that teachers must
develop and enlarge upon throughout their careers.
As a teacher, I have to understand the different aspects on how a child and as
a learner develop as to an independent and mature one. This include the different
domains like physical, cognitive (mental), social and moral development and career.
The domains are interrelated; what happens in one domain influences development
in the other domains. The skills and knowledge that learner develop early in his life
are the foundation for more advanced skills and knowledge that would help him in
the future.
Like any other institution, change is the only way that would lift up the
teaching-learning process inside or outside the classroom into greater heights. As a
committed teacher, I have to think different styles and probably programs, which
would help the learners improve the way they behave towards learning and to give
importance towards their studies. In line with this, I have to develop certain
practice or activities that could have of great assistance to their growth when it to
comes to processing different thoughts, holding adequate attention, and the
capability to plan, predict, evaluate and regulate any given task or situation

experienced. By doing this, I surely can help them develop their mental (cognitive)
aspect as they grow.
Finally, becoming a teacher has a noble purpose as it was. I have to sacrifice
sometimes, personal goals just to help the learners realize the importance and
purpose why they have to study and that is to become a lifelong learners equipped
with not only knowledge and skills but the most important is moral values that they
could live it.

Rustom R. Sapitona MAE 209- Management of Student Development Program (Paper

No. 3)

Teacher professionalism is at a threshold. Moral purpose and change agent

are implicit in what good teaching and effective change are about, but as yet they
are society's (and teaching's) great untapped resources for radical and continuous
improvement. We need to go public with a new rationale for why teaching and
teacher development are fundamental to the future of society. We need action that
links initial teacher preparation and continuous teacher development based on
moral purpose and change agent with the corresponding restructuring of
universities and schools and their relationships. Systems don't change by
themselves. Rather, the actions of individuals and small groups working on new
conceptions intersect to produce breakthroughs (Fullan 1993). New conceptions,
once mobilized, become new paradigms. The new paradigm for teacher
professionalism synthesizes the forces of moral purpose and change agent.
One of the practices Ive been seeing in the Department of Education is the
management process that implicit a negative output to some of the teachers.
What Im trying to say is that there are some administrators and some higher
position in the department utilize the influenced and power of politics. I dont have
space to elaborate more about politics- indeed we are all aware what politics
capable of. If I, lets say, act against the hidden motives of the administration;
oppose with what they are planning which is not supposed to be done, then I will be
suffering!
What is right is right. What is wrong is wrong, but sad to say that in the
department of education which is supposed to be the foundation of morality and
truth, is also an institution, that wrong doings are all-in agenda. It is very ironic that
most and almost of the persons occupying the offices in the department are from

the prestigious universities in the Philippines, sectarian schools and has very good
academic records but what they are always saying is not what they are doing.
It is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great ideal. It is just like a
stone wasted on the sand without being part of any edifice.