TCA Lectures Characteristics of curriculum planning BEd

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Answer:

Curriculum Development Planning

Curriculum refers to running; a course; race-chariot and is derived from the Latin word currere which means to run for attaining the goals of education. (Billings & Halstead, 1998:70-71; Brown, 1993:574). 

Within the educational context, curriculum refers to a course of study at a school, university; the subjects making up a course; an educational journey that the learner embarks upon (Brown, 1993:574; Lovat & Smith, 1995:8-9; 18-19).

Curriculum Development Planning

• The curriculum is what happens, what actually takes place among teachers and students, students and students so that learning occurs. Even though curriculum cannot be entirely preplanned and prescribed, to a great extent a curriculum that satisfies the need of the students as well as the society can be developed. The construction of nursing curriculum is the responsibility of the faculty of the nursing institute, but the minimum requirements which are prescribed by statutory bodies like nursing council or university in the name of syllabus has to be followed by all institutes.
• A process in which participants at many levels make decisions about the purposes of learning, teaching- learning situation.
• It is process of gathering, sorting, selecting, balancing and synthesizing relevant information from many sources in order to design those experiences that will assist learners in attaining the goals of curriculum.
• It is the orderly study and improvement of schooling in light of stated objectives.

Characteristics

• It is a continuous process.
• It takes place at many levels.
• It involves many groups, decisions about a variety of planning and issues.
• It is ultimately concerned with the experiences of the learners.

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ii. Values based curriculum

Answer:

Values-based Education is an approach to teaching that works with values. It creates a strong learning environment that enhances academic achievement and develops students' social and relationship skills that last throughout their lives.

The positive learning environment is achieved through the positive values modelled by staff throughout the school. It quickly liberates teachers and students from the stress of confrontational relationships, which frees up substantial teaching and learning time.

It also provides social capacity to students, equipping them with social and relationship skills, intelligences and attitudes to succeed at school and throughout their lives

This is for schools looking to develop their curriculum and culture; schools who may be looking to change their curriculum and/or improve how it is delivered. Schools are invited to re-visit and evaluate their formal, informal and hidden curriculum and see how, by underpinning the curriculum and culture with VbE, learning and achievement, motivation and behaviour, enjoyment and interest are all improved. This course details exactly how to embed a values-philosophy and shares many examples of outstanding values-based practice. When a curriculum is values-based, there is significant positive impact for pupils and teachers.

This is ideally delivered as a whole day’s INSET to teaching staff. It may also be appropriate for members of support staff and governors to attend. Flexible arrangements can be made if required (ie, half days, series of twilight sessions etc). The training will take into account the school’s context and desired outcomes for the training and how it will support the next phase of the school’s journey.

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iii. Application of Heuristics Problem Solving Method

Answer:

Heuristic Approaches to Problem Solving

“A heuristic technique, often called simply a heuristic, is any approach to problem solving, learning, or discovery that employs a practical method not guaranteed to be optimal or perfect, but sufficient for the immediate goals. Where finding an optimal solution is impossible or impractical, heuristic methods can be used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution. Heuristics can be mental shortcuts that ease the cognitive load of making a decision. Examples of this method include using a rule of thumb, an educated guess, an intuitive judgement, guesstimate, stereotyping, profiling, or common sense.” (Source: Wikipedia)

“In computer science, a heuristic is a technique designed for solving a problem more quickly when classic methods are too slow, or for finding an approximate solution when classic methods fail to find any exact solution. This is achieved by trading optimality, completeness, accuracy, or precision for speed. In a way, it can be considered a shortcut.” (Source: Wikipedia)

The objective of a heuristic algorithm is to apply a rule of thumb approach to produce a solution in a reasonable time frame that is good enough for solving the problem at hand. There is no guarantee that the solution found will be the most accurate or optimal solution for the given problem. We often refer the solution as “good enough” in most cases.

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iv. Social Skill development

Answer:

Social skills are the skills we use to communicate and interact with each other, both verbally and non-verbally, through gestures, body language and our personal appearance. Human beings are sociable creatures and we have developed many ways to communicate our messages, thoughts and feelings with others. What is said is influenced by both verbal language and the way we use it - tone of voice, volume of speech and the words we choose - as well as by more subtle messages such as body language, gestures and other non-verbal communication methods.

The fact that some people are better 'social interactors' than others has led to detailed investigations into the nature and function of interpersonal interaction. Developing social skills is about being aware of how we communicate with others, the messages we send and how methods of communication can be improved to make the way we communicate more efficient and effective. There are distinct advantages to having well developed social skills. 

Here are three:

1. More and Better Relationships

Identifying well with individuals leads to more relationships and, at times, friendships.

By developing your social skills you become more charismatic, a desirable trait . People are more interested in charismatic people as charismatic people are (or at least appear to be) more interested in them.

Most people know you cannot advance far in life without strong interpersonal relationships. Focusing on relationships will help you get a job, get promoted and make new friends. Well honed social skills can increase your happiness and satisfaction and give you a better outlook on life. More relationships can also help to reduce the negative effects of stress and boost your self-esteem.

2. Better Communication

Relating with people and being able to work in large groups naturally develops one's communication skills. After all, you can not have great social skills without good communication skills and being able to convey one's thoughts and ideas may be the single most important skill that you can develop in life..

3. Greater Efficiency

If you are good with people, you can more easily avoid being with the people you do not like as much as others. Some people dread social interactions because they do not wish to spend time with individuals who do not have similar interests and viewpoints. It is a lot easier to attend a meeting at work or a party in your personal life if you know at least some of the people who will be there. If you are in a social situation and do not want to spend time with 'John' because you don't like him or he cannot help you with a particular issue, a good set of social skills will allow you to.

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