TCA Lectures Design a curriculum of educational program which is relevant to your community? BEd

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Answer:

The process of designing a curriculum program that includes components that meet the criteria described in the preceding section requires considerable time and commitment. Fortunately, the process does not have to be considered completely implemented for improvements in mathematics and science teaching and learning to be realized. Each stage of the process makes a contribution to these goals.

This report assumes that a curriculum program design committee, with representatives of various stakeholders in the school system or district, will be responsible for the design process. This process — described in this section — will be a major professional development experience for the committee members.

The process described in this section and illustrated by Figure 6 is not intended to be prescriptive but, rather, to suggest how to design a curriculum program. The boxes in Figure 6 represent key steps in the process. Factors that influence the process are represented by ovals.

Early in the process of developing or revising a curriculum program, the committee should study the 

mathematics and science education context of the

local community, community priorities, state mandates and assessments, local and state educational system structures, and local history of educational practices and programs. It is important for the committee to become familiar with this context, particularly with local, state, and national standards. Other policy documents, such as goals, mission statements, course requirements, and curriculum guides, should be considered carefully in the initial part of the design process. In addition, the committee should not only study current practices, customs, and beliefs about education in the local schools but should compare these to the educational research literature on best practices in teaching, learning, and curriculum design.

ESTABLISHING GOALS AND STANDARDS

As the starting point in the development of an improved curriculum program, a district needs goals and a set of standards to guide the work of the curriculum program design committee, particularly in the important areas of creating a framework and selecting the core instructional materials.

The previous section of the report, "Components of Coherent Mathematics and Science Education Curriculum Programs," lists criteria for goals and standards and indicates how national standards provide guidance for districts that are writing their own. In recent years, most states have adopted mathematics and science goals or standards (CCSSO, 1997). It is important for the design committee to base its work on state policy since that policy determines the extent to which state goals and standards must be used locally. Some states require local districts to follow the state standards, while others expect the standards to be used as guidelines only. In some cases, state content standards guide a state's assessment program. In these cases, districts — and their curriculum program design committees — will likely choose to focus on those standards so that their students will perform well on the state assessments.

Where local or state-level standards do not exist or where state standards are optional or do not meet the criteria for high-quality standards given in the previous section of this report, design committees may want to use national standards. Many districts and states have used the following national standards as the basis for their own standards:

• The Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for Mathematics (NCTM, 1989);
• The Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics (NCTM, 1991c);
• The Assessment Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 1995);
• The National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996b); and 
• The Benchmarks for Science Literacy (AAAS, 1993).

BUILDING A COMMON VISION

Even with the availability of goals and a comprehensive set of standards, the curriculum program design committee needs to agree upon and articulate a common vision for the district in its own language. Teachers, administrators, and others on the committee should translate what is called for in national, state, and local standards into administrative and classroom policy and practice for their district. The committee will want to consult research literature and other sources on best practices in teaching and learning science and mathematics. Creating a common vision of what and how students will learn mathematics and science is an important component of the development of the curriculum program, regardless of whether most of the program's components are adopted or adapted from other programs or developed independently. A common vision helps focus all stakeholders on what the school district believes is important. The vision is critical for good communication, as it will help the committee describe what the practices and behaviors of students, teachers, administrators, and parents should be when the curriculum program is in place. In building a common vision, the design committee should describe what would be observable when the curriculum program is fully developed and implemented in terms of

• what students are learning and how they are learning it;
• what teachers are doing to support, encourage, and expect learning;
• the evidence to be used during assessment of student performance; and
• activities parents, administrators, businesses, and colleges and universities are engaged in to support and encourage high levels of student performance.

Many approaches to this part of the design committee's work are possible as long as members engage in intellectual and focused discussion regarding issues of teaching and learning. One such discussion might include tracing the development of a particular concept or strand across several grade levels, and correlating this development with national and state standards documents.

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Q 4: Evaluate the curriculum development process of USA. Recommended suitability of various ideas and processes of curriculum development for adaption of USA curriculum in Pakistan.

