Pasig Catholic College

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

School Year 2021-2022
PCC@109: Missio et Evangelizatio

Trends, Networks and Critical Thinking in the 21st Century Culture

SEPTEMBER 2021
Miss Maria Katrina E. Josef

Module 7: Neural and Social Networks

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

• Read and follow instructions carefully.

• Answer the “Let’s Try This” section before going through the lessons.
• Take note and record points for clarification.
• Compare your answers against the key to answers found at the end of the module if it’s applicable.
• Do the activities and fully understand each lesson.
• Answer the self-check to monitor what you learned in each lesson.
• Answer the posttest after you have gone over all the lessons.

OBJECTIVES

By the end of this module students will have completed the following objectives:

• Identify connections, relationships, and networks.

• Compare the neural networks and social networks.
• Establish linkage between the self and the social networks one belongs to.
• Demonstrate how thinking processes are shaped by social relationships.
• Measure the extent of understanding on how students affect and can affect the units of society and
determine if students were able to meet the minimum curriculum standard, moreover the importance of
practicing critical thinking in decision-making through an exit paper.

TO DO LIST

OBJECTIVES
This EXIT PAPER aims to achieve the following:
1. Measure the extent of understanding on how they affect and can affect the units of society.
2. Determine if they were able to meet the minimum curriculum standard, moreover the importance of
practicing critical thinking in decision-making.
RATIONALE
The K to 12 Curriculum targets to develop critical thinking skills and attitudes of learners of the 21 st
century. It is of utmost importance that students must realize how critical thinking and attitudes will be their
primary weapons in achieving their goals and aspirations in a society where uncertainty in inevitable. Grade 12
learners will face a whole new world as they step out of Pasig Catholic College. Therefore, they will encounter a
bigger and a more complicated environment in general. With this, the need to have these realizations as early as
now so they can prepare the mind and spirit that to achieve change is to be a catalyst of change. Thus, this exit
paper is the proof that this generation will be our game changer!

LECTURE NOTES
LET’S TRY THIS!
How to Develop Networks?
Each one of us has a set of social networks. The activity below shows the different networks that we form. Read
each question below and answer them by yourself. Write all the names of individuals that you can think of as
you answer all the questions below.

Question Answer
1. Who are the members of your immediate family?
 2. Whom do you usually hang-out with or talk with
during the weekends?
3. When you need to make decisions about your
personal or professional life, whom do you seek for
advice?
4. When you feel lonely or sad, whom do you call or
talk with to discuss your problem?
5. If you needed financial help, whom do you usually
go to?
1. What did you notice from the list of names that you wrote? Did each question generate a different list of
names? Did it contain similar names for every question? Write your observations.

2. Check the people that you wrote for each question, which names would usually come out? How many times
did that name show?

3. Each list represents a different social network for you and most likely it overlaps with other networks. Label
the list that you develop for each number by giving a name for each list to represent a particular social network.
You can create for example, “a family network”, “a professional career support network” or a “personal advice
network”.
Some questions presented in the pre-test are from Tends, Networks and Critical Thinking Skills in the 21st Century published by Phoenix Publishing House

Exploring Connections, Relationships, Networks

Social relations link each of us to a particular group and these relations that connect us with others can
produce diverse consequences. This lesson looks into the very nature of social relations. It explains
how relationship are formed through the connections that exist among individuals whether students, teachers,
schools, employees and administrators.
In the past modules, you learned about the local, global, and planetary networks. All these
networks present connections and relationships. Connection refers to something that joins two or more
objects or individuals. It also shows a situation wherein two or more objects or individuals have a similar,
cause, goal or origin. A Relationship refers to the state or condition of being connected; the way in
which two or more individuals or groups regard and behave toward one another; or the manner by
which two or more people, associations, or countries deal with each. A relationship always involves dyadic or
more levels of connection.

Neural Networks
The Nervous System, the one the controls and coordinates all the daily activities in the body. It is the decision
and communication center of the body. It performs two main functions: receiving and transmitting information
from the internal or external source to the brain; and relaying or sending back of information from the brain to
the appropriate body part that will perform the appropriate action. The Neural Network or the human brain is the
human computer responsible for controlling the automatic and higher functions of the body. It is composed of
groups of neurons, which are highly specialized cells, and billions of connecting links between their branches. It
also contains the nerve tracts, which are like cable that receive, store and transmit messages to the various parts
of the body in a coordinated manner. From your brain, the nerves reach your ears, eyes, nose, face, and spinal
cord and from the spinal cord to the other parts of your body. The sensory nerves gather information from the
environment, then send that information to the spinal cord which, in turn sends message to the brain.

Social Network
A Social Network refers to an arrangement having a set of actors such as individuals or organizations and a set
of dyadic ties (relationship between two individuals) among these actors. It is a social structure composed of
nodes, generally individuals or organizations, that are linked by common ancestry such as kinship ties or
mutually shared interests.

