New trends and perspectives in curriculum design and in curriculum construction –constructivist-cultural studies-diversified curriculum.
Curriculum-Meaning, Concept and Definitions
Etymologically the term curriculum was derived from the Greek word ‘Currere’ which means a race course or a runway on which one runs to reach a goal. In the past the term curriculum signified a course of studies followed by a pupil in a teaching institution. Today it means in general terms, the contract between Society, the state and educational professionals with regard to the educational activities that learners should undergo during a certain phase of their lives to learn something desirable.
Cunningham - “Curriculum is a tool in the hands of an artist (teacher) to mould his material (pupils) according to his ideas (aim and objectives) in his studio (school).”
Morroe - “ Curriculum includes all those activities which are utilized by the school to attain the aims of education.”
Modern Concept
Modern Education is the combination of two dynamic processes. The one is the process of individual development and the other is the process of socialization; which is commonly known as adjustment with the social environment.
Modern Trends in Curriculum Design
The classroom is continually changing, from the subject matter that is covered, to the way it is taught. Some of these changes stem from easily-abandoned fades, while others prove to be ineffective. But lately several key shifts have been shaping the future of the classroom that have the potential to impact education for years to come. Educators who to incorporate these trends into their lessons must determine how to overcome any obstacles to their implementation and ensure the new measures are beneficial to their students. For educators who want to change their approach to building curriculum, these are the trends worth exploring:
Real Skills. Gone are the days of students asking, “When will I ever use this in real life?” during a trigonometry lesson. In addition to traditional subjects, there has been excitement surrounding skills that students can use in the real world. In the 21st century, skills like collaboration, critical thinking, and communication are valued in virtually all aspects of daily life.
These skills will prepare students for life beyond the classroom and can be beneficial to personal, academic, and professional situations. They are also applicable in some way in all academic disciplines, and so will help students regardless of what they choose to focus on with their studies. Teaching these skills will not only help students academically, but they will also help shape their growth as independent individuals in the modern world. Teachers across the nation will have different ideas of what skills are most important and how to teach them to their students. As students advance into higher grades and learn from multiple educators, there can be inconsistencies with instruction that hinder or confuse students. However this lack of standard does not lead to more variety, which could actually enrich students’ educational experience and introduce them to new skills and perspectives in the classroom.
Personalized Curriculums. Traditionally, students get more freedom to choose what they learn as they get older, starting with electives in middle and high school and specializing in a major when they get to college. However, research dating back to the 1990s shows that interest-based learning is closely tied to student success. Educators are beginning to build curriculum around students’ interests at younger ages, in the hopes of keeping them engaged and motivated at school.
Interest-based learning is hardly a new idea, but integrating it into the curriculum wasn’t thought to be possible until new learning technologies became more widespread. Classroom technology makes it easier for teachers to create individualized lessons for their students based on their passions.
While some schools may already focus on individualized learning, others still have to figure out how to integrate personalized curriculums on a larger scale. Working with new technology in the classroom is a challenge in and of itself. Additionally, instructors may struggle to create or respond to personalized lessons for each and every one of their students, especially in the case of large class sizes. However, this can still benefit all students by keeping them passionate and interested about what they learn at school.
Digital Integration. As with many other aspects of modern life, teachers have been incorporating more and more technology into the classroom. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of websites, apps, programs, and devices dedicated to helping teachers, parents, and students of all ages with school. And the possibilities are endless — from e-textbooks to online high school degree programs, there is no shortage of useful tools available to enhance every part of the educational experience.
The open-source nature of the internet encourages users to do more than consume these free resources. Interaction with and contribution to the collective knowledge available not only to students, but to all users, can be a powerful experience for students. Instructors can encourage students to take an active role in both their own education and the education of others.
However, there are several challenges that educators and administrators may face when attempting to integrate new technology into their classroom. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges is lack of funds. Purchasing new technology for classroom use gets expensive, and even new digital software can be costly. Some districts may simply be unable to afford new technology and there is an increasingly large technological divide between low-income and wealthy schools. Though much of the Internet is free to use as long as students have a device to access it, educators will have to devise a specific plan to purchase and integrate new technology within budget constraints.
