Ateneo Teacher Center, United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia host Whole Person Education Academy 2023
27 Oct 2023
![The participants of the Whole Person Education Academy 2023 with University President Fr Roberto C Yap SJ and United Board trustee Dr Patricia Licuanan.](/sites/default/files/inline-images/DSC08547.jpg)
Throughout the past few months, faculty and administrators from 11 higher education institutions across India, Indonesia, Taiwan, and the Philippines gathered both online and on-site for the 2023 Whole Person Education Academy (WPEA) course entitled “Humanizing Higher Education through Whole Person Learning.” The 6-week course began online in August and lasted until September, with in-person Training the Trainer sessions taking place from 16 to 20 October 2023 at the Learning Design Hive in Areté, Ateneo de Manila University.
Jointly organized by the Ateneo Teacher Center (ATC) of the Gokongwei Brothers School of Education and Learning Design (GBSEALD) and the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, the Academy brought together participants “who had been designated as trainers of their colleagues and champions of the implementation of Whole Person Education in their respective universities and colleges.”
![A group mirroring exercise led by Dr Joseph Dela Cruz, SHS Filipino Subject Coordinator.](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-27%20at%2011.45.06%20AM.png)
According to Ms Ma Rita J Atienza, Director of ATC, WPEA 2023 was “premised on the belief that, to prepare students to contribute to a chaotic world and an endangered planet, education has to address the whole human being—intellectually, ethically, and spiritually—in ways that nurture the deepest potential in students and other members of the school community.”
The course, whose most important methodology is conversation, aimed to “provide participants with opportunities to explore the conceptual frameworks and educational principles behind Whole Person Education (WPE) and to have them work together as school teams to look into their own institutional contexts through the lens of these frameworks.”
To do this, the course had three special features, including:
- A team-based professional learning approach, to provide opportunities for conversations among three representatives within the same institution to enhance understanding of WPE in the context of the specific institution, as well as support each other in their training efforts in the school.
- Numerous opportunities to converse about important issues related to WPE with the teams from other higher education institutions, comparing and contrasting contexts and learning from each others’ experiences and ideas.
- Numerous opportunities to get feedback from other school teams about their module outputs, guided by a Coach.
![Fr Roberto C Yap SJ at the opening dinner for the course’s in-person component.](/sites/default/files/inline-images/DSC08387.jpg)
At the on-site component of the course, the sessions were categorized into four themes: WPE and the School’s Academic Program; WPE and the School’s Formation Program; WPE and the School’s Faculty and Leadership; and WPE and their Own Institutional Contexts.
Speakers included faculty from Ateneo de Manila University, such as Dr Leland Joseph R Dela Cruz, who gave a talk entitled “Service Learning: The Ateneo Experience”; Dr Roberto O Guevara, “The Ministry of Teaching”; Ms Rita Atienza, “The Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm: Mission-Related Goals in the 21st Century Curriculum”; Mr Galvin Ngo, “How Can Educational Technology and Media Be Humanizing?” and more.
![Dr Regina Estuar leads her session entitled “The Whole and the Sum of the Parts: How Research is Integral to the Wholeness of the Learner.”](/sites/default/files/inline-images/DSC08343.jpg)
The on-site course sessions also included workshops by teams, field trips to neighboring Miriam College and to the Ateneo Social Computing Science Laboratory, and a synthesis/course evaluation.
![Participants from St. Christopher’s College of Education in Chennai, India present their training and implementation plans.](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-27%20at%2011.45.19%20AM.png)
Participants hailed from various institutions across the Asian region, including Christ University, India; Scottish Church College, India; St. Christopher’s College of Education, India; Duta Wacana Christian University, Indonesia; Sanata Dharma University, Indonesia; Satya Wacana Christian University, Indonesia; Soegijapranata Catholic University, Indonesia; University of Saint Louis, Philippines; University of the Immaculate Conception, Philippines; Union Christian College, Philippines; and Chang Jung Christian University, Taiwan.
The course culminated in a closing dinner with messages from Dr Hope Antone, Director for Faculty Development, United Board; and Fr Johnny C Go, SJ, Dean, GBSEALD.