Comparison Table for Social Network and Neural Network

Neural Network Social Network

Links Nerve cells People

Purpose • To keep the proper • To maintain kinship ties
physical and mental • To show common interests
functioning of the body
• To keep the body alive
 Location Human head Community

Source of message Brain Person

Receiver of message Specific part of the body Individual members

Transmission of message Neuron connections (dendrites, • Verbal and
axons) nonverbal connections
• Use of technology

Time frame of transmission Within seconds; fast speed Varying speeds

and reception of message
Reaction or feedback of the Normally an action specific Varied reactions
receiver or appropriate to the body part
Boundary Human body Group, association, club

The Self and the Social Network

Self- The representation of one’s identity that distinguishes him or her from other identities. 3 main parts that
maintain the self’s function:

1. Self-knowledge- Enables people to learn about themselves based on collected information and beliefs about
themselves. There are 4 ways in which people do this: (1) the looking-glass self, you learn about yourself
through other people such as when you hear what other people say about you. (2) Introspection, which
is gaining knowledge about yourself through your inner emotions and thinking such as knowing what you feel
although you cannot explain. (3) Social Comparison, which involves comparing yourself with other people who
may be better or worse than you. (4) Self-Perception, your belief about yourself is based on your behavior.

Self-esteem, refers to how you evaluate yourself positively and negatively based on the reactions you
receive from other people. Self-awareness, consist of looking inward, involving your emotions, beliefs, feelings
and thoughts on the hand and knowing yourself through other people’s perception about you. Self-deception,
mental tricks of a person’s mind the hide the truth and constitute false beliefs.

2. Interpersonal Self- your public self, your social side, which you present publicly.

3. Agent Self- the executive function, your preferences, decision skills and control over situations and actions.

For social psychologists, the creation of the self can be understood through the symbolic interaction
theory which explains how the sense of self emerges through people’s interactions with one another in the
various social networks they belong to. Symbolic interaction emphasizes the idea that the sense of self is
constructed by these two methods:

1. The self as a product of social structures and their interaction. The social structure provides a set of rules,
standards, values, code of ethics, beliefs, roles and other guidelines that the individual has to observe and follow.
Failure to observe these makes the person appear different and consequently be treated as a deviant (one who go
against the rules).
2. The self as a product of face-to-face interaction with other. Personal or face-to-face interaction with others
enables a person to apply the looking-glass self. A person sees the self in others whom he or she can identify
with. Face-to-face interaction likewise gives a person the opportunity to develop self-esteem by knowing what
others think or know about him or her.

Symbols, interpretations, and meanings are salient to symbolic interaction, which involves human and social
interactions. Meanings expressed through language evolve from social interaction. Language enables people to
name things and designate objects or actions to certain idea or phenomenon. Thus symbols are created to
interpret and express actions, behaviors and ideas.

Shaping the Mind through Social Relationships

A person is a social actor. A person possesses physical, spiritual, and mental faculties which are used in
dealing with the self, other people, and the surroundings, But the physical and spiritual faculties can only be
exercised upon the instructions of the mental faculties. It is the mind that dictates and gives instructions to the
physical and spiritual faculties. A healthy mind is unconstrained by physical disabilities and thus can relate well
with society when the person chooses to.

There are multiple role that a person can play in the community. As can be observed, a role is associated
with a person’s relationship with others. It can also be associated with the person’s occupation or profession
each role has corresponding functions performed in different and appropriate situations. These functions are
dictated by norms, which vary according to the community and practitioners. A role also composed of a set of
obligations, duties and rights or privileges and expected behavior patterns associated by the community to an
individual based on social status, job or social position. A role is a window to a person’s personality and
behavior, and it indicates what people can expect from him or her. How the person performs the functions
corresponding to his or her role will show is the person is responsible, trustworthy, efficient, negligent or
unreliable. An example is Bingbong Crisologo. He was a criminal and drug addict, but after staying some time
in jail, spiritual changed have happened which led him to become a pastor. From being feared and hated, he
became loved and respected.

Various roles are ranked in the order of prestige, value and importance accorded by the
community. Prestige is the respect and admiration that an occupation or role holds in a community. It is
independent from the individual who holds the job or role. In other words, the role or the position itself
commands respect and admiration regardless of the occupant or player. The value and importance now vary
according to a community. Every community has its own value which we call the social role valorization (SRV).

ACTIVITY:

OBJECTIVES
This EXIT PAPER aims to achieve the following:
1. Measure the extent of understanding on how they affect and can affect the units of society.
2. Determine if they were able to meet the minimum curriculum standard, moreover the importance of
practicing critical thinking in decision-making.
RATIONALE
The K to 12 Curriculum targets to develop critical thinking skills and attitudes of learners of the 21 st
century. It is of utmost importance that students must realize how critical thinking and attitudes will be their
primary weapons in achieving their goals and aspirations in a society where uncertainty in inevitable. Grade 12
learners will face a whole new world as they step out of Pasig Catholic College. Therefore, they will encounter a
bigger and a more complicated environment in general. With this, the need to have these realizations as early as
now so they can prepare the mind and spirit that to achieve change is to be a catalyst of change. Thus, this exit
paper is the proof that this generation will be our game changer!

REFERENCES

Enriquez, R. (2020). Trends, Networks and Critical Thinking in the 21st Century. Diwa Learning System, Inc.

Dela Cruz, R & Dela Cruz R. (2017). Wired! Trends, Networks and Critical Thinking in the 21st Century.
Phoenix Publishing House