Place-Based Curriculum Model for East Asian Growth Area (EAGA)

Abstract

The place-based curriculum model emphasizes the locality of the students as part of their educational experience in all their subject areas. This study wants to find out if a place-based curriculum model can be a success in four selected EAGA countries – the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. The study employed a sequential explanatory design. The data-gathering tools for this study were semi-interview and a pre-designed survey questionnaire. The respondents for the interview were twelve key personnel from the countries’ educational system – four teachers, four school administrators, and four employees from their own countries’ ministries of education. Twenty teachers and sixty students answered the survey questionnaire.  The researcher assessed what the respondents felt about the place-based curriculum model using thematic analysis, mean, simple linear correlation and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The emerged themes during the interview were the challenges and successes, the impact of the place-based curriculum model on the students, the teachers and on the school administration. Meanwhile, the data showed a strong sense of national identity among  the respondents. Hence. The place-based curriculum model helps the students learn concepts that are culturally aligned with their environment, their culture, and their daily way of life. It is therefore recommended that the place-based curriculum model be utilized by all schools in the four different countries of the EAGA to make the learning experience of their students more organic and culturally aligned.