Page 61 - ATENEO SERVED 2020 E-BOOK_Neat

Ateneo Science Educators and Researchers in Virtual
Engagement (SERVE) 2020 Ateneo de Manila University
School of Science and Engineering
MS Science Education Program of Biology Department

Context-based Activities for Distance Learning

a*
Marvice Joyce V. Ong and Joel T. Maquiling b

a b
Philippine Science High School - Main Campus Department of Physics, Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City
* Corresponding Author: mjcvilla@pshs.edu.ph

ABSTRACT

Addressing the needs of the learners while adapting to the “new normal” is one of the top priorities of the
educators at the present. Responding to the pandemic’s effect on schooling, teachers are preparing learning
packets that can be done by the students with or without the access to the internet. This distance learning
set up can strengthen the partnership between the parents and educators since most of the learning pro-
cesses will be done at home. However, one of the challenges of this set up is the preparation of the activities
that are suitable to the students’ new learning environment. This set-up limits the students’ access to labor-
atory materials which are vital for the different hands-on learning experiences. Though laboratory equip-
ment can still be used by the teachers through recorded demonstrations, the teaching and learning process
is still more effective when students have first-hand experiences of the lessons. With this, contextualizing
the learning activities of the students by using readily available materials at home becomes more impera-
tive. This can address the problem on the limited learning resources due to the absence of physical classes.
The use of familiar materials enables the students to see the connection of the lesson to their daily lives,
thus, realizing the relevance of the subject. Connecting the lessons to their immediate surrounding catches
the students’ interest. This study on the used of context-based learning experiences shows that students’
attitude towards the subject can shift into a more positive one. Moreover, students’ academic performance
also increased significantly. These results imply that context-based activities can be one of the ways to adapt
in our “new normal” way of delivering the lessons to our students since this strategy utilize non-complex,
readily available and common instructional materials that can be found at home.

Keywords: academic performance, attitude, context-based activities, contextual learning, distance
learning, new normal

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