CSSP CONDUCTS SOC SCI 1 TEACHING WORKSHOP
CSSP CONDUCTS SOC SCI 1 TEACHING WORKSHOP
The delegates of the Soc Sci 1 Workshop were faculty and teaching/research assistants from six CSSP departments: Anthropology, Geography, Linguistics, Philosophy, Psychology, and Sociology, who are committed to teaching the GE course starting the 1st Sem AY 2023-2024.
The College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP), through its Committee on General Education (GE), successfully conducted “Teaching Soc Sci 1”, a workshop for current and future instructors of Soc Sci 1, on 14-15 April 2023, at B Hotel in Quezon City. The workshop was participated in by faculty and teaching/research assistants from the departments of anthropology, geography, linguistics, philosophy, psychology, and sociology, who are willing to teach Soc Sci 1 starting the First Semester AY 2023-2024. The workshop was organized by a work group composed of members of the CSSP Committee on GE spearheaded by the workshop coordinator Asst. Prof. Monica Fides Amada Santos and supervised by Associate Dean for Academic Affairs (ADAA), Dr. Ruth Lusterio-Rico.
In her opening remarks, ADAA Lusterio-Rico gave an overview of the revised Soc Sci 1 syllabus. She emphasized the importance of a Soc Sci 1 community, which started when the GE Framework was developed for use by the University. The revision of Soc Sci 1 went through a contentious process until it was finally approved in 2019, with a major change in the title from “Foundations of Behavioral Sciences” to “Foundations of Social Science,” to reflect the developments in the different disciplines under it. ADAA Lusterio-Rico also expressed her hopes for the College to address the increasing backlog for Soc Sci 1, which is now a required course of the programs within UP Diliman.
The workshop invited the officer-in-charge of the UP Diliman GE Center, Dr. Anna Sibayan-Sarmiento, to deliver a message about GE in the life of UP. OIC Sibayan-Sarmiento started by thanking the Soc Sci 1 workshop committee for safeguarding the said GE course and ensuring that it has the ‘Tatak-UP.’ She made the remark in light of the decline in the number of required GE units among different academic programs in the University, raising questions about the role of GE in so-called “programs designed for specialization.” She asserted that the GE program is a necessary component in producing specialists as it ensures the inculcation of “UP values such as leadership, integrity, honor, excellence, and public service.”
After the two messages, workshop coordinator Santos briefly outlined the program of the two-day workshop and facilitated the introduction of participants, where each of them mentioned their experience as a student or teacher of Soc Sci 1.
The workshop participants during one of the lecture sessions discussing the first four modules of the Soc Sci 1 syllabus.
The program of the workshop included four lecture sessions, representing the first four modules in the Soc Sci 1 syllabus. The modules were discussed by invited lecturers, who are also CSSP faculty and who have taught the GE course. The fifth module was conducted in the form of breakout sessions, where each group was tasked to creatively develop a culminating activity for the Soc Sci 1 class.
The lecture on Module 1, “The Problematique of Social Science,” was delivered by Assoc. Prof. Josephine Dionisio of the Department of Sociology. She is a key figure in the development of the revised syllabus and shared that she conceptualized an underlying theme for this module, “Understanding the social world in order to change it,” and included additional learning outcomes that center on the role of the social sciences in knowledge production and its relevance in achieving progress and social development. Another highlight of the lecture was the identification of key concepts and issues/debates per topic, where Assoc. Prof. Dionisio demonstrated how her tailoring of the course situates Soc Sci 1 as a GE course offered by CSSP in general, and by the Department of Sociology in particular.
For the second module, “Theoretical and Research Traditions in Social Science,” Asst. Prof. Hector Guazon of the Department of Anthropology delivered a lecture that covered the field’s complex history, operative intellectual and methodological traditions, and relevant contemporary trends. He noted that an effective style of teaching this module is tracing the genealogy of knowledge, specifically by showing how positivism and cognitivist theory led to cognitive science. The bulk of Asst. Prof. Guazon’s lecture juxtaposed social and cognitive sciences, remarking that “the study of social science is more than the study of individual sciences,” and that the interrelationships among constituent fields are crucial to understanding modern problems.
