Level: Curriculum Development (6406)                                   Semester: Autumn,2021

Course: ADE/ B.Ed (4Years)

Assignment No.2

Q.1 Write notes on the following

• Conservative liberal arts
• Educational technology
• Vocational curriculum design

ANS

Conservative liberal arts

The conservative case against modern liberal arts programs is fairly simple: they are irredeemably biased. As Cass R. Sunstein writes in the Chicago Tribune, a study conducted by Mitchell Langbert of Brooklyn College of faculty at 51 of the top 66 liberal arts colleges in the US has shown that Democrats outnumber Republicans in every field. The ratios include music: 33:1; biology: 21:1 and history, philosophy and psychology: 17:1. The field with most parity is engineering at 1.6:1. Even that bastion of conservatism, religion, has a 70:1 ratio. Even West Point faculty are 1.3:1 in favor of Democrats. While political party affiliation is an imperfect barometer of political ideology, it can be used as a proxy here. The academy is overwhelmingly liberal, and trends suggest that this bias is intensifying. The political and cultural polarization of the US over the last few decades has probably contributed to the conservative movement’s hostility to the academy.

There are two further crucial issues that McManus fails to address. First, how does this affect the university as a business and the associated student debt? Second, how does our increasing reliance on technology affect conservative attitudes and why have they focused on STEM programs to the detriment of the humanities?

Education as Big Business

Education produces big money: some schools have endowments in the hundreds of millions. As the recent Varsity Blues scandal shows, people will pay large sums of money to guarantee spots for their children, even when said children are unsuitable for college studies. The social prestige of attending particular schools is hardly new. But there appears to have been a significant shift in college administration priorities, which has led to strange outcomes. Within human memory, many colleges took their role in loco parentis seriously, placing significant restrictions on students’ alcohol consumption, dating practices, night life, etc. This has been transformed into behavior like policing Halloween costumes that are deemed culturally insensitive or acting as a judicial organ for sexual harassment and assault complaints.

The concerns of conservatives have significant overlap with those of college administrations—but their concerns are treated very differently. There are many costumes that would be offensive to a Catholic, but it is unlikely for a student to have face any repercussions for offending Catholic sensibilities. The broad acceptance of alcohol abuse leads to many risky behaviors and poor decisions. Alcohol is often an aggravating factor in violence. But education’s previous focus on the moral development of character and/or citizenship has been abandoned in favor of college as surety for a career—naturally, since colleges need to justify annual tuition fees of $40,000 (or more), which have made crippling student debts the norm. It’s hard to justify running up a six-figure debt for a sociology or history degree. But if students can graduate in engineering or finance within four years, the financial burden may be justified.

• Educational technology

Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as EduTech, or EdTech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, EdTech, it is often referring to the industry of companies that create educational technology.

Educational technology is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning.^[1][2] When referred to with its abbreviation, EdTech, it is often referring to the industry of companies that create educational technology.^[3][4]

In addition to practical educational experience, educational technology is based on theoretical knowledge from various disciplines such as communication, education, psychology, sociology, artificial intelligence, and computer science.^{[5][full citation needed]} It encompasses several domains including learning theory, computer-based training, online learning, and m-learning, where mobile technologies are used.

• Vocational curriculum design

The curriculum is an essential and important element in the educational environment and the supporting assessments act as a driving force in capturing the objectives of the educator. If well designed and developed, then vocational curriculum will provide the basis for good learning and teaching.

The future of competency-based training may well contain surprises and the results of strategic planning can only be faintly seen through future misty proposals. Knowledge of the learning approaches by students, the benefits of communities of practice in the classroom and the quality of competency-based curriculum in Vocational Education and Training is the epistemological key to applied learning. This has to be combined with an ontological focus to ensure that curriculum encourages teaching, knowing and learning and becomes part of who we are rather than just something a teacher must follow. Curriculum designers are urged to limit the content so students can be led to investigate, explore and draw inferences from their own research. However, it is important that curricula retain links with the real world while at the same time retaining flexibility that allows ideas to be expanded and explored in a scholarly way. The curriculum design also needs to accommodate varied learning styles while stimulating the learner to evoke interest in the content. The curriculum is an essential and important element in the educational environment and the supporting assessments act as a driving force in capturing the objectives of the educator. If well designed and developed, then vocational curriculum will provide the basis for good learning and teaching.

