Friday, June 24, 2011

1st On Line, Concepts, Nature and Purposes of Curriculum

Hi Class,

My apology for making the blog just now. I had difficulty opening and creating our blog.

Please answer the following:

1. Describe your personal view (narrow or broad) of curriculum.

2. Which development curriculum process would you have the greater challenge working on: planning, organizing, implementing, or evaluating? Explain.

3. How do you plan to handle such "challenge" that you mentioned in question number 2.

Doc Raqui

12 comments:

  1. 1. Personal View of Curriculum


    Curriculum is always changing. Before the early years, it is viewed as the lists of courses or subject to be taught in school or synonymous to a “syllabus” or “course of study”. Other views also came up, and viewed curriculum as the total learning experience of the individual both in school and society.
    I view curriculum as a process and not an end product. Teachers should help students “to learn how to learn”. Students should understand the importance of feelings and reflecting during the process of learning. How they feel about their progress and learning is very important.
    Today, students come from different cultural backgrounds. They aspire to economic and social success and view school as a means to accomplish their dreams. The urgent need to provide a high quality education in the Philippines calls for an increased expertise on the part of classroom teachers, administrators, community leaders as well as curriculum development experts.

    2. Development Curriculum Process
    The curriculum development process organizes what will be taught, who will be taught, and how it will be taught. Each component affects and interacts with other components. For example, what will be taught is affected by who is being taught (e.g., their stage of development in age, maturity, and education). Methods of how content is taught are affected by who is being taught, their characteristics, and the setting. There are different stages of curriculum development and each stage has several steps to complete.
    In developing curriculum, the greater challenge to work with is at the planning stage. As what the sayings says, “Nobody plans to fail but failure results from a failure to plan." The planning phase lays the foundation for all of the curriculum development steps.
    At this stage, you need to identify an issue or a problem; what are needs of the learners (which includes their age, maturity level, environmental factors, etc.); identify the roles of each members of the team and conduct needs assessment.

    3. How to handle the challenge….
    "If you do not know where you are going you will end up somewhere else”.
    The very first step in the process is to clearly state the issue that prompted the initiation of a curriculum development effort. If the issue and the target population are identified, it will be easier to select members who are expertise of curriculum development. This will include the roles and functions of each team members and what are criteria of the selection process. It is also significant to note that there should always be collaboration and teamwork. It will be beneficial if the team work together. Sharing resources, working together to plan and teaching with each other add insights and vitality to a job that is often isolating.
    Regardless, it is vital that personal relations be established and maintained with all colleagues to ensure that the team not be polarized along lines of cultural, linguistic or philosophical differences.
    The last one is to conduct need assessment. The goal is to learn what is needed and by whom relative to the identified issue. Based on the data and results gathered, we can identify gaps between knowledge and practice; trends emerging from the data; a process to prioritize needs; and identification of the characteristics of the target audience.

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  2. 1. Describe your personal view (narrow or broad) of curriculum.
    Curriculum is both the content and learning experience, what is important is the knowledge that we want the students to have. Both narrow and broad curriculum have their own advantages and disadvantages. What is important is it is delivered clearly, its impact to the learners.

    2. Which development curriculum process would you have the greater challenge working on: planning, organizing, implementing, or evaluating? Explain.
    I think in every process or procedure, it will be difficult to START. You can’t get a boiled egg without boiling it. Planning is a challenge for me because this is where everything will be base on. You cannot organize, implement and evaluate without a plan. You need to start it a blank paper. Unlike in the next process, you will be basing it in the plan.

    3. How do you plan to handle such "challenge" that you mentioned in question number 2.
    I think, in every situation, we need to think calmly. Know the things we need and need to know before planning. Prioritize what we need to have a concrete plan. And specially, we need to focus on our goals and objectives .

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  3. 1. Describe your personal view (narrow or broad) of curriculum.
    In narrow curriculum, learning is limited. Learning only occurs in the four corners of the room. Unlike the broad, learning is includes experiences outside the school, which can help students to weigh things out, and they will discover things by themselves.