Asst. Prof. Beatriz Torre of the Department of Psychology delivered a lecture for the third module, “Reflexive Production of Knowledge: Problematizing Objectivity.” She began the session with an activity on ‘reflexivity’ before proceeding to a discussion on research ethics, where she emphasized that ethics, in the context of the social sciences, should be viewed beyond “do[ing] no harm.” Asst. Prof. Torre shared that the guiding principles for ethical research, such as respect for persons, beneficence, and justice, as well as some ethical issues, such as the nature of consent and expectations of privacy, were some of the concepts that must be discussed to help students grasp ethics in a more concrete way. Meanwhile, for students to be able to contextualize why there is a need to be careful when conducting research in the social sciences and in their own disciplines, Asst. Prof. Torre remarked that the concepts of objectivity, power, consent, and proximity must also be tackled.
Delivering a lecture on Module 4, “Multiple Publics and a Changing World,” was Asst. Prof. Farah Cunanan of the Department of Linguistics, who shared that she had taught the course through a multi-perspective and holistic approach, with emphasis on how the personal and the social can be extended to a larger context. She mentioned that raising the awareness of students about the concept of multiple publics put forward by Kenneth Bailey (1998) would help them become more mindful of how they could affect other people in their respective fields. Asst. Prof. Cunanan also shared a number of challenges that she encountered as she handled the course and underscored the importance of being trusted as a teacher so that the students would see that the requirements, such as reflective essays, that they submit are a safe space.
After the lectures on each of the four modules, the floor was opened for discussion. Asst. Prof. Monica Santos and Assoc. Prof. Jay Yacat served as moderator for the first day, while Asst. Prof. Jem Javier served as the moderator for the second day.
One of the small groups tasked to design a culminating learning activity for the Soc Sci 1 class.
For the fifth and final Soc Sci 1 module, the participants were divided into small groups and were tasked to design an exemplary culminating learning activity to guide the assessment of student performance in the course. The learning activities were expected to reflect how students can examine a contemporary issue/phenomenon using the social science lens, particularly the key concepts discussed in the previous modules. Asst. Prof. Francisco Rosario, Jr., Asst. Prof. Rhodalyn Wani-Obias, Assoc. Prof. Jay Yacat, and Asst. Prof. Yany Lopez served as facilitators for this part of the workshop. The output of their discussions were presented in a plenary session. Before closing the session, Assoc. Prof. Dionisio and Asst. Prof. Cunanan gave comments and reflections on the presentations.
After the distribution of certificates of recognition and participation among guests/speakers and delegates, respectively, Workshop Coordinator Santos delivered the closing remarks. She thanked the participants for attending the Soc Sci 1 workshop, and reiterated the intent of the workshop, which was to equip teachers with a variety of perspectives and approaches to study and understand human social relations—what Soc Sci 1 is all about. She also mentioned that all materials would be made available to Soc Sci 1 teachers, and will be part of an organized repository of teaching and learning resources for the GE course.
The organizers of the Soc Sci 1 Workshop also wish to thank the following people behind the success of the activity: Ms. Jan Marie Gonzales (Administrative Staff); Ms. Dina Condino (Administrative Staff); Mr. Daniel Acdan (Technical Staff); Mr. Adrian Gabriel (Documenter); and Ms. Patricia Anne Asuncion and Ms. Princess Lovella Maturan, who served as rapporteurs.
The videos of the workshop sessions as well as the learning materials used by the lecturers will be included in the repository of learning resources for Soc Sci 1. To access these materials, CSSP faculty who wish to teach Soc Sci 1 can send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Report prepared by Jem Javier with contributions from Monica Fides Amada Santos, Patricia Anne Asuncion, and Princess Lovella Maturan