LEARNING STRAND 5: UNDERSTANDING THE SELF AND SOCIETY
This Learning Strand 5―Understanding the Self and Society is intended to help ALS learners acquire a positive sense of self and social responsibility that will lead them to the development of their potentials and enable them to live together harmoniously in the contexts of their family, local community, and country, as well as be able to participate as a member of the Southeast Asian region and an increasingly global community.
Learning Strand 1 COMMUNICATION SKILLS: ENGLISH
The ultimate goal of this learning strand is for the learners to attain scientific and apply critical thinking skills in daily life situations to improve their lives, as well as the quality of life of the people, the community and the country as a whole.
Consistent to the framework of the K to 12 science curriculum that is spiral progression, the spiraling of learning competencies is highlighted in this learning strand. These competencies are spiraled in all levels: basic, elementary, and junior high school. Science concepts and skills learned by the learners in the basic level will be encountered again in elementary and junior high school levels. In this way, mastery of the learning competencies are achievable.
The learning competencies appears repetitive, but they are sequenced progressively such that foundational science competencies are tackled first before learners are led to higher level competencies. Particularly, the learning competencies are arranged in a logical and sequential order: from simple to complex, concrete to abstract, familiar to unfamiliar, specific to general and narrow to broad.
Note how this is demonstrated in the examples below:
Example 1
Performance Standard B: Relate how science and technology affect people’s beliefs, practices and ways of thinking.
Learning Competencies:
Elementary Level 19.2 Name some plants found in the home and in the community
Junior High School Level 19.3 Describe the plants found at home and in the community
The learning competencies for the two levels in Example 1 follow a sequential development of skills such that in the elementary level, the process skill of identification is targeted as the learners will name some plants. And in the secondary level, learners will gain the complex skill in describing the plant which denotes the skills necessary in plant anatomy and morphology. This hierarchical arrangement of skills will help the learners apply scientific thinking in daily life situations in a fashion that is facilitative and contextual.