Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Foundation of Curriculum Final PDF
Foundation of Curriculum Final PDF
Nature of Curriculum
Students centred
Unit-II Activity centred 55 to 82
Community centred
Forward looking principle
Principles of integration
Theories of curriculum development
Determinants of Curriculum
Explosion of knowledge
Information vs. Knowledge
Nurturing creativity construction
Unit-III Society 83 to 150
Social forces
Revolutionary change in Society
ICT
Growth and Development of Learner
Nature of Subject matter
Title
Approaches to Curriculum
Subject centred
Learner centred
Unit-IV Community centred 151 to 161
Curriculum Framework
Humanistic Curriculum
Characteristic of Humanistic
Unit-V curriculum 162 to 202
Psychological basis of humanistic
curriculum
Social reconstructionist curriculum
Role of Teacher
-Anne Ambroziak
INTRODUCTION:
It is derived from the Latin word ‘currere’ which means “to run”, this
definition was produced by Pinar (1974) to highlight the running (or
lived experience). Indeed, for many students, the school curriculum is
a race to be run, a series of obstacles or hurdles (subjects) to be
passed. It is the “what” of teaching. A dynamic process. All the
activities going on the school or outside of the school is called
curriculum. It is basic to the intellectual, physical, moral and
emotional development of the child.
CURRICULUM:
Curriculum comprises all the learning which is planned
and guided by the school, whether it is carried on in
groups or individually inside or outside of the school.
- Kerr
1
Some definitions of curriculum:-
Many writers advocate their own preferred definition of
curriculum, which emphasizes other meanings or connotations,
particularly those the term has taken on recently.
Goodson and Marsh (1996) point out that the National Curriculum in
the United Kingdom is simply a reconstitution of the subjects
included in the Secondary Regulations of 1904, suggesting that
‘historical amnesia allows curriculum reconstruction to be presented
as curriculum revolution’ (p. 157).
4
The subjects that make up this curriculum are usually chosen in terms
of major present-day issues and problems within society, but the
definition itself does not preclude individual students from making
their own choices about which subjects are most useful.
The curriculum is the plans made for guiding learning in the schools,
usually represented in retrievable documents of several levels of generality,
and the actualization of those plans in the classroom, as experienced by the
learners and as recorded by an observer; those experiences take place in a
learning environment that also influences.
Examination oriented
Text Book based examinations
Emphasis on theory not practical
Heavy syllabus
Rote learning is encouraged
Not to life oriented
Not helpful to vocation
Not developing the whole personality
CONCEPTS OF CURRICULUM:
Walker (2003) argues that the fundamental concepts of curriculum
include:
Purpose,
Organization,
Content.
CONTENT:
Which may be depicted in terms of concept maps, topics
and themes, all of which are abstractions which people have invested
and named;
PURPOSE:
Usually categorized as intellectual, social and personal;
often divided into super ordinate purposes; stated purposes are not
always reliable indicators of actions;
ORGANIZATION:
Planning is based upon scope and sequence (order of
presence over time); and can be tightly organized or relatively open-
ended.
Prescriptive,
Descriptive.
Prescriptive [curriculum]
7
8
Descriptive Definitions of Curriculum:
The descriptive definitions of curriculum
displayed in Exhibit 1.2 go beyond the pre- scriptive terms
as they force thought about the curriculum “not merely in
terms of how things ought to be . . . but how things are in
real classrooms” (Ellis, 2004).
9
Date Author Definition
1935 Hollis Caswell & All the experiences children
Doak Campbell have under the guidance of
teachers.
11
CONCEPTIONS OF CURRICULUM:
Longstreet and Shane (1993) refer to four major
conceptions of curriculum:
society-oriented curriculum: the purpose of schooling is to
serve society;
13
We make sense of our world and go about our daily lives
by engaging in concept building. We acquire and develop concepts so
that we can gain meaning about persons and events and in turn
communicate these meaning to others.
Some concepts are clearly of more importance than others. The key
concepts provide us with the power to explore a variety of situations
and events and to make significant connections.
Other concepts may be meaningful in more limited situations but play
a part in connecting unrelated facts.
Every field of study contains a number of key concepts and lesser
concepts which relate to substantive and methodological issues
unique to that discipline/ field of study. Not
unexpectedly, scholars differ over their respective lists of key
concepts, but there is, nevertheless, considerable agreement (see, for
example, Hayes, 2006). With regard to the curriculum field there is a
moderate degree of agreement over key concepts.
14
To ensure that a list of key concepts is comprehensive and
representative of all these sources would be an extremely
daunting task. A proxy often used by researchers is to examine
textbooks, especially synoptic textbooks (those books which
provide comprehensive accounts and summaries of a wide
range of concepts, topics and issues in curriculum).
conceptions of curriculum/models/approaches;
curriculum history;
16
In Australia, three major texts focus directly upon curriculum
concepts.
Brady and Kennedy (2007) examine social contexts,
curriculum planning models, assessment and evaluation, and
curriculum change.
2. Alternative perspectives.
17
Generic categories
The generic categories include the following:
Characteristics of curriculum
Some curriculum experts, such as Goodlad (1979), contend that an
analysis of definitions is a useful starting point for examining the field
of curriculum.
Other writers argue that there are important concepts or
characteristics that need to be considered and which give some
insights into how particular value orientations have evolved and why
(Westbury, 2007).
18
In a later publication, Pinar (2004) argues that ‘public school
teachers have been reduced to domestic workers instructed by
politicians’ and that education professors are losing – have lost? –
control of the curriculum we teach’.
