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Each subject can be broken down into a number of modules. For example,
perceptual training and motor co-ordination are essential modules in the subject of
Perceptual Motor Training. The teacher might need to translate these modules into
concrete learning targets for actual teaching in the classroom.
It will be more beneficial to the children if these learning targets are defined in
terms of different types of outcome such as skills, behaviour, knowledge, attitudes,
values and interests.
The teacher can plan the learning targets that make up the modules in the following
four basic steps:
Behavioural Terms
(a)
Target Behaviour ─ This is the behaviour that the
children are expected to achieve after learning or
mastering the target.
(b) Pre-requisite Skills ─ These are the basic skills that the
children should have mastered before learning other more
difficult skills.
(c) Instruction and Materials Required ─ This refers to the
instruction and materials required for teaching. The
conditions under which the instruction should be given
may sometimes be included.
(d)
Criteria of Success ─ This refers to the number of
successful performances of a target skill required out of a
fixed number of attempts before the target skill is
considered to have been mastered by the children.
(2) Setting Teaching Priorities
(3) Specifying
This is the specification of the procedures to identify the current skill level or the
pre-requisite skills of the children. The assessment enables the teacher to know
whether or not the children have acquired the pre-requisite skills required for
learning the target. (Refer to Sections 4.5 - 4.5.4 for details)
With the pre-requisite skills of the children known, the teacher can then design
learning materials to help them achieve the target skills. The learning materials
should be designed in small steps and in order of difficulty. The teacher should
choose the appropriate step for the children according to their pre-requisite skills,
so as to bridge the gap between their pre-requisite skills and the target skills.
To teach target skills effectively, the following teaching approaches are suggested :
(1)
Modelling
(2)
Task Analysis
(3)
Chaining
(4)
Discrimination Learning
(5)
Information Gathering
(6)
Induction
(7)
Discussion
(1)
Prompting
This skill can be used at any stage of the programme. There are
various kinds of prompts : physical guidance, physical prompts,
gestures, verbal prompts, eye pointing, etc. Prompts should only be
used when required and should be faded out as soon as the children
demonstrate certain degree of mastery.
(2)
Shaping
(3)
Fading
This means gradual removal of the various prompts as the children
begin to master the target behaviour. At the initial stage, the teacher
can use prompts with more help . Then at a later stage , he can use
prompts with less help. One common example is the gradual removal
of the strokes of a word when teaching the children to write.
(4)
Generalization
When the children know how to apply the knowledge or skills they
have acquired to new situations, they have achieved generalization.
The ultimate purpose of generalization is to reinforce the children's
social adjustment. For example, when a child applies the table
manners he has learnt at school to the environment of his home or a
restaurant , generalization is achieved.
Quite often, the teacher is faced with a class of mixed abilities or with different
behaviour problems. He will have to teach them in groups or individually. The
following are some suggested forms of grouping :
educational psychologists,
speech therapists,
occupational therapists,
physiotherapists,
Parents are also valuable resources of the school. They should be encouraged to
participate in curriculum development and to follow-up at home on what their
children have learnt at school, thus reinforcing their learning. This joint effort
between the school and the parents will contribute much to the education of the
children.
The effective use of space in the school helps to develop in the children an
awareness, understanding and appreciation of their surroundings. Physical
constraints can be overcome by careful planning and flexible utilization of teaching
bases and common areas. Arrangements within the classroom can be varied to suit
different teaching purposes.
Apart from basic and functional academics, the children also need to develop their
capacity to respond appropriately to sensory and social experiences, regardless of
their ages and abilities. This involves the exploration and understanding of
aesthetic and creative experiences, which may be integrated in any part of the
curriculum. Music, Art and Craft and Physical Education contribute particularly to
such development. The children also need to acquire these skills as leisure time
activities. In considering the allocation of time to these areas of learning for both
the junior and senior sections of the school, similar emphasis should be given.