 

Q.2 Explain any two teaching –learning strategies.

ANS

1. Visualization

Bring dull academic concepts to life with visual and practical learning experiences, helping your students to understand how their schooling applies in the real-world.

Examples include using the interactive whiteboard to display photos, audio clips and videos, as well as encouraging your students to get out of their seats with classroom experiments and local field trips.

2. Cooperative learning

 

Encourage students of mixed abilities to work together by promoting small group or whole class activities.

Through verbally expressing their ideas and responding to others your students will develop their self-confidence, as well as enhance their communication and critical thinking skills which are vital throughout life.

Solving mathematical puzzles, conducting scientific experiments and acting out short drama sketches are just a few examples of how cooperative learning can be incorporated into classroom lessons.

^{Effective Learning Strategies}

• Organization is a very important part of learning effectively. Having an orderly space to study helps the mind absorb new information without distraction.
• Effective Independent Learning. There’s more to learning than knowing how to take tests. Everyone learns differently so there are many different styles of learning.
• Effective Learning from Others. Sometimes, learning on your own isn’t as effective as learning as part of a group. …
• Whether it’s just taking notes or taking a test, writing is one of the most important aspects of being a student.

Some people think that the difference between a good student and a bad student is just a matter of aptitude. While it may be true in some cases, generally, the difference can actually be attributed to learning strategies. With effective learning strategies, students can learn faster and easier. Here are some of the most basic strategies.

Organization

Organization is a very important part of learning effectively. Having an orderly space to study helps the mind absorb new information without distraction. Time management also plays an important role. Everybody has only 24 hours in a day, so it’s important to learn how to make the most out of the available time.

• Education Tips: A list of links with information on organization.
• Organization Strategies: Provides information on organization and its importance.
• Organization: Discusses the importance of organization and different ways to become organized.
• Time Management Suggestions: A list of suggestions about managing time.
• Time Management Tips: Good tips to help students manage their time.
• Studying for Exams: Discusses how to study for a test.
• Exams and Studying: Points out the best ways to study for tests.
• Test Taking Tips: Shows the best ways to prepare for and take a test.
• Test Tip List: Lists the best ways to take a test.

Effective Independent Learning

There’s more to learning than knowing how to take tests. Everyone learns differently so there are many different styles of learning. If you know which style suits you best, learning will be easier. Knowing how to study properly and memorize the important things readily also make studying easier.

• Learning Style Guide: Discusses the different types of learning.
• About Learning Styles: Shows the different learning styles and explains how to determine what type of learning style best suits a person.
• Meta-Cognition: An Overview: Discusses mega-cognition in detail.
• Meta-Cognition: A tutorial explaining meta-cognition and its importance to learning.
• Study Smarter Not Harder: Discusses how to study better so you’re studying smarter, not necessarily more.
• Memorization Techniques: Outlines some of the best ways to memorize things easily.
• Memory Tips & Memorization Techniques: Some articles on how to improve one’s memory and how to memorize things easily.
• Reading Strategies: Some tutorials on techniques like highlighting text and other effective reading strategies.
• Effective Reading Strategy Checklist: Provides a list of things to help boost reading comprehension.

 

Q.3 Explain experimental research approach to effectiveness of a new curriculum.

ANS

Experimental research is a scientific approach to research, where one or more independent variables are manipulated and applied to one or more dependent variables to measure their effect on the latter.

Experimental research is the most familiar type of research design for individuals in the physical sciences and a host of other fields. This is mainly because experimental research is a classical scientific experiment, similar to those performed in high school science classes.

Imagine taking 2 samples of the same plant and exposing one of them to sunlight, while the other is kept away from sunlight. Let the plant exposed to sunlight be called sample A, while the latter is called sample B.

If after the duration of the research, we find out that sample A grows and sample B dies, even though they are both regularly wetted and given the same treatment. Therefore, we can conclude that sunlight will aid growth in all similar plants.

What is Experimental Research?

Experimental research is a scientific approach to research, where one or more independent variables are manipulated and applied to one or more dependent variables to measure their effect on the latter. The effect of the independent variables on the dependent variables is usually observed and recorded over some time, to aid researchers in drawing a reasonable conclusion regarding the relationship between these 2 variable types.

The experimental research method is widely used in physical and social sciences, psychology, and education. It is based on the comparison between two or more groups with a straightforward logic, which may, however, be difficult to execute.