3. Curriculum Experience,
4. Curriculum Evaluation.
21
Curriculum experience could not be effective if the content is not
clearly defined. The aims, goals and directions serve as the anchor of
the learning journey, the content or subject matter serve as the meat of
the educational journey, curriculum experience serves as the hands –
on exposure to the real spectrum of learning and finally the
curriculum evaluation serves as the barometer as to how far had the
learners understood on the educational journey.
Objectives,
Content,
Learning Experiences.
22
Unquestionably, there is much content and a variety of learning
experiences to include.
Committee members must decide not only what content and learning
experiences to include, but also, and more importantly, the
relationship of objectives and content as well as the relationship of
objectives to learning experiences. Relationship of Objectives and
Content Objectives are usually stated in terms of expected outcomes.
This type of list shows what the science teacher intends to teach but
not what the expected outcomes of instruction will be. The content
outline is useful for the teacher in planning and guiding instruction,
but it is insufficient for the statement of behavioural objectives. To be
useful in teaching, behavioural objectives must be linked to content.
23
In his classic text on curriculum, Tyler defined the term learning
experiences as follows:
3. The learning experience must “fit” the students’ needs and abilities.
This infers that the teacher must begin where the student is ability-
wise and that prior knowledge is the starting point for new
knowledge.
24
The history of one’s country can affect its educational system and the
kind of curriculum it has. If we are going to trace the formal
beginning of curriculum, we get back in time to Franklin Bobbit’s
book entitled, “The Curriculum” which was published in 1918.
1. Behaviourism
2. Cognitivism
3. Humanism
In this theory, curriculum is after the process, not the product; focuses
on personal needs, not on the subject matter; and clarifying
psychological meanings and environmental situations. In short,
curriculum views founded on humanism posits that learners are
human beings who are affected by their biology, culture, and
environment. They are neither machines nor animals.
Though schools are formal institutions that educate the people, there
are other units of society that educate or influence the way people
think, such as families and friends as well as communities.
Since the society is dynamic, there are many developments which are
difficult to cope with and to adjust to. But the schools are made to
address and understand the changes not only in one’s country but in
the world as well.
Nature of curriculum:
33
Foundations of Curriculum
The curriculum reflects the society and culture of a country and this is
the desire of a society that their children should learn the habits, ideas,
attitudes and skills of the adult society and culture and educational
institutional are the proper way to impart these skill. This duty of
teacher and school to discipline the young of the society and provide
them the set of experiences in the form of curriculum. The needs,
knowledge and information of the society provide foundation in the
formation of curriculum
Philosophy means the love of wisdom, it search for truth, not simple
truth, It search for eternal truth, reality and general principles of life.
Curriculum help in the practical use of knowledge in real life
situations and understanding realities and ideas of life and this world
that why curriculum is called the dynamic side of
philosophy.
34
Curriculum is used for the modification of the behaviour of the
students and philosophy help in the process of finding new ways and
basis for teachers and curriculum planner to modify their behaviour.
Philosophy also helps in the exploring new methods of teaching and
how to apply in the classroom situation for better achievement of the
teaching learning process. It also provides new ways and methods for
the evaluation of student’s achievement and evaluation of curriculum.
Today the world emphasis on finding new ways through which man
develops new concepts of reality and knowledge and to form a new
structure of knowledge in this dynamic and changing time therefore a
high value is given to discovery, invention and restructuring of
knowledge and curriculum in new patterns. Now the new curriculum
is open to new experiences, logical and critical thinking, and to bring
about the concept of knowledge out of interpreted experience.
Philosophy and ideology of education provide rules and principles
which lead the in decision-making regarding educational practices
and polices planning. It Guides the curriculum planner on the basses
of the philosophical and ideological belief of the society in the
constructing of subject matter keeping in view the future demands and
needs of the schools and help in the promoting of human life through
social change in the behaviour of the students.
35
Philosophy and ideology has direct effect in curriculum planning
because it guides the curriculum planner in the selection of the
objectives and. As it provides guidelines in the selection of objectives,
Learning experiences and content of the curriculum, and how to
evaluate the curriculum, learning experiences and achievements of the
students.
37
They are finding new ways and materials from the analysis of
teaching learning problem and formulating new approaches
for teaching and learning process.
39
To study a topic in depth or more helpful in the discovering
the relationships between them than try to cover the whole
material in once.
40
The role of psychology in the development of curriculum is vast and
with each day it is becoming increasingly more meaningful and
unavoidable.
41
Sociological factors have highest impact on the content of curriculum
and that is the reason that curriculum developers and planner both
reflect and transfer their own culture in curriculum.
43
To find how much and to which degree the society and culture affect
the education system of that society is controversial issue.
44
Historical Foundations
It includes
1. Role of curriculum in achievements of nations.
2. Guides future plans
3. Factors that influence development of nation e.g. unity
4. Eliminates the useless traditions.
The history of the curriculum also changed the teaching methods, now
every researcher are finding new ways to teach and it is also
becoming the part of curriculum an history.
Today majority of the develop countries are those countries who have
a long history of freedom and proper education system. They
achieved their successes through education and implementation of
time needed curriculum.
46
History helps in the eliminations of useless traditions:
47
The fourth stage start at the age of twenty five to thirty years and in
this age they get the training of Mathematical calculation and last for
another ten years, after the completion the selected one’s are admitted
in the study of dialect.
During fifth stage they study dialect for another five years and after
that, at the sixth stage one is ready to become a ruler and philosopher
and the one enter in practical life.
The 11th century was a dark era for education. Few people in Western
Europe were receiving any kind of schooling and across the globe;
contributions were being made to the future of education.