Answer:

The development of curricula can be thought of as the process by which specific information is transferred to a student or group of students. Curriculum development in the United States has an interesting history that follows the trends and patterns in population, industrial development and economic globalization. As a candidate pursuing a master’s degree in education in curriculum and instruction, it will benefit you to understand how curriculum has developed in the United States.

Early Education in the United States

In the 1700s and 1800s, apprenticeships were the primary form of education. Apprentices trained with experts in specific vocations, such as a blacksmithing or textile production. But as industry has evolved, education has moved away from apprenticeships. In the early 1900s, curricula maintained a strong agricultural focus, which reflected a thriving agricultural sector demonstrated by many families making their living by growing farm products. But as domestic agriculture has declined, education has begun to evolve into a study of broader subjects.

Introduction of Technology

As computers and other technologies have become available, they have become a cornerstone of curriculum development. Education has widely supported the learning of technology in order to maximize students’ success in a technology-driven world. If we consider that one of the purposes of school is to prepare students for entry into the workforce, it makes sense that encouraging systems-based learning and technological literacy would become a priority.

A More Holistic Approach Based on Research

Research has guided the development of important educational theories, which have deepened our understanding of how children and adults learn. This cognitive, social and cultural research directly affects curriculum development and shapes the way in which we communicate information to students. Today’s teachers can use a wide array of classroom practices and tools to effectively convey information to each student.

Curriculum development in the United States has evolved as trends in demography, economy and industry have changed. This fascinating history is further explored through coursework in a master’s of education program. As a teacher, you will gain perspective on the evolution of curriculum development over the decades as well as curricula in today’s educational systems.

Toward Systematic Curriculum Development

Perhaps one of the earliest forms of systematic curriculum building in career and technical education may be attributed to Victor Della Vos, director of the imperial Technical School of Moscow. At the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876, Della Vos demonstrated a new approach to teaching the mechanical arts that "became a catalyst for career and technical education in the United States" (Lannie, 1971). Rather than leaning through conscious imitation, the Russian system utilized shops where formal instruction in the mechanical arts could be provided. This system attempted to teach mechanical arts fundamentals

(a) in the least possible time; (b) in such a way as to make possible the giving of adequate instruction to a large number of students at one time; (c) by a method that would give to the study of practical shopwork the character of a sound, systematical acquirement of knowledge; and (d) so as to enable the teacher to determine the progress of each student at any time. (Bennett, 1937)

Using these basic principles, Della Vos set up separate shops in the areas of carpentry, joinery, blacksmithing, and metal turning where students completed graded exercises that were organized logically and according to difficulty (Lannie, 1971). The Russian system, which was noted by many Americans, had a most substantial impact on Calvin Woodward and John Runlke. Woodward initiated a manual training school at Washington University in St. Louis that closely paralleled the system developed by Della Vos. Runkle, who served as president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, favored the Russian system to the extent that practical shop instruction was initiated for engineering students, and a secondary school of mechanical arts was established on the M.I.T. campus. These pioneer efforts served as important precursors of the contemporary career and technical and technical curriculum.

The successes of Runkle and Woodward generated great interest in this form of instruction, and soon manual training began to spring up in a number of schools around the United States. Shopwork was even introduced into the elementary schools and, by the late 1800s, it was a formal part of many grammar schools across the nation. However, this progress did not serve as the best substitute for apprenticeship. Manual training and other forms of practical arts such as domestic science represented course work 'of a career and technical nature but these courses were incidental or supplementary to the primary function of the school" (Roberts, 1971). In response to this deficiency, schools began to organize so that students could be prepared to enter work in a variety of occupational areas. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, technical institutes, trade schools, commercial and business schools, and agricultural high schools began to flourish. Many of the offerings provided in these schools were similar in scope to those found in today's comprehensive high schools and community colleges. However, the standards associated with these programs were quite tax or even nonexistent. Quality was at best a local matter and, more often than not, did not extend beyond the concern of the individual instructor. The result was a considerable amount of inconsistency in quality among programs across the nation.

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