ASSIGNMENT 1

1. What are the general principles of curriculum development?

Answer: Educationalists have laid down certain general principles for developing curriculum.

1. The principle of child-centeredness

Curriculum should always be child-centered which means that it should be based on the needs
and requirements of the students. The child needs more experience than instruction. True
education can be achieved only through activity and experience. It is by means of meaningful
activities that the students can reveal their initiatives and social responsibilities. Therefore,
curriculum development at any stage should be framed in accordance with the child's
developmental characteristics and his needs.

2. The principle of community-centeredness

Each child should be viewed as a member of the community to which he belongs. So, it is quite
desirable that his needs and desires must harmonize with the needs and desires of those amongst
whom he has to live. It is important that the child interacts with other members of the society.
The goal formulated by the school, which depends upon the purpose of the society, determines
the content of education that is the curriculum. The truth about the society in which the child
lives is that it is ever changing and not static. It is a challenge for the child to live in such a
changing modern world. Any curriculum should help the child to cope up with these situations.

3. The principle of activity-centeredness

A curriculum should be one that provides for a variety of activities in which the children are
naturally interested. The activity must be connected with the child's needs and desires. Emphasis
should be given to learning through doing things and not just learning through reading and
writing. This can include play activities, projects in groups, constructive and creative activities.
4. The principle of integration

Integration means integration of the child's needs as well as the needs of the democratic society.
The activities carried out in schools and the experiences gathered by the child should be so
designed as to lead the child to establish a functional unity within the environment. Such a
curriculum will safeguard the general and liberal aspects of education.

5. Forward looking principle

Education helps a child prepare himself for a better adult life. So, a curriculum should be
designed in such a way that it takes into consideration the future life of the child. Thus, a
curriculum should help a child to prepare himself for a worthy life. It should help him to face the
challenges posed by all domains of human life.

6. Conservative principle

Curriculum like the Constitution of a country reflects the ethos of a nation and its chief concerns
and commitments. Hence, the selection of materials for development of a curriculum should be
careful. The curriculum should be designed in a way keeping in mind the traditions and culture
of human race. Traditions, values, cultural and religious practices, social pressures, gender, and
generational differences all contribute to diversity in beliefs and opinions. A curriculum should
embrace such topics, subjects and activities by which the students can cultivate a sense of respect
for the traditions and culture in which they are being brought up.

7. Creative principle

By nature man is creative. Hence, education should also be molded in a way that it helps in the
development of one's creativity. The curriculum should include subjects that would enable
children to exercise their creative powers which in turn will enable them to modify their
environment according to the needs of the time.
8. Motivation principle

The curriculum should be tailored to suit the needs and interests of the students. It must be goal
directed. A curriculum should motivate the students to participate in the learning process with an
innate desire. Students may be more motivated to study if they understand why certain subjects
are taught in the curriculum.

9. Maturity principle

Learning occurs when information is passed through all the sensory channels. However, research
indicates that people are quite individual in their preference or effectiveness to process
information through the various channels. The curriculum developer needs to consider that
people do not all learn the same way. Hence, the curriculum should be designed keeping in mind
the mental and physical maturity of the students.

10. The principle of preparation for life

The school curriculum should include such elements that would prepare children for their future
life. The skills acquired in the learning process that have lifelong benefit are classified as life
skills. Such skills include communicating and relating with others, problem solving skills,
decision making skills, acquiring, analyzing and using information etc. With the help of
curriculum, the students should be able to earn their livelihood sufficiently and adjust themselves
with the society efficiently. It should equip the child with the caliber to meet the challenges of
life. The purpose of the curriculum is encapsulated in the four capacities that is to enable each
child or young person to be a successful learner, a confident individual, a responsible citizen and
an effective contributor.
11. The principle of elasticity and flexibility

Emerging objectives, philosophy of education, culture, learning theories and knowledge want
change in curriculum. Since the needs of the individuals and society go on changing, a rigid and
static curriculum cannot meet the requirements of the child or the society. New subjects and
additions or omissions of the content are necessary in the curriculum. So, the curriculum should
be flexible enough to incorporate in it new subjects and activities according to needs and
demands of the time. Students also differ in intelligence, their interests and skills. An elastic
curriculum can thus cater to all such individual differences.

