Continuous Improvement Innovation in Philippine Education: A Reflective Approach.

Without changing the way schools operate, improving the quality and achieving relevant and responsive education as stated in Philippine Development Plan would be short-lived. The Department of Education through its Enhanced Basic Education Information System (EBEIS) reveal that 3.06 % of the secondary learners and 1.18% of the elementary pupils in the country dropped from school in school year 2015-2016. This simple picture of DepEd's single performance indicator imply that there is a need towards quality improvements in all areas of the education system.Thus, the Department of Education (DepEd) is investing much on research to promote innovation related to accessible and responsive education to all learners. One recent initiative done was the adoption of continuous improvement in schools where school heads and identified teachers chose a particular priority improvement area that needs urgent attention and action. From there, the school CI team followed the CI methodology for six months. With this scenario, the study captured and showcased all the innovation made by the seven identified schools in Sarangani. The main objective of this study was to explore teachers' reflective experiences and the contribution of the innovation to the school and to the entire organization. The researchers used mean, percentage, key informant interview and videography in collecting data. Simple statistics and thematic analysis were utilized to analyze the data. The research findings showed that the customers of the CI innovations benefited and helped them improved in their respective performance. School heads attested that CI methodology is a promising tool to get the voice of the process owners and the learners as well. Despite of CI's contribution to schools, teachers were confronted with problems on administrative support, logistics, sustainability and monitoring and evaluation of the CI innovations. This research implies that though CI innovations increased teachers' awareness on their role in education, there is a need to intensify its implementation especially for remote schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]