Philippine Psychometricians Licensure Exam Reviewer : Dr.Villar

(photo source - http://prc.gov.ph/)

Dr. Imelda Virgina G. Villar, Board Member of the Board of Psychology of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) in her presentation at the Orientation for the Psychology Licensure Exam
Psychology held on 18 June 2014 informed a full packed PSSC Auditorium that Psychology will be the first profession to offer Outcome-based Board Exam in the Philippines. Aside from the Board Licensure Examination for Psychologists and Psychometricians (BLEPP) being implemented this coming October for the first time is another milestone in the history of Psychology in the Philippines.

Dr. Villar presented the TOS for both exams. She also discussed The New Taxonomy (photo below) I marked it as framing questions since I am not so familiar about this. So I did some research and read
some stuff about it. Check below to know more about outcome based education and this new taxonomy. As you will notice in the TOS per subject/course there's the outcome, weight and number of items (each item is equivalent to 1%). She emphasized that the lesser the test item (lower percentage) means it has to do with retrieval/recall of information (basic of the cognitive system), and test with more items and of higher percentage means more challenging and complex.

Outcome-based education is all about competence - not only knowing information and theories but being capable to apply those knowledge and information into particular situations and circumstances. So the board exam is not only multiple choice of factual information and theories but more of the practical applications of those information, data and theories in particular cases and situations. Wherein a single situation/case scenario may have 4-6 questions that should be answered. Level 6 - self thinking system in the taxonomy is the highest gauge in measuring level of competency.

So in a way we are also correct to label that the framing of question will be such as well.

Dr. Mirriam P.Cue, the Chairman of the Board of Psychology of PRC discussed about the importance of using an outcome-based licensured board exam. Her anecdote was that of the story of her husband who employs topnotchers to their engineering firm but are not able to deal and address properly issues and concerns that would crops up simply because they know things and facts but may not necessarily know how to do and apply those information and facts they learned.

She also made mentioned during her talk that their basis on matters of ethics - is the Code of Ethics for Philippine Psychologist. So at least there's a clue on those "ethicas/ethical"outcomes.

She also mentioned on the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Memorandum Order 46 s2012, called “Policy Standard to Enhance Quality Assurance in Philippine Higher Education through an Outcomes-Based and Typology-Based QA,” so the emphasis on the outcame-based examination.

Also in line with the ASEAN economic integration next year (2015) where there will be free movements of goods, capitals and professionals the outcome-based approach is also seen as a way to be at par with Philippines ASEAN counterpart in particular that of complying with the standards being set for the ASEAN Qualification Reference Framework in order to utilize the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) to benefit Filipino professionals who could now work in countries where Philippines can enter into MRA.

The highlight of the forum was the question and answer portion. Below are some of the questions raised and answered:

1) How many hours allotted for the exam?
Ans - 2 hours per subject and 2 subjects per day, format will be multiple choice
(Program of the examination is still being finalized which will inform which subject will be scheduled for each day)

2) Which DSM will be used?
Ans - DSM 4-TR and DSM 5, but for Psychometrician it will be the basic (good to know both), plus ICD-10 (Chapter 5)

3) Will there be consultation in Visayas and Mindanao?
Ans - Schools in the regions can invite the speakers and provide provisions for their travel.

4) Which review center is accredited?
Ans - Dr. Villar - not encouraging to avail services of the review centers instead she encourage to attend review conducted in school. For Dr. Cue it is the prerogative of individual to do review at review centers or school. Dr. Hechanova stressed that PAP is not and will not endorse any review center.

5) Where will be the venue?
Ans - It will be in Manila. But those in the regions with more than 50 examinees, different schools may file their collective request for a regional exam to their PRC regional director who will submit the request to PRC Manila for consideration,

6) How many times can the board be taken?
Ans - Law is silent about it, so as many times.

7) Any recommended text books?
Ans - Different schools have their own textbooks so no recommended textbooks.

Audio recording of the presentations made by Dr. Villar and Dr. Cue is available for download with the link below.The two files are in MP3 format and could be played with Windows Media Player/Goom/and other MP3 Players

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9L6cSSvjzAoS1U4cEhwV1VZcFU&usp=sharing

Part 1 - 16.7 MB - 18 mins playtime (download takes about 4 mins)
Part 2 - 95.3 MB - 1:43 mins playtime (download takes about 8 mins)

Dr. Cue wishes all test takers to join the Oath Taking on Dec 9, 2014. Board results are expected to be out in 10 working days after the exam.

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Related read

Outcomes-Based Education

http://www.mb.com.ph/outcomes-based-education/
So the outcome-based education has metamorphosed into Outcomes-Based Quality Assurance and later, Outcome-Based Teaching Learning (OBTL) which starts with clearly stating, not what the teacher is going to teach, but what the outcome of that teaching should be, what the learner is supposed to do and at what standard. In the offing is the Outcomes-Based Teacher Education Curriculum (OBTEC) being pioneered by the National Center for Teacher Education, the Philippine Normal University, to produce innovative teachers, competent educational leaders, and proficient research scholars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outcome-based_education
Methods of outcome-based education (OBE) are student-centered learning methods that focus on empirically measuring student performance (the "outcome"). OBE contrasts with traditional education, which primarily focuses on the resources that are available to the student, which are called inputs. While OBE implementations often incorporate a host of many progressive pedagogical models and ideas, such as reform mathematics, block scheduling, project-based learning and whole language reading, OBE in itself does not specify or require any particular style of teaching or learning. Instead, it requires the students to demonstrate the skills and course content that they are required to learn. However in practice, OBE generally promotes curricula and assessment based on constructivist methods and discourages traditional education approaches based on direct instruction of facts and standard methods.

Each independent education agency specifies its own outcomes and its own methods of measuring student achievement according to those outcomes. The results of these measurements can be used for different purposes. For example, one agency may use the information to determine how well the overall education system is performing, and another may use its assessments to determine whether an individual student has learned required material.

Outcomes
The emphasis in an OBE education system is on measured outcomes rather than "inputs," such as how many hours students spend in class, or what textbooks are provided. Outcomes may include a range of skills and knowledge, reduction of youth unemployment , return-on-investment. Generally, outcomes are expected to be concretely measurable, that is, "Student can run 50 meters in less than one minute" instead of "Student enjoys physical education class." A complete system of outcomes for a subject area normally includes everything from mere recitation of fact ("Students will name three tragedies written by Shakespeare") to complex analysis and interpretation ("Student will analyze the social context of a Shakespearean tragedy in an essay"). Writing appropriate and measurable outcomes can be very difficult, and the choice of specific outcomes is often a source of local controversies.

Each educational agency is responsible for setting its own outcomes. Under the OBE model, education agencies may specify any outcome (skills and knowledge), but not inputs (field trips, arrangement of the school day, teaching styles). Some popular models of outcomes include the National Science Education Standards and the NCTM's Principles and Standards for School Mathematics[dubious – discuss], as well as European Union's Rethinking Education.

http://tomasinoweb.org/2013/features/outcomes-based-education-onwards-the-future.tw

As the term implies, the OBE focuses more on the outcomes of learning.

While the focus before is more on the inputs of the teaching-learning process—aiming on teachers, their facilities and their resources, among others—the OBE focuses on the outputs of learning instead. Examples are competencies acquired and developed by students and how these things become concrete and measurable to be applied in the future.

In planning the learning experiences of the students under OBE, teachers now create their class syllabi with the end in mind.