Abstract. Quality education is envisioned to result in higher individual income and is necessary for any country's long-term economic growth. Enhancing student satisfaction and knowledge retention and elevating teacher pedagogical knowledge and competence to new heights can be attained through Structure, Modeling, Differentiation, and Assessment (SMDA), a dynamic instructional approach reshaping the learning landscape in private sectarian schools in achieving quality education. The pilot study determined if SMDA can enhance student satisfaction and knowledge retention and improve teacher pedagogical knowledge and competence. This quantitative research, utilizing a descriptive-correlational research design through a one-group pretest-posttest, measured students' satisfaction and knowledge retention levels and teachers' pedagogical knowledge and competence levels before and after implementing SMDA. The samples included 43 English, Math, and Science teachers and 325 students chosen through stratified sampling from the Marbel Diocesan Notre Dame Schools in South Cotabato, Sarangani, and Koronadal City. The findings indicate that students' satisfaction and knowledge retention significantly improved after implementing SMDA. Teachers demonstrated an enhanced level of competence and pedagogical knowledge following SMDA implementation. Furthermore, the study reveals that student satisfaction is unrelated to knowledge retention, indicating that students learn regardless of approaches. Teachers' pedagogical knowledge is unrelated to their competence, proposing that teachers' pedagogical knowledge does not equate to their competence. The study concluded that SMDA is an intentional and rigorous instructional approach, leading to recommendations for continued implementation, professional development, evaluation, and research on SMDA to improve education quality in the Philippines.

Keywords: Instructional approach; Learning; Pilot study; Teaching