Unit IV Learner Oriented Curriculum

Unit IV Learner Oriented Curriculum

Curriculum

In Latin word Curriculum means “ Race- course” and it denotes

·         Path to be followed

·         Frame within which it has to be followed

Importance of Curriculum

•      Provides direction to both teachers as well as students

•      Assists in selection of appropriate learning resource material

•      Helps to adopt appropriate teaching-learning activities

•      Helps in designing appropriate assessment tools

•      Ultimately helps designing relevant and efficient educational programme

Learner-Oriented Curriculum

Learner-Oriented Curriculum aims to develop learner autonomy and independence by putting responsibility for the learning path in the hands of students.

Tell me, and I’ll forget. Show me, and I’ll remember. Involve me, and I’ll learn. So Learner Oriented Curriculum is needed to learn any concept

Meaning

Learner-Oriented Curriculum means

·         Learners monitor their own learning.

·         Students work in collaboration

·         They construct new knowledge and skills

·         They themselves make decisions about what they will learn and how

·         Students are active participants in their learning

Definition

Learner-Oriented Curriculum designed to develop the individual and social qualities of a student rather than provide a generalized information or training by way of prescribed subject matter used of elementary or secondary education or schools

Importance of Learner-Oriented Curriculum

The supporters of learner-Oriented Curriculum give importance to individual development and they wants to organize the curriculum according to the needs and interest of learners.

Example:

 “Active learning” approaches followed in Tamil Nadu that is Activity Based Learning (ABL) and Active Learning Method (ALM)

Scope

·         It is “Active learning” educational approach that seeks to meet a child’s needs on all levels social, cognitive, physical, and emotional.

·         With this approach children are mentally and physically active using their whole bodies and all their senses to explore and learn about their world.

·         Learners are  in planning, testing, questioning, and experimenting to construct their own knowledge about people, objects, events, and ideas

Merits:

·         Give children and adults opportunity to invent and discover together as they explore materials and ideas and experience events

·         Avoid Borden and Minimize adult-child conflicts

·         Give children the opportunity to develop skills in which to take care of their own needs and solve problemsp Maintain children’s interest by allowing them to do what is important to them

·         Help children gain knowledge and skills in content areas such as creative representation, language and literacy, initiative and social relations, movement and music, classification and serration, number, space and time

·         Help child develop executive skills (self control)

Demerits

·         The weaknesses of the child-centered curriculum are chiefly in the possibilities for “misinterpretation”

·         School values are ignored

·          Focus is on activities rather than subject

·         Selection of activities is difficult

·         In this effort to free the child, many critics charged that the basic purposes in the establishment of schools were ignore

Role of the Teacher

·         A prominent pedagogy will be teacher-as-coach, to provoke students to learn rather than the more traditional teaching which places the teacher at its center in an active role and students in a passive.

·         Student-Centered Teaching and Learning focuses on the needs, abilities, interests, and learning styles of the students and has many implications for the design of curriculum, course content, and interactivity of courses

·         Decisions about the details of the course of study, the use of students’ and teachers’ time, and the choice of teaching materials and specific pedagogies must be unreservedly placed in the hands of the staff.

·         To capitalize on this, teaching and learning should be personalized to the maximum feasible extent

Disadvantages of discipline oriented Curriculum

Discipline oriented Curriculum

Discipline oriented Curriculum is the most used and accepted curriculum Design, it is also the oldest curriculum Design. It is also called Subject-Centered Designs, Subject Designs, Discipline Designs, Broad-Fields Designs, Correlation Designs and Process Designs

Meaning  

Discipline oriented Curriculum is a model of curriculum in which content is divided into separate and distinct subjects or disciplines, such as language, science, mathematics, and social studies.

The instructional emphasis of discipline-based curriculum tends to be on specific, current and factual information and skills as it emerges from the discipline experts. A discipline-based curriculum approach characterizes teaching practice within one subject and encourages teachers for specialization, depth of content knowledge, and integrity to the conventions of their discipline.

Characteristics of Discipline oriented Curriculum

·         Discipline oriented Curriculum is predetermined uniform standard of knowledge

·         Progress is measured to the extent the students learned the subject

·         Each subject is a separate entity (unit) with a logical organization of its own

·         Practice in skills is emphasized

·         Subject matter is selected by adults/experts for teaching learning situation

Requirements for the Optimum Operation of Discipline oriented Curriculum             

·         A separate classroom for each subject and each level.

·         Trained Teachers with mastery in a subjects and expert in methodology are required to teach.

