Principles and

techniques in
designing,
developing and
using Localized
IMs
Prof. Roderick Motril Aguirre
Curriculum and Academic Consultant
Administrative, Research Development Center (ARDC)
Sisters of Mary Schools - Philippines

OUTLINE
Introduction
Legal Bases of Localization and
Contextualization
Principles and Guidelines for
Localization and Contextualization of
IMs
Stages of Localization
Stages of Contextualization

Introduction

Localization has
byTayloras

been

defined

...freedom for schools or

local education authorities to
adapt this curriculum to local
conditions, (2004; 2), and

...relating the content of the

curriculum and the processes
of teaching and learning to
the local environment (2004;

It is believed that by making

learning in school relevant
and meaningful to the
childrens everyday lives and
needs, the interaction
between child and school will
become a more active and
enriching experience, rather

It is suggested that contextualization

of teaching and learning can
strengthen the links between the
learning environments of school,
home and community. This can be
achieved by building on pupils
experiences from outside the school and
providing additional experience within
the school program. This process is
enhanced through the use of metaphors

Legal Bases of
Localization and
Contextualization

United Nations, 2002

Localization and contextualization
is a process of taking into
account the ...cultural and
socio-economic realities of
local
populations
when
designing educational content
which are critical in engaging the
students in the learning process.

1987 Philippine
Constitution Article XIV
Section 5. (1) The State shall take
into account regional and sectoral
needs and conditions and shall
encourage local planning in the
development of educational
policies and programs.

1987 Philippine
Constitution Article XIV
Section 14. The State shall
foster
the
preservation,
enrichment,
and
dynamic
evolution
of
a
Filipino
national culture based on the
principle of unity in diversity in a
climate of free artistic and

The DepEd
We dream of Filipinos
Vision
who passionately love their
country
and whose values and
competencies
enable them to realize their full
potential
and contribute meaningfully to
building the nation.
As a learner-centered public

The DepEd Vision

To protect and promote the right of every Filipino to
quality, equitable, culture-based, and complete basic
education where:
Studentslearn in a child-friendly, gender-sensitive,
safe, and motivating environment.
Teachersfacilitate learning and constantly nurture
every learner.
Administrators and staf, as stewards of the
institution, ensure an enabling and supportive
environment for effective learning to happen.
Family, community, and other stakeholdersare

The DepEd Vision

Maka-Diyos
Maka-tao
Makakalikasan
Makabansa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhGsy3QUSow

Principles and
Guidelines for
Localization and
Contextualization of
IMs

Curriculum LocalizationRationale
In giving schools additional autonomy and
subsequent responsibility (Elmore, 34) that
decentralization demands, and increasing, or
strengthening, the link between local
communities and school curricula, we can
predict that schooling outcomes will be
reasonably improved (while, of course,
understanding that this is just one,
albeit crucial, link in a long chain of

Enhancing the quality of educational

delivery is the ultimate goal and
rationale
behind
curriculum
localization and the localization of
schooling materials. UNESCO notes,
A crucial dimension of quality
education is that of relevance of
curricula content; the diversity
of local (sub national), cultural,

Williamson and Cowley note that:

It is important that any plan
or strategy for innovation or
curriculum development is
open to change in order to fit
the local context. It is also
important that teachers can
commit to the innovation in their
own
time-frame...Forcing
teachers
to
commit
to

Critical attention must be paid

to those individuals who are
tasked with implementation;
their ability to change and adapt
to this new localization policy is
paramount. These individuals
must internalize this change,
and be willing and open to
take on the additional
responsibilities, or the process

Localization and
Contextualization in K-12
In commonality, both adhere in
making the lesson flexible, fit,
creative, relevant, meaningful,
and adaptive to students level
of
understanding
and
instructional needs.

Localization and
Contextualization in K-12
The concept of localization and
contextualization falls on the idea
that students learned best when
experiences in the classroom
have meanings and relevance in
their lives. Things students do and
associated with them are the

DepEd Order No. 43, series

3013
The Implementing Rules and
Regulation (IRR) of Republic
Act 10533 Otherwise known
as the Enhanced Basic
Education Act of 2013

On Standards and
Principles.
The DepEd shall adhere
to the following
standards and
principles, when
appropriate, in
developing the

1.The curriculum shall be learnercentered, inclusive and

developmentally appropriate.
2. The curriculum shall be relevant,
responsive and research-based.
3. The curriculum shall be genderand culture sensitive.
4. The curriculum shall
contextualized and global.

5.The
curriculum
shall
use
pedagogical approaches that are
constructivist,
inquiry-based,
reflective,
collaborative,
and
integrative.
6. The curriculum shall adhere to the
principles and framework of
Mother
Tongue-Based
Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE)
which starts from where the learners
are and from what they already

7.The curriculum shall use the

spiral progression approach to
ensure mastery of knowledge and
skills after each level.
8. The curriculum shall be flexible
enough to enable to allow
schools to localize,
indigenize.