The first paper mill was built in France in 1338. Paper was a Chinese
invention (c. 600 AD), brought to Europe by the Arabs in the 11th
century.
The great educator of Islam, Imam Ghazali was born in 1059 AD near
Tus in Khurasan, a part of the then Persia.
Curriculum:
Proper planning:
Ghazali stresses the importance of planning and advises that teachers
should do his preparation before teaching to make it effective
Abilities of students:
Economical Foundations:
It focuses on:
o Job or market oriented curriculum
o Skill learning
Economic Factors:
Allocation of funds
The financial condition of a country reflects its curriculum because
without proper funding one can’t achieve the outcome of a good
curriculum. It is the financial aspect of a country which guide them to
adopt which type of curriculum, for example activity base or learner
centre curriculum need more money in the process of the
implementation of the curriculum then subject matter curriculum.
52
Because activity base and learner centre curriculum need more
space and money then subject matter, for that reason in Pakistan we
adopted subject base curriculum because we have shortage of schools,
classrooms in schools, trained teachers.
Teachers are the core of education system and without proper training
one can’t implement a curriculum and to support the curriculum one
need to train the entire teacher on that style of curriculum. So the
skills of the teachers also guide the direction of the curriculum, and to
develop these skills in the teachers need funds.
Lack of labs due to financial problems:
The lack of labs and libraries also affect the curriculum development
process because without proper computer labs in cities and villages
one can’t implement computer education curriculum all over the
country.
53
55
UNIT-II
56
1. Principle of Child Centeredness.
Highlights
6. Principle of Conservation;
7. Principle of Creativity;
9. Principle of Flexibility;
57
Therefore, his needs and desires must be in conformity with the needs
and desires of the society in which he is to live. The values, attitudes
and skills that are prevailing in the community must be reflected in
the curriculum. However, the society is not static. ]
It is dynamic. Its needs and requirements are changing with the rapid
developments taking place in all fields. While working for the
development, this factor cannot be ignored.
3. Principle of Activity Centeredness.
The purposeful activities both in the class-room and outside the class-
room should be provided.
58
4. Principle of Variety.
The needs of pupils also change from place to place. For example, the
pupils in rural areas, urban areas, and hilly areas will have different
needs.
The needs of boys and girls are also different. So these considerations
should be reflected in the curriculum.
5. Principle of Co-ordination and Integration.
6. Principles of Conservation.
59
7. Principle of Creativity.
9. Principle of Flexibility.
60
This gives us some basis to move on – and for the moment all we
need to do is highlight two of the key features:
61
3. Curriculum as process.
4. Curriculum as praxis.
62
Where people still equate curriculum with a syllabus they are likely to
limit their planning to a consideration of the content or the body of
knowledge that they wish to transmit. ‘It is also because this view of
curriculum has been adopted that many teachers in primary schools’,
Kelly (1985: 7) claims, ‘have regarded issues of curriculum as of no
concern to them, since they have not regarded their task as being to
transmit bodies of knowledge in this manner’.
63
Curriculum as product:
The dominant modes of describing and managing education are today
couched in the productive form. Education is most often seen as a
technical exercise.
Objectives are set, a plan drawn up, then applied, and the outcomes
(products) measured. It is a way of thinking about education that has
grown in influence in the United Kingdom since the late 1970s with
the rise of vocationalism and the concern with competencies.
Thus, in the late 1980s and the 1990s many of the debates about the
National Curriculum for schools did not so much concern how the
curriculum was thought about as to what its objectives and content
might be.
However numerous and diverse they may be for any social class they
can be discovered. This requires only that one go out into the world
of affairs and discover the particulars of which their affairs consist.
These will show the abilities, attitudes, habits, appreciations and
forms of knowledge that men need.
64
One telling criticism that was made, and can continue to be made, of
such approaches is that there is no social vision or programme to
guide the process of curriculum construction.
65
Rather, the growing influence of ‘progressive’, child-centred
approaches shifted the ground to more romantic notions of education.
Bobbitt’s long lists of objectives and his emphasis on order and
structure hardly sat comfortably with such forms.
66
We can see how these concerns translate into a nicely-ordered
procedure: one that is very similar to the technical or productive
thinking set out below.
67
The success or failure of both the programme and the individual
learners is judged on the basis of whether pre-specified changes occur
in the behaviour and person of the learner (the meeting of behavioural
objectives). If the plan is tightly adhered to, there can only be limited
opportunity for educators to make use of the interactions that occur. It
also can deskill educators in another way.
For example, most informal educators who have been around a few
years will have had the experience of an ex-participant telling them in
great detail about how some forgotten event (forgotten to the worker
that is) brought about some fundamental change. Yet there is
something more. In order to measure, things have to be broken down
into smaller and smaller units. The result, as many of you will have
experienced, can be long lists of often trivial skills or competencies.
This can lead to a focus in this approach to curriculum theory and
practice on the parts rather than the whole; on the trivial, rather than
the significant. It can lead to an approach to education and
assessment which resembles a shopping list. When all the items are
ticked, the person has passed the course or has learnt something.
68
Third, there is a real problem when we come to examine what
educators actually do in the classroom, for example. Much of the
research concerning teacher thinking and classroom interaction, and
curriculum innovation has pointed to the lack of impact on actual
pedagogic practice of objectives (see Stenhouse 1974; and Cornbleth
1990, for example).
One way of viewing this is that teachers simply get it wrong – they
ought to work with objectives. I think we need to take this problem
very seriously and not dismiss it in this way. The difficulties that
educators experience with objectives in the classroom may point to
something inherently wrong with the approach – that it is not
grounded in the study of educational exchanges. It is a model of
curriculum theory and practice largely imported from technological
and industrial settings.
