(image:Sara Duterte FB page)
Bare. Devoid of anything.
With the issuance of DepEd Order 21, series of 2023 which is also
known as the 2023 Brigada Eskwela Implementing Rules and Guidelines, a lot reacted
on Section B.2 where it states: Classroom walls shall remain bare and devoid of
posters, decorations or other posted materials. Classrooms should not be used
to stockpile materials and should be clear of other used items or items for
disposal.
Thus, Operation Baklas became the tagline of teachers on their
social media posts during the duration of the schools’ maintenance week. There
were those who are happy about the introduced change and, as expected, there
are those who ranted.
Aside from allowing the teachers to concentrate on teaching than be
busy with updating their bulletins and unit boards, are there studies relative
to this mandate?
Psychology researchers Anna V. Fisher, Karrie E. Godwin and Howard
Seltman of Carnegie Mellon University looked at whether classroom displays
affected children’s ability to maintain focus during instruction and to learn
the lesson content. They found that children in highly decorated classrooms
were more distracted, spent more time off-task and demonstrated smaller
learning gains than when the decorations were removed.
Rode (2022) posits: The Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
that gave a group of students two cognitive tasks to complete: one in a
highly-decorated classroom and one in a bare-bones classroom. Overall, the
students did better surrounded by blank walls, which flew in the face of what
teachers had been told for years. The study concluded that too many visual
stimulants could overload a child’s brain and get in the way of their learning.
These studies are the anchorage of the new order from the department.
Yet, there are those who repel change since most of us want to stay in our
comfort zones. And to protect us from being pulled out of our comfortable
areas, we react since we fear that we would be rejected and we dislike doing
things rather than those we are comfortable with.
But then again, education is dynamic. It is a continuum. We as
educators cannot just sit and allow things to happen. We are there to cope
since we vowed to educate our learners.
Also, we are happy embracing these changes since we are grateful
enough to have jobs which we consider as meaningful. Without the meaning in it,
we can NEVER be motivated to work since we only see the comfort side of it.
Yes, we are there to TEACH. But other professions also prepare their
tools prior to their main work. Scientifically, work is defined as Force
multiplied by Distance. If we do not exert effort using force with movements,
then what are we being paid to do?