Retraining chemistry teachers in the Philippines

A recent large scale educational aid program to the Philippines included the retraining of secondary chemistry teachers. Teachers were introduced to new content and to alternative teaching strategies. An initial resistance to change arose as it was perceived that the new approaches did not take into account very limited school facilities and very large teaching groups. The lecturing style of teaching, which predominates at all levels throughout the country, was seen as the most effective method to handle overwhelming classroom problems. Resistance was overcome after alternative teaching styles were modelled. This paper gives an overview of the aid program and outlines the introduced teaching strategies. It contends that Asian teachers have been largely unaffected by western educational aid due in part to the fact that such aid is rarely accompanied by the modelling of introduced strategies. Specialisations: primary teacher education, primary mathematics, pre- and in-service science education.