69
Curriculum as process
Curriculum as process
Teachers enter particular schooling and situations with an ability to think critically, -in
Guided by these, they encourage conversations between, and with, people in the situat
Perhaps the two major things that set this apart from the model for
informal education are first, the context in which the process occurs
(‘particular schooling situations’); and second, the fact that teachers
enter the classroom or any other formal educational setting with a
more fully worked-through idea of what is about to happen.
70
This form of words echoes those of Lawrence Stenhouse (1975) who
produced one of the best-known explorations of a process model of
curriculum theory and practice. He defined curriculum tentatively: ‘A
curriculum is an attempt to communicate the essential principles and
features of an educational proposal in such a form that it is open to
critical scrutiny and capable of effective translation into practice’. He
suggests that a curriculum is rather like a recipe in cookery.
Stenhouse shifted the ground a little bit here. He was not saying that
curriculum is the process, but rather the means by which the
experience of attempting to put an educational proposal into practice
is made available.
71
This was then developed and a curriculum became: ‘an organic
process by which learning is offered, accepted and internalized’
(Newman & Ingram 1989: 1). The problem with this sort of
definition, as Robin Barrow (1984) points out, is that what this does is
to widen the meaning of the term to such an extent that it just about
becomes interchangeable with ‘education’ itself.More specifically, if
curriculum is process then the word curriculum is redundant because
process would do very nicely! The simple equation of curriculum
with process is a very slap-happy basis on which to proceed.We also
need to reflect on why curriculum theory and practice came into use
by educators (as against policy-makers). It was essentially as a way
of helping them to think about their work before, during and after
interventions; as a means of enabling educators to make judgments
about the direction their work was taking. This is what Stenhouse
was picking up on.
There are a number of contrasts in this model of curriculum theory
and practice as compared with the product model. First, where the
product model appeals to the workshop for a model, this process
model looks to the world of experimentation.
73
Fourth, the learners in this model are not objects to be acted upon.
They have a clear voice in the way that the sessions evolve. The
focus is on interactions. This can mean that attention shifts from
teaching to learning. The product model, by having a pre-specified
plan or programme, tends to direct attention to teaching. For
example, how can this information be got over? A process approach
to curriculum theory and practice, it is argued by writers like Grundy
(1987), tends towards making the process of learning the central
concern of the teacher. This is because this way of thinking
emphasizes interpretation and meaning-making. As we have seen
each classroom and each exchange is different and has to be made
sense of.
74
75
Curriculum as praxis
It may, for example, be used in such a way that does not make
continual reference to collective human well-being and to the
emancipation of the human spirit.
76
Curriculum as praxis:
Teachers enter particular schooling and situations with a personal, but shared idea of t
77
Curriculum in context
78
79
Jeffs and Smith (1990; 1999) have argued that the notion of
curriculum provides a central dividing line between formal and
informal education. They contend that curriculum theory and practice
was formed within the schooling context and that there are major
problems when it is introduced into informal forms of pedagogy.
80
One of the key feature that differentiates the two is that the
curriculum model has the teacher entering the situation with a
proposal for action which sets out the essential principles and features
of the educational encounter.
81
Informal educators do not have, and do not need, this element. They
do not enter with a clear proposal for action. Rather, they have an
idea of what makes for human well-being, and an appreciation of their
overall role and strategy (strategy here being some idea about target
group and broad method e.g. detached work).
82
UNIT-III DETERMINANTS OF
CURRICULUM
The fourth problem is how researchers can cope with the large
volume of literature within their own writing. The prospect of a
literature explosion leading to changes in the nature of research
reports, especially in the number and form of cited references, has yet
to be addressed. Two sets of data collected for entirely different
purposes have provided preliminary evidence of changes in published
psychological research.
1. From philosophy to IT
85
87
Not many would question the fact that information can be made
tangible and represented as objects outside of the human mind.
Knowledge, on the other hand, is a much more elusive entity. Add
data, and we have a both intricate and challenging situation of
intertwined and interrelated concepts. It has often been pointed out
that data, information, and knowledge are not the same, but despite
efforts to define them, many researchers use the terms very casually,
as is evident from Table 1. In particular, the terms knowledge and
information are often used interchangeably. Kogut and Zander, for
example, define information as “knowledge which can be transmitted
without loss of integrity” , thus implying that information is a form of
knowledge.
88
Author(s) Data Information Knowledge
T ruths and
Facts organised beliefs,
Wiig - to describe a perspectives
situation or and concepts,
condition judgements and
expectations,
methodologies
and
know.how
A flow of
Nonaka and meaningful Commitments and
Takeuchi - messages beliefs
created from these
messages
Not yet
Spek and interpreted Data with The ability to asing
Spijkervet - symbols meaning meaning
A message
Davenport A set of meant to Experiences,
and Prusak descrete facts change the values, insights,
receiver’s and contextual
perception information
89
Text that
Quigley Text that does answers the T ext that answers
and Debons not answer questions the questions
questions to a who, when,
particular what, or
problem where why and how
Knowledge
Information
Data
90
92
By taking an interest in the user perspective, we acknowledge that
though a document may be seen to carry its own information
representation, the user wraps this content in an interpretative
envelope, thereby giving the information a subjective meaning. It is
argued that this combination of content and interpretation is what the
user finds valuable . The value of any given piece of information does
thus reside in the relationship between the information and the user’s
knowledge. On its own, the information is useless. Consequently, the
same objective information may result in different subjective
meanings and values. An IS researcher with a user perspective would
thus not only examine the information itself but also the user’s
cognitive and psychological needs and preferences . This means that
design of KM -systems must be based on an understanding not only
of information architecture and structure, but also of the situation
where the user develops the information need, and analysis of the
usage of the same information once it has been obtained and
interpreted by the user.
