S17-4

Teaching Teachers: Dissemination of Archaeological Information to K-12 Teachers in the Philippines

Archaeological Studies Program, University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines

Archaeology is a subject scarcely touched upon in the curriculum of students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12). Further, when archaeology is discussed, it relies on outdated materials. Archaeology has recently taken a larger and more inclusive stance when it comes to accessibility of information, but there is still a large disparity between archaeological discoveries and what is taught in the classroom. The Kapisanan ng mga Arkeologist sa Pilipinas, Inc. (KAPI), the official guild of archaeologists in the Philippines, has attempted to bridge this divide through an online lecture series aimed towards educating primary school teachers. The 3-day webinar series includes lectures by experts (archaeologists) and provides downloadable teaching modules that inform on the most recent archaeological findings. In this presentation, I discuss the KAPI K-12 webinar program from the planning stages to daily execution, and post-event assessments. Based on the post-event surveys, we found that interest in archaeology is high as a form of identity building, despite the lack of specific and updated information on Philippine archaeology. However, the participants were overwhelmed by the breadth of information shared by the experts. Our program recommends consistent information dissemination to encourage archaeological appreciation in educators for more effective knowledge transfer to students. Through this presentation, we hope to encourage others to replicate the K-12 lecture series as a vehicle for information dissemination and possibly encourage greater community engagement in a classroom setting.