12. The principle of comprehensiveness

A curriculum should be comprehensive enough to conform to different individual needs. It

should be broad-based to include a wide variety of subjects suited to the needs of various types
of people and societal needs. Comprehensiveness also has to be reflected in its potential to cater
to the comprehensive or total development of an individual.

13. The principle of balance

Curriculum should maintain proper balance between direct and indirect experiences, liberal and
professional education, individual and social aims and compulsory and optional subjects.

14. The principle of utility

A curriculum should be utility-based. It should be useful to the students in different ways. A

good curriculum will be of practical use to the students. Both vocational and technical bias
should be maintained. Due emphasis should be given to work experience.
2. Which are the processes involved in curriculum development?

Answer: There are many models for curriculum development.

Generally, as a process, the curriculum development process includes the following processes.

1. Design

2. Development

3. Implementation

4. Monitoring

5. Evaluation and

6. Review

The curriculum development process systematically organizes what will be taught, who
will be taught, and how it will be taught.
Each component affects and interacts with other components that each of the above
components varies but have inter-related activities.
Design involves all the preliminary work that is carried out to ensure that the curriculum
is appropriate and relevant.
At this stage, the curriculum is conceptualized and attention is paid to arrangement of the
varied components.
Emphasis is also placed on the learner in curriculum development activities.
This phase attends to the set of standards around which the course is written, instructional
strategies, content, and visual and technical design of the course.
In the development stage, curriculum development involves planning, construction and
the logical step-by-step procedures used to produce written documents and other resource
materials.
These documents contain activities that guide curriculum implementation.
They also contain vision statements, goals, performance benchmarks and learning
 activities.
It also incorporates unit-by-unit course development and revision, content analysis and
review, editorial review and revision, and a detailed quality assurance appraisal.
In the implementation stage, all the people involved in the process become a part of it and
contribute to operationalize the curriculum as designed and developed.
No single individual has all the skills to design and develop curriculum materials.
Curriculum teams usually include educational designers, subject matter experts, human
development specialists, writers for youth, graphic designers, youth artists, editors, and
users of curriculum.
Monitoring is seen as a part of the implementation process.
It is at this stage that officers visit schools to verify that classroom practice is consistent
with the established goals and objectives of the curriculum.
Data is gathered to inform policy and decision making, relative to the curriculum.
Evaluation process analyzes the data collected on the field to determine the effectiveness
of the curriculum design.
The information gained from the data analysis is used to review at the end to guide
appropriate adjustments to the curriculum documents.
The intent of the evaluation phase is to determine the level of student success and the
impact of the course design on student performance.
3. What are the different steps involved in curriculum evaluation?

Answer: Curriculum is a system of learning experiences deliberately designed and transacted for
realizing educational goals. Curriculum evaluation is an essential phase of curriculum
development. It is a systematic process of determining and appraising the proficiency level of a
system or a practice by comparison and judgment. Curriculum evaluation refers to the collection
of information on which judgment might be made about the worth and the effectiveness of a
particular program. The essence of the achievement of curriculum objectives depends on its
evaluation process during development. Evaluation of the process of curriculum development
plays a vital role in channelizing and keeping the direction of young generation on the desired
way for the achievement of national objectives and keeping the system update respect to
changing scenario of time. Like curriculum development, curriculum evaluation should also be a
systematic and comprehensive task taking into account the various aspects of curriculum
initiation, structuring and operation. An evaluation system incorporates regular reviews of
student performance, user feedback, assessment performance analysis and district, state, and
national content standards and assessments.