On Production and
Development of Materials.
The
production
and
development
of
locally
produced
teaching
and
learning materials shall be
encouraged. The approval of
these
materials
shall
be
devolved to the regional and
division
education
unit
in

DepEd Order No. 51, series

of 2014
Guidelines on the Conduct
of Activities and Use of
Materials Involving Aspects
of Indigenous Peoples
Culture

Premise: Indigenous
cultural communities
have raised key concerns
regarding the way their
cultural expressions have
been projected to the
public, some of which are

1.Cultural expressions have

been used for intentions
and purposes deemed
inappropriate by the
community.
2. Cultural expressions like
artifacts and symbols have
been heavily
commercialized without
regard for symbolic and/or

3.Cultural expressions have been

presented in modified form for
varied purposes and intents,
without regard for its inherent
meanings, resulting in mistaken
understanding and
misrepresentation of the
4. expressions.
Indigenous knowledge is being
tackled in class with
interpretations and
understanding not validated

The above result in the

loss of proper context and
erroneous understanding
of the communitys
cultural expressions,
leading to the further
spread of wrong notions
regarding IP cultures

For the ICCs, the impact

is felt among the youth
whose practice and
understanding of cultural
expressions are
sometimes based on
these popularized
erroneous understanding

In some cases, this

phenomenon becomes a
basis for the loss of
confidence in and
belongingness to ones
indigenous culture.

Stages of
Localization

SYNERGY OF EFFORTS (SOCIAL

INSTITUTION)
Family
Media

Medicine

Roderick Motril Aguirre, 2016

Philippin
e
Educatio
n

Polity

Educatio
n
Religion

Market

Localization is the
process of adapting
and relating the
content of the
curriculum and the
process of teaching
and learning to local

Language Mapping. This the process

of

surveying the community as to the

presence of languages in the
immediate community of the learners
Investigating certain language
dominance spoken the community
and in other platforms like television
programs, radio programs and other
media
Yielding certain environmental prints
as bases for creating basic sight words
for language acquisition and

Literacy and Numeracy Mapping. This

the process of

classifying the environmental prints that

support literacy and numeracy
development
Finding answers to these questions: What
are the logos, icons, and other symbols and
words that learners are exposed to early on
before they are taught the basic skills of
reading? What are the signage that
facilitate the young learners understanding
of directionality, rules and regulations, and

Cultural Mapping. This the process

of
Identifying the community strengths
assets presence of cultural
and
Identifying
diversity
Identifying presence of cultural
diversity
Identifying virtues, values, traditions,
norms, mores, ethic and morality
Identifying various sources of context
for the contextualization
Creating a sustainable future

Community Mapping. This the

process
of participation and
Establish
collaboration among members of
various societal institutions
Identifying places and people that
matter to understand the past, act in
the present, plan for the future
Knowing the people, animals and
environment around the learners
discovering a real community need that
leads to the most effective service

Content
and
Language

Melchor A. Tatlonghari, 2008

CONTENT
Science

Langua
ge

Math

Social Studies

What is CLIL?

Content and language

integrated learning
Subject

(Science,
Mathematics,
History, etc.)

Language
(English,
Filipino, Mother
Tongue)

Aim for student

to learn BOTH
English AND
subject
knowledge

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a dual-focused educational approach in which an
additional language is used for learning and teaching of both content and language there is focus not
only on content, and not only on language. Each is interwoven, even if the emphasis is greater on one or
another at a given time. (Dale and Tanner 2012, p. 3)

For Learners:

Efective learning
Social Constructivist
theory: meaningful
interaction needed for
learning; CLT: focus on
real communication
Motivation: learning EL
becomes meaningful as
they learn and use the
language while learning
content.
Cognition: brain
development

Why CLIL?
For Teachers:

Can improve their own EL

Can improve their teaching
methods through CLIL training
approaches
Opportunity to collaborate with
other teachers

For MOE:

Content teacher teaches

language at the same time
few resources needed
Internationalization of higher
education

Types of CLIL

Too SOFT
Theme-based
English lessons
Focus is on
LANGUAGE
Taught by
language
teacher

Just RIGHT
CLIL Lesson
Focus on both
CONTENT and
LANGUAGE
Taught by content
teacher trained in
CLIL approach or in
collaboration with
language teacher

Too HARD
Immersion
Focus is on
CONTENT and
language
learning
expected to
occur almost by
osmosis
Taught by

CLIL Principles

(Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010)

CONTENT

Progression in knowledge, skills and understanding related to

specific elements of a defined curriculum.

COMMUNICATION

Using language to learn whilst learning to use language.

COGNITION

Developing thinking skills which link concept formation,

understanding and language.

CULTURE

Understanding ourselves and other cultures.

Becoming aware of global as well as local citizenship.
Culture of CLIL classroom: collaborative and interactive

COMMUNICATION

CO
NT
T EN

IO
IT
GN
CO N

Culture

Stages of
Contextualization

This context may be social, intellectual,

physical, economic, geographic, political
or any other pattern that provides the
other pieces of the puzzle that create a
complete picture.