Mostly related to a laboratory test procedure, experimental research designs involve collecting quantitative data and performing statistical analysis on them during research. Therefore, making it an example of quantitative research method.

What are The Types of Experimental Research Design?

The types of experimental research design are determined by the way the researcher assigns subjects to different conditions and groups. They are of 3 types, namely; pre-experimental, quasi-experimental, and true experimental research.

Pre-experimental Research Design

In pre-experimental research design, either a group or various dependent groups are observed for the effect of the application of an independent variable which is presumed to cause change. It is the simplest form of experimental research design and is treated with no control group.

Although very practical, experimental research is lacking in several areas of the true-experimental criteria. The pre-experimental research design is further divided into three types

• One-shot Case Study Research Design

In this type of experimental study, only one dependent group or variable is considered. The study is carried out after some treatment which was presumed to cause change, making it a posttest study.

• One-group Pretest-posttest Research Design: 

This research design combines both posttest and pretest study by carrying out a test on a single group before the treatment is administered and after the treatment is administered. With the former being administered at the beginning of treatment and later at the end.

• Static-group Comparison: 

In a static-group comparison study, 2 or more groups are placed under observation, where only one of the groups is subjected to some treatment while the other groups are held static. All the groups are post-tested, and the observed differences between the groups are assumed to be a result of the treatment.

Quasi-experimental Research Design

 The word “quasi” means partial, half, or pseudo. Therefore, the quasi-experimental research bearing a resemblance to the true experimental research, but not the same.  In quasi-experiments, the participants are not randomly assigned, and as such, they are used in settings where randomization is difficult or impossible.

This is very common in educational research, where administrators are unwilling to allow the random selection of students for experimental samples.

Some examples of quasi-experimental research design include; the time series, no equivalent control group design, and the counterbalanced design.

 

Q.4 Discuss monitoring and evaluation of curriculum.

ANS

Curriculum monitoring. A process of gathering information for evaluating the effectiveness of the curriculum and ensuring that the intended, implemented and attained curricula are aligned. This process typically focuses on such issues as relevance, consistency, practicality, effectiveness, scaling-up and sustainability,

A process of gathering information for evaluating the effectiveness of the curriculum and ensuring that the intended, implemented and attained curricula are aligned. This process typically focuses on such issues as relevance, consistency, practicality, effectiveness, scaling-up and sustainability, as well as whether learners are achieving the expected learning outcomes. It measures the extent to which the curriculum is commensurate with the diverse needs of all learners.

Curriculum monitoring A process of gathering information for evaluating the effectiveness of the curriculum and ensuring that the intended, implemented and attained curricula are aligned.

In education, a curriculum is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process.^[1][2] The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view of the student’s experiences in terms of the educator’s or school’s instructional goals. A curriculum may incorporate the planned interaction of pupils with instructional content, materials, resources, and processes for evaluating the attainment of educational objectives.^[3] Curricula are split into several categories: the explicit, the implicit (including the hidden), the excluded, and the extracurricular.^[4][5][6]

Curricula may be tightly standardized or may include a high level of instructor or learner autonomy.^[7] Many countries have national curricula in primary and secondary education, such as the United Kingdom’s National Curriculum.

Evaluation of curriculum is an integral and essential part of the whole process of curriculum development. It is a continuous activity and not a “tail-end-process”. Evaluation and planning are complementary processes which occur almost simultaneously and continuously. Planning is made on the basis of evaluation and vice versa.

Curriculum evaluation draws on two distinct and complex fields – curriculum and evaluation – both of which encompass dozens of different definitions, approaches, and methods. Thus, curriculum evaluation can neither be simple nor standardized. There are 30 different evaluation approaches listed in the literature, each of which has a different meaning, a different form, and different factors affecting it (Patton, 1986). This shows that there is no ideal, all-purpose approach to evaluation suitable for every occasion. The multiplicity of evaluation typologies, models, concepts, and methodologies suggest a development from a monolithic conceptualization to a pluralist one containing multiple methods, measures, criteria, perspectives, audiences, and even interests. Evaluation has lost its exclusive reliance on technical and analytical procedures favoring negotiation instead. In methodological terms, this has marked a shift away from the early quantitative emphasis toward an emphasis that is less rigid and finds a variety of qualitative research methods and measures and mixed methodologies acceptable (Guba and Lincoln, 1989; House, 1993; Stake, 1995). These changes essentially reflect a departure from the traditional logical positivistic approach of evaluation as the work of a lone individual, to a constructively orientated, collaborative inquiry approach, and interpretivist philosophy in which the entire community participates to construct new knowledge.