·         A fixed time table is required for different subjects according to importance of the subjects and age in curriculum.

·         Special arrangements for guidance physical education, indoor and outdoor activities, tours and examinations etc

·         Need of Text books and guide books for subject base curriculum.

Advantages of discipline oriented Curriculum

·         It is related to “Textbook treatment”  and easy to deliver, textbook

·         Oldest and best known method to introduces students to get essential knowledge of society

·         Discipline oriented Curriculum is accountability to schools & materials commercially available

Disadvantages of discipline oriented Curriculum

·         Discipline oriented Curriculum is not an appropriate psychological organization

·         Lack of direct relation to the problems and interests of the learner.

·         Students must put all of their focus on the teacher. The teacher talks, while the students exclusively listen.

·         Discipline oriented Curriculum designers are the old people and the students has less willing to accept it.

·         Discipline oriented Curriculum doesn’t allow students to express themselves, ask questions and direct their own learning.

·         When students work alone, they don’t learn to collaborate with other students, and communication skills may suffer.

·         Discipline oriented Curriculum can get boring for students. Their minds may wander, and they may miss important facts.

Advantages of learner oriented curriculum

Learner oriented curriculum

A type of curriculum that focuses on the learner’s needs, attitudes self-expression and instinct motivation is called learned-oriented curriculum.

Aim using the learner-centered curriculum

The aim of using the learner-centered curriculum on the part of curriculum planners to interpret the needs and interests design as one based on common needs and interests of learners rather than on those of the particular population to be served

Basic characteristics Learner-Centered Curriculum

1.      This type of curriculum gives importance to learner and considers child as the centre of interest which is the most natural approach.

2.      The interest of the child is the most important factor in the process of teaching and learning. This factor is highly emphasized in this type-of curriculum.

3.      In this curriculum the teacher's role is not that of a task-master but that of a guide. In this curriculum, the child is treated as, plant, the teacher as gardener and the school as a garden. Thus, and child grows and develops in a natural atmosphere.

4.      Students centered curriculum gives several options (special activities, exploratory courses and other experiences) to the students. The options are based on knowledge of learner characteristics.

5.      Students are actively involved in planning and evaluation of the options in general and for themselves in particular.

6.      Learner centered curriculum points out that “the more experience in life a child has the more eager he will to learn.”

Some Approaches of Learner-Centered Curriculum

Many different faculty members have developed and used approaches to teaching that fit the criteria for Learner-Centered Curriculum. Some of them are as follows:

·         Active Learning

·         Collaborative Learning

·         Cooperative Learning

·         Problem based Learning

·         Team based Learning

·         Peer Instruction

·         Small group

·         Project Based

Importance of learner-oriented Curriculum:

·         In learner-oriented curriculum, the learner gets direct experience.

·         It is framed according to the psychological bases of education.

·         It creates a social environment.

·         It develops social qualities like cooperation, sympathy, love, belongingness etc.,

·         The education is providing according to the needs and necessities of the child.

·         The child comes in direct contact in life situations.

·         Experiences are generated out of curiosity.

·         It develops group loyalties and team spirit.

·         It helps to solve the social problem of life.

The advantages of learner oriented curriculum

When a classroom operates with student-centered instruction, students and instructors share the focus. Instead of listening to the teacher exclusively, students and teachers interact equally.

·         Group work is encouraged, and students learn to collaborate with one another.

·         Students learn to direct their own learning, ask questions and complete tasks                 independently.

·         Students are more interested in learning activities when they can interact with one another and participate actively.

·         Learner- Oriented Curriculum includes explicit skill instruction.

·         Learner- Oriented Curriculum encourages students to reflect on what they are learning and how they are learning it.

·         Learner- Oriented Curriculum motivates students by giving them some control over learning processes

·          Learner- Oriented Curriculum encourages collaboration.

·         It provides functional learning that is directly related to the life experiences of the individual.

·         This approach places the emphasis primarily on the growth and development of learners.

·         This approach best emphasizes the mental hygiene concept of guiding development.

·         This approach provides for better integration of learning activities.

·         A stronger bond between teaching and the curriculum

Social oriented Curriculum for Social Reconstruction

Meaning

The social-oriented curriculum is the curriculum is based on social issues and the goal of the curriculum is to explore and solve those issues.

It focuses the social, political and economic development of society and believes that development ultimately create a more just society.

Aim of Social Oriented Curriculum

·         Social Oriented Curriculum aims at social improvement and lead social reconstructions.