Curriculum evaluation has various steps like:

1. Goal specification

This includes the role of experts of evaluation with a view to drawing the attention of decision
makers concerned with curriculum development to take decision about educational goals on the
basis of social needs, trends, research findings etc.

2. Planning

Planning involves an examination of the adequacy of objectives, content, learning strategies and
sequencing in the development of instructional materials as well as quality of the material.

3. Validation

The study materials are given to the experts for their judgment. On the basis of their
recommendations, necessary modifications can be made. An empirical trial is also carried out in
classrooms.

4. Field testing

On the basis of the validation process, weak points are identified and suggestions are made for
further improvement. On the basis of the suggestions, a revised course material is developed.
This material has to further field tested in order to understand the usefulness of the whole
system.

5. Regular monitoring

It is through monitoring that necessary updates can be done to the existing program. Monitoring
is the process through which a new program can be developed as per the requirements of the
target population. Regular monitoring helps to identify the strength and weakness of the system.
4. What are the features of a good curriculum?

Answer:

Curriculum is the foundation of teaching-learning process. The word 'curriculum' is not a narrow
term but should be considered as a broad based term used to denote the overall course content of
education, which is the totality of experiences a pupil is exposed to within the boundaries of the
school and outside. The development of programs of study, learning and teaching resources,
lesson plans and assessment of students and even teacher education are all based on curriculum.
In one of the previous units, you have already learned the meaning and concept of curriculum in
detail. As educational changes have become more and more complex, curriculum renewal has
become part of a broader strategy for change in education. Regardless of whether curriculum
development is taking place at national or regional levels or at the school level, at its core,
curriculum is a plan for learning that students will encounter and experience in a variety of
learning environments.

A good curriculum should have the following features:

A good curriculum should help in the development of social understanding.

It should help in promotion of maximum personal development.

It should be related to the needs of the students.

It should help in promotion of continuity of experience.

A good curriculum should have provision for educational goals.

A good curriculum should maintain balance among all goals and

A good curriculum should help in the utilization of effective learning experiences and
needed resources.
5. Which are the defects that exist in the current curriculum that is being followed in the
country?

Answer:

Some of the shortcomings of the present day curriculum are:

1. Narrow conception of curriculum

Curriculum is thought as a portion of knowledge by a mastery of which one can get an admission
to the higher stage. Education should not be delimited in such a way. More than being narrow,
the curriculum in schools is largely out-of-date also. The scope of course in a curriculum should
be appropriate with regard to amount of content, length of course and lessons and course
requirements.

2. Bookish and theoretical

The present curriculum lacks practical activities and experiences. Schools in the modern age
have become just a knowledge shop. A curriculum should include opportunities for developing
problem-solving and critical thinking skills and real world applications.

3. Out of tune with life

The present curriculum takes little note of the challenging day-to-day economic, social and
political issues that children will have to confront in their later life. Therefore curriculum should
focus on useful skills and inculcation of right kind of interests, attitudes, values etc. The content
of the curriculum should be current and relevant.

4. Highly compartmentalized

The curriculum is overcrowded with too many subjects. The real relationship between and
among the subjects is far from satisfactory. There is no integration of subjects. This will not help
the students to think coherently.

5. Not flexible

The curriculum does not cater to the diverse tastes and talents of different students.

6. Segmentation of school life

A day in a school is so segmented that teachers are not left with sufficient time to make use any
constructive activities for vital learning of the students.

7. Dominated by examinations

The present curriculum is dominated by examinations. Because of this, the students are
concerned with securing only good marks and teachers are more concerned about getting higher
percentage for their students.

8. Partly outmoded

There are good much information in the curriculum which are not in tune with the realities of
time. The curriculum should provide real-world application. Instructional design should provide
students with opportunities to improve learning skills using technological tools.

BANKA SRINIVASULU

Student of Trends and Development in Modern Educational Practices