Moving in new direction: UP System successfully conducts the 2022 GE Conference

The UP System GE Conference was conducted last October 3 and 4, 2022, amidst the economic, social, and political developments such as the war in Ukraine, climate change, historical revisionism, and disinformation. With such a rapidly-changing world which undeniably affects the teaching and learning of general education, the UP System initiated an avenue for GE faculty — the UP System GE Conference 2022. This year’s Conference — wherein 58 UPD faculty served as presenters for the Parallel Sessions — was dedicated to reflect on the new global and national context for GE including challenges confronting liberal education; and, to articulate new directions and imperatives for GE in the 21st century.

Day One: National and Global Contexts

The two-day conference commenced with President Danilo L. Concepcion’s warm welcome to participants from all over the UP System. In his opening remarks, he invited all UP GE faculty to reflect on their pedagogy so they can prepare students for a rapid, unpredictable, paradoxical, and tangled world. Dr. Alyssa Peleo-Alampay, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs (Quality Assurance), then gave the conference overview. To spur the conversations in the two-day conference, Professor Emeritus Gemino H. Abad delivered the keynote address on language as the foundation of thought and memory. “Without language, we would have no memory, no history, no culture, no civilization,” he said.

Opening Remarks UP President Danilo L. Concepcion	View Recording
Conference Overview Dr. Alyssa Peleo-Alampay, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs (Quality Assurance)	View Recording
Keynote Speech Professor Emeritus Gemino H. Abad	View Recording

Following the keynote address was the first Plenary Session on the national and global contexts of general education. The first session’s panel was composed of Prof. Joel L. Cuello of the University of Arizona, UP Diliman Chancellor Fidel R. Nemenzo, and Prof. Marie Therese Angeline P. Bustos of the UP Diliman College of Education, with Dr. Evangeline C. Amor, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs (Curriculum and Instruction) as moderator. The speakers highlighted the  value of general education to people and society. Prof. Cuello presented the Unified Theory of General Education which deems value creation as an important knowledge and skill that can be acquired from GE. Ideally, GE courses should generate value to society, whether economic, social, or cultural, among others. In creating value, Chancellor Nemenzo emphasized the importance of soft skills such as creativity, social interaction, empathy, and collaboration in GE pedagogy. These skills will aid students to weather present and future disruptions such as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Prof. Bustos ended the first Plenary Session by integrating the value of GE to the service that UP Diliman Ugnayan ng Pahinungod volunteer teachers do using the four pillars of learning (to know, to do, to live together, and to be).

View recording of Plenary Session 1

New to this year’s conference was the conduct of Parallel Sessions wherein participants are free to choose a breakout room they wish to attend. Each room had a unifying theme with various speakers presenting their chosen GE-related topics. The parallel sessions in the first day are:

Ethics and accountability — these were the crucial terms that surfaced during the second Plenary Session that capped the first day of the UP System GE Conference. Professor Emeritus Jose Y. Dalisay Jr. warned against threats to liberal education and democracy, and urged the fostering of academic freedom, critical thinking, intellectual tolerance, civil argumentation and quiet scholarship among students. Meanwhile, former UP Diliman Chancellor Michael L. Tan gave a talk on the importance of ethics and values in general education especially during these times where social media use is persistent and disinformation abounds. The last speaker was Atty. Ruben Carranza of International Center for Transitional Justice, who asserted the need for seeking truth and accountability especially among UP alumni who were involved with Marcos’ dictatorship. The second plenary session was moderated by Dr. Iris Thiele Isip-Tan from the UP College of Medicine.

View recording of Plenary Session 2

---

Day Two: New directions and imperatives

The second day of the conference started with the third Plenary Session focusing on how general education courses should be taught. The session began with a talk from Dr. Lily L.L. Kong, president of Singapore Management University (SMU). Her talk focused on her experience and involvement in three academic institutions’ general education curricula: National University of Singapore (NUS), Yale-NUS College, and SMU. She shared SMU’s core curriculum which is divided into three: capabilities, communities and civilizations. Prof. Sheila S. Coronel, Founder of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and professor in the Graduate School of Journalism in Columbia University, discussed the brief history and evolution of Columbia’s curriculum, as well as their present-day course coverage, content, format and issues. Both talks highlighted the difference between the British and American academic traditions in teaching general education. These international perspectives were followed by VPAA Maria Cynthia Rose B. Bautista’s discussion of general education in the UP context. In her talk, she situated general education in UP and its future direction as it faces various complex issues. She also presented the human skills matrix, which is a set of skills that students need to navigate and succeed in the world of work.

View recording of Plenary Session 3

Just like the first day, participants chose breakout rooms for the second Parallel Sessions conducted until noon. Here are the parallel sessions along with their speakers:

“How should GE proceed in the future?” This question was pondered on by speakers of the fourth and final Plenary Session. UP Visayas Chancellor Clement C. Camposano framed GE as education for citizenship. He was followed by Prof. Jose Maria P. Balmaceda of the UP Diliman Institute of Mathematics who shared his experience in retooling and teaching the GE course Math 10 during the remote learning mode. For him, the remote learning mode opened new questions which necessitates every GE faculty to slow down and  reflect. The last speaker was Prof. Ramon G. Guillermo, Director of the UP Diliman Center for International Studies, who warned the participants that as technology — particularly artificial intelligence — progresses, it is more likely to replicate and reproduce academic and scientific knowledge. On that note, he implored all GE faculty to create learning spaces that do not merely replicate and reproduce outputs, but rather encourage creative, critical, and independent thinking by emphasizing and valuing subjects on humanities; reflecting and focusing on social issues and the interdisciplinary approach needed to solve them; and examining commonly-held assumptions through Socratic method. He ended his talk by challenging everyone to find what makes the human experience unique which could bring about an education that is not merely replicable and reproducible. Dean Patricia Arinto of the UP Visayas Tacloban College led the open forum for this plenary session.

View recording of Plenary Session 3

The final Plenary Session was followed by the last set of Parallel sessions:

Thereafter, AVP Evangeline Amor synthesized the discussions for the whole conference. She reiterated the questions posed by President Danilo Concepcion: what is Tatak UP? Where and from whom will it come from? Learning the answer to these questions are even more crucial within the context of vigorous  digital transformation. Finally, VPAA Cynthia Bautista formally closed the GE conference. She affirmed  that a tech-driven society must be founded on human virtues and the right kind of cooperation with algorithms. Indeed, education should focus on understanding technology and promoting human skills and values necessary for future leaders.

Synthesis Dr. Evangeline C. Amor, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs (Curriculum and Instruction)	View Recording
Closing Remarks Dr. Maria Cynthia Rose B. Bautista, Vice President for Academic Affairs	View Recording

The two-day UP System GE Conference 2022 was certainly an insightful and timely gathering to discuss the direction and imperative of general education in UP. With the rapidly changing education landscape and the anticipated return to full face-to-face classes next year, GE faculty should reflect, recalibrate, and retool to be prepared for the new directions and imperatives in teaching.