UNIT 1 CURRICULUM CHANGE AND ITS CONCEPTS.docx
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The document discusses curriculum change, including its definition, concepts, and drivers. It notes that curriculum change can be defined as efforts to change aims and objectives of teaching according to values, culture, and resources. Key drivers of change include community, technology, politics, economics, and global transformations. There are various types of curriculum change such as empirical, normative-reeducative, and power strategies. The process of curriculum change generally involves five steps: analysis, mission statement, prioritization, implementation, and monitoring. Some issues that can impact curriculum change are political, societal, economic, technological, related to social diversity, environmental, and institutional.
UNIT 1 CURRICULUM CHANGE AND ITS CONCEPTS.docx
- 1. UNIT 1: CURRICULUM CHANGE AND ITS CONCEPTS CURRICULUM CHANGE The curriculum is the outline of concepts to be taught to students to help them meet the content standards. The curriculum is what is taught in a given course or subject. Curriculum refers to an interactive system of instruction and learning with specific goals, contents, strategies, measurement, and resources. DEFINITION Curriculum change can be defined as an effort made by education authorities to change and adapt their aims and objectives of teaching and learning according to the values, culture, philosophy as well resources at their disposal. Concept of Change Change is a constant law in nature. It always brings improvement. It always occurs continuously. Technological advancement and the explosion of knowledge is the basic reason of varying style of change. Change is an ongoing almost unconscious process that involves reworking familiar elements into new relationships. Curriculum change or Revision Curriculum revision means making the curriculum different in some way, to give it a new position or direction. This often means alteration to its philosophy by way of its aims and objectives, reviewing the content included, revising its methods, and re-thinking its evaluator procedures. Forces Driving Changes: Community Technology
- 2. Political Conditions Economical Condition Global transformation Complexity: competing demands of governments and interest groups Local need Staff dissatisfaction Parental Demands Student demands – are all students achieving /participating Standards – can they be maintained in view of the challenges of new courses? Leadership - meaningful change and curriculum evolution Demands of the culture, the society, and the expectations of the population being served. Environmental Drivers for curriculum change: National Imposition Local Need Staff Dissatisfaction Parental Demands Student Demand-are all students achieving/participating Standards-can they have maintained in a view of the challenges of new courses? Leadership-Meaningful change and curriculum evaluation Factors influencing the Change in Curriculum ▪ Population growth ▪ Population pattern ▪ Move towards urbanization ▪ Consumption of natural resources ▪ increasing in Government control in health care ▪ Increasing need for health professionals to work with other professionals as well as the client system ▪ increasing the professionalization of health workers ▪ Increasing socialization of health field ▪ Increasing supply of the health workers perhaps resulting in more supply ▪ Rapid obsolescence of practice, skills, and knowledge level Need to Change the Curriculum
- 3. 1. To restructure the curriculum according to the needs, interests, or abilities of the learner. 2. To eliminate unnecessary units, teaching methods, and contents. 3. To introduce the latest and updated methods of teaching and content, new knowledge, and practices. 4. To add or delete a number of clinical hours of instruction. 5. To correlate the student’s theory courses and clinical learning practices. 6. To select clinical learning experiences based on the objectives rather than on the service needs of the hospital. 7. The students themselves receive little or no experience in assuming responsibilities or in making choices; everything is decided for them by the teacher or the administrator. Major Types of Curriculum Change 1- Empirical Rationale: Stress is laid on the need for change and competencies to implement. These changes do not occur at the school level as they are not capable of bringing such change. 2- Normative-re-educative Strategies: It is based on the rationality and intelligence of humans. This kind of change can occur by approaching humans convincing them that there is a need to change their values, attitudes, understanding, and skill. Power Strategies: Changes should meet the power expectations of the superiors who are in a higher power such core strategies are used often in school. According to John Mchnil there are following types of curriculum change: Substitution:
- 4. In the type of change, one element is substituted by the other i.e. one-course paper/one unit is replaced with the other. Mostly this kind of change is easily implemented. 1. Alternation: In some of the materials, content items or procedures are introduced into the existing materials and are adopted. It is considered an alternation. 2. Perturbation: Some changes when introduced disturb the program for some time and then later they get adjusted or adopted into the program. 3. Restructuring: These changes lead to modification of the system itself. For instance: team teaching, project method, or competency-based teaching’ and evaluation. This change is like restructuring. 4. Value-Oriented Change: This change basically brings a shift from one’s philosophy or basic ideology towards a prescription or orientation. Most of them resist should adjust to the changes and accept the same. Teachers who cannot adjust their values to such changes may not be retained for long. Process of Curriculum change Ideally, according to Lachiver & Tardif (2002), curriculum change is managed in a logical five-step process: Stage of curriculum change Process Step 1: An analysis of the current offerings and context; Step 2: the expression of the key program aims in a mission statement; Step 3: prioritization of resources and development strategies; Step 4: the implementation of the targeted curricula change; Step 5: the establishment of monitoring tools and processes. Stages of Curriculum Change Process 1. Initiation In which ideas for change are launched and decisions are made regarding the nature, direction, and extent of change. 2. Legitimating In which of sentiment on behalf of change is being communicated. 3. Congruence
- 5. Congruence of the separate system of values held by the person or persons seeking to create change and by the person or persons who are the targets or human subjects of the purposed change Various issues in Curriculum change 1) POLITICAL ISSUES All aspects of the curriculum depending on local, state, and national political standards. Both private and public educational institutions rely on the political body for funding and decision-making for hiring personnel, building and maintaining facilities and equipment. 2) THE SOCIETAL ISSUES Society has its own expectations about the aims and objectives that should be considered when changing the curriculum. It also has a perception of what the product of the school system should look like. It is, therefore, necessary for curriculum designers to take into account societal considerations. 3) ECONOMICAL ISSUES The economic status of the people and the state play an important role in curriculum change. The aspirations of people, their demands, and expectations from courses or curricular inclusion at various stages of education, all depend on the economic status. Without financial help (budget) and resources, curriculum wings can’t perform and implement new research in education 4) TECHNOLOGY The advancement in technology makes the world a global village, the technology of the 21st century requires technical skills (problem-solving, critical thinking, cooperation, and creative skills). To cope with current and future technology (artificial intelligence and robots) curriculum need to be changed at every level of learning Technology make learning, easy, interesting, and interactive 5) SOCIAL DIVERSITY Social diversity including religion, culture, and social groupings affects curriculum development because these characteristics influence the types of topics and methods for teaching information. Developing a relevant curriculum that considers society's expectations accommodates group traditions and promotes equality. 6) ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES World awareness and action toward reversing and ending pollution continue affecting curriculum development. Typical elementary classrooms teach recycling and healthy environmental practices. 7) OTHER ISSUES • Institutional issues in implementation o Infrastructure
- 6. o Faculty development o Faculty apprehensions Problems associated with curriculum change