95
7. Knowledge in action
96
Individuals benefit both by being able to find knowledgeable
colleagues and by being themselves identified as knowledgeable .
Such groupings may occur on two levels. One level is the loosely
coupled network of employees sharing a practice but yet being
unknown to each other. These networks of practice may reach far but
have little reciprocity, since the members do not interact to any
significant degree . Within these networks of practice, there is also a
second level of tighter clusters, referred to as communities of practice.
In these latter subgroups, people typically know each other and work
together, at least occasionally. When reciprocity dominates reach, as it
does in communities of practice, an environment with enough
coherence to allow perspective making emerges , and by sharing war
stories, i.e. narratives that to an outsider might seem commonplace
and banal, these members exchange knowledge tacitly understood
only within the community.
97
Nurturing Creativity in Early learning and
development:
Relationships
Communication And Language
The Environment
Play
Children are seen as having agency and power within their own
right, not just in relation to the social constructions assigned to
them by adults (Prout and James, 1997).
Piaget (cited in Wood, 1998) believed that all children pass through
a series of developmental stages before they construct the ability to
perceive, reason and understand in mature rational terms. Piaget and
Inhelder (1969) claimed that the essential nature of human beings
was their power to construct knowledge through adaptation to the
environment. Thus, through assimilation and accommodation the
child is in a continual process of cognitive self-correction. The goal
of this activity is a better sense of equilibrium. Equilibration is
fundamental to learning (Krogh and Slentz, 2001). Piaget’s key
contribution to child development is his teaching that learning is a
continual process of meaning making. It is not a linear input/output
process as favoured by behavioural theorists (Pavlov, Skinner).
Information is not simply absorbed into a memory bank but must be
worked on by the child in order for it to make sense in terms of the
learner’s existing frame of reference.
103
Child learning with others:
104
Wood et al, (1976) stressed the importance of the role of the adult
and capable peers and identified that the key challenge
for adults then becomes one of defining the limits of the zone,
matching or tuning the adult support, or scaffolding the learning to
a point beyond the child’s current capabilities. Bronfenbrenner’s
work concurs, although he placed an even greater emphasis on the
relationship between adult and child:
105
Through repetition these brain connections become permanent.
Conversely, a connection that is not used at all or often enough is
unlikely to survive. Children who learn actively have positive
dispositions to learning. These children are interested in what they
are doing, experience enjoyment and, with repetition, experience the
probability of success. They develop competence and, as a result,
confidence and are intrinsically motivated to learn (Hohmann and
Weikart, 1995).
5 Security: all is
. well 4. Mastery:
with the world sense of
competence
106
Relationships
All babies are born with universal aspects to their development such
as automatic reflexes or muscles that always develop from the head
down. There are also fundamental variations. All babies cry, but
some cry more than others. These differences can be ascribed to the
individual temperament of the child. Temperament has been defined
as the inbuilt predispositions that form the foundations of personality
(Bee and Boyd, 2004, ).
107
Thomas and Chess (1977) identified that from birth, babies have been
found to be different from each other in nine ways: activity level,
adaptability, approach/withdrawal to novelty, attention span,
distractibility, intensity of reaction, mood, regularity, and sensitivity
threshold. These traits are shaped, strengthened or counteracted by
the child’s relationships and experiences.
Children with more challenging temperaments may find it more
difficult to deal with life’s stresses. Supportive, responsive adults in a
low stress, accepting environment reduce this potential difficulty
(Fish, Stifter and Belsky, 1991). In these environments, relationships
enhance and enrich learning and development supporting many
children to move through childhood with relative ease.
When children from birth are treated with warmth, respect and
interest from responsive adults they are confident to learn and develop
through sensory–motor exploration. Hohmann and Weikart (1995)
building on the work of Erikson, identified five building blocks of
human relationships. Thus, trust is a confident belief in oneself and in
others that allows a young child to explore the unknown knowing that
the people on whom s/he depends will provide needed support and
encouragement.
Autonomy is the capacity for independence, identity, exploration and
thinking that prompts a child to make such statements as; I wonder
what is around the corner and let me do it. Initiative is the capacity for
children to begin and then follow through on a task - to take stock of a
situation, make a decision and act on what they have come to
understand. Empathy is the capacity that allows children to
understand others’ feelings by relating them to feelings that they
themselves have had. Empathy helps children form relationships and
develop a sense of belonging.
108
Self-confidence is the capacity to believe in one’s own ability to
accomplish tasks, communicate and contribute positively to society.
The young children with whom we work, and who do not yet have
language to express what they are experiencing, need to have these
special relationships too, and deeply need to have them in a very
immediate and concrete way. … We can never remind ourselves too
often that a child, particularly a very young and almost totally
dependent one, is the only person in the nursery who cannot
understand why he is there. He can only explain it as abandonment,
and unless he is helped in a positive and affectionate way, this will
mean levels of anxiety greater than he can tolerate.
115
Learning and developing using communication and
language:
In order to provide appropriate scaffolding for the child
in learning and developing, a shared context of meaning and
experience must be established. This is especially important in the
first years of life, and is particularly relevant to children who do not
speak Gaeilge or English as their first language or who have a
specific language delay. In the early years the child’s ability to
communicate is not fully developed and the adult often needs to
interpret or expand on the child’s utterances or gestures. Through
shared experiences, the child gradually makes sense of the world and
of adult meaning. The adult provides the bridge between the familiar
and known to the unfamiliar and yet to be known, and responsibility
is gradually transferred to the child (Smith, 1999, p. 96). This process
requires a close and nurturing relationship between adult and child.
