Week 8

Week EIGHT!I am so happy it is almost the end of the semester.In Week 9 we learnt about the curriculum theory and curriculum development.

The sources of theory are philosophy,change theory,organisational development theory,group behaviour and non-mainstream.There are two bases of curriculum theorising which are the scientific theory and philosophical and humanistic theory.The functions of theory are for description,prediction,explanation,guidance.

There is also theory building.Theory building is divided into two parts.Deduction and Induction.

Deduction

Deductive reasoning works from the more general to the more specific.Sometimes this is informal called a top-down approach.

Induction

This works the other way,moving from specific observations to broader generalisations and theories.

There is early curriculum theory started by people like Bobbit and Dewey.In my slides,they started the theory systematic activity and stages of human development respectively but since this blog is for me to state my views I want to say that John Dewey is not the person responsible for the theory of human development but he is for progressive education.The theory of stages of human development can be closely associated to the theory of cognitive development by Jean Piaget.Take a look at the video down below.

I for one,really support Dewey's theory of progressive education.He is basically like a rockstar for modern education.You see,Dewey believes that human beings learn on a hand-ons approach which labels him as a pragmatist.Pragmatists believe that reality must be experienced.I believe this is very true.I have a lot of stories about my secondary school years and I will tell you another story.I studied a lot in secondary school and when I was in secondary school I barely had much hands on experience with any of the experiments.I think I would have done so much better if I did.The teachers would always say that we did not have enough time for experiments or that it was to time consuming but you cannot really blame the teachers because there was really a lot to cover with the short schooling hours we have.They had to rush through the syllabus before the end of the school year which is why I think Malaysian Education system should imply longer schooling hours but in order to help students endure long schooling hours,have breaks in between and air-conditioned classrooms.

There are also theories during the mid-century.Maccias' started curriculum as praxis.Johnson started series of intended learning outcomes and McDonald started the interacting system.

There are also metaphors and theoretical camps.We have the traditionalists,conceptual empiricists,reconceptualist/critical theorists and postmodernists.

Traditionalists 

-Service to practitioners

-Structural Theorising

Reflection:These people were the researchers and theorist back in the day.Thanks to them we have a ton of theories to use to teach our classes.We owe them a lot but I also think that some of their theories are outdated because of our new changed world.Some theories may apply back them but it may not today

Conceptual Empiricists

-Theory produced through research

-Substantive Theorising(broadly)

Reconceptualists/Critical Theorists

-Distance between theory and practice

-Liberation

Postmodernists

-Many ways to interpret or theorise about curriculum(That is us)I think we live in the best day of age whereby there are so many findings we can use to help students improve but sadly many people take our resources for granted and are very selfish.We have so many resources,so many theories but sadly not many people are willing to implement them because they feel like it is too big of a job or that they are too lazy to start a movement.People these days opt for comfort instead of helping other people.They want to teach in big private universities and get paid by the hour instead of helping those poor students in rural areas.This is why many students in rural areas lack so much because of so many inconsiderate hearts and our world that has been driven by money.Here is a quote from my biggest hero.

Next I am going to state my sentiments on Chapter 10 which is curriculum development itself.This chapter talks about the main components of curriculum development is are framing the context,planning the lessons,implementing those lessons,monitoring progress and evaluating learning.Curriculum plans are actually great ways to monitor success.This is what I have learnt in class.I never really taught about it that way though.I guess that is another reason why teachers need lesson plans.

Other than that,there are a few things  you need to consider when planning a curriculum and those things are the learners,the environment,the content(DUH) and the enablers.I will explain each of them in detail.

The Learner

There are many types of learners.Visual learners,kinaesthetic learners,auditory learners,learners who learn better if they were to teach and many more.The thing that bothers me a lot is that every teacher has to have gone through some sort of training before they are assigned to teach in a secondary school but I do not understand how in the world do some teachers use the same teaching technique all the time.Don't they know that every student learns differently.I am sorry but I am going to vent my anger again.I came from a chinese school so I have a lot of anger in my heart for how teachers mistreated me and how they labelled me as dumb.I mean they have to had learn about student psychology in some part of their university life right?I do not get why they still insult and humiliate students who learn differently.As Albert Einstein once said everyone is a genius but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will believe that it is stupid for its whole life.Seriously,these teachers shouldn't be teachers in the first place.As for me I am a visual and auditory learner.I love watching videos on Tedx or any Youtube videos to learn things.I am not the type of person who can sit in front my desk and just study for hours but I can when it comes to watching Youtube videos.

