Essay/Term paper: Curriculum construction

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Education

Final Exam

Question #1
At risk students, meaningful classroom experience
aid young minds to develop sound basic education needs for example,
Reading, Math and English by the establishment of an academic support base for
"At Risk" students. to provide social and emotional support by reinforcing the idea of self esteem and positive self imaging We shall also strive to be eclectic in our approach, and believe that a combined effort of family members, administrators, teaching staff culturally aware supporters and others are necessary to meet the needs of our diverse community. Responsible education is defined as a process of training and development of a person's mind, character, skills, and abilities whereby an individual can distinguish
between right and wrong, to think and act rationally and therefore responsible for
his/her individual behavior
targets the student who demonstrates "at risk
behavior" due to traumatic intrusion in their lives, for example, physical or
emotional abuse, fractured family structure or severe social and economic
hardships, but also desire to develop attitudes and skills necessary to develop their
academic standards.

1.Provide an educational support by reinforcing the concepts of self
2.Provide social and emotional sup esteem and positive self imaging.
3.Provide academia as a way to self improvement, personal growth and
personal social and cultural awareness.
4.Provide student and families with information necessary to enhance student
achievement.

Capability...

is an integration of knowledge, skills, understanding and personal
qualities used appropriately and effectively at work and in life
generally;
is a broader and richer concept than competencies, being
concerned as much with future potential as with immediate needs;
involves the whole person, including values and emotional
sophistication;
is the capacity for autonomous learning and personal, vocational
and professional development;

is the capacity to manage change.

Capability is enhanced by the way students pursue their mainstream
studies...
active rather than passive,
negotiated rather than imposed,
applied rather than remote,
collaborative as well as individual.

Compared with a competency model, in which outcomes and
performance indicators are predetermined, a capability model presents
outcomes as negotiable, involving students in explorations of relevance
and notions of quality, thereby promoting deeper levels of learning.

Helping students to become more responsible and accountable for their
own learning is excellent preparation for continuing professional
education, lifelong learning, resource-based learning and research.
Change, innovation, improvement

This is a broad definition, but curricula can differ considerably. A curriculum, for
instance, can put forward ideas for:

coordinating different types of education (primary, secondary and adult
education)
planning and updating course material
coordinating related subjects, e.g. physics, chemistry and biology
gearing course material to the needs and wishes of special groups of students,
e.g. ethnic groups
using new media, e.g. CD-i and CD-ROM

mediation of feeling of competence
part of everyday teaching is to help children develop an inner sense that they are competent, help them develop independence
Goal seeking and achieving behavior- help students begin to set goals for themselves and mediate that they can achieve them
Mediate a feeling of belonging
everyone in the classroom feels they belong, all cultures, celebration of holidays.
Teach through the multiple intelligence theory most learning occurs when the child is in the state of joy.

Question #2

The school board in your community is asking for information regarding the school programs there. They want to know why it is important for educators like yourself to have input into curriculum development. Explain.

Teachers are the ones who are in the classroom day in and out and understand who the students are, where they are coming from, what their needs are, and how to address these issues. Thus, it is important that teachers are involved in the designing of all curricula.
Teachers will work cooperatively with administrators, parents, and businesses to devise programs which are current with todays society, economy and culture.
As well, teachers, as they teach the curriculum, can continually evaluate the subject matter and teaching of the material so that the program, or parts of it, can be adapted, or thrown out.
Curriculum development, like course and unit design, requires careful consideration of the rationale for the curriculum, decisions about what students should be expected to learn, attention to matters of organization and sequence, determination of teaching strategies, and planning for evaluation.


Question #3

What aspects of curriculum (that we have covered in our class) are important for all elementary aged children and thus, need to be used on an ongoing basis? Within this program model, how will you as teacher individualize for each child when necessary.

Evaluations can be used for many types of decisions. For example, course-improvement, decisions about individual students and administrative regulation. Evaluation for course improvement involves gathering information that will be useful in deciding which aspects of a course can and should be improved. Evaluation aimed at decisions about individual students consists in gathering information to be used in assessing students needs or in the grading, grouping, or selection of individual students. Evaluation for administrative regulation is directed toward assessing the merit of schools, curricula, materials, teachers and so forth.


Question #4

Reflect on the development of your unit in this class. What did you learn from this experience. Be as specific as you can.

In designing the unit, I felt that my purposes should be made explicit in the form of educational goals and intended learning outcomes. We must think for ourselves about our students, our subject matter, and our assumptions about education, and then express our purposes appropriately. If we want our students to learn to problem solve, mere content will not suffice. We need to include in our units multiple intelligence theory and mediated learning techniques. Developing this curriculum gave me a different perspective on curricula which has been developed by others. This perspective enables us to look at curricula and talk about them more intelligently, precisely, and profoundly. More importantly, I continually thought of this unit as more of a journey than that of a "lets get to the finish line". By understanding what I wanted the students to learn at the end of the unit in the beginning, I was able to make their trip enjoyable along the way. This means including many teaching strategies (field trips, hand on activity, discussions, multiple intelligence"s, mediated learning, group work, individual work) all with a high amount of structure and meaning.