·         Engaging the learner in analyzing the many severe problems confronting humankind

·         To engage students in a critical analysis of the local, national, and international community.

·         To modify the social framework through Political changes of the nation.

Advantages of the Social Oriented Curriculum

·         Social Oriented Curriculum is directly contribute to the needs of society

·         It gives great significance and interest to students.

·         It provides real learning experiences and closely related to the life activities of the learner.

·         The school would utilize a great deal of real experience, providing a wide variety of learning activities outside the school itself. Therefore, the learning experiences are more significant and meaningful to the learner

·         It brings about the basic social values among the students.

·         It provides for better integration of learning experiences and utilize it to the Social Reconstruction

Social Reconstruction

The main focuses of Social Reconstruction are the strategies for dealing with controversial issues inquiry, dialogue, and multiple perspectives. Social-based learning and bringing the world into the classroom are also common strategies. The teacher should encourage the students to use problem solving skills for social reconstruction. Social Reconstruction is a student-centered philosophy.

For Social Reconstruction the curriculum focuses on student experience and taking social action on real problems, such as violence, hunger, international terrorism, inflation, and inequality etc. Use education to solve social problems and as a result to make democracy more efficient and more effective. Curriculum emphasis Integrate knowledge of and solution of social problems

Role of students:  Identify social problems. Use thinking skills and knowledge to solve problems.

Role of teachers: Facilitate process of students identifying and solving community-based problems.

Teaching methods: Cooperative learning, Group problem solving.

Social Oriented Curriculum for Social Reconstruction

The continuing problems at the national and global level like war, poverty, crime, racial-conflict, unemployment, political oppression, and disregard for the environment are major shift in society. It is in need of release the circumstances and to use the social resources equitably to solve the problems.

The school should help the individual to develop as a social being and also as a skilled planner of the social reality. The individual must come to learn that he or she must satisfy his or her personal needs through social consensus. The schools not only had this obligation to educate children in the value of the collective they also needed to point out the urgency for the change.

Designing learner centered curriculum, syllabus and textbooks

Curriculum Design

The arrangement of the elements of a curriculum into a substantive entity is called curriculum design. National Curriculum aims the following matters in the designing:

·         The school curriculum should aim to provide opportunities for all pupils to learn and to achieve.

·         The school curriculum should aim to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and prepare all pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life.

Principles of curriculum design

Every curriculum has three levels:

Planned :        what is intended by designers?

Delivered :      what is organised by institution? and  what is taught by teachers?

Experienced:   what is learned by students?

Elements of Curriculum Design

·         Aims, Goals, and Objectives

·         Subject Matter

·         Learning Experiences

·         Evaluation Approaches

Sources for Curriculum Design

Some important sources for curriculum design are as follows:

Science as a Source

·         Scientific method provides meaning for the curriculum design

·         Designs that stress learning how to learn or “thinking” curricula emphasize scientific procedures

·         Coincides with the scientific and rational world of Western culture

Society as a Source

·         School is an agent of society, thus the school should draw its ideas for the curriculum from the analysis of the social situation

·         Curriculum design can only be completely understood if it is contextualized socially, economically, and politically

Eternal and Divine Sources

·         Draw on the past for guidance as to what is appropriate content

·         Related to eternal truth revealed through such sources as the Bhagawat Geetha, Bible, Kuran  or other religious documents

Knowledge as a Source

Disciplined Knowledge: It has a particular method or methods by which scholars extend its boundaries

Undisciplined Knowledge: It does not have unique content, but has content that is clustered according to the focus of the investigation

The Learner as a Source

Curriculum should be derived from what we know about the learner---how he learns. Forms attitudes, generates interests, and develops values

Design Dimensions

·         Scope : Scope is the breadth and depth of curriculum content

·         Sequence: Sequence is the vertical relationship among curricular areas. so that students will have opportunities to connect and enrich their understanding of the curriculum presented or experienced

·         Continuity: Continuity is the vertical organization or repetition of curriculum components

·         Integration:Integration is the linking of all types of knowledge and experiences contained within the curriculum plan. It enables the individual to comprehend knowledge as unified

·         Articulation: Articulation has two types. They were

1.                  Vertical Articulation

Vertical Articulation depicts the relationships of certain aspects in the curriculum sequence to lessons, topics, or courses appearing later in the program’s sequence

2.                  Horizontal Articulation

Horizontal Articulation refers to the association between or among elements occurring simultaneously 

·         Balance: Balance means giving appropriate weight to each aspect of the design so that misrepresentation do not occur

Learner-Centered Designs

There are 4 types of Learner-Centered Designs. They were

1.       Child Centered Designs: Students must be active in their environments if we are to optimize learning and the Curriculum should be based on students’ lives, needs, and interests

2. Experience-Centered Designs: Everything has to be done “on the spot”---we cannot anticipate the interests and needs of children
3. Romantic (Radical) Designs: Liberation is the goal of education. Individuals should gain those awarenesses, competencies, and attitudes to enable them to take control of their lives.