The Learning environment

This includes the people,resources,training and education,development practices and inspiration and motivation.The learning environment is mainly community centred and in Malaysia the community is rather assessment centred.Mr Wan asked us what the learning environment in my school was like and you guessed it.I started to get angry because of all the awful memories I had as a teenager.Malaysian schools are so assessment centred.It is always about the grades or the number of A's in your report card that matters.There was so much anger in my heart whenever I studied in secondary school.I never in my life thought about using the knowledge I have to improve myself or contribute to society.Studying to me was all for the sake of surviving in society.So that I will not get looked down by my peers.You know the stupid thing that my school does is that they paste every student's public examination result on the notice board for the whole year.Don't they ever think about those students who did not do as well?Where is your sense of humanity?I think Malaysian schools should be more learner centred which reminds me of an article I read of Finland's amazing future education system.The link is down below.

http://www.elitereaders.com/finland-to-scrap-all-school-subjects/

Don't let the link fool you.It is actually an amazing idea.

Content

This is probably the MVP of curriculum development.There are two things every teacher has to consider when creating content.They need to analyse subject-matter and also analyse learning.

a)Subject-matter

You really need to ask yourself the importance of the subject.Whether it would be useful for the students in the future.Usually,teachers seek advice from subject-matter experts.To me,knowledge is valuable.Every piece of information is valuable.Even History or as we Malaysians call it,Sejarah is important.No matter how many students may say it is useless but I do believe in having priorities.I think that students should be given an opportunity to drop certain subjects which are not of a higher priority to them because there is a limit to what students can handle in school.I took 9 subjects in SPM but I wish there were only 5 or 6 subjects like what I have in university.This way,I am able to concentrate more and study those five or six subjects in greater depth.When I was in secondary school I wanted to be a Chemical Engineer.I really wanted to focus on my Chemistry,Physics and Add Maths in order to get into that course but I focused too much on subjects like Moral,Sejarah and Bahasa Malaysia.Not that those subjects are not important except for Moral because I hated memorising 36 moral definitions(this is the only exception to my philosophy) but because I think other subjects for my situation should be prioritised.Hence,I did not do so well but I consider myself pretty lucky because I still get to study in university even though I did not do so well.

b)learning analysis

This is something many teachers especially my secondary school teachers do not take account.You need to consider the various learning techniques.That is the whole point of your job.TO TEACH!What is the point of being a teacher if your students do not learn anything.You need to organise your content in an orderly manner so that students can learn progressively.Evaluate whether your students are picking up the material that you have taught with formative tests and always seek feedback from students.Some teachers are just too scared to seek feedback.

The enablers

These are those people or even things and tools that make curriculum possible.Enabling factors include adequacy of resources,time,school ethos,professional support,professional adequacy,professional knowledge,professional attitude and interest and participative leadership.Typing this last point has made me actually quite grateful that I have an education.Although Malaysian's education system is not perfect,I think I should complain less and be grateful for these enabling factors that I am able to receive an education.There are millions of children around the world who are not as fortunate as I am to be getting a tertiary education or any education at all.

References

Cite a Website - Cite This For Me. (2016). Socialresearchmethods.net. Retrieved 27 November 2016, from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/Assets/images/deduct.gif

Cite a Website - Cite This For Me. (2016). Socialresearchmethods.net. Retrieved 27 November 2016, from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/Assets/images/induct.gif

Cite a Website - Cite This For Me. (2016). I.quoteaddicts.com. Retrieved 27 November 2016, from http://i.quoteaddicts.com/media/quotes/2/89047-pope-francis-money-quotes.jpg

The Growth of Knowledge: Crash Course Psychology #18. (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 27 November 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nz2dtv--ok&t=143s