Apart from basic and functional academics, the children also need to develop their
capacity to respond appropriately to sensory and social experiences, regardless of
their ages and abilities. This involves the exploration and understanding of
aesthetic and creative experiences, which may be integrated in any part of the
curriculum. Music, Art and Craft and Physical Education contribute particularly to
such development. The children also need to acquire these skills as leisure time
activities. In considering the allocation of time to these areas of learning for both
the junior and senior sections of the school, similar emphasis should be given.
o reading corner
o creative work area
o nature corner
o self-care corner
These learning corners and interest areas serve different purposes. For example, the
reading corner is for the display of light reading materials for casual reading; the
educational toys corner is for the children to learn through play; the nature corner
serves to nurture in the children the love of plants and animals as well as the way
to look after them and the creative work area helps with the development of
creativity in the children. The children should be asked to remember where the
various materials are kept and to put them back after use. Therefore, these learning
corners and interest areas can provide them with a wide range of learning
experiences.
To enhance the learning environment, display boards are valuable display areas for
the children's work, group projects, charts, diagrams, photos, cut-outs from
newspapers or magazines, etc. all of which have much to contribute to the
children's learning and enhance their sense of achievement. The following is an
example of classroom arrangements:
< Click on the Picture!> (Press Ctrl or Shift Key to zoom in /out)
4.5 Assessment
When evaluating the children's performance in terms of specific criteria set, the
teacher has to analyse the curriculum and the method of instruction used before he
can develop appropriate assessment to identify the children's learning needs. As the
teacher knows the children better, he is in a better position to assess their learning
needs.
developing curriculum that suits them the best. However in doing so they may end
up withsomething which is not aligned with national ideology and cohesion. In
worst case one province maydevelop curriculum which is not acceptable to the
norms of the other province and hence couldembark into direct conflict. According
to them such scenario is not ignorable in countries likePakistan where political
parties and their ideologies differ significantly. Reviews of past educationalpolicies
are good examples of such division. Expanding to national cohesion issue another
concernraised is the standardization of the educational system in Pakistan. In this
case the fundamentalquestion is how can a nation ensures that the same standard of
education has been taught fromnorth to south of Pakistan. Similarly the
representation of Pakistani education system ininternational arena where Pakistan
is signatory and member of several treaties and agreementswould have been
diffused, as no central body would be present to represent the nation.On the other
hand proponents of 18th amendment view it as an essential and long awaited
change,which can lay a foundation of bridging planning and implementation gap.
To them eighteenamendment provides the basis of autonomous educational
provision through which provinces
canplan and implement the educational system according to their needs and
requirements. For e.g. if Baluchistan economy relies mostly on natural resources
then for obvious reason it needs a manpowerwhich is trained and skilled in the
same sector, comparatively Punjab with more agrarian economyhas its own
requirements. Same arguments have been made for promoting local and
regionalcultures including languages and customs. Another major point made by
the proponents of 18
th
amendment is bridging the gap betweenplanning and implementation. One of the
terrible issue of Pakistani educational system since itsinception was remain the gap
between planning and implementation. Historically the planning wasdone at the
federal level with little consultation from provinces (at-least provinces were always
onblaming side, arguing that they were not taken in confidence in developing
policies, rules andregulations) resulting in a huge misconceptions and lack of
ownership from provincial side.The proponents also answers to the concerns raised
after the amendment. To them the capacity of provinces to develop and run the
educational systems is largely under rated and usually emanatesfrom the trust
deficit embedded in the psyche of federal level establishment. To them most of
theoperational level expertise are already present at the provincial level and what is
not available canalways be develop or imported. Similarly most of the funding
specially for primary and secondarylevel education was already part of the
provincial budget.From the above few points it is clear that there is an imbalance
between the opinions and attitudesfrom two opposite sides. It also shows that the
provinces are not ready to embark the responsibility
not because they don’t have capacity or resources but because they still lack
unified thoughts in
bringing forth the plans which are not only aligned with the provincial
requirements but alsounsusceptible to national integrity and cohesion.One of the
reasons of such lacking is the dearth of coherent, thoughtful and meaningful
dialoguebetween the educationist, planners, policy makers, implementers etc.