    2. Which development curriculum process would you have the greater challenge working on: planning, organizing, implementing, or evaluating? Explain.
    Implementing. Because this is where you are now going to try what you have planned. Extraneous variables or unexpected circumstances might happen it may cause failure to the process of implementation.

    3. How do you plan to handle such "challenge" that you mentioned in question number 2.
    Maybe by being creative, alert and resourceful. Being a teacher is a challenge, that’s why, for me, yo have to have this 3 characteristics in times of unexpected situations.Think.great ideas are just running in our head.

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  4. Hi Joanne, Sherchen and Marielle, i hope that through our class you will continue to be more confident in handling the challenges that you will face in planning and implementing the curriculum.

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  5. 1. Describe your personal view (narrow or broad) of curriculum.
    It has been long known for many people that curriculum is the subjects needed to finish a certain course or level. As a student before, we have been introduced only to the narrow kind in terms of teaching. Some teachers might be applying the broad curriculum but their students are unaware. This is because inside the classroom, the students only learn normally what the teacher tells the students need to learn. The students do not care what techniques or styles the teacher is using, all they care is to pass the subject. But as I have learned about these two views, all I can say is that it shouldn’t be categorized as the two views of curriculum. Because the narrow view is what the teachers are basically doing inside the classroom. Then the broader view is the many ways of application of that lesson taught inside the classroom. Teachers need to introduce the lesson to their students before they can start ways or techniques in reaching the lesson to their student’s mind. Those techniques are to what I believe part of the broader view of curriculum. This is because the students learn aside from what the teacher discussed inside the classroom. It is like every teacher should start from the narrow point of teaching then expand with the broader view as the lesson goes along. We can compare it to a science class, from theoretical aspect which we normally learn inside the classroom and then there’s the actual application like an experiment that shows same result with the theoretical answer. So in my personal opinion, these two views are co-related and should not be distinguished apart from one another.

    2. Which development curriculum process would you have the greater challenge working on: Planning, Organizing, Implementing or Evaluating? Explain.

    It is very crucial in the process that you have a very good plan and executing it the way you planned it. So I can say that it would really be a challenge for me are planning and implementing. Planning is a challenge because this is the backbone of the curriculum. In every aspect of teaching, there should be a plan to reach out with the students. Every student is different from one another and yet you need to let them understand the lesson as a group. The level of an individual varies and so we need to have a plan that will suit any level.
    Implementing the plan is critical as well because not everything we have planned for will happen. We have to be totally prepared in order to execute all the ideas. There will be some factors that can affect implementation and if we do not expect these factors, the curriculum will be a failure. Such factors like time/schedule, workplace and equipment can affect the curriculum.


    3. How do you plan to handle such “challenge” that you mentioned in question number 2?
    In planning process, it is always better to put yourself in place. As mentioned earlier, every student is different from one another and we have to know how to deal with the difference of each student and overcome their individuality in the classroom. Having a backup plan is always a good idea. No matter how prepared we plan for the curriculum, there will always be unexpected challenges. It is better to include in planning different scenarios. Ask for help of the other people besides teachers to give some additional tips because people outside the scope can give you better advice sometimes as they think differently and their approach is entirely different as to those who are within the same profession. In terms of implementation, use time wisely. It is better to be simple and precise. Implementation actually relies on good planning. I just need to have the correct attitude in teaching to implement my plan better.

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  6. 1. As a future educator, I can say that narrow view is where every teacher should start. Every student can learn through experiences and in their environment but the teachers are the one who introduce the lesson. Young people may be facing different or new experiences and without the guide of teachers, the broad curriculum will not be recognized. In my personal opinion, teachers need to stick with the narrow view in terms of curriculum and let the students learn through their experiences what the teachers taught them theoretically.

    2. I believe it would be the hardest to plan a curriculum. This is because not all plans work out smoothly. So it is better to have a series of plans before implementing the curriculum. There are instances that the curriculum will have some unexpected events that without backups, the curriculum will not be successful. Planning is always critical even on other process because this is where we try to predict the situation that will give the best result. All aspects should be look into before implementing any plans and that is why I believe that planning will have the biggest challenge among the development process.

