Lesson 4: The Political Self

and Being Filipino

 LESSON OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lesson, you should
be able to:
1. Develop a Filipino identity;
2. Identify different Filipino values
and traits; and
3. Reflect on your selfhood in
relation to your national identity.
 ACTIVITY
Who Is a Filipino?
Cut out pictures or illustrations
from magazines and
newspapers that show what
being a Filipino is about. Paste
them below.
 Answer the questions below in relation
to what you have posted in the previous
activity.
How do the pictures remind you of
your being a Filipino?
ANALYSIS Are you proud of being a Filipino?
Why and why not?
Imagine that you were of a different
nationality. What would change in
you aside from your citizenship and
origin?
How extensive are the effects of
being Filipino in your selfhood?
 ABSTRACTION

- The Philippines as we know it today has only

emerged in the 1890s after over three
centuries of colonization of the Spaniards;
- Liberation from the last colonizers, the
Japanese, only occurred in 1946.
- Foreign culture, beliefs, language, and religion
have made a huge dent on our own by setting
a foundation to the contemporary Filipino
identity and culture.
 Who Is a Filipino?

- According to the 1987 Philippine Constitution,

Filipino citizens are:
“…those whose fathers or mothers are citizens of the
Philippines, those born before January 17, 1973, of
Filipino mothers, who elect Philippine citizenship
upon reaching the age of majority, and those who are
naturalized in accordance with law.”
- Citizenship is not the only marker of being a Filipino;
People who were born and grew up in the same culture
develop and share common personality traits and
values
 Filipino Values and Traits
The Filipino Hospitality
Filipinos welcome their guests and tourists as if they are their
own brothers and sisters. They always make their guests feel at
home, offering them something to eat, or even a place to stay.
• Respect for Elders
- Filipinos greet their elders by kissing their hand while saying
“Mano po!” and constantly using “po” and “opo” in
conversations.
- A wide array of references to elder people such as ate for older
sister; kuya for older brother; tito and tita for uncle and aunt; lolo
and lola for grandfather and grandmother; and manong and aling
for older people outside the family.
• Close Family Ties
- Filipinos maintain a tight relationship with their families.
They are fond of family reunions during birthdays,
holidays, or fiestas year-round.
- Some Filipino families even opt to live in a big house
where everyone can stay together. Nursing homes are
almost always not an option for family members.
• Cheerful Personality
Filipinos smile when they are happy, or sometimes
even when they are sad or angry. Smiling has been a
coping strategy for many Filipinos especially during
trying times and calamities.
• Self-sacrifice
- Filipinos go out of their way to extend help to their
friends, families, and loved ones.
- Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) sacrifice a lot. That
is why they are regarded as modern-day Filipino heroes.
• Bayanihan
It is the spirit of communal unity and cooperation of
Filipinos. It is also about giving without expecting
something in return.
• “Bahala Na” Attitude
- It is the Filipino version of the famous line “Hakuna
Matata,” meaning no worries.
- The phrase is said to have originated from “Bathala na,”
where Bathala means God, and the phrase meaning
leaving everything into God’s hands.
 Colonial Mentality
It is regarded as the lack of patriotism and the attitude where
Filipinos favor foreign products more than their own; but also
the desire to look more foreign than local and keep up with
foreign beauty trends.
• “Mañana” Habit
Filipino term for procrastination; derived from a Filipino
phrase called “Mamaya na” meaning dawdling things, which
could have been done at an earlier time.
• “Ningas Kugon”
- “Ningas” is a Filipino term for flame and “kugon” is a Filipino
term for Cogon grass that easily burns out after it is put into
flames. It is the attitude of eagerly starting things but quickly
losing eagerness soon after experiencing difficulty.
• Pride
Most Filipinos hold on to their pride as if they are
more precious than keeping a good relationship with
family and loved ones.
• Crab Mentality
It is a toxic trait among Filipinos where one resents the
achievement of another, instead of feeling happy for
that person; just like crabs in a container, they pull each
other down.
• Filipino Time
Filipinos have this common attitude of arriving late at
commitments, dinner, or parties especially if they are
meeting someone close to them.
 Filipino Markers
1. Proverbs or Salawikain
a. proverbs expressing a general attitude toward life
and the laws that govern life
b. ethical proverbs recommending certain virtues and
condemning certain vices
c. proverbs expressing a system of values
d. proverbs expressing general truths and
observations about life and human nature
e. humorous proverbs
f. miscellaneous proverbs
2. Superstitions
- Filipinos’ set of superstitions passed down from
generation to generation
- Some of these may be influenced by beliefs from
other cultures, but Filipinos have retold these
superstitions according to their own experiences.
3. Myths and Legends
- Due to the Philippines’s rich culture and history,
numerous myths and legends have sprung.
- These stories are aimed to explain the origin of
things, at the same time, teach a valuable lesson.
4. Heroes and Icons
- Heroes serve as a reminder of true
patriotism and nationalism as they have
sacrificed their lives for the sake of their
country’s freedom and progress.
- Famous Filipino icons such as Lea Salonga,
Manny Pacquiao, and our very own national
hero, Jose Rizal, have made the Filipino
name more pronounced worldwide through
their own expertise.
 How to Be A Good Filipino