Inequality of implementation is another large challenge to overcome. Different schools and teachers have different resources available to them, leading to unique educational experiences for each student. These differences lead to some students enjoying a much higher quality of education than others, and while creating systemic change across classrooms would ensure an equal and fair education for all, it is a difficult goal to achieve. Educators can only control their own lessons and should integrate new methods as they see fit.
These trends may sound like undeniable solutions to improve the quality of education, but they mark a truly radical shift in how teachers create curriculum for their students. Though integrating new trends may be difficult, educators should still embrace any changes they see value in. Adhering to old standards or methods of curriculum building simply because it’s easier will affect students for generations to come. Educators must do their best to help their students learn and grow, and these new curriculum trends may be an effective way to do so(Blogger,).
Curriculum Construction
One of the most important activities of the university is the development of curriculum or course outlines in consonance with the national and international demands and realities. For the last few decades, scholars have been raising doubts and questions about the validity of heavy reliance on a subject-centered approach to curriculum development that is dominated by textbook contents. Furthermore, the convergence of academic disciplines in the form of broad field and problem-orientation to knowledge incorporating a variety of theoretical perspectives requires innovative procedures for the development of curriculum. For this purpose, it is imperative that university teachers are aware of modern trends in the development of curriculum.
The key component of any curriculum is its instructional objectives or learning outcomes. To determine the extent to which these objectives or outcomes have been achieved, there is a need to assess students’ learning. Students’ assessment is a very complex task. Teachers often do not have the necessary background to meet its requirements appropriately. Hence, it is also necessary that teachers are exposed to a variety of tools to measure students learning (“MODERN TRENDS IN CURRICULUM CONSTRUCTION | remya radhakrishnan,”).
Principles of Curriculum Construction
The content of curriculum is determined on the basis of some academic principles which are stated below:
(1) Aims of education and objectivity: Life is complex. A curriculum should reflect the complexities of life. In other words, in farming the curriculum one should take into consideration the aims and objectives of education.
(2) Child-centric principle: The curriculum should be framed according to the actual needs, interests and capacities of the child. That means a curriculum must be child-centric as modern education is child-centered.
(3) Principles of civic and social needs: Man is a social being. He lives in the society. The child develops in the society. Modern education aims at both developments of the individuality of the child as well as the development of the society.
(4) Principle of conservation: Man has conserved experiences very carefully for better adaptability. Education is regarded as a means of deserving the cultural heritage of humanity. The school serves two-fold functions in this regard- preservation of the past experiences and transmission of experiences.
(5) Principles of creativeness: Education not only conserves that past experiences of humanity but also helps an individual to develop his innate potentialities.
(6) Principle of forward-looking: The aim of life-centered education is not limited to the present life-situations in the family and society. Hence, education must prepare the child of shouldering future responsibilities. So in farming the curriculum we must take into consideration the future needs of the child as well as the needs of the society.
(7) Principle of preparation for living: The children should know the various activities of the environment around them and how these activities are enabling people to meet their basic needs of food, shelter, clothing, recreation, health and education.
(8) Principle of integration and correlation: Subjects should be arranged logically and psychologically in accordance with the child’s developing interests.
(9) Principle of learning ability: Every item should be learnt. An item should not only be learnable, it should also have utility.
(10) Principle of individual difference: The curriculum should be framed in such a way that every individual can have opportunity for self-expression and development. The curriculum should be based on the psychology of individual difference, which can meet the complexities of modern democratic society.
(11) Principle of social relevancy and utility: Subjects should not be determined on the basis of their disciplinary value but on the basis of their intrinsic value, social relevancy and utility.
(12) Principle for utilization of leisure: Variety of subjects such as games and sports, fine arts, subjects of aesthetic value are to be introduced in the school programme to utilize leisure.
(13) Principle of variety and flexibility: The curriculum should include such activities and experiences, which may facilitate his normal development. The curriculum for girls should naturally be different from that of boys; boys and girls have different needs and attitudes.
(14) Principle of time: Relative significance and importance of each subject in the curriculum has to be judged and determined in the light of the time available in the timetable, which is regarded as the mirror of the school programme.
