Jose Fadul

Jose Arabe Fadul is a multi-awarded Filipino science educator, psychologist, historian, and author of works in psychology, chess and other subjects. In 1995 he was the chair of the Information Science Group of the University of the Philippines National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development when he resigned to work for a private firm dealing with computer services. In 1998 he joined the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde to teach social science courses and by 2005 he was appointed full professor in the said educational institution. Fadul's severe stuttering since childhood did not prevent him from becoming successful in life. Furthermore, he had gone through several life-threatening illnesses such as pulmonary tuberculosis, diabetes mellitus, toxic goiter but overcame them through medication.
Fadul currently lives in Manila with his wife and daughter.
Educational Background
Jose A. Fadul was born in Manila on July 2, 1961, the fifth of six children: four girls and two boys. His mother, the former Saturnina P. Arabe of Binalonan, Pangasinan, was an outstanding public school teacher handling remedial reading while his father, Martin O. Fadul, was a government employee and a free-lance contributor to the Philippine Free Press magazine. Fadul studied in public schools (Division of City Schools-Manila): G. Lopez-Jaena Primary School, Legarda Elementary School, and Manila Science High School. He obtained his Bachelor in Secondary Education (1983), Master of Arts (1990), and a Ph.D. (1999) degrees from the University of the Philippines, Diliman.
He has taught secondary and tertiary education at the Rizal Technological and Polytechnic Institute, University of the Philippines, Los Baños, and at his alma mater, the University of the Philippines, Diliman. In 1985 and 1986 Fadul also took up and finished computer programming and other courses at the National Computer Institute of the National Computer Center.
Fadul as Author
Fadul started writing and editing essays, articles, reviews and experiments for various popular science magazines for elementary and high schools since 1986, but his later major works were first published by the De La Salle University Press in 2002. Fadul compiled materials from the worksheets he has been using in teaching the Rizal Course into two eye-opening workbooks: A Workbook for a Course in Rizal and its version in Filipino Sanayang-Aklat sa Kursong Rizal.
Later, the C & E Publishing took on his works' succeeding editions. In 2005, Fadul in the International Journal of Learning published The Learning-Centered Paradigm: a Synthesis of the Curriculum-Centered and Learner-Centered Paradigms and then used the same to write a primer on designing worksheets for classroom use which won him first prize in sponsored by the Center for Learner-Centered Instruction and Research. His two other frequently-cited original research articles, Mathematical Formulations of Learning: Based on Ten Learning Principles and Resonant Teaching: Prolonging the Half-Life of the Learning Process were likewise published in the said refereed journal in 2006 and 2007, respectively.
Government Service
After graduating from college in 1983, Fadul humbly started as a secondary school teacher at the Rizal Technological and Polytechnic Institute (now University of Rizal System), and in the following year, he transferred to the University of the Philippines, Los Baños and taught at the University of the Philippines Rural High School. He moved to the Institute for Science and Mathematics Educational Development (now, National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development) in 1986 and rose from the ranks: from a research associate to researcher to Science Education Specialist, while part-time teaching at the College of Education of the University of the Philippines. He was involved with projects with the Department of Education, Culture and Sports-Education Task Force (DECS-EDPITAF), Bureau of Non-Formal Education (DECS-BNFE), and most public urban and rural schools. In December 1995 Fadul, together with Milagros D. Ibe, represented the Philippines in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (or TIMSS, later changed to Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) held in Boston, Mass. Having gotten married early that year, Fadul resigned from government service to work for Eduvision 2000, a private firm dealing with computer services; but he got afflicted with pulmonary tuberculosis before getting regularized in his new job. While recovering, he concentrated on finishing his doctoral dissertation. Although Fadul has moved to the private, sectarian De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde since 1998, he remains in touch with public schools and with his former colleagues at the National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development, occasionally conducting seminars and presenting technical papers.
Fadul as a Polymath
Fadul was an exceptional early achiever in grade school and his case was studied, with his parents' consent, by a psychologist based in the Philippine General Hospital and two master teachers majoring in special education in 1972 and 1974, respectively. In high school, though with speech difficulty, he was known to be a person who can write and talk on various fields: his high school term papers and some prize-winning projects dealt with chess history and variants, melissopalynology, paper chromatography, remote sensing, firearms, mineralogy, astronomy, fractals, church history, etc.