representing the grass rootlevel and the officialdom level. Quite often the
impressive talks, presentations and conferencesgenerate immense interest in
various educational issues but fail to bring any lasting imprint oneducational
discourse, educational policies and practices. It is this important to conceive of
dialoguesthat are concentrated, evidence based, bringing forth concrete solutions
and carry the messageforward to ensure impact on policies and practice. The
dialogues in light of evidence and amongrelated people have greater potential to
generate more meaningful and relevant discussions. If anon-threatening
environment is somehow created to ensure free, frank and open dialogue,
solutionscan be forged. Such solutions need to be carried forward to the policy and
practice level for broaderimpact utilizing various forums
–
monographs, technology, media etc. Such discourse also helps toemanate the
common grounds where all the groups unanimously agree to the issue and its
possiblesolutions.In the light of above discussion it is imperative to open the
venues through which people couldengage in to meaningful discourse, however the
modus operandi of such discourse is still a questionmark. Shall it be a policy
dialogue, an interactive writing contest, conference or some other out of
boxmechanism?Number of questions need to be answer for e.g.
How to prioritize the issues, i.e. which issues require addressing first?
What are the mechanisms require that ensures provincial autonomy and at the same
timerespond to national integrity demands? Above and many other questions like
above demands a movement from civil society and governmentofficials to come
forward and engage in the process. Otherwise the fear is that the education
systemagain falls in to the myriad of despair or mirage of joys which solely exists
in our mind but nevertransform in to meaningful practice
The Influence of Psychology to Curriculum
Curriculum is influenced by psychology. Psychology provides information about the
teaching and learning process. It also seeks answers as to how a curriculum be
organized in order to achieve students’ learning at the optimum level, and as to what
amount of information they can absorb in learning the various contents of the
curriculum.
The following are some psychological theories in learning that influenced curriculum
development:
1. Behaviorism
Education in the 20th century was dominated by behaviorism. The mastery of the subject
matter is given more emphasis. So, learning is organized in a step-by-step process. The
use of drills and repetition are common.
For this reason, many educational psychologists viewed it mechanical and routine.
Though many are skeptical about this theory, we can’t deny the fact the influences it
had in our educational system.
2. Cognitivism
Cognitive theorists focus on how individuals process information, monitor and manage
their thinking. The basic questions that cognitive psychologists zero in on are:
3. Humanism
Humanism is taken from the theory of Gestalt, Abraham Maslow’s theory and Carl
Rogers’ theory. This group of psychologists is concerned with the development of
human potential.
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.
A more advanced, more comprehensive curriculum that promotes human potential must
be crafted along this line. Teachers don’t only educate the minds, but the hearts as well.
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.
Therefore, schools must be relevant by making its curriculum more innovative and
interdisciplinary. A curriculum that can address the diversities of global learners, the
explosion of knowledge through the internet, and the educational reforms and policies
recommended or mandated by the United Nations.
However, it is also imperative that a country must have maintained a curriculum that
reflects and preserves its culture and aspirations for national identity. No matter how far
people go, it is the country’s responsibility to ensure that the school serves its purpose
of educating the citizenry.
Now, it is your time to reflect. Can you think of your experiences in which the major
foundation of curriculum can explain it?
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1. Introspection
Historically introspection is the oldest method of all, which was formerly used in philosophy, and
then inpsychology to collect data about the conscious experience of the subject. Introspection
means to see within one self or self observation. To understand one’s own mental health and the
state of mind. This method was developed by the structuralists in psychology who defined
2. Observation
This method has been developed in psychology by the continuous efforts by psychologists to
make objectiveand scientific study of human behaviour. One of the major contributions of the
predict behaviour. It is the most precise, planned systematic observation. The experimental
This method is primarily used to collect detailed information on the behaviour problems of
maladjusted anddeviant cases. The main objective of this method is to study individual case or
cases ofgroup to detect and diagnose their specific problems and to suggest therapeutic
Case study is in-depth study of the subject. It is the in-depth analysis of a person, group, or
tests, direct observation, and archival records. Case studies are most often used in psychology in
clinical research to describe the rare events and conditions of the subject; case study is specially