117
118
Steiner promoted a variety of easily accessible, open-ended, natural,
found, real life materials which can be used in creative and purposeful
ways and reflect children’s family lives (Curtis and O’Hagan, 2004).
Materials are stored so that children can find, use and return materials
they need. The most effective learning comes from simple but
versatile materials and environments which extend the child’s
imagination and can be adapted by children to suit their learning
needs and level of understanding. Dowling (2000, p. 10) referred to
this as an informational environment which supports children’s ability
to make and learn from mistakes, discover the best way of doing
things and learn how to make decisions.
Play:
119
Supporting and enabling learning and development:
SOCIETY:
121
Social forces:
Social forces and trends are continually changing. They are also
effecting schools’ curriculum and planning. Here are some of areas of
social forces:
1) Social goals
2) Conceptions of culture
3) the Tension between cultural uniformity and diversity
4) Social pressures
5) Social change
6) Future planning
When building a curriculum or instruction, these ten social forces
should be taken into consideration:
122
123
125
Societal mores, cultural norms, and practical needs compel
the incorporation of various components of learning and
information. Hence, the educational curriculum is vitally important to
a society’s success and may become extremely controversial when
conflicting views emerge.
Finally, as noted earlier, systemic change, as in the form of
transitioning educational curriculum, is often a challenge to all
concerned and in some cases, may even create a negative, divisive
environment. It is an accepted fact that without acceptance and buy-
in by all major constituencies, long-lasting systemic change cannot
occur. Cited by Beyer and Liston (l996), James B. MacDonald (l975)
suggested that “ . . . in many ways, all curriculum design and
development is political in nature. . . . ” Continuing in that line of
reasoning, Olson and Rothman (l993) offered that while the last
decade has been one of challenge and excitement for American
education, the fragmented and isolationist manner in which many of
the reform efforts have been implemented brought about no lasting
change. Substantiating this view that change was necessary despite
overt resistance, various authors (Henderson & Hawthorne, l995;
Jelinek, l978; Kallen, l996; Patterson, l997; Toch & Daniel, l996,
Wagner, l998) presented strong arguments that outdated strategies (the
implementation of curriculum) had to be discarded and ineffectual
methodology eliminated. Concurring with these views that change
was not only necessary but imminent, Scott (l994) declared that
curriculum revision projects of the past twenty years had in reality
been dismal failures with a high cost to taxpayers, students, and
educators.Monson and Monson (l993) presented the need for
collaborative, sanctioned revision by all stakeholders with an
emphasis on the performance of teacher leaders. It has been suggested
that the educational community must include those not usually
considered to be at the leading edge of school reform initiatives.
126
Hargreaves (l995) and Kyriakides (l997) both emphasized
the importance of creating coordinated efforts that supported a
modification of teachers’ roles in policy revision as it related to
curriculum review and revision. Despite the fact that the emergent
view of teachers’ roles are often in conflict with the traditional view
of teachers’ performance (Monson & Monson, l993; Hargreaves,
l995; Scott, l994), the leadership roles of teachers are becoming more
prevalent, more dominant, and more demanding. Questions facing
the educational community, therefore, revolve around what reforms
will be implemented, what process will be used, and how to make the
revisions effective and sustaining.
Accepting that changing an educational curriculum can be a
challenge, the involvement of all stakeholders, especially individuals
who are directly involved in student instruction, is an especially vital
piece in successful curriculum revision. The review of literature
substantiated the concern that until the parameters of curriculum
revision are defined and understood, the process will suffer from
confusion and failure for decades to come.
127
ICT:
"ICT" is the Information and Communication
Technologies. "ICT in Education" means "Teaching and
Learning with ICT".
The present curricula for ICT in Education aims at realising the goals
of the National Policy of ICT in Schools Education and the National
Curriculum Framework.
Given the dynamic nature of ICT, the curricula, emphasising the core
educational purposes, is generic in design and focuses on a broad
exposure to technologies, together aimed at enhancing creativity and
imagination of the learners.
128
129
1‧ Through ICT, images can easily be used in teaching and improving the retentive
memory of students.
2‧ Through ICT, teachers can easily explain complex instructions and ensure students'
comprehension.
3‧ Through ICT, teachers are able to create interactive classes and make the lessons more
enjoyable, which could improve student attendance and concentration.
130
131
Values Education: the process of providing
opportunities for the continuous development in all
students of the knowledge, skills and attitudes related
to certain values which lead to behavior exhibiting
those values
132
Integrity: confirmed virtue and uprightness of character, freedom
from hypocrisy
133
Work Ethic: belief that work is good and that everyone who can,
should work
134
Curriculum Localization:
135
136
It does not progress at the same rate and each stage is affected by the
preceding types of development. Because these developmental
changes may be strongly influenced by genetic factors and events
during prenatal life, genetics and prenatal development are usually
included as part of the study of child development. Related terms
include developmental, referring to development throughout the
lifespan, and pediatrics, the branch of medicine relating to the care of
children.
137
138
Child Age in
Language Skill
Months
9- Imitation
8-18 First words
140
Individual differences:
Simple speech delays are usually temporary. Most cases are solved on
their own or with a little extra attribution from the family. It’s the
parent’s duty to encourage their baby to talk to them with gestures or
sounds and for them to spend a great amount of time playing with,
reading to, and communicating with their baby. In certain
circumstances, parents will have to seek professional help, such as
a speech therapist.
