My Experience with Curriculum - Essay Example

My experience with curriculum al Affiliation My experience with curriculum Introduction Being a master’s in leadership I have had a wider experience with curriculum especially in the countries I have taught in. I have had a teaching experience from 2010 and within this period I have come face to face with the challenges bedeviling the curriculum and its dispensation. I come from Egypt and I have had an opportunity to work as a teacher in an Islamic studies High School. Within this time I have developed a greater passion for the profession because of the interactions I have had with my students. It’s been a fulfilling experience for me and through this time I have tried to change most of the conventional methods employed by the other teachers we have worked with and introduced more effective ways to involve the students, more so in learning. Curriculum, in my understanding, and in an educational context broadly defines the experiences that one undergoes through the educational processes. The term as defined by a variety of scholars majorly refers to a planned sequence of instructions often set by organization instructional goals. The curriculum in this sense should be able to incorporate all the learning usually organized, planned and guided by the school, carried out in groups or individually and done both inside and outside the school environment (Null, 2011). The curriculum should define the reasons for doing particular things, the range of activities to be carried out and also the designated times in which these activities are to be carried out. In totality it involves among other things the skills, performances, values and attitudes that are to be expected from students or pupils that are in the schooling systems. When taken specifically in the education system, the curriculum should entail such aspects as the contents of the syllabuses offered, the strategies used to achieve their set targets and also the norms and values accepted by the school systems. The curriculum as defined and applied in the several spheres of the learning environment and other setups include the explicit, implicit, hidden, excluded and extracurricular curriculum and are as described: Explicit curriculum; includes those subjects and courses that are taught, the set objectives of the school, and the specified skills and knowledge that are expected from students that undergo the schooling system successfully. Implicit curriculum; also defined as the unintended curriculum, involves the lessons that arise due to the culture of the learning institution and its behaviors, its attitudes and the various expectations that are associated with these cultures. Hidden curriculum; this in its sense refer to the things that students often learn not through those activities that are planned or organized by the school management but through the way in which the school operations and the planned activities are carried out. This type of curriculum often benefits the learners a lot and builds on their various experiences through their learning process. It includes both the physical environment of the learning institutions and the relationships built among students or between the students and their education seniors (Swim, 2014). Excluded curriculum; these often involve those topics and aspects that are usually excluded explicitly from the specified curriculum. Extracurricular; these include activities and programs; either organized and sponsored by the learning institutions themselves or are community based, often intended to supplement the academic aspect of the learning experience offered by the school systems. Those activities organized by the schools often include such activities as sports, performing arts and academic clubs. These activities often explore and improve on the different and diverse talents of the learners undergoing schooling and place them to more constructive and better use. The community based extracurricular activities usually organized by the surrounding communities and which in most cases take place in the schools do not in a particular way have a direct link with the school laid down systems. Such activities often include environmental and religious clubs and/or groups and also scouting. These programs usually broaden on the curriculum often obtained from the classrooms. A particular topic of discussion could be taught and discussed in a classroom environment and the knowledge gets to be further enhanced through and developed through these community based programs and activities (Null, 2011). The experiences I have obtained from the learning process have proven the importance and validity of the inclusion of all these aspects in the curriculum. It helps in molding character, talents and intellectual capabilities of the different learners (Walker & Soltis, 2004). The teaching fraternity and experiences, which has been a profession of choice in my carrier and curriculum development has provided me with a lot of challenges and intrigues that has contributed to a larger extent on my existing knowledge. Having a passion for the teaching profession, my curriculum development has focused greater on the various methods that have been used in the dissemination of knowledge and the general involvement of the learners in the whole process. With the monotonous nature of the strategies that have been employed by a variety of the teachers, mine has been that of an integrated process and that which seeks for an active audience. My interactions with the various curriculums in the different learning institutions in different places helped in establishing the effectiveness of an active classroom as compared to that of a passive one. In order to attain this, I have attached a significant interest in the modification of the various teaching strategies and methods employed. Instead of the straight approach used by most educators, I have introduced various methods of teaching geared at increasing the level of involvement and participation of the learners. Some of these include the introduction of classroom debates, group and individual topic presentations and others that would increase the level of interactions. These debates and class activities enhance and promote the learning process in several ways. Apart from the knowledge the student gets from me as their educator, they are able to challenge each other and learn from themselves. This has proven to be more effective than the conventional strict teacher to student learning process. The introduction of such methods often improves the thinking process and capability of the learners because it is more of student centered. The application of these methods also often helps in exposing the needs, strength and weaknesses of these students so that if special attention might be required then it is given appropriately (Walker & Soltis, 2004). In cognizance of the various aspects of the curriculum often needed in schools and with the desire to introduce newer and more effective strategies of learning especially in my carrier field, I have often employed the following procedure in the development and advancement of my curriculum; Diagnosis of needs; this is where I determine the different and diverse needs of the students I teach including their strengths and weaknesses. Formulation of objectives; after this determination, I set the general and specific objectives that would ensure that these needs are met. Content organization; this involves coming up with the range of topics and ideas to be disseminated. Selection of the learning methods and strategies; to meet the objectives, I select the suitable learning methods. Organization of these learning strategies and methods; once the learning methods are selected, I organize them in order to ensure that the learning objectives are met systematically. Determination of the evaluation process and parameters; once all these processes have been carried out, I choose on the appropriate evaluation means to determine the success of the whole process. My experience with the curriculum has established the effectiveness of a proactive process of learning. When the students are involved appropriately and extra activities are carried out, the learning process becomes enjoyable and that which is more successful (Costa & Kallick, 2009). References Null, J. W. (2011). Curriculum: From theory to practice. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Swim, T. (2014). Infants and toddlers: Curriculum and teaching. Walker, D. F., & Soltis, J. F. (2004). Curriculum and aims. New York: Teachers College Press. Costa, A. L., & Kallick, B. (2009). Habits of mind across the curriculum: Practical and creative strategies for teachers. Alexandria, Va: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Read More