Learning results from the interaction among people. By challenging content and permitting different views about the content, as well as from critiquing the purposes of the information presented

4. Humanistic Designs: The focus of attention should be on the subject nature of human existence and  there is a relationship between learning and feeling. It empowering individuals and stress the development of positive self-concept and interpersonal skills

Learner-Centered curriculum, syllabus and textbooks Designs

Learner-Centered Curriculum

The curriculum is defined as the guideline of the chapters and academic content covered by an educational system while undergoing a particular course or program. It also defined as follows

• Curriculum is all of the experiences children have under the guidance of teachers.
• Curriculum encompasses all learning opportunities provided by school.
• Curriculum is a plan for all experiences which the learner encounters in school.
• Curriculum is subject to perspectives, debate, change

Learner-Centered Syllabus

The syllabus is defined as the documents that consist of topics or portion covered in a particular subject. A syllabus is considered as a guide to the teachers as well as to the students. It helps the students to know about the subject in detail. It contains general rules, policies, instructions, topics covered, assignments, projects, test dates, and so on.

Learner-Centered Syllabus by the Tamil Nadu Government School Education Department

Tamil Nadu Government School Education Department functions to attain the objectives in order to Universalize and Equalize Qualitative Educational Opportunities. The Structure of education in the state is based on the national pattern.

We have 12 years of schooling at three levels. The Elementary level comprises of eight years - Five years of Primary and three years of Upper Primary Stages. This is followed by two years of Secondary level and finally two years of Higher Secondary level.

Vision

    To achieve universalisation of education at both elementary and secondary levels by providing burden less quality education through joyful learning and to provide basic infrastructure coupled with safety and security for the well being of the children.

Objectives

·         To provide universal access, equity, quality at primary, upper primary, secondary and higher secondary level.

·         To strive for all-round development of the child.

·         To evolve curriculum and evaluation procedures in conformity with the values enshrined in the Constitution.

·         To build the child's knowledge, potential talent and develop the child's physical and mental abilities to the fullest extent.

·         To provide required infrastructure to ensure the comfort of each and every child in school.

·         To provide a conducive learning environment through learning activities, discovery and exploration in a child-friendly and child-centered manner.

·         To provide quality education as far as possible in the child's own mother tongue.

·         To provide abundant opportunities for the child to express itself without any fear.

·         To make examinations more flexible and integrated in classroom life by implementing continuous and comprehensive evaluation in phases, to remove the anxiety and stress caused by terminal examinations.

·         To facilitate connection of knowledge to life outside school.

·         To ensure that learning is shifted away from rote methods.

To evolve an over-riding identity informed by caring concerns within the democratic policy of the country.

Scope:

On completion of Higher Secondary level students are eligible to pursue their higher studies in the general academic streams and in the technical and professional courses.

Level	Stage	Classes	No. of Years
Elementary	Primary	1 to 5	5
Middle	Upper Primary	6 to 8	3
Secondary	High School	9 to 10	2
Higher Secondary	Higher Secondary	11 to 12	2

Concept for Teaching &Teaching Period

§  Std I – V: Tamil, English, Mathematics, Environmental Education, Science, Social Science.

§  Std VI – X : Tamil, English, Mathematics, Environmental Education, Science, Social Science, Health Education, Computer Education, Art Education and Value Education

• Std  I – V : Activity Based Learning
• Std VI – X : Active Learning Method

Division of Subject and Class

Class	Tamil	Eng	maths	En Edu & Sci	SS	H.Ed	Art & Music & Craft	Lib	Total class hrs
I	9	6	6	8		3	2	1	35
II	9	6	6	8		3	2	1	35
III	8	6	6	5	5	2	2	1	35
IV	8	6	6	5	5	2	2	1	35
V	8	6	6	5	5	2	2	1	35

35 classes x 40 Minutes = 220 Working days.

Working Hours

• 5 hours 40 minutes
• Morning = 4 Classes x 45 mts = 180 mts
• Evening = 4 Classes x 40 mts = 160 mts

180 +160=340 mts = 5 hours 40 minutes