1. Be an active Filipino citizen.

2. Study the Philippine history.
3. Support local products.
4. Speak the Filipino language.
5. Do not spread fake news and be
democratic in engaging with dissent.
 APPLICATION AND ASSESSMENT
1. Make an acrostic below which will describe you in relation to
your being a Filipino.

F
I
L
I
P
I
N
O
2. Discuss how being a Filipino
affects your “self.” How can
becoming a better Filipino
influence your duty to
becoming a better version of
yourself?
 Quiz:
Identify the following.
1. It is a toxic trait among Filipinos where one resents the
achievement of another, instead of feeling happy for
that person; just like crabs in a container, they pull
each other down. _____________
2. Liberation from the last colonizers, the Japanese, only
occurred in ? _____________
3. Derived from a Filipino phrase called “Mamaya na”
meaning dawdling things, which could have been done
at an earlier time. What do you called that habit?
________
4. It expressing a general attitude toward life and
the laws that govern life? __________
5. They serve as a reminder of true patriotism and
nationalism? ___________
6. It is the spirit of communal unity and
cooperation of Filipinos. ______________
7. These stories are aimed to explain the origin of
things, at the same time, teach a valuable
lesson. ___________
8. Some of these may be influenced by beliefs
from other cultures, but Filipinos have retold
these superstitions according to their own
experiences. _____________
9. Filipinos go out of their way to extend help to
their friends, families, and loved ones. _______
10. It is the attitude of eagerly starting things but
quickly losing eagerness soon after experiencing
difficulty. ________________
Lesson 5: Who Am I in the
Cyber World?
(Digital Self)
 LESSON OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lesson, you should be
able to:
1. Define online identity;
2. Compare real identity versus online
identity;
3. Describe the influence of Internet on
sexuality and gender; and
4. Discuss the proper way of
demonstrating values and attitudes
online.
 ACTIVITY
Three Facts, One Fiction
Construct four sentences that should start with “I
am______________.” Three of the four sentences should be
true about yourself. You can talk about your characteristics,
strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, personalities, and
behavior. One statement should be a lie—something that you
just made up about yourself. Make the activity more fun by
making your classmates believe that the statement is true.
1. I am __________________________________________.
2. I am __________________________________________.
3. I am __________________________________________.
4. I am __________________________________________.
 ANALYSIS
What have you learned from the activity? Did you
learn something from your classmates that you did not
know before? What were the clues that helped you
figure out which statements were facts and fiction?
Were your classmates able to discern easily the facts
and fiction about you? Why?
Applying the same activity in the virtual world or
cyberworld, how do people portray themselves online?
What are the things that you would want to post/share
online? What are the things you want others to share
online?
 ABSTRACTION
- More than half of the population worldwide now uses the
Internet.
- Internet has already become an integral part of everyday
life for most of the world’s population. The Philippines is
among one of the countries with the most active Internet
users.
- Online identity is actually the sum of all our characteristics
and our interactions.
- Partial identity is a subset of characteristics that make up
our identity.
- Persona is the partial identity we create that represents
ourselves in a specific situation.
 Selective Self-presentation and
Impression Management
- Self-presentation is the “process of controlling
how one is perceived by other people.”
- To construct positive images, individuals
selectively provide information about them and
carefully cater this information in response to
other’s feedback.
- Sharing ourselves is no longer new and has
been practiced as soon as human beings were
formed.
-Digital devices help us share information broadly,
more than ever before.

-We have entered an extraordinary era of self-

portraiture. In older family albums, the photographer
was not often represented in the album, whereas with
arm’s-length photos, they are necessarily included
(e.g., selfies and groupies).

