Group Members:

Topic

“INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL TRENDS IN CURRICULUM

DEVELOPMENT AT PRIMARY LEVEL”

Introduction

Many immediate and complex issues overcome educators today. With positive and negative global influences, educators must look beyond the surface of education. Students are not just products of their schools but will

become shaping forces in society, determining the success and failure of their nation's future. Curricularists,

educators, and everyone in leadership need to work together to develop a well-rounded curriculum, which

includes the learning of different cultures. Our next generation will need to cope with cross-cultural matters and grow into sensible adults who are fair and just to the

global society

International Trends

The International Review of Curriculum and Assessment Frameworks (INCA) is an ongoing compilation of information on education structure and policy in 18 countries: Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the USA and Wales.

• All countries have a constitutional curriculum, prescribed by national or sub-national authorities.

• Four countries that have introduced a statutory curriculum within the past 15 years – England, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Wales – have recently reduced the level of prescription in favour of frameworks, within which schools devise a curriculum to suit local circumstances.• •Italy, which had relaxed curricular control during the same period, has recently begun to tighten control (2003).• •In Scotland, there are non-statutory curriculum guidelines, which tend to be adopted by most schools.

Con't

•There is a tendency towards increasing review of curricula to reflect changing needs, and most countries have undertaken major reforms of the primary curriculum within the past 15 years.17 This has been accompanied by a trend towards the creation of specialist curriculum (or curriculum and assessment) agencies, separate from Ministries. These now exist in 11 countries.

• In all countries, there are greater expectations in terms of skills and dispositions, which are perceived as relevant to lifelong learning, employment and social participation. As a result, curricula designed during the past fifteen years increasingly stress the role of transferable skills and, in some cases, reduce prescribed content.

Con't

•There is a trend towards formulating curricula in terms of learning outcomes.19 In a few cases – Australia, Canada (Ontario) and England – these are linked to achievement targets which specify the percentage of pupils who are expected to achieve a given level have been linked to these learning outcomes.

. There is an increasing trend towards offering one or more foreign languages, and/or extending provision for younger pupils, even where it is not mandatory.

• Finland, which now bases its curriculum on PBL.

•Singapore, and other countries have shifted curricula and classroom practices with overall success. •Costa Rica has been a leader in constructivist education for a decade. • larger countries such as India and China have recently undertaken reforms intended to spark development of higher-order cognition and creativity.

Malaysia

The main aim of science at the primary level is to lay the foundation for building a society that is culturally scientific and technological, caring, dynamic and progressive.Emphasis is given on the mastery of scientific skills needed to study and understand the world. Scientific skills refer to process skills and manipulative skills. At the lowerprimary level, elements of science are integrated across the curriculum.

India

Curriculum no longer to be bookish but was to be drawn from the social and physical environment of the child. In fact, the system offered a larger measure of freedom to teachers at a time when they were not prepared to shoulder it.

Courses of study, therefore, in history, geography, economies, civics were fused together and were called social studies. Similar courses in physics, chemistry and biology were fused together and called general science. All books were rewritten and the teacher training institutions began to advocate this integrated approach

Elements of technology-based education are introduced at the upper primary level through the living skills curriculum, which covers various aspects of manipulative skills.At the primary school level,the subject focuses on three main topics, namely: Maintaining, repairing and producing things; Buying and selling things; Managing self and work.

Technology-based education

• Japan also has adapted the curriculum to reflect changing circumstances. •The aim is to promote• Integrated study, individual expression and positive engagement in the collection of•information and reporting discussion. There have been concerns about ‘abandoning the•content-led curriculum’, but the uniform transmission of knowledge is deemed•inappropriate for the post-industrial, merit-based society of the 21st century.

Japan

Korea

As part of the decentralization of curricular control, the Sixth and Seventh National Curricula encourage schools . It is hoped that greater autonomy will enableschools and local authorities to devise curricula which are more appropriate forindividual schools and children and thus contribute to increased diversity ofeducational programmes.

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Curriculum design and development

To ensure national cohesion, integration and preservation of the ideological foundation of the State, certain educational functions are the responsibilities of the Federation—via the Federal Ministry of Education.

These responsibilities include:

•Curriculum, •Syllabus, •Planning, •Policy and •Educational standards.

The 1976 Act of Parliament authorized the Ministry of Education (MOE) to appoint competent authorities to perform the curriculum-related functions.

A Central/National Bureau of Curriculum and Textbooks (NBCT, commonly known as the Curriculum Wing) was appointed to supervise curriculum and textbooks development/approval and to maintain curriculum standards from the primary through to the higher secondary levels.

