Towards a Skills-based Curriculum of Readings in Philippine History
Keywords:
Skills-based curriculum, Readings in Philippine History, Contextual Analysis, Bloom’s Taxonomy, , De Fink’s Taxonomy, Historical Thinking SkillsAbstract
The Readings in Philippine History course is a key part of the updated General Education curriculum, but there is a scarcity of research on how well they help students to develop skills they can use in their fields of specialization. Most studies focus on the course’s goals such as promoting critical thinking, analyzing sources, and fostering civic awareness. They do not discuss how the course intends students to learn or how useful these skills are in real-life situations. This study aims to fill that gap by looking at the practical value of the course and how it prepares students for academic and professional challenges. The researchers applied the qualitative research design using content analysis as methodology in analyzing the primary source, the curriculum guide for Readings in Philippine History provided by the Commission on Higher Education (2013). Cross-referencing of learning outcomes, methodology, and assessment according to the keywords stipulated in Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning (2002) and De Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning (2013) produced two matrices that revealed that the current Readings in Philippine History curriculum concentrate on the cognitive domain as reflected in the use of teaching methodologies and assessment that are in the factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive thinking processes. While it addresses the development of a historical and critical mind, it visibly lacks the employment of digital literacy skills and how these skills are employed in the students’ field of specialization. The researchers propose a skills-based framework that centers on history while incorporating 21st-century skills, Filipino values, and digital tools for honing the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning domains. The main contribution of the study in pursuing SDG 4-Quality education is a skills-based curriculum that helps students build their understanding of history, think critically, develop digital skills, and apply what they have learned to real-world situations.
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