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Curriculum development
is defined as a planned, purposeful, progressive, and systematic process to
create positive educational systems improvements.
Curriculum development
needs to address the following points during organizing: Objective, Content,
Students, and Pedagogy.
Curriculum development itself is a broad term. It is catering to society's, the learners', the school's, and the nations' needs and requirements. So what kind of curriculum we provide our students has to be planned. It has to have some purpose. It has to reflect progression. It has to show that the future of our country is going towards something more productive and fruitful. Of course, it has to be systematic. We should keep in mind the children's mental and physical abilities during the development of the curriculum. The developed curriculum should be at par with their level of understanding.
Similarly, curriculum
development is essential because it preserves its national identity and
builds the knowledge economy. The curriculum should relate the inside
classroom/school knowledge with the outside school activities and learners'
experience.
And the last point here
is that it should ensure innovative ways to meet society's changing demands and international needs. We are in a technologically advancing world, and every minute, some innovations are there. So curriculum development should also ensure that there are innovative ways addressed in the curriculum so that the teacher can adapt to the children's changing demands of this current century.
Determinants of
Curriculum Development:
Determinants are the foundation of curriculum development. It suggests ways to meet individual, society, and nation's needs through the construction of knowledge.
We all are part of society.
We as individuals have our philosophical thoughts and, of course, a psychological setup. We also cannot ignore scientific advancement and its effect on our life. So, these four
components together determine how should a curriculum be developed. These
four, philosophical basis, sociological basis, psychological basis and
scientific basis can be related to the organization, to a child, to society
and the country.
Philosophical
Determinant/basis of Curriculum Development: Each society has its own fundamental beliefs. We are a part of a society, and we have our own
beliefs, customs, and setups. We would want that in the coming generations,
our children also learn the same beliefs and same customs and traditions. So
our curriculum should be the reflection of this guiding philosophy of the
nation. That is why our curriculum in all streams of education and discipline
reflects what we want. Our country should be a democratic, secular country
respecting all the religions, regions, and all the leading philosophies of
the world. With time, various philosophies have evolved: idealism, realism
pragmatism, existentialism, constructivism, humanism, etc. The basis of the
Indian system of education is idealism. Still, with the change of need of the
society, many other philosophies need to be cater.
So that means the
curriculum has to understand the need of the hour, the philosophy being
followed. E.g. the belief and view of the nation and its people just after
independence and now are not the same. Hence philosophy behind the
development of curriculum also has changed. At present, we more concentrate
on constructivism as reflected by the documents like NCF-2005, NCFTE-2009,
RTE Act-2009, NEP 2020 etc. So that means, with changing times, changing
philosophies, the curriculum also has to change. Hence, philosophical
determinants play a major role in curriculum development.
Sociological
Determinant/basis of curriculum development: Society is a part of a
student's life. Nobody can live in isolation. We are a social animal. So,
students have to be taught how to adapt: adapt to their environment, adapts
to their families, adapt to their friends, adapt to their school
environments. The curriculum should incorporate topics and learning
experiences that build a good social personality of the child.
Social issues, which
are coming up these days, or those that have gone by, have to be addressed.
The student is aware of the social demands of him as a citizen of the
country. Students are a very important human resource. They are future
leaders of society. It can be academic leader, political leader, religious
leader, and so on. Hence the school's role becomes very important. And this
is where the curriculum role comes into play. The school encourages the child
to learn many more things than just living in a family. The child learns how
to discipline himself, and the child learns how to interact with others. The
child also learns how to share things with others; the child learns how to
wait for his turn. In short, the child learns disciplines, rules, norms and
values.
All these things are
happening when the child has in the school's actual formal education system.
Hence, the curriculum has to reflect all the aspects we want in a socially
sound individual, and the curriculum serves not only the child or the student
but also society. The curriculum also needs to make her learn the desired
skills required for vocation. It should include the changing needs of the society
and nation. For example, subject like data science, artificial intelligence
is the demand of the present time.
There are many social
forces, which affect curriculum development. Like, Governmental forces: what kind of governmental provision are
being made, just like the Right to Education. Right to education has given
more importance to providing education to all. So, the government makes many
policies and changes. Government initiates many efforts so that the students
and the children of the country can get a good education.
The second aspect here
is that, Quasi-legal. Quasi-legal is the voluntary organization
that necessarily does not have to be legally constructed or constructed by a
government or under any legal processes. It can be any voluntary organization
like NGOs, Parent-Teacher associations, and teacher associations, which can
give their feedback, affecting the designing of a curriculum and contributing
towards a stronger curriculum.