Environmental causes
Neurological causes
142
144
145
146
Wisdom has never lost its association with the proper direction of life.
Only in education, never in the life of farmer, sailor, merchant,
physician, or laboratory experimenter, does knowledge mean
primarily a store of information aloof from doing. Having to do with
things in an intelligent way issues in acquaintance or familiarity. The
things we are best acquainted with are the things we put to frequent
use -- such things as chairs, tables, pen, paper, clothes, food, knives
and forks on the commonplace level, differentiating into more special
objects according to a person's occupations in life. Knowledge of
things in that intimate and emotional sense suggested by the word
acquaintance is a precipitate from our employing them with a
purpose. We have acted with or upon the thing so frequently that we
can anticipate how it will act and react -- such is the meaning of
familiar acquaintance.
147
We are ready for a familiar thing; it does not catch us napping, or play
unexpected tricks with us. This attitude carries with it a sense of
congeniality or friendliness, of ease and illumination; while the things
with which we are not accustomed to deal are strange, foreign, cold,
remote, "abstract."
Active connections with others are such an intimate and vital part of
our own concerns that it is impossible to draw sharp lines, such as
would enable us to say, "Here my experience ends; there yours
begins." In so far as we are partners in common undertakings, the
things which others communicate to us as the consequences of their
particular share in the enterprise blend at once into the experience
resulting from our own special doings. The ear is as much an organ of
experience as the eye or hand; the eye is available for reading reports
of what happens beyond its horizon. Things remote in space and time
affect the issue of our actions quite as much as things which we can
smell and handle. They really concern us, and, consequently, any
account of them which assists us in dealing with things at hand falls
within personal experience.
148
149
There is truth in the saying that education must first be human and
only after that professional. But those who utter the saying frequently
have in mind in the term human only a highly specialized class: the
class of learned men who preserve the classic traditions of the past.
They forget that material is humanized in the degree in which it
connects with the common interests of men as men.
Democratic society is peculiarly dependent for its maintenance upon
the use in forming a course of study of criteria which are broadly
human. Democracy cannot flourish where the chief influences in
selecting subject matter of instruction are utilitarian ends narrowly
conceived for the masses, and, for the higher education of the few, the
traditions of a specialized cultivated class. The notion that the
"essentials" of elementary education are the three R's mechanically
treated, is based upon ignorance of the essentials needed for
realization of democratic ideals.
150
IV- UNIT
APPROACHES TO CURRICULUM
SUBJECT CENTERED:
151
Despite this, the subject design is by far the most popular approach. It
is easy to do and practical. It’s appropriateness needs to be left to the
educator who is trying to help their students.
LEARNER-CENTERED:
Learner-centered teaching is an approach to teaching that is
increasingly being encouraged in higher education. Learner-centered
teachers do not employ a single teaching method. This approach
emphasizes a variety of different types of methods that shifts the role
of the instructors from givers of information to facilitating student
learning.
Traditionally instructors focused on what they did, and not on what
the students are learning. This emphasis on what instructors do often
leads to students who are passive learners and who did not take
responsibility for their own learning. Educators call this traditional
method, “instructor-centered teaching.” In contrast, “learner-centered
teaching” occurs when instructors focus on student learning.
152
153
154
4. Advantages of Learner-centered teaching over Instructor-
centered teaching
155
These incremental steps define a manageable transition process from
instructor-centered to learner-centered teaching.
Learner-centered classrooms:
158
Curriculum-centered classrooms:
159
Learner-centered Curriculum-centered
Child-centered Teacher-centered
Constructivist-driven Standards-driven
Progressive Traditional
Depth Breadth
Thematic integration Single subjects
160
161
UNIT -V
Types of curriculum and Areas of
Curriculum
Types of curriculum with their definition (Leslie Owen
Wilson. )
Here are multiple definitions of curriculum, from Oliva (1997) (4)
Curriculum is:
A set of subjects.
Content
A program of studies.
A set of materials
A sequence of courses.
A course of study
162
Social,
Information Processing,
Personality,
Behavioral.
child-centered,
society-centered,
knowledge-centered,
eclectic.
163
Realism,
Perennialism,
Essentialism,
Experimentalism,
Existentialism,
Constructivism,
Whatever classification one gravitates to, the fact remains that at one
time or another curriculum in the United States has, at some level,
been impacted by all of the above. In essence, American curriculum is
hard to pin down because it is multi-layered and highly eclectic.
Since students learn all the time through exposure and modeled
behaviors, this means that they learn important social and emotional
lessons from everyone who inhabits a school — from the janitorial
staff, the secretary, the cafeteria workers, their peers, as well as from
the deportment, conduct and attitudes expressed and modeled by their
teachers. Many educators are unaware of the strong lessons imparted
to youth by these everyday contacts.”
164
166
In what I term floating quotes, popularized quotes
that have no direct, cited sources, David P. Gardner is
reported to have said: We learn simply by the
exposure of living. Much that passes for education is
not education at all but ritual. The fact is that we are
being educated when we know it least.
4. The null That which we do not teach, thus giving students the
curriculum message that these elements are not important in their
educational experiences or in our society. Eisner
offers some major points as he concludes his
discussion of the null curriculum. The major point I
have been trying to make thus far is that schools
have consequences not only by virtue of what they do
teach, but also by virtue of what they neglect to
teach. What students cannot consider, what they
don’t processes they are unable to use, have
consequences for the kinds of lives they lead. 103
169
Curriculum areas:
The eight curriculum areas are:
Expressive arts
Languages
Mathematics
Sciences
Social studies
Technologies
Expressive arts
The inspiration and power of the arts play a vital role in enabling our
children and young people to enhance their creative talent and
develop their artistic skills.