In his college days he was co-editor of The Baptist Contender, a religious magazine. When he was with UP-ISMED, he worked from one group to another and was invited as a resource person on various fields. He also read a paper on the state of computer education in the Philippines in the second of the series of the Dolores Hernandez Lecture Series, and headed the development of a number of software programs for science and mathematics education, and the use of the internet; his Master's thesis (1990) was on values indicators in environmental education, while his Ph.D. dissertation (1999) was on the development of the concept of mortality in children.
Currently teaching at the School of Multidisciplinary Studies of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, his contributions continue to range from Rizaline Studies to psychology to natural sciences and mathematics. On top of his commitments, he continues to do artworks
and to serve as a member of thesis and dissertation panels in the University of the Philippines, Diliman, the University of Santo Tomas, and Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. Fadul was one of the virtual presenters in the 12th, 13th and 14th international conferences on learning, and continues to be one of the associate editors in the International Journal of Learning. In 2007, Fadul was admitted into membership in, among others, SITO, the International High IQ Society and the International Society of the Learning Sciences.
Published Works
Fadul's publications include
* A Courseware in Rizal in CD-ROM (1999)
* A Workbook for a Course in Rizal (De La Salle University Press 2002; C&E 2008) ISBN 971-555-426-1, ISBN 978-971-584-648-6 <big>
* Sanayang-Aklat sa Kursong Rizal (DLSU Press 2003) ISBN 971-555-485-7 <big>
* Rubrics for Portfolio Assessment in the Rizal Course (DLSU Press 2005) ISBN 971-555-511-X <big>
* "The Learning-Centered Paradigm: Synthesis of the Curriculum-Centered and Learner-Centered Paradigms" International Journal of Learning Volume 12, Issue 4, pp. 161-176 (CG Publishers 2005/2006)
* "Mathematical Formulations of Learning: Based on Ten Learning Principles" International Journal of Learning Volume 13, Issue 6, pp. 139-152 (CG Publishers 2006)
* "Resonant Teaching: Prolonging the Half-Life of the Learning Process" International Journal of Learning Volume 14, Issue 1, pp. 27-32 (CG Publishers 2007)
* "Collective Learning: Applying Distributed Cognition for Collective Intelligence" International Journal of Learning Volume 16, Issue 4, pp. 211-220 (CG Publishers 2009)
* The Butterflies that Rizal Chased, Collected, and Studied (Lulu Press 2007) ISBN 978-1-4303-2369-3 <big>
* A Workbook for a Course in General Psychology (Lulu Press 2007) ISBN 978-1-4303-2057-9 <big>
* Encyclopedia Rizaliana (Lulu Press 2008) ISBN 978-1-4303-1142-3 <big>
* Lessons in Chess, Lessons in Life (Lulu Press 2009) ISBN 978-0-557-01191-9 <big>
* Kites in History, in Teaching, and in Therapy (Lulu Press 2009) ISBN 978-0-557-03771-1 <big>
Honors, Awards and Controversies
Though afflicted with stuttering, at age 10 (1972) the Children's Museum and Library, Inc. recognized and awarded Fadul a gold medal as a child prodigy: he earlier won medals in inter-school journalism, junior chess, poetry, and on-the-spot drawing contests. He was editor-in-chief of Ang Tinig, the official paper of G. Lopez-Jaena Primary School. In high school he was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Scientist (TOYS) during the 1978 National Science Fair and Quiz by the National Science Development Board. Though not a consistent honor student in high school and college, Fadul was receiving awards outside school during his student years. When he started working he continued to embark on other interests such as "backyard astronomy" and rizalites. While with the University of the Philippines, Fadul was awarded a scholarship by the Regional Centre for Education in Science and Mathematics in Malaysia in 1990 and a research fellowship by the Hiroshima University Faculty of Education in 1991. While in Japan, he read a paper on science education and learning paradigms in the Philippines in a national convention on education held in Kumamoto University. The Hiroshima Prefecture granted him an "ambassador of friendship" award upon finishing his fellowship in Hiroshima University.
His other awards include outstanding faculty recognitions from the schools where he taught. His views on usog, however, was considered to be too speculative; his suggestion on the comparative study of saliva of humans was ignored by the scientific community; and his employment of kite flying and chess games in psychotherapy are considered too unconventional.

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