Teaching Practices and Quality In Graduate Education In the Philippines

Abstract

While the Philippines’ higher education sector has a long history distinguished by early adoption of quality assurance practices, the Philippines Development Plan 2017-2022 concluded that Philippine higher education institutions are ill-positioned to compete in the global higher education arena. The Government of the Philippines therefore mandated a shift to outcomes-based education (OBE) in all higher education programs starting in 2018, to improve the quality of education and the skills and knowledge of graduates and to improve alignment of Philippine higher education with ASEAN regional standards. This shift to OBE created an opportunity for critical scholarly inquiry into teaching practices, particularly in graduate education, given its role in producing researchers, innovators, and the next generation of scholars. Using a socioecological conceptual framework and a mixed methods approach, this study examines teaching practices in graduate education at two Philippine universities. It specifically focuses on how conceptions of quality, individual-level factors, discipline-specific practices, and institutional climate, as well as the national higher education environment, affect teaching practice in graduate education. The study concludes that conceptions of quality are currently driven by external validation (accreditation, licensure rates, etc.) rather than internal benchmarks of quality enhancement. Respondents in the study associated ‘evidence-based’ approaches to teaching with high quality, but were not at all critical of the cultural assumptions that may have underpinned the evidence to which they referred. The findings support the arguments in the literature on social practice theory that teaching is a socially situated practice, but not just within disciplinary networks as reflected in social network theory or specific work groups as reflected in community of practice theory, but also within specific institutional and cultural normative practices that are very effective in influencing teaching behaviors. Teaching practice is also situated within national political and policy frameworks that may influence teaching directly, for example, through professional development schemes, and indirectly through regulation of the higher education sector. While current reform efforts target a number of the key shortfalls identified in Philippines Development Plan 2017-2022, critical gaps remain that may undermine the intended impacts of the adoption of OBE.