The third one is professional organizations, just like for teacher education, NCTE. NCTE can
take out norms and standards, which can further develop into what we want the
curriculum of a new teacher training programs. Similarly, the role of NCERT
in the evaluation of existing curriculum and bringing changes accordingly to
the evaluation is very crucial.
The fourth one is Special groups in society. When we say special groups, we are talking of
special regional groups, special religious groups which have their religions,
their faith, their philosophies, and they can also impact the development of
curriculum.
The fifth one is Family structure: what kind of family are the students coming
from. What kind of a family structure do we want to cater to? Are we talking
about rural or are we talking about urban areas? These days most of the
students are belong to a nuclear family. So that needs to cater during the
development of curriculum.
Similarly, the occupational structure (the sixth one) also affect the curriculum
development process. What kind of occupation is more prevalent in the coming
times, or with what kind of occupation is more desired by the parents? The
curriculum has to again cater to those demands of the society (e.g. Coding,
Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Cryptography, etc.)
And the last one here
is that of the changing role
of women. Women have been
contributing immensely over the past few decades in various aspects of life,
whether professional or personal. We need to bring curriculum changes to
reflect the significance and the changing role of women in our country.
Education is the best weapon to change the attitude towards women and their
rights. The curriculum should play a crucial role to bring the changes.
Psychological
determinants/basis of the curriculum development: in this, the
first and foremost is realizing the child that he is worth something,
enabling the child to reach his self-actualization, helping him gaining self-confidence.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs will help us to understand the
psychological determinants. At the bottom of the pyramid, it says that physiological conditions have to be catered to first. The child has
to then have suitable safety
needs. The child should be secure;
she should feel that she's safe. And the child should have love and belonging of family, the trust of the teacher, the
confidence of the organization so that she can make, she can have good self-esteem. Once he reaches good self-esteem, she moves
towards self-actualization. From the viewpoint of psychological determinant,
the curriculum's construction should be such that the topics used or chosen
should help the child in self-actualization and self-disciplining of her for
her self. The curriculum should ensure the basic needs of the child in the
school. She should be loved and feel safe. The needs theory is critical
because if he is emotionally sound, the child will work well. The child will
contribute productively to the country. The child will produce good results
in terms of both individual and professional results. So the psychological
determinant of need theory should be kept in mind while developing the
curriculum.
There are various other
developmental tasks, which take place at different phases of his life. In
early childhood, middle,
adolescence, the demands are
different.
In early childhood, he is learning to
talk right, so we have activities of those kinds. In middle childhood, he's building his image. He's constructing a
social image; he's learning how to talk to others. He's learning how to
develop his confidence. He's already fighting with so many other factors at
the adolescent stage, both psychological and physical. So how is the
curriculum helping all the children at different levels? What kind of tasks
we are taking is another aspect that the curriculum planners must keep in
mind.
Fully functional
personality: how does the child think of himself or herself, is he thinking
well of himself, is he thinking enough himself. The emotional lapse of the
children has to be detected. Once that is seen, whatever our mistakes,
whatever values he has taken up and mistakenly, they have to be addressed.
They have to be worked upon; the child should feel that he is respected is
loved, and there is no other way to live life than without his values and
customs.
The curriculum should
have activities, and content may be in the form of languages or stories,
which will address the need of the children.
There are various
aspects of child psychology that we need to keep in mind during curriculum
development. Like, from the angle of Behavioral psychology, we need to think
about the child's behavioural development. Which kind of conditioning
(classical or operant) is more effective in which context the developers need
to decide?
Cognitive development,
moral development, development of intelligence and emotional intelligence are
the crucial factors. The attitude, aptitude, personality, maturation,
motivation, creativity, etc., of the child, are also essential factors for
curriculum development and making any change in the curriculum. The
curriculum developer's decision on these will further help decide the
methodology of curriculum transaction, teaching methods, pedagogy, and content's design. It will also help to determine the objectives of education
and the process of evaluation. In short, psychology influences the content, goals
and objectives, pedagogy and assessment. So it clearly shows how integral
psychology is as the determinants of curriculum development.
Scientific
basis/determinant of Curriculum Development: Scientific advancement
is the demand of the progressive society. It is an important parameter to
judge the development of a country. No one can deny the importance of science
and technology, their influence in every aspect of life. Hence, there is no
doubt the reason for having science and scientific advancement as one
determinant of curriculum development. The use of scientific approaches like
constructivist approach, experimental learning, discovery learning,
problem-solving approach, project-based learning for transacting the
curriculum is essential to develop scientific temperament, technological
advancement, thinking ability, creative skills, the reflective and analytical
power of the students, the future citizen of India. -by Dr. Ritendra Roy
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