-Conversion of private diaries into public revelations

of inner secrets; the lack of privacy in many aspects of
social media make the users more vulnerable.
- Sharing the good things, the bad, embarrassing, and
“sinful” things we experience; we also react and
comment on negative experiences of others;
empathize with people; argue with others online.
- Blogs and social media are the primary digital fora on
which such confessions occur, but they can also be
found in photo- and video-sharing sites where
blunders and bad moments are also preserved and
shared.
- We should have a filtering system to whatever
information we share online, as well as to what
information we believe in, which are being shared or
posted by others online.
 Gender and Sexuality Online
The terms “sex,” “gender,” and “sexuality” are often
thought of as synonymous. They are actually quite distinct:
- Sex is the biological state that corresponds to what we might call
a “man” or a “woman.” It is often explained as biological, fixed,
and immutable. It is actually socially constructed.
- Gender is the social understanding of how sex should be
experienced and how sex manifests in behavior, personality,
preferences, capabilities, and so forth; as a socioculturally
specific set of norms that are mapped onto a category of “sex.”
-Social media has been celebrated for
facilitating greater cultural participation and
creativity;

-Sexuality is an individual expression and

understanding of desire. While like gender,
this is often viewed as binary (homosexual or
heterosexual), in reality, sexuality is often
experienced as fluid.
 Performing Gender Online
- Judith Butler conceptualized gender as a
performance.
- Gender was performative, in that it is produced
through millions of individual actions, rather than
something that comes naturally to men and women.
- The ability of users to self-consciously adapt and
play with different gender identities would reveal the
choices involved in the production of gender,
breaking down binaries, and encouraging fluidity in
sexuality and gender expression.
- The emergence of a “free culture” where
individuals are empowered to engage in cultural
production using raw materials, ranging from
homemade videos to mainstream television
characters to create new culture, memes, and
humor.
- While the number of male and female bloggers is
roughly equivalent, they tend to blog about
different things;
- Although the technologies are the same, the
norms and mores of the people using them differ.
 Setting Boundaries to Your Online
Self: Smart Sharing
Before posting or sharing anything online, consider the
following:
- Is this post/story necessary?
- Is there a real benefit to this post? Is it funny, warm-
hearted, teachable—or am I just making noise online
without purpose?
- Have we (as a family or parent/child) resolved this
issue? An issue that is still being worked out at home,
or one that is either vulnerable or highly emotional,
should not be made public.
-Is it appropriate? Does it stay
within the boundaries of our family
values?
-Will this seem as funny in 5, 10,
or 15 years? Or is this post better
suited for sharing with a small
group of family members? Or
maybe not at all?
 Rules to Follow