Modern trends in curriculum construction
Digital Diversity: Present age is an age of ICT technology has touched to al the wakes of human life. Technology has made various tasks easy, convenient and of quality. To survive in the concern filed it is necessary for everyone to have a knowledge and skill of technology. Education makes man enable to contribute, it strengthens the capabilities. For the effective transaction of curriculum ICT is must.
Web 2.0 applications must be used for the effective teaching learning process. Curriculum makers should give clear guidelines regarding this. E.g. teacher tube is very useful source for the educational resources. Khan academy.org also provides good videos, lectures and many more which makes learning meaningful, easy and effective. Curricki merlot, K2-12 Hippocamus all these provides educational resources which students can use, edit reconstruct and so on. All these things should be interlined with every curriculum.
Need based Curriculums: Researches in all the fields resulted in to specialization. Need based curriculum is the foremost need of the present education system. Many universities are developing need based short term programs for this purpose.
E.g. Mumbai University has introduced courses like – certificate course in Power Point, certificate course in tally, certificate course in marketing, YCMOU- introduced –English communication skills program for Mumbai Dabawala.
Modular Curriculum with credit base system: Modular curriculum gives real freedom of learning .especially in the open learning system his approach has been adopted at first but now majority of traditional universities also accepting his system; this is a real emerging trend in the modern curriculum.
Online coerces: Need based and choice based curriculums are available online also. E.g. course era .com has introduced many useful need based courses for free of cost. Government also takes initiative for this e.g. Right to Information certificate curse has been introduced by Government of India to the Indian people. This course is free and online.
21st century skills: All the curriculums of various courses should focus on 21st century skills. Skills like collaboration, critical thinking, effective communication, multitasking stress management, empathy are must for all the personals.
International Understanding: Globalization has made converted the world in to global village. We should consider world as a one family and for this international understanding must be inculcate through curriculum.
Constructivism: Constructivist approach believes that learner should be given freedom to construct his/her knowledge. Spoon feeding must be avoided. If a learner is fully active in construction of knowledge then learning process will be highly effective. In all the curriculums constructivist strategies must be given important place.
Cultural studies
Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field of studies, which means that it draws from many different subject areas, including sociology, anthropology, political science, and history. Although it is sometimes misunderstood as being the study of popular culture, cultural studies is, in fact, the study of the ways in which culture is constructed and organized and the ways in which it evolves and changes over time. Modern curriculum needs study of culture so as to attain the benefits of culture and to develop culture (“Cultural studies | interdisciplinary field | Britannica.com,” ).
Diversified Curriculum
Our world is changing — economically, socially, and politically. We have reached a stage in India where our students have started viewing the world differently and their place in it as thinkers, decision makers and important stakeholders. To meet the challenges ahead, we’ll need help from a broad range of non-technological innovators, including economists, political scientists, psychologists and artists.
As the contemporary world becomes more complex, we need an education setup that caters to this diversity not only in terms of challenges but also in the ways to address them. It is time, therefore, that we accepted and embraced the crucial contribution
that an education provides in building a new innovation agenda in the country. The essential interdisciplinary character of education in liberal arts provides students the necessary exposure to the multifaceted character of human nature. The ongoing digital revolution will make this exploration between technology and education obvious for the next generation.
Now thinking will be more important than knowing. We need to revolutionize education to encourage creativity and need to teach our boys and girls to play, take a chance and create, not by teaching our students. We will hinder their capacity to innovate (“The need for a diversified curriculum,” 2017).
Reference
Blogger, I. G. (n.d.). Current Curriculum Trends Worth Exploring. Retrieved August 31, 2019, from ASCD Inservice website: http://inservice.ascd.org/current-curriculum-trends-worth-exploring/
Cultural studies | interdisciplinary field | Britannica.com. (n.d.). Retrieved August 31, 2019, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/cultural-studies
MODERN TRENDS IN CURRICULUM CONSTRUCTION | remya radhakrishnan. (n.d.). Retrieved August 31, 2019, from https://remyaradhakrishnan.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/modern-trends-in-curriculum-construction/
The need for a diversified curriculum. (2017, April 19). Retrieved August 31, 2019, from Deccan Herald website: https://www.deccanherald.com/content/607193/need-diversified-curriculum.html