    3. In every situation I am in or every path I take or every decision I make, I take it as a challenge always so that I also give my best. And in that way, it is always better to have backup plans in any case or situation. Also, in terms of this curriculum, I try to practice my curriculum to some of my friends who will act as students and we will try to see what other things needed to improve and needed to be added. I will also ask pieces of advice to some teachers that have been doing it already over the years.

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  7. 1. Describe your personal view (narrow or broad) of curriculum.


    I believe that a broad curriculum is better than a narrow curriculum because it gives students more opportunities to learn. There are students who learn better while experiencing it outside the classroom. There are a lot to learn outside the classroom. I don't want to limit my students in learning because I believe that even after we graduate, we never stop learning. Learning is infinite.

    2. Which development curriculum process would you have the greater challenge working on: planning, organizing, implementing, or evaluating? Explain.

    I think planning would be a challenge for me. It is where you really have to prepare everything that you will use in the curriculum. It is challenging for me because I have to gather the necessary data in doing the curriculum.

    3. How do you plan to handle such "challenge" that you mentioned in question number 2.


    Simply by preparing all the data/materials that I would be needing. I also have to practice time management in doing it.

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  8. 1. Curriculum is basically a blueprint of what will be taught in class and what has to be accomplished by the students and by the teacher. Just as blueprints have a required quality and specification of scope, a curriculum contains quantity and quality of what should be taught and learned and what could be utilized by the students in the future or as stock knowledge.

    2. I think my biggest challenge would be organizing. I find it quite difficult categorizing and deciding allotted time for a particular lesson.

    3. It’s always good to have a mentor in each aspect even if we feel like we can do it on our own, I should learn from people whose strengths are organizing and strategic so that I could get some impartation from them. Besides that, I could cross check with other curriculums and learn from there and ask experienced teachers if what I came up with seemed feasible.

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  9. Hi AJ, sure planning and implementing are two of the most challenging aspects of curriculum development, hence, broad knowledge of the subject matter and experiences in teaching are our best guide as well.

    Hazel, Dainty and AJ, since planning is the most challenging for you, you may begin thinking about a subject matter that you want to develop for our class requirement. begin, looking at the resources, such as books and references materials for your chosen topic.

    Sarah, sure a mentor can assist you in organizing the materials for curriculum development. It is also wise to begin reviewing materials on how to organize for curriculum development.

    Good input!

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  10. 1. Narrow curriculum is like putting yourself in a box and hampering your growth as a person, so I would prefer the broad curriculum wherein my learning wouldn't be limited to the things that are being taught to me in school. Learning is a never-ending process, and it certainly is not confined to the four corners of the classroom. It is not just reading and writing, or lectures and discussions, those mentioned would be more understood if one can experience its application in reality.

    2. The development curriculum process that i would have a greater challenge working on is implementing. A new curriculum, as with anything that is recent, would come across a concern on the way the educators and the students would adapt to it. Another concern perhaps would be the difference in your perspective and of the teachers, you might visualize it done in a certain way, but then the teacher might have a different approach in doing such thing.

    3. I plan to handle such challenges by being proactive, and by being observant, getting as much feedback through the educators and the students so I can assess if the curriculum is effective. I would also meet with the teachers and explain to them how i want certain things to be implemented so that there wouldn't be any discrepancies in my idea of how to implement it and how it is actually being implemented by the teachers.

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  11. 1. Curriculum is the heart of the learning process.
    2. Evaluating: it is the turning point where you can finally check how weak or strong the curriculum is.
    3.The greater the challenges are, the more planning and proper execution you need.

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  12. For me, both have their own respective distinctions and flaws, but they have the same target and that is to educate. It doesn't matter what type of curriculum the school will follow as long as it is consistent with the school's vision and mission.

    The difficult process on making a curriculum is the planning. There are a lot of elements that you have to consider like what type of school are you going to operate e.g. catholic school, exclusive school for boys/girls, co-ed, and others. What teacher qualifications are you looking for, etc. You also have to consider the positive and negative effects, and you have to do extensive research if you don't want your plans to fail.

    To handle such pressure, it will be wise to do research and ask some professional help.

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