Here are additional guidelines for

proper sharing of information and
ethical use of the Internet according
to New (2014):
- Stick to safer sites.
- Guard your passwords.
- Limit what you share.
-Remember that anything you put online
or post on a site is there forever, even if
you try to delete it.
-Do not be mean to or embarrass other
people online.
-Always tell if you see strange or bad
behavior online.
-Be choosy about your online friends.
-Be patient.
 APPLICATION AND
ASSESSMENT
1. Creative work. Form groups with three to four
members. In an illustration board, make a slogan or a
poster about becoming a responsible Internet user.
Use coloring materials to improve your output. Share
your output in class and record the
comments/reactions of your classmates.
2. Research work. Search from the library (books,
journals, or websites) for the guidelines used in
identifying fake news. Share in class the result of your
research work and your own insights about fake news.
 Quiz:
Answer the following questions.
A. Sexuality D. Sex G. Partial Identity
B. Gender E. Self-presentation H. Persona
C. Social Media F. Online Identity I. Digital devices
J. Conversation
_____1. It is an individual expression and understanding
of desire.
_____2. It was performative, produced through millions
of individual actions, rather than something that
comes naturally to men and women.
______3. It has been celebrated for facilitating greater
cultural participation and creativity.
_______4. It is the biological state that corresponds to
what we might call a “man” or a “woman”; biological,
fixed, and immutable.
________5. It is the “process of controlling how one is
perceived by other people.”
________6. It is actually the sum of all our characteristics
and our interactions.
________7. It is a subset of characteristics that make up
our identity.
_______8. It is the partial identity we create that
represents ourselves in a specific situation.
_______9. It help us share information broadly.
_______10. It is the private diaries into public
revelations of inner secrets.
MANAGING AND
CARING FOR THE
SELF
Learning to Be a Better
Learner
At the end of this lesson, you should be able
to:
1. Explain how learning occurs;
2. Enumerate various metacognition and
studying techniques; and
3. Identify the metacognitive techniques
that you find most appropriate for
yourself.
How Do You Think About Thinking?
Answer the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory
(MAI) and evaluate yourself as a learner. A copy of
the MAI can also be downloaded from the following
link:
https://www2.viu.ca/studentsuccessservices/learningstra
tegist/documents/Meta
cognitiveAwarenessInventory.pdf (accessed October 1,
2017).
Answer the questions below. Then write your answers in the
space provided.
1. Do you agree with the results of your MAI? Why or why
not?
2. Make a list of your “Top 5 Tips/Secrets for Studying” based
on your personal experiences/preferences. Share your answer
in class.
3. Does your MAI result consistent with your personal Top 5
Tips/Secrets for Studying?
• Metacognition
- Commonly defined as “thinking about thinking”
- It is the awareness of the scope and limitations
of your current knowledge and skills.
- Enables the person to adapt their existing
knowledge and skills to approach a learning
task, seeking for the optimum result of the
learning experience
-Includes keeping one’s emotions
and motivations while learning
in check
-The goal of metacognition is
for the student to be a self-
regulated learner.
- Metacognition basically has two aspects:
1) self-appraisal is your personal
reflection on your knowledge and
capabilities.
2) self-management is the mental
process you employ using what you
have in planning and adapting to
successfully learn or accomplish a
certain task.
- Similar concepts:
1) metacognitive knowledge or what
you know about how you think
2) metacognition regulation or how
you adjust your thinking processes
to help you learn better
- Under metacognitive knowledge, there are
several variables that affect how you know
or assess yourself as a thinker:
• personal variable, which is your
evaluation of your strengths and
weaknesses in learning
• task variable, which is what you know or
what you think about the nature of the
task, as well as what strategies the task
requires
 •strategy variable refers to what
strategies or skills you already have
in dealing with certain tasks.
-You must have an accurate self-
assessment—you must be honest about
what you know and capable of in order
to find ways to utilize your strengths
and improve on your weaknesses.
- The following are other skills that can help you
in exercising metacognition:
• Knowing your limits.
The scope and limitations of your resources
so that you can work with what you have at
the moment and look for ways to cope with
other necessities
• Modifying your approach.
The recognition that your strategy is not
appropriate with the task, to modify your
strategy in comprehending your material
• Skimming.
Browsing over a material and keeping an eye
on keywords, phrases, or sentences
It is also about knowing where to search for
such key terms.
• Rehearsing. It’s not just about repeatedly
talking, writing, and/or doing what you have
learned, but also trying to make a personal
interpretation or summary of the learning
experience.
• Self-Test. Trying to test your comprehension
of your learning experience or the skills you
have acquired during learning.
- Other strategies that you need to develop
include asking questions about your
methods, self-reflection, finding a mentor
or support group if necessary, thinking out
loud (though you have to be considerate of
others also when doing this), and
welcoming errors as learning experiences.
- Other tips that you can use in studying are the following:
1. Make an outline of the things you want to learn, the
things you are reading or doing, and/or the things you
remember.
2. Break down the task in smaller and more manageable
details.
3. Integrate variation in your schedule and learning
experience. Change reading material every hour and do
not put similar topics together.
4. Try to incubate your ideas.
5. Revise, summarize, and take down
notes, then reread them to help
you minimize cramming in the
last minute.
6. Engage what you have learned.
Scenario:
You are about to study for your final examinations and
it is as if the universe conspired for a heavy finals
week, all your subjects provided at least three new
reading materials and topics one week (7 days) before
the examination period.
Create a diagram or schedule using at least five of the
metacognitive strategies, skills, and studying techniques
mentioned in this lesson on how you would prepare for
the next seven days before your final examinations.
Quiz:
A. Modified TRUE or FALSE.
_____1. Task variable, evaluation of your
strengths and weaknesses in learning.
____2. Personal variable, what you know or
what you think about the nature of the task,
as well as what strategies the task requires.
____3. Strategy variable, strategies or skills
you already have in dealing with certain
tasks
_____4. Knowing your limits. is your personal
reflection on your knowledge and capabilities.
_____5. Self-appraisal the scope and
limitations of your resources.
_____6. Modifying your approach. to modify
your strategy in comprehending your material.
_____7. Self-Test browsing over a material
and keeping an eye on keywords, phrases, or
sentences.
_____8. Rehearsing personal interpretation
or summary of the learning experience.
_____9. Skimming to test your
comprehension of your learning experience
or the skills you have acquired during
learning.
_____10. self-management is the mental
process you employ using what you have in
planning and adapting to successfully learn
or accomplish a certain task.