Designing excellence in Education

MANILA, Philippines -  After a series of successful workshops on the powerful educational planning framework Understanding by Design (UbD), leading publishing company Rex Book Store, Inc. (RBSI) once again gathered close to 600 school administrators and subject area coordinators from top schools all over the country for a follow-up conference held recently.

Developed and introduced by renowned curriculum developers Dr. Grant P. Wiggins and Jay McTighe, UbD’s basic concept of teaching for understanding is hinged on the process of “backward design” in curriculum development, in order to improve learning outcomes. Schooling by Design supports UbD implementation by providing the necessary principles to refocus the design of schooling, in order to promote truly effective student learning.

SbD offers educators a collection of practical and proven processes to facilitate the successful adoption of UbD. The tools are designed to provide administrators and teachers with concrete but customizable strategies and tactics to further short- and long-term school improvement efforts. In crafting Schooling by Design, Wiggins and McTighe interspersed theoretical principles with practical examples of what schooling might look and sound like. SbD provides the vision and the attendant tools to support it so that every educator teaches with a clear purpose and direction.

RBSI president and chairman lawyer Dominador Buhain declared that the company is pleased with the very positive response of the educational community to the conference. “The active participation of our educators in this undertaking proves that they are deeply committed to further enhance and strengthen their methods of teaching. We at Rex Book Store are honored to have this opportunity to concretely contribute to the development of our education system,” he stated.

One of the highlights of the two-day event was a live video patch by McTighe, straight from Maryland, USA. Facilitating the conference was Greg Curtis, a curriculum director at the International School of Beijing, who stressed that UbD is not a “prescriptive program” that limits teachers to filling out and following templates, but rather a conditional approach to teaching.

Now on its 61st year, Rex Book Store has laid the cornerstone in learning with its comprehensive range of textbook titles and other educational materials.