Selecting Curriculum Content

Selecting Curriculum ContentSelecting Curriculum ContentCurricularists must determine what knowledge students need in order to succeed.What knowledge is of most worth in the global and digital world?2 obvious truths:Useful knowledge is both culturally and historically specificThe skill level for using selected knowledge varies with individuals interests and needs. Selecting Curriculum ContentThe challenge: schools are responsible for creating progammes of study for a local community, a national society, a global society; educators are selecting content for anticipated, imagined, emerging, expanding and contracting societies. Selecting content from 2 worlds: real and virtual.Selecting Curriculum ContentThere are many dominant cultures that are constantly interacting.Numerous learning styles.Conceptions of ContentCurriculum planning must select content that enables students to learn the most.Supply info that relates to students concerns. Contents should be organised -> students find the info useful and meaningful.Curriculum planners must take into account how well it addresses students cognitive, social and psychological dimensions.Organisation of ContentWithin any knowledge domain, concepts are organised into specialised networks.Content can be organised in logical, psychological, political, or practical terms.Organisation of ContentCurriculum planners who:use logical orientation organise content according to certain rules and concepts. use psychological organisation focus on how students learn or process info.behaviourists think that content should be selected and organised so that correct responses are reinforced.Cognitivists think that content should prompt students to analyse, hypothesize, investigate, identify patterns, and draw conclusions.In terms of political aspect, content should be sequenced so that emphasis is given to topics and people important to various pressure groups.Organisation of ContentContent should be organised from the concrete to the abstract.Practicality- cost effectiveness, eg. the expense of structuring the content in a particular way.

Criteria for Selecting ContentRegardless of their curriculum design preferences or their philosophical orientations, curriculum planners must apply criteria in choosing curriculum content.Criteria for Selecting ContentSelf-sufficiencylearners can actualise their potential and crystallise their identities. furnishing content that enables learners to connect their intellectual, emotional, and spiritual selves.allow learners to transform themselves into more complete individual and social beings. Criteria for Selecting ContentSignificanceContent to be learnt is significant which means it can contribute to the basic ideas, conceptsm principles, generalisations and so on of the overall aims of the curriculum. Considering the development of particular learning abilities, skills, processes and attitudes formation. Criteria for Selecting ContentValidityThe authenticity of the content selected. Validity must be verified at the initial selection of curriculum content and it must be checked at regular intervals through the duration of the curricular programme to determine if content originally valid.It means something is either accurate or inaccurate.Criteria for Selecting ContentInterestThe content is meaningful to learners life.The childrens interest should determine the curriculum.To allow for pupils maturity, their prior exeperiences, the educational and social value of their interests and the way they are expected to interact within society. Must contribute to the welfare of the pupils. Criteria for Selecting ContentUtilityThe usefulness of the content.To those fovoring the subject-centered design is often judged in terms of how the content learnt enables pupils to use that knowledge in job situations and other activities.To those favoring the learner-centered design is related to attain meaning in their life. Problem-centered content has direct application to ongoing life.Criteria for Selecting ContentUtilityTwo types:Current utility pupils must learn for immediate application to be successful in their current lives.Future utility getting pupils to be futurists themselves, to engage in futures planning, to assess future consequences of current and emerging trends.Criteria for Selecting ContentLearnability relates to the optimal placement and appropriate organisation and sequencing of content. FeasibilityThe allocation time, the available resources, the expertise of current staff, the nature of the political climate and so on. (page 207)Selecting Curriculum ExperiencesSelecting Curriculum ExperiencesMust consider not only content, but also how pupils experience that content. Must consider instructional strategies and educational activities. Purpose- impart knowledge, enhance pupils values and attitudes, abilities to think critically and creatively, and desire to learn individually and collaboratively. Selecting Curriculum ExperiencesShould nurture the enhancement of intellectual activities in both hemispheres of the brain. Eg. The sequential, literal, functioanl, textual and analyticStimulate pupils excitement in adapting to and managing complexity, celebrating uncertainty and rewarding intellectual risk taking will serve pupils.Selecting Curriculum ExperiencesShould go from didactic teacher presentation to teacher-student, student-student, and student-outside expert interactions. With such balancing, pupils attain a greater understanding of themselves as individual pupils and members of groups, both local and worldwide. Selecting Curriculum ExperiencesEducators and curriculum planners are striving for best practice and attempting to attain high standards. Must realise that content and experiences are inseparable. Selecting Educational EnvironmentsThe learning environment is a complex, living reflection of a teachers values

An educational environment is a representation of values from communities of persons, seen and unseen. Selecting Educational EnvironmentsAn educational environment represents a milieu in which teachers andstudents engage in mutual communication about content and mutually participate with educational materials and technological programmes to attain meaningful educational experience. Eg. Children who experience a creative environment are much more likely to be stimulated, to realise their potential, and to be excited about learning. Selecting Educational EnvironmentsAn environment must be arranged both physically and conceptually to challenge the breadth and depth of pupils abilities and interests.An environment must be created and orchestrated so that pupils feel intellectually safe; so that purposeful pupils activity is stimulated. A classroom is a biosphere as an ecosystem; completely natural. Selecting Educational EnvironmentsThe educational environment must develop an ecocentric ethic; a school particular culture; the relationship among all the people within the school and outside the school. Eg. In an ecocentric school, pupils interact with institutions and social practices. The educational environment should be considered and developed so that pupils acquire knowledge and understanding at deep conceptual levels explicitly and implicitly. What are some major challenges to educators in determining and selecting curricular content?Useful knowledge is both culturally and historically specific The skill level for using selected knowledge varies with individuals interests and needs Curricular content may vary from one society to another.The schools are responsible for creating programmes of study for a local community, a global society (world societies) Content are being selected for anticipated, imagined, emerging, expanding and contracting societies.Content selection is chosen from 2 world- real and virtual worlds

What are the central criteria to consider when selecting curriculum content? Curriculum experiences?Self-sufficiencySignificanceValidityInterest UtilityLearnability Feasibility Curriculum experiences?Based on instructional strategies (eg. Inquiry strategies, lecture, discussion and demonstration) and educational activities.Capable to impart knowledge and enhance pupils values and attitudes and the abilities to think critically and creatively. Capable to nurture the enhancement of intellectual activities in both hemispheres of the brain.Capable to stimulate pupils excitement in adapting to and managing complexity, celebrating uncertainty and rewarding intellectual risk taking.Should go from didactic teacher presentation to teacher-student, student-student, and student-outside expert interactions.Why is it necessary to consider carefully educational environments?It is a representation of values from communities of persons, seen and unseen.In order to attain meaningful educational experience.For pupils to be stimulated, to realise their potential and to be excited about learning. For pupils to feel intellectually safe. So that the purposeful pupils activity is stimulated.