Likewise, we are still very far from consensus on the questions of defining what the curriculum is, what it should be, how to plan and implement it, and who should make curricular decisions. Views of the meaning of the curriculum range from the narrower view, which sees the curriculum as a given set of knowledge, skills, and activities to be delivered to students, to an expanded view which takes full account of the cultures, languages, and lived and emergent experiences of the teachers and students. Curricular approaches also differ in their assumptions, values, in the epistemological, pedagogical, and organizational perspectives inherent in curriculum development decisions and practices, and in the scope of curriculum development technique (Schubert, 1996). These changes reflect a development away from an approach that is mechanistic, linear, authoritative, controlled, preplanned and rooted in the positivist orientation, and toward a nonlinear, system-oriented, flexible, tentative, and emergent approach marked by open-ended planning and freedom to accept the challenges of spontaneity and situativity, which is grounded in constructivist and complexity theories.

However, despite the conceptual changes in both the curriculum and evaluation fields, a review of the relevant literature shows that neither curriculum evaluation practices nor curriculum evaluation methodology have changed much over the last 20 years and that curriculum evaluation still uses obsolete models and methods (Jasparro, 1998). According to Patton (1998), evaluators unconsciously tend to fall back on old familiar patterns even when facing new situations. There is thus a gap separating curriculum evaluation theory and practice. This is particularly true for federally funded and prescribed curricular programs.

 

Q.5 Even though curriculum is modified periodically, Still its not implemented as intended Give reasons.

ANS

There is no recipe for adapting general education curriculum to meet each student’s needs. Each teacher, each student, each classroom is unique and adaptations are specific to each situation. Keep in mind that curriculum does not always need to be modified. By providing multi-level instruction you will find that adapting a lesson may not always be necessary. Differentiating instruction and providing multiple ways assess allows more flexibility for students to meet the standards and requirements of the class. At other times, the curriculum can be made more accessible through accommodations. In addition, supports for one student may not necessarily be the same in all situations, e.g., a student who needs full time support from a paraprofessional for math may only need natural supports from peers for English, and no support for art. And, supports should not be determined by the disability label, instead supports should be used when the instructional or social activity warrants the need for assistance. (Fisher and Frey, 2001). The forms and examples on the following pages provide information about curriculum and types of adaptations that could be considered in developing the appropriate strategy for a particular student. Examples are provided for both elementary and secondary levels.

Curriculum Modifications & Adaptations It is important to correlate adaptations with the IEP. In other words, we are not adapting for adaptations sake but, to meet the student’s needs as identified on an IEP. a. Curriculum as is. This is the type we forget most frequently. We need to constantly be looking at the general education curriculum and asking if the students on IEPs may gain benefit from participating in the curriculum as is. We need to keep in mind that incidental learning does occur. Curriculum as is supports outcomes as identified in standard curriculum. b. Different objective within the same activity and curriculum. The student with an IEP works with all the other students in the classroom participating in the activity when possible but, with a different learning objective from the other students. This is where the principle of partial participation fits. Examples include. • A student with a short attention span staying on task for 5 minutes. • Using a switch to actis ate a communication device to share during a class discussion. • Expressing one’s thoughts by drawing in a journal instead of writing. • Holding a book during reading time. • Understanding the effect World War II has on the present rather than knowing the names and dates of key battles. c. Material or environmental adaptations. The material or environmental changes are utilized so that participation in the general education curriculum by the student with the IEP may occur. Examples include: • 5 spelling words from the weekly list instead of the standard 20. • Completing a cooking assignment by following picture directions rather than written directions • Changing the grouping of the class from large group to small groups (possible with the additional support staff). • Changing the instructional delivery from lecture to the cooperative learning format • Using a computer to write an assignment instead of paper and pencil. • Reading a test to a student. • Highlighting the important concepts in a textbook. • Having the student listen to a taped textbook. • Using enlarged print • Using an assistive technology device • Using visual cues such as picture and/or word schedules for those who have difficulty staying on task. • Using a note taking guide listing the key concepts during a lecture.