Roderick Motril Aguirre, 2016

Contextualization is
the process of
presenting lessons
in meaningful and
relevant context
based on previous

61

Authentic
Learning

Learning from real world

problems and questions.
Roderick Motril Aguirre, 2016

62

what goes
on outside
of the
classroom
Roderick Motril Aguirre, 2016

what goes
on inside
the
classroom

STEP 1. Identifying the niche.

Schools must analyze their
mission, vision, goals, and core
values (VMGCV) in order to
identify what they aim to
specialize on and what they
want their graduates to be in
consonance, of course, to the
VMGCV of the national
government through the

Step
1

Sisters of Mary SchoolsPhilippines

Identifyin
g the
Niche via the
school VMG

God-loving
Functional
Holistic

STEP 2. Clustering the

Content Areas. The content
areas must be clustered in
the order of standard and
differentiated curricular
articulation. The clustering
must adhere to the hierarchy
of the niche of the school

Step
2

Sisters of Mary SchoolsPhilippines

1. Moral &
Ethics

Clusterin
g the
Content
Areas to

3. Academic

Niche

4. Language

achieve the
desired

2. TVET

Cluster 4: Language
English and Filipino
Cluster 3: Academic
Science and Mathematics
MAPEH

Cluster 2: TVET
NC 1, NC II, NC III

Cluster 1: Virtues and Ethic

Christian Living Education (CLE)
Araling Panlipunan (AP)

STEP 3.Curriculum Mapping.

Curriculum mapping is the process of
aligning the curricular standards and
learning
competencies.
Alignment
is typically understood as the agreement
between a set of content standards and an
assessment used to measure those standards.
establish content standards, stakeholders in an
education system determine what students are
expected to know and be able to do at each grade
level.
assessments are used to hold the students and
teachers accountable to the standards. . The

Step
3

Sisters of Mary SchoolsPhilippines

Cognition

Training
All
Teachers
on

Content
Communicati
on
Culture

Step
3

Describing the cognitive

landscape of the school
School-wide cognitive
landscape
Academic cognitive
landscape

Mental Model
Learning
Using physical and
virtual models to refine
understanding.
Roderick Motril Aguirre, 2016

72

Roderick Motril Aguirre, 2016

73

Metacogniti
ve
Knowledge
Procedural
Knowledge
Conceptual
Knowledge

Conditiona
l
Knowledge
Contextual
Knowledge
Methods of
Inquiry, finite
skills,
methods/strateg
Classification
ies
s, Principles,
and
Generalizatio
Essential
ns
Facts and
Details

Factual Knowledge
Roderick Motril Aguirre, 2016

Vertical
Articulation.
It is the process of
creating a spiral
progression design of
each content area
from the entry grade
level to the exit level

 This ensures that the standards,

learning competences, learning
activities and experiences are
carefully designed in such a way
that
there
is
succession,
progression, and promotion of
teaching-learning process from
basic
(primary
school)
to
intermediate (middle school) to

Step
5

Sisters of Mary SchoolsPhilippines

Quarter
Assessment

Articulating
the learning
competencies
across
assessment

Performance
Task
Written Work
Formative
Assessment

Horizontal
Articulation.

Horizontal
articulation
becomes easy
when vertical
articulation has

Horizontal articulation is the alignment

of
vertically
aligned
curricular
standards
and
learning
competencies across content areas
for possible integration (explicit and
implicit) and towards unifying possible
learning outcomes (performance and/or
products) shared by two or more content
areas to facilitate understanding among

Stakeholders
For
the contextualized to be
Profiling.

appropriately and developmentally

designed, it is necessary for the
school to profile internal and
external stakeholders in order to
have data-based decision-making
and ensure that all stakeholders
are working towards one goal and

Profiling desirably
includes: cognitive
levels, multiple
intelligences, brain
dominance,
personal
information, and

Step
6

Sisters of Mary SchoolsPhilippines

TGs and LMs

Getting
Feedback
from
Students
and
Teachers

Gradual
Release of
Responsibilit
y
Budget of
Work
Learning
Episodes

82

Internal
Motivation

Identifying and employing

positive emotional
connections in learning
(ownership).
Roderick Motril Aguirre, 2016

Orientation and
Retooling.
Once the localization and
contextualization is done,
all stakeholders must be
oriented and retooled in
order to uphold the niche
and the identified cognitive
landscape of the school.

Monitoring and
The success of any
Evaluation.

localization and
contextualization programs
can only be monitored and
evaluated through creation
of guidelines and protocols
so that stakeholders are
well-aware of their

Summary
and
Conclusion

Implications

 There must be a more holistic and

balanced approach to planning
the curriculum
Educators must be familiar (if not
proficient) with the content to be
integrated
Content area educators must be
familiar (if not proficient) with the

 Educators must collaborate in

planning the lessons in learning
episodes to identify possible
integrations.
All educators must carefully
consider the culture of students to
ensure relevance of learning
activities.
Stakeholders must work together to

Jack Richards, 2008

what goes
on outside
of the
classroom

what goes
on inside
the
classroom