172
Languages
Social studies
Through social studies, children and young people develop their
understanding of the world by learning about other people,
societies, their beliefs and values.
173
Mathematics
Sciences
Science and its practical application in healthcare and industry is
central to our economic future, for our health and wellbeing as
individuals and as a society.
174
Technologies
The curriculum areas are the organizers for ensuring that learning
takes place across a broad range of contexts, and offer a way of
grouping experiences and outcomes under recognizable headings.
The experiences and outcomes describe the expectations for learning.
Taken together, experiences and outcomes across the curriculum areas
sum up national aspirations for every young person: the knowledge
and understanding, skills, capabilities and attributes we hope they will
develop.
175
176
They describe learning which has a clear purpose at levels from early
to fourth in the acquiring of knowledge and the establishment of
understanding. They also support the development of skills and
attributes.
Breadth
Progression
Depth
Personalisation and choice
Coherence
Relevance.
The principles must be taken into account for all children and young
people.
177
The principles will assist teachers and schools in their practice and as
a basis for continuing review, evaluation and improvement. They
apply to the curriculum at national, education authority, school and
individual levels and must be taken into account for all children and
young people
Although all should apply at any one stage, the principles will have
different emphases as a child or young person learns and develops.
Breadth:
All children and young people should have opportunities for a broad,
suitably weighted range of experiences.
178
Progression;
Children and young people should experience continuous progression
in their learning from 3 to 18 within a single curriculum framework.
Depth
There should be opportunities for children to develop their full
capacity for different types of thinking and learning. As they progress,
they should develop and apply increasing intellectual rigor, drawing
different strands of learning together, and exploring and achieving
more advanced levels of understanding.
Personalisation and choice
The curriculum should respond to individual needs and support
particular aptitudes and talents. It should give each child and young
person increasing opportunities for exercising responsible personal
choice as they move through their school career.
179
Coherence
Relevance
180
182
Self discovery
Creativity
Problem-solving skills
Innovation
Personal growth
Integrity
Autonomy Role of the Teacher
183
Puts emotional and intellectual needs of the student above that of the
institution Transpersonal Techniques
Biofeedback
Deep hypnosis
Yoga
Dream analysis Ready to go deeper? III. Finding the Personal in the
Academic-Recognizing the limits of academic knowledge and the
relevance of other forms of knowledge and internalizing or finding
personal meaning of academic knowledge.
“For Maslow, the peak experiences of awe, mystery, and wonder are
both the end and the beginning of learning.”
Cognitive and personal growth should take place simultaneously.
-Exhorts students to develop complexity in their consciousness, and to
acquire multiple interests and abilities.
-Complexity is made up of two closely linked processes:
differentiation and integration. Differentiation: when individuals feel
free to pursue individual goals and to become as different as they can
be from each other.
186
It is the teacher’s role to prepare students not only by sharing
valuable knowledge, but by guiding them to be healthy, active
citizens in their communities. Acknowledging this encompassing
and inclusive function of educators, it is important to adopt a
curriculum that shares those intentions. Embedding a social
reconstruction approach to teaching within a social studies
curriculum is a good place for teachers to start when addressing the
need for an education system that emphasizes the education of the
whole child.
Discrimination and oppression are not new issues, but they are far
from outdated. Racism, sexism, and marginalization of many
different people goes on in almost every sector of society. In fact,
Tatum (1997) discusses how some people will claim that racism is
a thing of the past, but in reality “if you are paying attention, the
legacy of racism is not hard to see, and we are all affected by it”
188
193
195
Considering this well known assumption, do teachers have the
right or should they teach social reform if the change the students
advocate for is in opposition to the views of their home
environment? This type of education unfortunately will sometimes
walk a fine line between important social change and decreasing
family and community support. Without a solid ethics guideline in
which everyone can agree, there will always be some resistance.
We experience dominance and oppression today because society as
a whole has allowed it. For this reason, social reform education
would be in direct opposition to what the majority has put in place.
If educators can assume that we all share a basic ethics system that
in general defends the right for people to be treated fairly and
respectfully and if we can admit that there is still wrong in the
world, then we cannot avoid including those discussions in at least
the social studies curriculum.
By refraining from doing so, we are subconsciously teaching
students that the world in its current condition is just as it should
be.
198
There are multiple standards for curriculum in the United States. How
do we work effectively under the mandated curriculum standards and
test system? Examples from Chinese context may give us some
insights. Researchers found there are two ways helpful for a teacher’s
professional development under the mandated curriculum standards
and testing system: 1) careful study of the curriculum materials that
were authoritatively, specifically, and consistently structured; 2) and
her continuous and substantial participation in the collaborative
observations, discussions, and reflections on each other’s lesson
development, teaching, and lesson debriefing in schools.
200
Your room is not the only place that curriculum should be! Please
note that we take the general view about the definition of curriculum
and regards it as the experiences through which children grow, learn
and mature to become adults. So the schoolwork needs to be
connected to what students can learn at home and make their learning
an integrated and consolidated daily experience. In that sense,
homework needs to be considered in our curricular design. And the
parents’ involvement is vital for this process. Researchers found that
in spite of the differences in students’ race, family background, prior
ability, and high school curricular track, low-ability students who did
10 hours of homework or more per week had as good report card
grades as high-ability students who did no homework. But it does not
mean that the more homework, the better. Teachers need work with
parents and make use of varied and meaningful homework to help
students engage in goal-directed learning.
201