Four counterpart provincial curriculum centers (one in each province) were established to ensure provincial collaboration and evolve consensus in all activities falling withinthe purview of the Federation.

This initiative was followed by the establishment of four Provincial Textbook Boards (PTTB)—one in each province.

• This initiative was followed by the establishment of four Provincial Textbook Boards (PTBB)—one in each province.

• Within their respective jurisdictions, these PTTBs are responsible for:

1. preparing, 2. publishing, 3. stocking, 4. distributing and 5. marketing school textbooks.

THE CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Reform

The process of curriculum reform in Pakistan has been introduced as part of the successive series of national education policies.

Education policy and curriculum reform cycle

National Education Policy Curriculum reform cycle

1972 1st Cycle, 1973-76 1979 2nd Cycle, 1982-85 1992 3rd Cycle, 1992-95 1998 4th Cycle, 1998-01

The studies scheme

The scheme of studies is based on three key factors:

• The national education policy,• Market demand,• Global issues that relate to new or

contemporary education dimensions.

•Provincial Textbook Boards (PTBB) are responsible for development of text-books according to the approved syllabi.

•Established lists of textbook writers in various subjects•are kept.

• From these lists, invitations are issued to writers to submit draft materials within the prescribed syllabus parameters.

• Selections are made on the basis of the quality and relevance of materials submitted to local situations.

• Finally, the selected materials are transformed into textbooks; the final versions of which are sent to the NBCT for approval.

Textbook development

Review and approval

A National Review Committee, comprising five or six members includes: •one expert from the Syllabus Formulation Committee •two subject experts •two schoolteachers

This committee conducts textbook reviews based on the following parameters:

(a) the book truly reflects the curriculum; (b) it meets the objectives stated in the curriculum;(c) the book does not contain any material repugnant to Islamic and Pakistani ideology.

Textbooks often do not reflect the curriculum. Of course, it requires considerable experience and skill to:

•Translate the curriculum in a style that covers the objectives;

•Simultaneously take into consideration the children’s language proficiency and background knowledge; and

•Concurrently arrange the content in a logical sequence in a stimulating manner.

Textbook quality

The curriculum: who makes what choices?

Curriculum WingMinistry of Education

Regional/Provincial level· Local Authorities· Inspectors· Teacher’s Choice

School level· Heads· Teachers· Communities

Aims and objectives

National aims, as reflected in theNational Educational Policy

Evaluation/study reports ofcurriculum centers provide changedirection

Some aims of effective domainsare suggested by teachers

Curriculum plan

National framework: syllabus andWeight age

Introduce unique cultural/regionalaspects, including mother tongue

Scheme of work., adjustment oftime-table, provision for co curricularactivities, exams

Methods and approaches tolearning

Teacher-training courses aredesigned, also in-service teachertraining

Teachers’ colleges implementtraining programmes (pre-service)

Practice different methodology

Materials Provincial textbooks arereviewed/approved by FederalMinistry through National ReviewCommittee

Provincial Textbooks Boardscommission writers and selectmaterial on merit basis

Representation of teachers. in theNational Review Committee

Evaluation and examination

Inter-Board Committee ofChairmen, co-ordinate activitiesof the Exams Board

Board of Education holds exams

Trained teachers set the papersand evaluate the script

Con’t

Curriculum in Pakistan:

In Pakistan efforts have been made to mould the curriculum in accordance with our ideological, moral and cultural values as well as our national requirements in the fields of science, technology, medicine, engineering and agriculture, etc.

Suggestions for curriculum development

•curriculum should be goal oriented

•Curriculum should be according to the future trends.

•Enhance critical thinking

•Develop vocational skills.

•Use white space.

•Headlines should be action or benefit oriented and short

•Formative assessment should be included for curriculum assessment because it provides feedback to the student during the course.

•Curriculum should always be according to needs of the students and match the mental level of the students, like the knowledge, vocabulary, skills.

•Technology plays an essential role in our education today and will even more so in the future. Technology should be available in every school funded by taxes and donation from private industry.

Con’t

•We should also take advantage of technology to form a curriculum for creating international awareness, understanding various cultures, and learning different opinions and values.•

•Curriculums need to focus on melting down barriers against others who are different and to encourage mutual respect and understanding for other cultures and beliefs.

•Primary schools must continue to give priority to literacy and numeracy.

•Schools should focus on teaching only one or two languages.

•The curriculum should be subject to well-managed, periodic change in response to national and global developments that influence how our culture is transmitted, conserved and renewed, for the benefit of all, through the process of education in school and beyond.